News
Happy New Year from BILT!
Welcome back and Happy New Year to you all. We hope you were able to take some time for yourselves over the holidays and enjoyed a well earned break. Although the pandemic continues to challenge us as we move into a third lockdown, we hope this briefing along with its resources, news and events will provide some support to you all this term as we move back to online learning. If there is anything you would like to share via this briefing, or have recommendations for future content please do get in touch.
Resources
Free online course – Decolonising Education: From Theory to Practice
This free, 4-week course developed by a team from the University of Bristol on FutureLearn starts with trying to understand the colonial legacy and what the process of decolonisation might entail. The subsequent weeks look at subject area domains: social sciences and law, sciences and medicine, and humanities and the arts. The course outlines how colonialism has affected each branch of knowledge and includes opportunities to discuss practical steps to shake off the colonial legacy. Find out more and register through the FutureLearn website.
In addition, Student Fellow Sama Zou’bi has written a blog which explores how colonisation manifests itself at the University and the civic environment, read Sama’s blog Toppling colonisation: reflections for Bristol.
Resources to support student engagement and connection in online teaching
We know from the recent Pulse survey that students can struggle to feel engaged and connected to each other and to their lecturers in online sessions. For ideas on how to help them engage in live online sessions, see the Digital Education Office’s guides to Teaching to the void and effective breakout groups (downloads in browser as word doc).
BILT case study resources
Why not start the new year by exploring BILT’s wealth of case study resources. Our resources explore topics such as online teaching, gamifying learning, problem based learning, decolonising the curriculum and much more.
Events
Digital and Blended Design course: 14th – 22nd January
This online course will provide you with the skills and knowledge to design online and blended learning, teaching and assessment. As the majority of teaching moves back online, the course provides a great opportunity to engage with a range of relevant topics to support you in your online teaching including – empathy, relationships and community building, designing online assessment and designing for inclusivity. Find out more about the course and details on how to register on our Events page.
Blended Learning and Teaching online course: 11th – 15th January
This is the last chance to sign up to this online course which focuses on blended learning and teaching and has been designed for Teaching Support staff (i.e. Demonstrators, Teaching Support Assistants and Assistant Teachers) who have not yet engaged with this training, previously run in TB1. The programme will support you in your roles as we face the challenges of a new learning and teaching environment. Visit the BILT events page to find out more and register.
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If there is anything you would like to share via this briefing, please get in touch with the BILT Team at bilt-info@bristol.ac.uk