[Academic] Update regarding teaching delivery in semester 1

[Physics-HOD]

Dear All,

For your information, the communication below announcing that all of our 
teaching will be online for the rest of semester 1 was sent out to our 
UG and PGT students yesterday evening.

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Dear students,

This email contains an important update regarding the delivery of our 
undergraduate and postgraduate taught degree programmes in semester 1. 
Please take the time to read it carefully.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the health, safety and wellbeing of 
our students and staff continues to be our first priority. Within the 
necessary restrictions to ensure your safety, we are committed to 
providing you with the best possible education. For this reason, our 
teaching staff have designed your semester 1 modules such that the 
learning outcomes of your courses can be achieved by online delivery.

We are pleased to see, through feedback at the recent Student-Staff 
Committee meeting and other engagement activities, that your online 
learning experience has been very positive. At that meeting, concerns 
were raised about the increasing risks associated with travelling in to 
campus for planned small-group face-to-face tutorials, especially given 
that these tutorials can be successfully delivered online. In response, 
given the importance of doing all we can to help restrict the spread of 
coronavirus and the fact that in-person teaching is not essential to 
achieve the learning outcomes of your courses, *the Department, with 
acknowledgement of the Dean of Science, has decided to keep all of our 
teaching online and not to hold face-to-face tutorials for the remainder 
of semester 1. *All assessments/examinations will also be online.

Your feedback on our online delivery also suggested that you would 
welcome additional opportunities for online interaction with your peers 
and some additional informal or semi-formal problem-solving support. We 
will consult with the Physics Society about running an additional 
departmental social event in the near future.To best gauge what sort of 
support you feel you would most benefit from, we have added a quiz to 
the year group sections on Myplace 
<https://classes.myplace.strath.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=25509> that 
will enable you to provide us with feedback and suggestions appropriate 
for your year group, if you so wish. We ask you to please complete this 
by 12pm on 28^th October. We aim to provide you with the best support 
that we can and want you to enjoy the best possible education and 
student experience in the circumstances.

Advice and guidance is available at the following link 
<https://www.strath.ac.uk/coronavirus/students/>. If you do have any 
queries on your personal circumstances please contact your Adviser of 
Studies in the first instance, at the relevant email address below.

Best wishes,

Paul McKenna, Head of Department, Physics

Brian McNeil, Director of Teaching

_Year Adviser email addresses:_

physics-adviser-yr1 at strath.ac.uk <mailto:physics-adviser-yr1 at strath.ac.uk>
physics-adviser-yr2 at strath.ac.uk <mailto:physics-adviser-yr2 at strath.ac.uk>
physics-adviser-yr3 at strath.ac.uk <mailto:physics-adviser-yr3 at strath.ac.uk>
physics-adviser-yr4 at strath.ac.uk <mailto:physics-adviser-yr4 at strath.ac.uk>
physics-adviser-yr5 at strath.ac.uk <mailto:physics-adviser-yr5 at strath.ac.uk>
physics-adviser-pgt at strath.ac.uk <mailto:physics-adviser-pgt at strath.ac.uk>

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