You’ll be glad to hear that we’ve adapted the way we teach, the ways you can learn, and the way you’ll access facilities from September 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch the videos below to see what’s been arranged to make sure you can thrive during your degree as usual.
Dr Ed Shaw, Physics Teaching Laboratory Technician explains how you can still use the labs safely and the adaptations we’ve made.
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Your Head of Physics and Astronomy, Professor Mark Sullivan explains about online learning and what the next academic year looks like for you.
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Ieva Jankute is a [year of study/course name] student who experienced the move to online learning from March to May 2020, during semester two. Ieva tells us about her experience in this video.
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You’ll have practicals but with extra measures taken for safety and cleanliness. You’ll be asked to wear a face mask and respect a 1m+ distance from other lab users.
We’ll be cleaning all areas extensively and regularly to enable the maximum amount of personal experimentation time for you and other students. You’ll also notice we’ve reduced as many touch points as possible. Doors now have magnetic handles to keep them open and there will be a minimum time between use of certain pieces of equipment.
Practical lab sessions in physics will be open to all students for as many experiments as possible. You’ll be able to work safely on individual workstations, with the expansion of the labs into a bigger space.
You’ll use specialist equipment we’ve purchased for quick and easy cleaning – like state-of-the-art quick-clean keyboards. You’ll go paperless with electronic logbooks to record your practical sessions, your data, analysis, and conclusions – a crucial lab skill for any scientist. And you’ll be using a graphics tablet (one per workstation) so you can annotate images, diagrams and write notes and formulas by hand You’ll also notice there are webcams installed on your individual workstations too, so you can ask for help without even leaving your seat.
You’ll still be fully supported in person by academics, post-doctoral demonstrators, and technicians in the labs. And you can learn flexibly and independently with online sessions on experimental skills, data analysis, and report writing.
There is no plan to replace hands-on lab time with virtual lab sessions.
The core content of your degree hasn’t changed. Instead, the way your lessons are delivered has been adapted to provide a safe learning environment.
All teaching will be online, and plans are being finalised for face-to-face tutorials.
Lectures are pre-recorded and released on a schedule.
Your lecturer will be online for a live Q&A after the lecture’s scheduled release. You could write your questions down during the lecture (noting the slide number) and ask these during the Q&A.
Yes, your lectures will be available to watch any time after the initial release date.
You’ll still have regular contact with your personal tutor to ask for their guidance and support. Plans are being finalised so you can meet face-to-face with your personal tutor with up to five other students at once, with social distancing measures in place.
You can join in with regular online drop-in sessions and problem classes for help with your work. These sessions allow you dedicated time to work through any sticking points with academic who will talk you through anything you're struggling with. You'll have online support from the student office, and face-to-face sessions with your personal tutor who will be available for Microsoft Teams video calls and by email between 9am and 5pm.
You’ll be able to meet other students in most campus restaurants, pubs, cafes, and other communal areas in a socially distanced way. Keep an eye on our main Coronavirus updates page for campus information.
You'll take module-level assessments in your home environment. These are usually taken over the course of a day.