 Can we go on the way? Yeah. Come on. Everybody has a mic. Okay. Please do find a seat. We're just about to get on the way. And we're where many people are still joining us and coming in. You're all welcome so as you're entering the hall please just find a seat and make yourself comfortable. You guys are very privileged to be here at first because you get to see the duo or the double acts that is Miam Marin this morning. So welcome everyone and thank you for being here on time. It's a special day for us as you know we're celebrating 30 years of old today and our new CEO Billy is having his first day in his office for many so I think let's start the day off with a big round of applause to welcome Billy. Before we get underway I wanted to give a shout out to another former CEO of old who is also in the building today. My predecessor Sepshmuller who handed over to me in 2012 joined us today so we have several decades of leadership of old at least from the staff team and obviously also the board trustees here in the building. So if you put your hands together one more time for Seb as well very well welcome. Before we introduce our co-chairs Billy and I just wanted to set the tone and say we're very excited to be ushering old into a new decade today, 30 years of old and a new CEO for the next decade ahead. So we're very excited to not just look back and celebrate all that we've done and we're proud of but also what's ahead. And so we're going to do the same as yesterday and try and up our level of enthusiasm and welcome slightly from the kind of practice rounds we just had and put all down devices. Use your feet, use your hands, use your voices and give a very warm welcome to our co-chairs for today. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. I hope everyone is doing well for today's session. Day two of our conference. My name is Anthony Vassan and along with Laurie Phipps, we're the co-chairs of this conference. Hi, I'm Laurie. I'm from Jisk as some of you probably know. Thank you for coming this morning in this very hot day. Please stay hydrated. So we've got over the period of three days, we've had 350 to 400 participants in total and this is our biggest in-person event since the pandemic, 12 countries across the globe since 2019. And people taking part in workshops online as well. So the whole conference is hybrid this time. So we've also had a record number of Ultsie scholars. 22 places have been given out in the event and they are funded by Ults. So round of applause for that. Who's in the room? Who's in the room that's a scholar today, a scholarship? Do we have anybody in the room? Great. So welcome. And also to our colleagues online that have joined us as well. So thank you for that. So some reflections from day one. I've been box popping, recording some reflections from participants yesterday and they'll feature in the Ultsie radio on Thursday. The highlight yesterday, apart from the wonderful food, the cottage cream and scones there was Annmarie's keynote, a very authentic keynote from Annmarie. And also the various workshops that we've had from participants and from the workshop facilitators. So it's been a really enjoyable first day. And a lot of people who've been interviewed for the Vox Pop have really commented on all the authenticity of the keynote that was given yesterday in terms of its leadership reflections from Annmarie there. So that was just a flavour of day one and I'll be coming around during the breaks and things. So please do feel free to take part in this reflection via Vox Pop and your contributions will be on the Ultsie radio on Thursday. And that's something else as well. The radio station was awesome yesterday. So I don't know if Dom is able to listen to us as we're doing this, but Dom's been brilliant, been broadcasting throughout the event, telling people, getting people into the room to talk about their experiences of Ults, but also getting people in to do their playlists. So when you're out in the hallway, have a listen to Dom's radio show and if you get the chance pop along and give him a wave through the glass box, it's very warm in there. So that's been really awesome. I think the other thing from yesterday that I'd reflect on is the sessions that have been reflecting accessibility and inclusion and social justice. There's been really strong themes coming through that people have been talking about and that's been really exciting to see. So please enjoy the workshops. The rooms here are absolutely brilliant. I'm sure people found that yesterday as well. And so back to Justin for the Vox Pop interactions. Icebreaker. Thank you very much, gents. And yeah, good to be here again guys for day two. And for those of you that were here yesterday, some of what I'm about to show you will be very similar to what you saw, but if it's your first day here today, welcome everyone and really looking forward to another fantastic day at all. So for those that didn't catch my introduction yesterday, so my name is Fraser. I'm a customer success manager within the education team at Vox. So for those of you that don't know, Vox is a student engagement and response platform, which you can now sort of see on screen what that looks like in terms of the present view. And ultimately Vox is designed to really increase levels of engagement and interaction within the classroom. So primarily we do that through sort of three main mechanisms. So that's live polling, Q&A, and then both synchronous and asynchronous surveys. So for those of you that were here yesterday, you may have seen some of that in some of the sessions that were in here, as well as in some of the breakout sessions as well. But we've also got a couple of icebreaker polls this morning as well. So to kind of get us started with a little bit of fun, which we'll look at in just a moment. If you do want to come and have a chat to us and find anything more about Vox or see a demonstration of the platform, do feel free to come and have a chat with us. We're located on stand five guys. So we're here until pretty much the end of play tomorrow. So do come and say hello. And just one final thing that I did forget to mention in my introduction yesterday for those of you that were here for that is we do actually have an interactive survey that is also open. So you can actually see on the back of the flyers that are in front of you guys if you happen to be in front of one the quiz that we've set up for the period that we're here. An interactive survey. All questions around Warwick and Alts and different sort of learning technology and things. So feel free to complete that guys after the session and what we look through here. It's the same ID and meeting that we'll be using in just a second. And it's just the third tab in your app interface. And you can go through and have a look at the questions that are in there. And you've got the chance to win a coffee voucher and also a free copy reusable coffee cup to go with that as well to the value of £10. Anyway, let's kick us off guys with some icebreakers and some polls. So you can see we've got the joining instructions either side of us on the stage here as well as the QR code that my colleagues just had on screen. So you can use either instructions there to join the session. And then I think Ethan we can go ahead and kick things off with our first poll. So this is asking us we have a growing museum of Alts here at the conference. What EdTech from the last 30 years brings back memories from you. So let's see what we get coming through. Calculator, overhead projector. I think we're going to get a lot of calculators here probably. OHP