By Nick Allen, Executive Officer at the University of Northampton.
In June 2017, current and former staff of the University of Northampton “feared the university was putting too much of a focus on online lessons and hot-desking”. Fast forward three years and we are mid-pandemic. I cannot deny that we haven’t had challenges during the pandemic – 450 resident students who remained with us during lockdown across three sites being one – but the decisions taken to relocate the University from two aging campuses to purpose-built brand-new accommodation in August 2018 has helped us significantly respond to and navigate through the problems we have faced.
Back in 2013, when the Board of Governors took the bold decision to relocate the choice was also taken to create a modern learning, teaching and working environment for both students and staff which removed silos and encouraged open plan working and hot desking. In advance of the relocation, the University began to adjust the learning and teaching model to ‘Active Blended Learning’ (ABL). ABL combines ‘live’ real-time sessions (synchronous) with activities students can undertake when and where they like (asynchronous). Alongside this, students learn in small groups and through close interaction between staff and students in the learning spaces on campus. These learning spaces include only one formal lecture theatre, which accommodates 80 people – the majority being classrooms with a capacity of between 25-40 people.
The development of these synchronous and asynchronous activities meant that when lockdown took place, we were well-placed to move learning online using Blackboard Collaborate, a system which underpins our virtual learning environment. Evidence so far has shown a greater level of engagement in classes and higher levels of performance at assessment as a result. Blackboard Collaborate, which has audio and video capabilities, also became the go to platform for most university committees. Papers can be uploaded by the officer or members themselves and shown to the wider membership – screen sharing can also be undertaken without issue.
The adoption of open plan working and hot desking, something which the Office of the Vice Chancellor at the University adopted in 2016 and before the relocation, also supported the continued effective operation of the University during lockdown. Apart from reception points, there are no fixed phone handsets at the University. Using Cisco Jabber and a headset, members of staff were used to taking calls whenever they were logged into their device (all academic staff are provided with an HP Elitebook on appointment or were given one before they relocated to Waterside) and wherever they were in the world (as long as the wifi connection was stable!) so this meant that when lockdown started, working remotely was relatively seamless. Some of the professional services with fixed PCs were required to borrow one of the loan laptops which we make available for students and Associate Lecturers (after all they weren’t being used during this time) and used Jabber, Cisco Webex, Teams and Collaborate as their communication tool of choice.
So all in all, the lockdown period has been relatively pain free for the University of Northampton. A Senior Lecturer in English released a podcast which outlined students’ satisfaction with the move to remote learning and this was echoed by a group of students who enrolled onto their nursing degree during lockdown. The adoption of new technologies on relocation alongside increasing use of OneDrive, the adoption of Citrix and the introduction of ZCentral, has considerably assisted with this situation – but technologies are not effective without people using them or learning to use them quickly and not being afraid to use them!