The Linguist

AUTUMN 2023 The Linguist 19 FEATURES appears that many of these programs, particularly video-calling software, have been axed as quickly as they were adopted. Despite my generation's well-documented fondness for screens, face-to-face teaching remains the norm and the expectation, and has overwhelmingly been reinstated in all universities surveyed. Significantly, students are not alone in this preference: some university staff worry about the potential negative impact of hybrid delivery on attendance, engagement and performance. Both acknowledge the social benefits of students being on-site for classes. At the same time, some pandemic-related technological innovations seem set to stay, to the relief of students and lecturers alike. Sheffield Hallam has retained pre-recorded grammar teaching (using Panopto) as a complement to its live classes, where the pre-recorded material can be practised and discussed. This frees up time in live classes, which is used to cover points from the pre- recorded material that students wish to address or develop. Similarly, by providing certain core content online and updating it regularly, Birmingham University is seeking to avoid timetabling clashes and thereby to expand students' choice of options. At Cardiff, an increase in lecture capture provision reflects a commitment to making the learning experience more inclusive, and giving staff and students greater flexibility to balance their work alongside other commitments. With this flexibility comes an increased amount of guidance: documents known as 'module maps' outline what students need to do on a weekly basis for each module, giving indicative time commitments for each task and providing links to resources, materials, assessments and learning outlines. Zoom or Teams meetings with tutors are now much more common, and tutors at all the universities offer online sessions as an option. Some induction/admission activities and information meetings have also moved online. Looking forward Reading our survey responses, I was struck by the resilience and adaptability of universities and my fellow students. Cultivating these qualities will only become more important in the coming years, as students whose most formative years have been disrupted, and who may have rarely sat standardised exams, progress through higher education institutions. Combining tried-and-tested tradition with judicious innovation will be integral to helping these students reach their full potential. In tandem with this, an increased willingness to discuss mental health on both sides of the lectern, as noted by our respondent at the University of Birmingham, should further contribute to the maintenance of supportive spaces for learning and teaching in our universities. Certainly, the lessons to be learnt from the pandemic are subject to debate and are, in places, unclear. It takes time to gather reliable data on the effectiveness of different assessment and examination styles, and even then, a great number of other variables are at play within each cohort's results and satisfaction levels. But if students and universities continue to maintain an open dialogue about their experiences and expectations, we have good reason to hope that things will be better coming out of the pandemic than they were going in. and generations of students past, as we processed into the exam halls this year. For all this, it should be noted that the current examinations and assessment landscape is not set in stone. The dust from the pandemic is still settling and universities will no doubt be keeping a close eye on how student performance and satisfaction vary from one set of practices to another, and from one institution to the next. Teaching delivery and technology As the pandemic struck, Microsoft Teams and other software 'Zoomed' to the rescue to salvage teaching delivery. However, it © SHUTTERSTOCK

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