To keep all of our students and staff safe this semester, we have developed an offering of blended learning programmes, which will allow you to spend time on campus in face-to-face sessions, as well as have the flexibility to learn online in your own time and in the comfort of your home.
Blended learning means that you will experience a mix of both face-to-face and online delivery, designed by your programme team to best support your learning.
These sessions will take place in person, and will often be in the form of:
We have worked hard to mitigate risk in these sessions, and they will be carried out with social distancing, or with other measures in place such as Perspex screens, or in some cases with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks.
These sessions will be delivered online, and will allow you to be more flexible with how you engage with your learning.
Some sessions will be delivered live or synchronously. This means that they will take place during a specific slot in your timetable, and you will ‘attend’ these sessions at the same time as your peers. These sessions allow you to work with others in groups, engage directly with your lecturers, and ask questions in real time.
You will also have access to asynchronous learning. This means that you can work at a time that suits you. This might include pre-recorded lectures, a forum where you can ask questions that are answered by your lecturers or other students, assignments and tasks that you complete on your own or in groups, and additional resources such as quizzes and resources to read and engage with.
Find out more about online learning
You may also have sessions that are delivered as a digitally extended session. This means that some of the group will attend face-to-face in the room with the lecturer, whilst others engage online at the same time.
We have invested in technology to support this hybrid form of delivery that will allow us to provide more face-to-face sessions, whilst ensuring that we maintain social distancing, and support our students who are not able to join us on campus.
University is an exciting time, but it can also be daunting. Adapting to the demands of life at university is, at times, challenging to all.
Whether you are a new or returning student, 19 or 90 years of age, your personal tutor is there to help you during this journey and will meet with you regularly throughout the year.
As an added layer of support, particularly as you adapt to blended learning, this virtual personal tutor blog will provide guidance and advice to all Plymouth students tailored to the needs of the academic year.
This blog will be regularly updated and will include advice on what online learning will look like, how to best structure revision, and how to develop a learning network with your peers.
You’ll be able to find more blog posts on the new study support site once you have enrolled. Check back regularly to find out more.
Dr Matthew Mesley shares his top tips on digital wellbeing