Changing times, changing pedagogies

Project leader(s): Rachel Hilliam
Theme: Innovative assessment
Faculty: STEM
Status: Archived
Dates: April 2022 to September 2024

The aim of the project was to investigate any lasting impact on how mathematical sciences courses are now taught following the rapid shift in teaching practices during the pandemic. The project investigated whether the online practices and approaches first implemented during the Covid19 pandemic were continued to be employed and whether they had evolved or whether they had been dismissed in favour of a return to more traditional methodologies.

A questionnaire went sent to all mathematical sciences department in the UK during June 2023 of which 13 responded with comprehensive comments.

Whilst all institutions rapidly innovated to move their teaching and student support online, with many initiatives shared through Teaching And Learning Mathematics Online (TALMO), by 2022/23 almost all teaching and support sessions had reverted to in-person delivery. Though the number of respondents to the questionnaire is limited they span a range of universities and provide a consistent set of responses. The only changes which had remained are the use of pre-recorded lecture materials, even though the questionnaire respondents noted the lack of meaningful engagement of students with these recordings, alongside the use of online quizzes which many departments used in assessment methods. Although the project had hoped to identify how changes to online learning had affected the pedagogic way in which mathematical sciences department approached their teaching and course design, what the survey in fact revealed was that departments reverted to pre-covid pedagogic with the addition of recordings and quizzes. Perhaps in time the greater portfolio of resources developed during the pandemic will influence course design, particularly as the results here note that student preparedness to study and engagement is currently less then pre-pandemic levels and therefore this aspect of student support needs to be addressed during the years to come.