With the recent changes to how education is delivered, we're lobbying to ensure the best digital experience possible for all students at Royal Holloway. We can't do it without your support though so we're asking you to fill out our survey and let us know what you want and need! You could even win £100 for doing so!
Kate Roberts
VP Education
As your VP Education, I work hard to bring about changes that reflect students’ academic interests and improve your educational experience.
These last few months have turned our usual way of working upside down, with the world deciding to make dramatic and immediate changes to the way education works for us all! Whilst it has been a bit of a reactive rollercoaster between ending Term Two to taking your alternative assessments now, we are now in a place to work more proactively towards a digital educational experience that supports you best.
No-one knows at this point what university will look like in September or what UK and global restrictions may be in place due to the pandemic, but it is likely that whatever happens, your university experience will be changing in some way.
In order to create a more flexible and resilient education that supports all students from all backgrounds, online teaching and resources will likely increase to provide that adaptability. Ironically, we have been working towards increasing online support for a while now, including campaigning to introduce widespread lecture capture use that has put the University in good stead to start further development. But to help us lobby for the best digital educational experience possible we need to understand what you want and what you need. What has worked well for you over the last few weeks and what has been frustrating or difficult? So we've drafted a survey to find out just that!
What is the survey about?
The survey covers a range of topics surrounding online aspects of your education that you may have experienced over the last few months including online teaching and online resources. We want to know what works, what doesn’t work, and what is needed in the future to create a better experience for you as students. The current situation provides a fantastic opportunity to develop a way of running a university that supports all students to be flexible in the way they study. We are hoping that a number of significant improvements may come out of this time that are in students’ best interests. So, whatever your experience so far – we want to hear from you!
We will be producing a report based on the information collated through the survey to take to the University and feed into developments and discussions over the summer. Your feedback is essential to making sure that these discussions have student interests’ at their heart.
£100 cash prize
As an extra incentive for you to give us your feedback, anyone who completes the survey in full will be entered into a prize draw to win £100 cash.
The survey will close at 9am on Tuesday 26 May.
Complete the survey
Statement from James Knowles, Senior Vice Principal Education:
"Given the current situation, the College is very keen to support students to continue their education despite difficult circumstances. Our aim will be to make our teaching as resilient as possible in what is likely to be an unpredictable and varying situation as we experience strict social distancing, periodic lockdowns, and other possible interruptions of study and work. Staff are already busy preparing new e-materials for next year and up-skilling themselves to use our learning technology more effectively.
"All staff in the College are rightly proud of the high-quality teaching we deliver and we are seeking to achieve a similar quality for our e-learning. Our aim is to make it possible for you to move seamlessly between face-to-face and online education of similar quality whether you are on campus or not - and for you to have confidence that your education can continue.
"To help us do that, hearing about what worked in the last week weeks, what worked less well, and what could be better, will help us provide a better education and one more tailored to your needs. We very much value feedback and suggestions, especially good practice from elsewhere that you may know about, and your reflections on the relationship between e-learning and face-to-face teaching from earlier in your studies.
"I am delighted that the Students' Union has decided to undertake this survey and I very much look forward to reading the results and seeing how we can apply its lessons. Thank you for taking the time to answer the questions."
Further details
If you would like any more information on how the survey will be used or have any questions about online study, please get in touch with me using my social media accounts (@RHSUEducation) or email vpeducation@su.rhul.ac.uk.
We would really appreciate you taking time to fill in the survey and ultimately influence improvements to your educational experience for next year and beyond.
Thank you!