projector. Oh yeah, that is a good one. Floppy disk. Wow, I can't remember the last time I saw one of those bad boys. But yeah, let's keep in coming guys. Clickers, second life. Yes, yes, Twitter. More disks, Macbook, Apple Mac, Pencil. Yep, fantastic. I know there's a bit of a delay to the live feed as well guys for those of you that are online. So we'll make sure there's plenty of time for everyone to get their suggestions in. And Carter, yes I do remember that one. Brilliant. MP3 player. Minesweeper. Who's still playing a minesweeper? Okay, fantastic. I think we'll give that a few more seconds. The old indestructible Nokia 33010 there as well I see. Fantastic. No, this is great guys. I think let's close that one off, I think Ethan. Fantastic. And we've got one more question as well. So let's have a look at the second one. So this one is asking us learners are at the heart of everything we do. What has made the biggest impact for your learners this year? I think we know what is going to be the most prevalent one here. But let's see what we get guys. So AI so far which is pretty much coming out on top for sure. Chat GPT collaboration. Well-being, communication. Yep definitely I think we can all agree with those entries there. Lots of mention of AI in different technologies for sure. Someone said not AI. Cost to living, yep. Very important as well. Cake. Same person is here from yesterday. I love it, fantastic. I think we'll give that a few more seconds for everyone to get their option in. But yeah AI for sure coming out on top there. Amazing. Well I think we can close that off Ethan. Thank you very much. So yeah I hope you enjoyed that guys. Just a couple of little polls yet to get us going for the day. But like I say we are around until Thursday. So if you want to find more out about Vbox or just have a chat to us in general. Please feel free to come and say hello. But for now I'll hand you back to Marin and have a great conference and rest of the day guys. Thank you very much. Thank you Fraser. Okay so first of all this part we would really like to thank our sponsors. Without sponsors and without you our members today would not be possible. So thank you very much to our headline sponsor Inspira, Echo360 as our theme sponsor, Caltura, Pebblepad and Vbox who you've just seen. And all of these are available to go and have conversations with in the main exhibition hall. So please do go and have conversations with these wonderful organisations who are very committed to the association for learning technology but also ed tech. And a big thank you to all of our partners and exhibitors as well on screen there, Anthology and Macmillan Learning Instructure and all the others on screen there, GISC and others there. So a big thank you to all of them. Again do speak to them outside when you get a chance. Thank you. And would like to also draw your attention to the Exhibitor Bingo. So this is your opportunity to go round and meet with all of our exhibitors that are here today and who will be here tomorrow as well. And we really encourage you to go and meet with them. You are not going to be met with sales pitches although that is part of their objective. But you will have conversations that perhaps are quite stimulating and will be an opportunity for you to find out how these solutions are being used in the classroom and beyond. OK, Marin, please. Thank you very much. As you know we have a packed programme and Billy and Santanu will give you some highlights of what's in store today. But it's my privilege to announce that we have our annual general meeting today. And it is a special one because you may have guessed it is the 30th annual general meeting. And it happens in this hall at 3pm today. And it's a wonderful opportunity not only to meet the board who govern the association, but also to see our governance in action as an independent membership body is so important for us that all of our members have a voice at the highest level at all levels of the organisation. And so I hope many of you can join us. I appreciate there is dual temptation between coffee and tea being outside and going to the exhibition. But I still think at 3 o'clock you should all come and join us for this very special occasion. And particularly if any of you, and I know 48 of you have, gained sea moulds in the last few years if you have been re-accredited and had to make do with an online ceremony, which was heartfelt, but maybe not quite the same as standing on this big stage. I want to give you special encouragement because we are going to invite everyone who would like to celebrate their professional recognition on this stage today. We have a big group picture and the very special and highly sought after lapel pin badges will be available for the first time since 2019. So if you have missed out on the one and only sea mould pin badge today might be your last chance for a while to get one of those. And then this evening again a very, very special evening. Yesterday I've heard a lot about people's 90s outfits and I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen. But one thing that's for sure is that we'll all be finding out who won the Learning Technologist of the Year Awards. We have five categories of winners to celebrate and particularly Katie, but the whole team have put in so much effort to make this a gala dinner to remember. There is a beautiful terrace overlooking the lake and there is so much fun in store. There is a band, there is DJs and delicious food. And if you do not like the puns on the menu please come and see me because unfortunately they are my fault. So this is the last thing I'm going to take responsibility for. I did look in books to see what I could possibly slide into menu titles from each decade of Altshistory. So Billy this is mine, my fault. You get away with that one, you can do next year's menu. So I hope to see you all this evening and please do join us for the AGM at three o'clock. Thank you. Thank you. Okay so as always a bit of housekeeping for you. So there are no fire drills scheduled for today you'll be pleased to know. Despite the hot weather a fire drill might come in quite appreciated by some. Water fountains are located on all levels and I've used it today. And it's I will say nice ice cold water so please do go and use that. And also please just a polite notice to everybody to please collect your litter if you are in the workshop rooms. So that facilitators don't have to do that for you. So the other part to mention is that we do have a quiet room. We think many people enjoyed this yesterday. So there is a dedicated quiet space for you to use throughout the event. Please do respect others and keep noise to a very very minimum. There's a VR experience which is just outside on the left here to explore VR with the Warwick team. There's headsets for people to try. So do look at those and test out those when you can. Great opportunity to try the tech and see what changes have happened in that space. In the last few years. There's also the museum of alt hashtag museum of alt celebrating 30 years of alt. So do post up your reflections your technology your reflections on there. I've seen some great ones on discord yesterday and on social media as well. So do use that and make sure that you check out that on discord and the social media channels. And also in room OC 107 for those joining us here in person. There's also alt C radio as Laurie mentioned earlier hosted by Don Pates Thursday night show. Day two of that is already underway. There's pretty recorded podcasts and also live DJ sets as well. Music and reflections from the