Our vibrant, active community here in Reading will help you to benefit from all that university life has to offer.
Your teaching will be through a combination of regular face-to-face on campus sessions and online learning. Although this will be different to how we delivered teaching and learning before the pandemic, we are offering more teaching and other activities on campus compared to what we were able to do last academic year.
We have used everything we have learnt, together with your feedback and in consultation with RUSU, to help you benefit from all that university life has to offer.
Our teaching is therefore based on:
- Flexibility – to support students who may need to study remotely temporarily
- Adaptability – just in case the pandemic means we need to change our plans
We believe bringing together in-person and online learning provides the best learning experience for you. All students benefit from the flexibility that blended learning brings such as having structured guided learning and pre-recorded material in advance of on-campus sessions.
Teaching & Learning in the spring term
We are retaining our approach of live in-person teaching and online asynchronous material (core course content such as pre-recorded lectures and guided learning activities). Online provision of classes that are held in person on campus will not continue in the spring term.
You will be taught through a combination of:
Live interactive sessions (timetabled, in-person)
On-campus. You will have regular, live interactive sessions on campus to provide you with opportunities to engage, discuss and interact with both academic staff and other students. Depending on the discipline, this could include tutorials, seminars, laboratory and practical work, workshops, breakout sessions, and lectures that involve a high level of interaction and discussion.
In a very small number of subjects there may be cases where there are a large number of face-to-face teaching sessions scheduled for a particular module per week. Some of these sessions may therefore be held as live online sessions as part of our blended approach.
Guided learning activities (asynchronous – to plan in your own time)
You will have regular guided learning activities for your modules that you need to schedule around your live sessions, either individually or as part of a group. This will include two elements:
- Core course content provided online (such as pre-recorded videos). These sessions will replicate contact hours that would normally be delivered through lectures or similar sessions with limited interactivity.
- Complementary materials and activities to support your learning and self-study. This could include watching additional screencasts and videos, listening to audio recordings, or taking formative tests through Blackboard.
All learning materials will be published by your Module Convenor at least 48 hours before the relevant live session.
We do not expect that the overall contact hours for your programme will change, although they will be delivered through a mix of live interactive sessions on campus and asynchronous core course content provided online, as explained above.
Learning from our collective experiences
We have listened carefully to feedback from our student community. It has been very clear that you value being able to engage in regular, live teaching sessions (on campus as much as possible), as well as having organised modules with learning materials published consistently and on time.
We have therefore made several enhancements for 2021/22. This includes:
- weekly timetable reminders for you to schedule time for engaging with your asynchronous (not live) learning materials;
- weekly updates to outline all your learning activities for that module on a week-by-week basis (including live sessions, asynchronous core course content, and any other relevant self-study);
- new resources and training for using different technologies to support your learning.
Can I study remotely in 2021/22?
Will my Tier 4 or Student Route visa be affected if I am granted permission to study ‘at a distance’ temporarily?
What can I expect from my teaching and learning experience, including face-to-face teaching?
What should I see in my timetable?
Why do on-campus hours differ?
What support is available to me?
Will there be a reduction in tuition fees for 2021/22?
What are the plans for exams in 2021/22?
Should I switch my camera on during live online teaching sessions?