My module for MSc Biodiversity Consevation and Ecosystem Management started on 16th March – as the Universities shut down.
Was so looking forward to:
learning to make promotional videos
students taking us on guided tours of local Nature Reserves
external speakers ond Policy and Practice from NP AONB partnership, Natural History Society etc.
Trips to Hepple rewilding and Chillingham wild cattle
… was going to be my best module ever
But I know my problems of a thwarted module were nothing compared to many, so we girded our loins and got our thinking caps on and wrestled with technology:
Steve Lowe from Northumberland Rivers Trust came to talk to us in person about Northumberland Rivers – and crayfish Our first technological Zoom success was Adam talking to us about Wildlife Licensing from his home to all of us at home – with students sending questions in on the chat Actually, this was a different module – Hannah and I are running oral exams for 30 agric students. Huge success. Wish this was their final exam actually – so much better than written exams as you really get a feel for what student knows, can meet them exactly where they are at, give them immediate feedback, they can self-assess and it is practice for job interview . Written exams are not practice for anything – IMO. Recommend them as replacements for modules this summer.Then I tried to do bird calls using MSTeams – not sure of its success, but we did get the audio to work and the chat to work
