ucisa London June 2020

Introduction and networking

Time to gather and show off your new Background or SnapCamera adornment. Chat with people as they assemble and with the ucisa London group committee.

Session 1: What ways of working have we committed to for reopening our organisations?

With different types of students from varied locations and diverse taught courses, colleges and universities must work out how to get back to business. Will we teach all classes online, in the building or perhaps a combination of both? What has your organisation decided to do and how will you get there? Are you looking at a “big bang” reopening or a staged opening over a period? Maybe changing the model offered as time goes on and we move to a different phase of opening?

If your organisation has research students, how will the reopening differ for them? Will they be first back or last?

Tea break

Session 2: What are the IT challenges that this brings?

Having students operating in a different way can introduce challenges. As a result of COVID-19, many software vendors have been generous around licensing. However this will come to an end and force changes. If students are expected to physically attend campus how will we deal with the capacity issues in student computing areas? What actions are we considering that will ensure that shared devices are cleaned and disinfected between users?

If a hybrid or online model is in use, how will we ensure equality of access for students? Broadband capacities vary and devices owned can vary significantly in ability. Will we provide loan devices or mandate a set standard? If we mandate how will we ensure that disadvantaged students have access to something that conforms? Do we cater to the lowest denominator?

Tea break

Session 3: What future challenges do we see from the direction?

The new education session starting from September will see many differences. As we approach the traditional A level results week in August there are many things we do not know. How does your organisation plan to handle usual events such as Confirmation and Clearing? How will you introduce your students to your campuses if some of them cannot yet be physically present? What will you do to create and maintain an organisation culture that allows students to feel like they belong even if they are remote? How will wearing of masks and social distancing affect the technologies in use at your organisation and the processes you must support?And how will masks affect disability issues such as need to lipread?

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