Crunching the Covid crisis: ‘everybody was in the same boat’

As my research area is online learning this is quite interesting. I found that because the Computer Science department had recently developed an online version of the undergraduate programme to be delivered to Degree Apprentices - who distance learn whilst working - they found the transition relatively easy although I did get bombarded with pleas for help - mostly for suggestions as to how best to get certain points across or for activities to engage students actively in their lectures.

The challenge for me on a Teaching-only contract was dealing with the extra sessions we were required to teach in an attempt to maintain student satisfaction. Initially the technology was very clunky and some of the 'solutions' we were directed to were useless, as was some of the support. Plus, everything seems to take longer online. The net result was a huge increase in workload spent sitting at the computer.