community and also people joining both online. And in person as well. And that's already in flow day two. So do check that out. Okay. So thank you. That concludes our introduction. What we would like to ask is that for the next part whilst we get everything organized is that you talk amongst yourself for a few minutes. Whilst we get our student panel ready for you. The highlight of the day I think for many. And we will see you out and about in the in the hall during break time. So please do come and say hello to myself. Laurie and Santon and Marin. I'm sure many of you have a message or a cuddle to share with Marin. And we will obviously have an opportunity to celebrate Marin tomorrow. And the last decade of her leadership as ALT CEO. I just want to make one more plug while I'm here. And that's for my session tomorrow. So I know many of you are keen to find out a little bit more about me. So there is a ask me anything session happening tomorrow. I can't remember what time it is, but have a look at your schedules. And please do come and join me because it'll be a really nice opportunity for you to ask your questions and also learn a little bit about my background and what motivated me to join ALT. I wasn't around yesterday. I would have noticed that. I would have noticed that. That's great. The old times were kind of tough. So did you want me to say a word to you tomorrow? On what we are? Yeah. Are you doing the slides? Oh? I don't mind those things. I was going to sit you on the end. I was going to sit you on the end. I was going to sit you on the end. I'll just finish. How did you all know to be quiet at ten o'clock? All of a sudden just a hush. It's like oh they're recording now. now. We are now live and streaming, so welcome to all of you in the room for the student panel, but also welcome to everybody online. And for those people that are online, you can also submit questions to the audience as well. We are going to be using VVoc, so again, thank you very much sir. I want to introduce the person who's going to facilitate the panel and I'm going to let them introduce the rest of the panel. I've been working with Donald Anglow for a while now, maybe five or six years, and our work has always been centred around the student experience and the voices of students. Our work is grounded in speaking and understanding motivations and behaviours of students in universities and colleges. And so that's why we asked Donna to facilitate this panel, and that's why Donna is going to be facilitating now for the next bit while people take a seat. I'm going to hand over to Donna and say thank you very much and thank you to the students who Donna's going to introduce. Thank you Professor Phipps. Yeah, I'm Donna Longclow and what I'm actually going to do is ask the students to introduce themselves because they know themselves far better than I do. So Javine, would you like to start? I'm Javine Alexander. I'm currently a student at the University of Birmingham studying psychology and I'm doing an internship at JISC studying educational research. Hi everyone, my name is Emmanuel Edwards. I'm an enterprise project manager and office intern at JISC. I'm a second year student at the University of Manchester studying politics on international relations and I'm about to end my third year and I'm just very grateful to be here. So thank you for having me. Hi, my name is Chloe Tambling. I'm a recent graduate from Birmingham City University where I studied business information technology. I'm now an IAT graduate at JISC. So I asked each of them to think about a thing that it's important that you all know about them before we start talking about student experience and technology and all of the alt-centric things. So Chloe, would you like to say what you think it's important that people know about you? I wish the people in the room knew the importance of asking students for their opinion especially since most of my studies was during the pandemic. I feel like obviously the lecturers did ask how we were doing but I feel like not much changes were made when we suggested certain things so it's really important to listen to what students' opinions are. Emmanuel? One thing that I wish everyone here knew about me was so my time at the University of Manchester initially was very difficult. I had to repeat a couple of years at university and it's only now that I've managed to obviously improve my grades a lot to the point where I'm able to get internships and stuff. In terms of what I want the crowd to know about me is that the impact of student isolation can have an effect on the support and the resources that students need to use at university. A lot of resources can be developed for students at university but the effect of feeling isolated at university can have such an effect on a student that the resources that are developed can have an effect on the uptake of those resources depending on the student's isolation so I probably say that is something that definitely needs to be considered. To know about me I was an A level student in the pandemic rather than university and so I don't mind A levels based on predicted grades and GCSEs as well were predicted. So what are some of the things that you wish people like people in this room who work with managed education technology all of the bits and pieces that you would use or encounter while you were at school or while you were at university what are some of the things that you wish they would know about your experiences or about student experiences what are what are the things that you want people to know? One of the things that I found quite difficult was the hybrid learning so having half of the class online and half in person because I felt like not only did that take away the communication with the other half of the class I feel like you didn't get the same attention online as you did when you were in person so I think they really need to consider that. Also since doing my A levels throughout going from like so primary school to end of A levels it's very paper based that we use pens papers that we got in a classroom and then the shift from A levels to university is straight to tech like I didn't even have a laptop during my A levels so that shift from not even needing a pen anymore was just such a big like digital shock and going through university not knowing how to use specific technology like forms platforms I think it was very difficult at the start and obviously that fear of like embarrassment if you're asking oh how do I use canvas maybe at the start of university when other people may know and other people don't so I feel like there should be more support from that jump to in the technological base more support for preference for university because we don't have a lot of technological support in A levels. Immanuel how about you? I probably see the over reliance on students to use resources based upon students independence so I feel like there was a lot of pandering me from my perspective to students reliance on allowing students to be independent for example to use technologies associated at university and I think what I wish sort of the support was available to me was that sort of support from like maybe certain stuff at the university of Manchester and sort of like if they if they sort of act as like well they sort of are the experts rather than students and it's sort of pandering to students independence I feel like there was overlaps on students to for example use a to be able to use it like the support and resources available rather than I feel like if I'm going to say university staff and university support