The Department's Teaching Fellows are working on a long-term project to modernise learning and teaching to engage with a new generation of students and prepare them for working in the industry 4.0. While this work was underway prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition to mixed-mode teaching has provided an opportunity to accelerate the implementation of these changes.

Technology-enhanced remote teaching offers increased support to our students by:

• Mitigating isolated student experiences
• Promoting collaborative learning through peer interactions
• Enhancing student engagement and student experiences

Atrivity app

Atrivity is a quiz app which allows peer-to-peer challenges, where students play against one another to gain points and place on a leader board. Currently it's being used in first year Maths and Chemistry.

User stats showed increased usage of the app during the exam period.

WeBWork

WeBWork provides a formative way of learning which aims to improve understanding of a subject during the course by providing instantaneous feedback.

Benefits of WeBWork:

• Instantaneous feedback to responses
• Learning style questions with hints and solutions
• Multiple attempts allowed
• Automates marking
• Gamified for motivation and engagement
• Maths aware – recognises notations and equations

Chemistry video tutorials

The chemistry video tutorials are a different way of running tutorial sessions for students. Previously students were given problems to solve before attending an in-person tutorial session with a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA). However, research showed that a large percentage of students would not attempt the problems before attending the sessions.

Video tutorials are designed to support students to be independent with their learning. Panopto recordings will be available for students to access and model solutions will be available to download. 

This will be available to first year students for the academic year 2020/21 with GTAs offering remote support simultaneously.