Guidance for Teaching Staff: The Timetable and Delivery Methods
When thinking about the timetable and delivery methods you wish to adopt for your teaching here are some key points to keep in mind.
The University timetable informs students and staff of the teaching activities associated with their modules.
On-Campus Teaching
If you want to teach on-campus you will need to let your School timetabler know you need a room, and any particular room requirements you have, e.g. IT cluster, flat floored room, whiteboard, projector, level access etc. The timetabling data collection process happens every year between February and April, please get in touch with your Faculty Timetabling Officer for more information.
Timetables are published with room details visible to the students in September.
Online Teaching
Live online teaching
If you intend to teach live online, you and your module team will need to ensure you guide students carefully on how they access the online learning shown on their University timetables, for example, you might post Minerva annoucements with links to their online virtual classroom session. You will need to let your School timetabler know the activity is taking place online so that they can indicate the delivery method is Online Live – See Minerva. It may possible for timetablers to add links to online teaching to the student’s personal timetable (please discuss this with your timetabler as this is not always possible).
Please keep in mind timetablers can only timetable in 30 minute increments. Let’s consider a particular scenario: if you want a 15 minute online live lecture followed by 35 minute online live discussion this will appear on the timetable as a 1 hour online live activity. It will not be possible for the timetabler to provide a greater level of detail on the timetable, you would need to communicate the structure to students through other methods (e.g. an announcement or outline document in Minerva). It may be possible in some cases to add a description of 5-6 words to an activity, however, this would need to be discussed with your timetabler as this option is not always available.
Pre-recorded teaching
If you have advised your timetabler that an activity will be delivered using Pre-Recorded content you will need to ensure that your students are aware of how to access the recordings (e.g. in Minerva in a particular folder you have set up).
Unless you have asked for pre-recorded activities to appear on the timetable these will not be shown on the timetable. If you ask for pre-recorded activitities to appear on the student’s timetable these only act as a reminder that the content should be watched and will be timetabled at the start or end of the day to avoid introducing unnecessary clashes.
Simultaneous on-campus and online delivery
The University introduced two new room suitabilities in 2021, these offer teaching staff the opportunity to offer hybrid delivery, Live Streaming and Multi-Mode.
- Live Streaming functionality is available in around 90 teaching spaces across campus. Live streaming allows one-way teaching delivery to both in-room and remote students simultaneously, and also opens up additional opportunities for conferencing and open days.
- Multi-mode teaching describes the delivery of content in a teaching room to both in-room and remote students simultaneously whilst supporting full interaction between all participants. In-room and remote students are able to see and hear each other and interact through standard collaborative methods.
You’ll need to let your School Timetabler know if you want a room with either Live Streaming or Multi-Mode functionality.
Virtual Classroom Options
The University currently offers three virtual classrooms which can be used for live online teaching: Microsoft Teams, Collaborate and Zoom. Unfortunately, at present, there is no dynamic link between any of the virtual classrooms and the University timetabling software.