actually they made more of an effort to actually say these are technologies available and create more of like a reward and the incentive initiatives for the use of students or use of these resources rather than relying on students independence to use these resources. So it sounds to me like one of the things that's coming out of what you just said in manual and also what Javine said is that there is a gap between what your universities thought you might do when they handed you something and what you knew you could do. Do you have a good example of a positive experience with being introduced to something that you needed to use for your studies something that you realized was really useful that maybe was new to you that's telling. I probably say initially with Blackboard knowing where all your course guides are knowing where your course content is weekly for like just weekly course content it was able to sort of like sign post very easily you knew where to go for the for the how can I say to get like the material needed for the course so that was definitely like a positive per se so knowing that everywhere it was there was one like central point to be able to get the particular course materials so if we say that. Yes similar to that as well like we had our lectures all our lectures were recorded so it was easy to go back when we were revising to go back to specific content we can use because I use Canvas in University of Ireland we can just click on a specific lecture and also they had it written as well like we could when I was making my PowerPoint slides you could easily translate the video into the like a Word document so that was very it works when I was revising and doing my exams as well. Yeah in my experience it varied from lecture to lecture so certain modules there would be like very organized like resources online but some of the lecturers weren't as good at maintaining it so I found that quite difficult so it did vary from module to module. What do you wish you had known when you started as a student that you know now? I wish I knew the pandemic was coming because that would have helped me prepare a lot better yeah that was the one thing that I really wish I knew because obviously no one expected it and it was really really difficult because it was new to everybody so getting used to that was a really big learning curve. I wish that there was a lot more support as I said before on how to use like the technological side because I remember near to the end of uni I found that there was a whole document that we could have access to show how to use Canvas or how to do this but they didn't really explain it at the start of the University so it was almost too late because we kind of just had to find a way around like to work around it but I wish there was more like talks available to show people who don't usually use tech to how to use each program. I'll probably say so just provided a bit of context I'm not sure if anyone is aware there's a there's a allowance from the students from the student finance England called Disabled Students Allowance which allows disabled students for students that may have dyslexia ADHD or any other neurological conditions that may affect their studies and with that allowance I was able to study needs assessment at the University of Manchester and it was there that I was prescribed the use of certain technology to aid in aid in my studies so I have ADHD and dyslexia and it so like when I'm trying to do so let's say if I need to read like a really big reading because my attention span is in like sort of the best and also with my dyslexia the words can get sort of like jumbled up so the constant sort of having to read like reread work it would come very overwhelming for me sometimes and there was a following the study needs assessment there was there were there were like three main technologies that I was introduced to when I was going to see which is like it summarizes each article and picks out them the main important like topics and key readings for you and then you sort of like decipher the reading based upon the information provided from the software and then another one was called mind view so instead of on the normal word document where it goes sort of vertically where your notes are sort of made vertically mind view sort of creates this it creates a sort of like a mind map of your of your notes so you sort of see it from a more a 3d holistic perspective perspective and then another one was called dragonfly so instead of having to write down all of my notes I'm able to verbally dictate my notes and it sort of writes it for me under on the software I was only able to find out about these these new software once I had firstly once I had actually gone out gone out of my way to create and attended like a stable study assessment and also as well that this um like these technologies were only available for students that were like that were that had disabilities maybe um like maybe it's maybe somebody university of Manchester but if that the technology was actually available for me for when I had started my first year rather than me having to repeat certain years of the university and then being able to get that technology if that was available from the first day I had attended university and that was offered to me rather than me going out to get it I feel like my whole experience of university could have been completely different I think it touches back on my wider point in terms of the balance on the students having to obviously there is an independence of students which I'm very good for our university but you can't take that for granted like we do go to institutions that are meant to obviously provide support for us and I feel like that technology was there for me in the beginning I feel like my whole university could have been my whole university experience could have been very different so there are certain technologies out there that would have definitely helped me but the visibility of those technologies was completely that nonexistent and also was there even a willingness amongst the university to actually offer those technologies to me as a student so that's my response so thank you. So I think that one of the things that people who are not currently students do is talk sometimes about what they think students worry about or what they think students value and they often do it in terms of will students care about this or they don't care about that there's a whole lot of will students don't care about that so we don't have to I'm wondering if you could speak a little bit more I think you've already done that some Emmanuel especially you about the things that you've that were really valuable to you I wonder if you could talk about the things that truly did worry you or that you really did care about whenever you were a student what what motivated you either from a place of I'm really concerned about this or from a place of I really I really care about this and I really want to do this. I think obviously at university during the pandemic for me it was quite isolating I think I wish that the lecturers reached out a bit more especially when you was just online constantly I feel like they just assumed that we were okay you know and that we would go to them if we needed any help or support so I wish they reached out and kind of nudged us to see if we're doing okay rather than expect us to go to them and if we had any concerns. Yeah what what were the what did you care about really deeply when you were a student what were the things that made you do the things that you wanted to do or what were the things that