A new approach for moving online

As a student, you’re likely very aware that the current environment has presented a whole host of challenges that most students have never had to face before. Hopefully, as a student, you’re also aware that this absolutely applies to your lecturers, tutors, and course administrators, too! Whether we like it or not, the shift to online learning and teaching has made us all re-think how we learn, work, and communicate. And these challenges are certainly something that we in LEADS have been thinking about in preparing our upcoming classes. 

 So, with all of this in mind, we’ve decided to redesign our PGT Dissertation classes for the summer session. Instead of the usual hour-long lecture format, they will consist of three 30-minute parts: a lecture, a practical exercise, and a Q&A session. In some cases, depending on the class, they might also require a little bit of preparation beforehand:  

We’ll deliver the three parts back-to-back during a 1 hour 30 minute online session, with each week focusing on a specific aspect of the dissertation process. This way, we’ll still talk you through all the key aspects of the dissertation process in the lecture, but we’ll also give you the chance to put what we’ve discussed into practice with a practical exercise, and then ask us any questions you might have in the Q&A session. Any preparation required in advance will just mean you’ll have things to hand that we’ll use in the session and help make sure you get the most out of the session itself.    

We’ve also decided to run our Advanced Criticality and Mastering Academic Writing classes in parallel with our PGT Dissertation classes, and we’ve scheduled these classes to complement each other each week: 

The Advanced Criticality and Mastering Academic Writing classes follow the same format as the PGT Dissertation classes, so you’ll have the same opportunity to learn about the key aspects of criticality and academic writing, put these into practice, and then ask us any questions you have. Each week will focus a particular theme (e.g. Research, Literature, Methodology, Structure, and Argumentation), meaning the classes will work together to cover all aspects of academic research and writing. 

We’ve already added all PGT students in the College of Arts and College of Social Sciences to our dedicated PGT Dissertation Moodle site (you should already have received or will soon be receiving an automated email from Moodle about this) and we’ll be announcing the full class schedule, along with the Zoom links, very soon. All of the classes are optional and you don’t need to register in advance to attend. So keep an eye out for further announcements from the Moodle site and we’ll look forward to seeing you in one of our classes soon!  

 In the meantime, do leave a comment below if you have any questions or contact us on our UofG website: Stuart Purcell for College of Arts students or Elina Koristashevskaya for College of Social Sciences students.

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