Abstract:

The lockdown and social distancing measures imposed on the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible for universities to continue as normal in terms of campus-based delivery. In addition to the nationally imposed measures, universities themselves implemented policies to ensure the safety of their staff and students. There was a shift from predominantly in-person campus-based delivery to online delivery. This required access to suitable software and hardware, adjustments to the pre-pandemic modes of delivery and changes to both the educational and digital skill sets of staff and students.

The School of Health Sciences at the University of Liverpool has an extensive portfolio of professional healthcare education and continuing professional development programmes across six core areas: Nursing, Diagnostic Radiography, Occupational Therapy, Orthoptics, Physiotherapy, Therapeutic Radiography and Oncology. It has around 80 FTE academic staff and an annual intake in excess of 300 undergraduate and 200 postgraduate students.

A hybrid delivery approach was adopted which varied from fully online to a blend of on-campus and online delivery, determined by the status of the UK lockdowns over the period of the pandemic, during the pandemic to allow continued delivery of programmes. The university had a scheduled implementation of a new Virtual Learning Environment during the pandemic, had just adopted Microsoft 365 prior to the pandemic and rapidly acquired other tools such as Zoom to support hybrid delivery. Adjustments were made to programme and module specifications to reflect the switch from a predominantly on-campus to a hybrid online delivery.

This presentation will review the changes made in the School of Health Sciences to teaching delivery and assessment to allow for the continued delivery of educational programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of teaching delivery, the switch from a predominantly on-campus mode of delivery to a hybrid online delivery will be reviewed. While in terms of assessment, the challenges raised by trying to replace traditional on-campus paper-based written exams and clinical practical exams with online equivalents will be reviewed.

The pandemic and the resultant changes to teaching delivery and assessment coincided with the university adopting a new virtual learning environment and other tools. This presentation will consider if the pandemic was a catalyst for both the use of these systems and changes to the pedagogical approaches used, and question if these changes will last beyond the period of the pandemic or will teaching delivery and assessment revert back to the previous pre-pandemic modes.

Keywords:

Online Delivery, Online Assessments, Changes due to COVID-19.