you were really worried about that made you either do or not do the things that you did. I feel like in first year and second year I was really worried about sort of being um lacked by my peers as well and I had placed that more importantly than my education per se and maybe this is I was really like something naive going into university but I feel like that's something that I wish I had sort of like I was definitely a challenge that I faced that um like feelings of like not like oh you can't fit in per se and then the effect that has then on like my education per se and like the because let's say I may not fit in in a certain like on a group work etc the effect that that may have on me in terms of like my education and the tools I use to like help me to like develop my education and whether I even want to get that support because I already feel isolated. I feel like that was something that I definitely found challenging and how one area of your life can have an effect on like another area of your life as well. I feel like that was something that I found very like challenging my first particularly years of university. So yeah. What I found difficult was I was worried about the how online based university became because my course was very much like very much like 60% online and then 40% maybe even less in person and of starting university it was kind of hard to like make friendship groups or surround yourself with people who are like minded when you're just behind a screen and it wasn't even like for my course specifically it was we had to watch we have to watch videos before like for our lectures so it will be like 10 videos that we have to watch and then we have to go into lecture lecture would be like part 11 of what we've watched. So it was difficult because a lot of people were way ahead of the content and understanding way more than I was still on like lecture one thinking I'm so cludas I don't really know what's going on because I really do value that face to face interaction and asking questions and talking. It was very hard to ask questions when I'm just watching someone talk to me through a screen. So even going into the lecture when it was like a part five of when the when the online was part one trying to understand the part five when I hadn't even understood the part one was just extremely difficult for me and that was what I've worried about most when I was studying to think am I going to be able to understand this fully by the end and it was a lot of I had to do a lot of research by myself to try catch up and yeah because I don't think that was a lot of support provided. Yeah in person. Yeah. So Emanuel you've already talked about some of the technologies that were really helpful. I'm wondering what else did help look like when you were at university? Did it look like a person? Did it look like a piece of tech? Did it look like something you read? What what was the most helpful maybe what was the most helpful thing but just sort of when you think about the things that were helpful to you and maybe maybe Emanuel you've already answered this but there might be something else like who was helpful? What did help look like? For me it was the students. We had a lot like we had set up our own like group chats before starting the course and there was like students on for example Snapchat, WhatsApp and all of us were in the same groups. We were all asking questions or putting out questions out there but I think it would have felt more if there was an online like based in Canvas like a student place or we could all message each other on the on I don't know with everyone in the lecture rather than just people who had Snapchat because it was only about a few of us who used to talk to each other. That was really helpful but it might have been more helpful if there was other people like everyone in the lecture had access to this one portal that they could talk to each other without lecturers being there for say so it's not so you can just talk and feel free to talk to anyone. Ask some questions about feeling, am I asking this silly question or yeah. Yeah I agree with Javine because we had nothing like that at university so and I found it really difficult because when we were in class we would all like help each other do assignments and coursework but when it comes to working online it was just no contact with anyone and we didn't really reach out so would have helped if we had a platform where we felt like we could actually speak about work. I mean like touching on the collaborative aspect going back to your question it sounds like what does help look like going to tutorials or like seminars or like in like politics module seminars where the tutor actually sort of like the tutor they would sort of like pick on students to like to provide responses rather than in comparison to other tutorials where or lectures where let's say if I ask everyone here a question and then no one responds to me like there'll be that sort of like no one was forced to like collaborate and I think in the moment like when you're in tutorials or lectures where the lecturer may like pick on a couple of students in the moment is sort of like it may sort of like be daunting but after you sort of like leave the lecture and all you leave the tutorial you actually realise that the lecturer sort of like facilitate a like a discussion and like like the collaborative aspect based on like the topic that's on the on on the board etc and I feel like that discussion and that collaborative element like rather than like relying on students to sort of foster that like collaborative aspect in in lectures or in tutorials actually you know allowing the tutor or the lecturer to actually have the like the responsibility or like the willingness to say you know what guys like today we're actually going to have a meaningful discussion based on the topic that everyone's like been like studying and I feel like that you shouldn't just like I feel like there was a there was a shine away from that like I would attend certain tutorials and it's like the because the tutor or the lecturer he's like they're waiting for people to respond and then because no one responds then okay guys no no no one wants to speak okay let's go on to the next topic but you missed a great opportunity for there to be a discussion based upon the topic and like in the moment you may feel like scary to get picked on but adding in there like if everyone like is discussing towards something like I think it's like you have to know like what is best for the students in the long term per se and like don't necessarily be afraid to do that sorry I had another thing to add so in the second year of uni we had student support so students from the third year would come along and help supports with our assignments and I found that really really useful so when that was no longer a thing it was really quite difficult because that was really helpful to have them there do you know where they discontinued it it's not that they discontinued it it's that I went online so it was we could probably reach out but it was wasn't the same as having them in person explaining things so I should have done this earlier but could each of you tell us how many years you studied online only versus how many years you actually had some face to face so Chloe when did when did you start when did everything go online for you I'm trying to think now I started university in 2019 my first year was in 2019 I believe it was 2020 the pandemic so yeah yeah it would have been 2020 would have been mainly online and then towards the third year was kind of hybrid okay yeah so you ended up so you had one term that was yeah and then in the before times yeah the last term would have been back in person again back in okay how about you Javine I only done my A levels during the pandemic online and then uni I just started last year so I'm going into my second general so okay I don't know what it was like before sorry that yes that's the truth for a lot Emanuel how about you when did you my experience is a bit long so in 2019 I did my first year then a pandemic hit then all the students got progressed into second year automatically because of the pandemic then second year that epidemic like a really struggled with that had other things going in my personal life like education like sort of like took her like a bad word now and then I had to repeat second year for the 21 22 academic year and then I've just now then I had to like I said still had other issues going in my personal life then I had to repeat first time I had to repeat first mistle of second year again just now from September 2022 to 2023 and then just now recently I've managed to also improve my grades and then now I'm hopefully like going into first year and I thought that the pandemic really affected like my time at university especially like being forced to like go back home and like I said it just like affected like education was a longer priority because of the issues I was facing in like my life and it seems a bit crazy to think that like I made those decisions but I said you can't really like I'm not changed the passport. No I'm looking at some of the questions that are here on the VVox and the top three seem to be variations on a theme and it's something that I've heard a lot from people in the community and from lectures and things and one of the things that people really want to know is what's the best way to let you all know what's possible. I think that it might be different for everybody. I think a version of that question is how do you best learn things. Where are the places or who are the people or what are the opportunities that make you really receptive to finding the things that you need to find. So if it's in terms of finding resources online. Yes I think updating the VLE like Moodle was really helpful but only if they notified us that they actually made changes because sometimes they would add a lecture on there and you wouldn't know they'd added it or you'd be looking for it and it wouldn't be anywhere and it was just communication was a big thing for me so letting us know that the resources are actually available. But how would they do that. I feel like email would have been useful and saying hi guys or even a team's message saying hi guys you know I've added this on to the VLE or just to notify us because sometimes they assume that we know that they've updated Moodle. I just want to highlight for the room that you have a student who has asked to be sent an email. So I don't want to hear anybody say anything about students don't ever check their email we're not going to send them emails. You all respond to the emails that are coming from people you care about right. So if nobody's answering your emails that might tell you something about how much they care about you. I think even if they don't answer it even if they just know it's there like maybe if you see a notification you can just go on to the VLE. Absolutely. Davin you wanted to say something. Is it only technological science. No just like how what's the best way for you to find things out. I think like a lot there should be like a dependent on the subject so there should be like a mixture I think for what do you mean to find things out like technological. Yeah so one of the one of the questions that the people in this room have is how do we tell students what's possible. What where where do we find them to teach them things. Where do we put the information so that they will consume it. So where are the places that you get the stuff that is useful to you. Backtrack in what Chloe said I personally with emails I find them quite hard to follow on I have so many emails and there's some going to the junk by accident and some is so hard to like navigate. So me personally I'm not very good at responding to emails. So I think for me emails will not be like the best way to find out things but teams would be a good one or I don't think we have any like platform at the University of Birmingham other than talking on email for the lecturers to contact students. Maybe on sometimes canvas I guess you can put like a big message out to say like you whether you can put a big message out to find information but yeah emails for me don't work. Yeah so a mix for you and then you'll how about you. I'll probably say you have to think of like where will students always congregate weekly and in a lecture hall like this I'll probably say this is probably the best opportunity you have. It doesn't have to be something like it doesn't have to be on a 10 minute show but it can literally be before the lecturer gives their presentation. OK let's say a blackboard have made changes it can literally be on a short and like condensable one slide put it in put it on the lecture and then allow like the lecture to explain what the changes are are going to on blackboard just because it's in terms of I feel like that's a guarantee of where you know that students will they guarantee to see that information as well. Yeah I feel like that feels like the digital equivalent of when your lecture turns up in the in the room before everything gets started you have an opportunity to ask them questions and say you know what's going on or if they hang around after class and then you can ask them questions. It's hard to build that thing into digital classes but it's a thing that can be done. Laurie do you want to curate any of the questions are you happy for us to just you can't they're not up there. OK. There's that term digital shock coming about arriving at uni and so this is again sort of an extension of you know how what would be the best way to help you and I and from what I heard from you all is one of the things is don't assume that you already know how to do this stuff right. Assume that teaching you how to use the tech should be part of the job but there's something about when would you like to learn these things. I think some conversations I've had with folks in the room are trying to say well do we teach them all about it before they get to university or is it something that you do along the way. Like what would that look like ideally to you. I think it should be like integrated gradually throughout like certain so for example maybe in like six form you would have like a like you'd use maybe laptops for certain assignments because in university we've never like no one's ever written in our like no one's written an essay on paper through a levels that's all we do. So I think so we should have maybe some assignments should be online or even like essays that we need to do because when we went to uni like typing was just the weird thing for me. I wasn't used to it. I remember for my first lecture I bought like a pen and paper and everyone was like had laptop so I was like what. So I think just maybe through a levels and maybe a bit over the summer holidays like having tech support out how to use this how to use this before you come to university and so people feel comfortable like people feel people don't feel like embarrassed if they have like paper and I think whatever on else has laptops so yeah. I think it would have helped if they let us know that we could borrow laptops at university which I know seems like something you should already know but for me I didn't have the best laptop and I didn't really want to take that to uni when I started so I didn't and then it wasn't about a few months in that I realised I could actually borrow a laptop. So that was really helpful and no knocker take that home. So I wish they just had that information out there like oh when you arrive to uni you can borrow a laptop if you need it because you feel a bit silly asking sometimes like oh I'm not equipped I don't have the right technology and especially for me since I was doing a tech course they did have like computer rooms but obviously doing assignments from home and that was a bit of a worry for me. I would probably say like echoing on from Chloe's point what the digital shock really affected me was when so there was a module called politics by numbers where you can use that where you have statistics based like surveys or et cetera what are reports and politics as well but the computer that I had it was a Chromebook and like that was the team's computer that I could afford and when like I could install like SPSS on my on my computer and so I've always said that was a shock for me because it's like the resources that I have like I'm not able actually to be able to do the the course that I want to like am I uni so like it was a bit of a shock to me because it's like I wasn't able to use my own personal laptop to complete a module so if I had like a weekly so like you have like weekly reports to you on Friday and I couldn't I literally couldn't do any work from home so I would have to stay into the library like or like use the computers on campus until until I got my work done and I was a bit of a shock for me because it's like you think the resources that you have are capable of doing the work that you want to do but when you're unable to download certain software as well and even in like my disabled like students allowance report I know the software they had recommended for me they said that my laptop didn't have the correct processing power and the only reason why I had a laptop was because that was the only one I could afford at the time and I think it was a bit of a shock to me because the support I needed and the modules I wanted to do was affected by my own capability and the resources that I had at the time and I thought it was a bit of a shock to me because it was like you stop thinking to yourself oh I wish I had like this laptop et cetera but maybe if there was like more than communication about okay you need certain devices with this much processing power to be able to use certain software on like certain modules or to be able to use certain technology like it would help me better inform decisions or like or like me or like I would have been able to make it more financial decisions to be able to like remove myself in like the digital spaces that I was going to be entering when I attend university. So I love this question so I'm going to ask it. Somebody in the room has a child starting at home soon and they're wondering what advice would you have for a student who's about to start to be your student who's about to start so maybe it could also be what advice would you to give your friend and colleague Javine about starting off how top tips for managing the transition from where you were to going to university? I think not being afraid to ask for support is a big thing because I don't know you never want to be the one who always goes into the lecture and asks for support and certain things but I think it's so important because sometimes you leave it too late and then you just think oh I should have asked when I started the assignment because now I'm in a big like I'm in a rut and I can't get out of it so. My advice for Javine would be just like don't be so prideful and ask for like support like in my first year I really struggled how to use the library database to be able to search out resources that I needed for my studies. If I just dropped my pride and asked for help per se and I'm not viewing it as like a weakness per se but in order for me to achieve my goals and my studies I don't need to do it by myself as well. Just ask for help when you need it. Like you don't have to do it by yourself. Do you find it hard to ask for help? Yeah definitely yeah I don't feel there's a lot of encouragement like the lecturers will say oh talk to me if you need to or maybe ask them questions in the lecture but it is very intimidating and obviously starting first year in university as well there's like different ages like going there's everyone from different age groups so me as like the youngest person as well is like I feel kind of intimidated to stand up or not stand up or put my hand up in a lecture like I feel like the spaces that we are provided in uni like the lectures it's just very intimidating and kind of like a I don't know some problematic but it's like a very like a hierarchical hierarchical like structure like I'm talking to you that's accurate. Yeah it's like I'm talking to you listen so I don't think there's a lot of spaces that are provided for students to actually speak out and ask questions like that's what I was saying before like I think we should have a student platform that we can talk to each other so it's less intimidating. So I was going to ask sort of what would that space look like so maybe an online space. Yeah so similar to a student space but would there be a physical space too or are you thinking mostly online. Yeah definitely both but because I remember when I was doing like assignments in the middle of the night I'll just be like oh I wish someone could just tell me like something like I need to know this exact thing how to find this. It would just been useful to have someone to just message or like because likely there's going to be someone awake at the same time as you at 2am whilst you're at 9am. So we had like I said before we had like a snapchat but if there was like a I don't know what it would be but some online thing maybe on campus that is just for students like you have to maybe accept like an invite to be on the group or something. I don't know how it would work but an in person one as well would be good but I doubt since university now is very online it might you might find that less people would attend the in person one or that the same type of people would attend the in person one. I don't think you would get a more varied group of people in the online one than the in person one to see. For all three of you are your expectations going forward that university and work are going to continue to be a mix of online in person. Like what are you experiencing now in terms of the mix and do you have expectations about what it's going to look like going forward? Obviously I'm not a student anymore but I have a sister who's still a student and from what I've heard from her a lot of the stuff is still online and I'm not going to like some of it is still more efficient online like if you've learnt all the content and there's no need for you to actually be in the class sometimes being in another setting that you find you can work better in is quite helpful. So I feel like having some aspects of it online but the content side when you're actually learning the content I find having that in person is a lot more helpful. Is your question in relation to university and work? Yeah I think both I mean I think yeah both. So in Goss University I probably say I appreciate the sorry the University of Manchester for the whole academic here it's in person so lectures are in person and tutorials are in person as well and I do appreciate that in person element but because of my previous experiences with online learning I feel like now in the workplace I've started to appreciate the difference in online interactions as well and I would also have a hybrid approach could definitely be helpful per se. I feel like I don't think having both so having strictly in person elements and strictly online elements in both is beneficial just because there are so many different people with different working styles for example some people prefer to work from home or study at home some people prefer to study at university or study at home as well so I definitely feel that that collaboration for that collaboration per se but for my experience as well I feel like being in person at university and doing my internship at Gisk I feel like my interpersonal skills is something that I've definitely improved in terms of and that's maybe something that I didn't necessarily consider that improving due to the in person element as well and I think it's made me reconsider what I wanted in terms of I do want that freedom associated with online and remote learning but it's good to interact with people because I feel like there's so much skills again so I feel like finding a university or company that has a sort of balance I feel like is definitely something that I probably would lean towards more in the future where we would see mandatory couple of days in and then optional type of remote work from home so I feel like having that balance is important. Just echoing on what everyone was saying but the balance is definitely important because I think it's mainly it depends on the course that you're doing all the modules specifically but for me I feel like I benefited from online learning maybe in my more coding modules or research based modules because the answers are pretty much yes or no but for more of the social aspects of my psychology degree I prefer the in person approach where we can discuss and have debates about certain things where there's no specific answer that they're looking for but they're just looking for how you think about it and I've heard when we went to the tutorials and we heard debates in that kind of space but I do feel like there shouldn't just be just online and just in person I think the mix is needed for different courses especially and for different people as well it's nice to have a mix because sometimes not everyone a lot of people will prefer that. I feel like not everyone doesn't just want one thing like sometimes it's needed to have both and experience both as well but I feel like as we progress like the years go on I feel like it will become more tech based though because of the technological advancements it's kind of hard to just like to ignore the advancements that are being made and that I'll put into university so I feel like over time it will become more tech based and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing but yeah. So there is a question here about generative AI. People in this room are very talkative about AI tools and very speculative about what it's going to do so stuff like mid-journey and Dolly and chat GPT. The question is how would you like educators to approach it? I would rather ask the question is this something that you care deeply about and if so why and if not why not? See obviously now I've graduated it's not become too big of an issue for me but I feel like they should approach it with an open mind because I've heard that a lot of students they get blamed a lot for using chat GPT for example in their assignments and I can't imagine being a student at university at the minute and having to worry constantly about oh will it sound like I know it sounds silly but will it sound like this is generated or does it sound like me kind of it's difficult to it's really difficult. To be clear you're saying that you understand that students are worried about their work being mistaken for AI not that they would actually use it. I'm thinking from my perspective you know when you look for references online silly things like that like I don't know I just think that would be a big worry for me because yeah. I feel like AI is yeah it's becoming very popular in universities for like student news and I feel like with student news it's creating like a it might potentially create like a big gap in the like grades like an educational gap for some people who are getting away of using it and some people who are not using it and just going off what they know. I feel like it's a bit it's unfair but we can't necessarily avoid like it will because it's so easily like it's easily accessible like you can easily just get it on Google it's quite difficult to eliminate the potential use in like essays. So I feel like for lecturers I don't know I don't know but because some students know how to like students who want to cheat per se will know how to like get around it will know like ways to get around it. So and it might not be detectable for like lecturers or think it's called turn it in. So it's kind of I think that the gap between like grades will just like get bigger and bigger and it's unfair. I feel like the rise of chat GP, chat GPT especially at university I find particularly worrying not because of the chat GPT itself but I feel like the application and how it's used. I feel like on a maybe vast order of the university and I found like I found out about chat GPT back in like 2019, 2020 I feel like my journey here has been like like to finally get to the point where like my grades have improved like to the extent where it has has been because of like the realising that I had to do like the long hours of reading like the whole like I had to do all of that just so I could get to this point and then I know when you see like tics or sort of like people saying that they wrote like a complete like they wrote an essay or most of the essays completely based on like chat GPT is like I've had to go through like all of this and like I've had to repeat some like years at university just to get to this point and it's like I don't know like I don't want to say like it wouldn't invalidate like the like the efforts that I've gone through but it's just like it just mainly makes like maybe like I could have taken the easy way and it's like I don't want to have to like compromise myself because there is there's a software that's potentially on the text board that could actually like lead to me getting like better grades down the line and it's like I'm all like students kind of like there are certain students as well that completely have the mindset you know like I don't want to use chat GPT et cetera but the longer it goes on the text board is just that I worry about how how long can students hold out especially like as Javine like pointed to that like the difference in like the grade attainable and distinction between like 1st or 2 1 if that's the if you get in that that difference is due to chat GPT and the longer it goes undetected you know how long will students going to hold on to you know chat GPT become so widespread although maybe this is an alternative to consider like how do you I know how do you navigate this use of like chat GPT while still like I don't know like you want institutions to still be credible down the line you don't want like just you know degrees to be handed out like really nearly per se. I'm sorry can I just add a point um yeah I think assessment is important when it comes to this as well because the assessments that they give out should be like should not be able to be completed by AI they should be you know it's a given that they should be you know catered to the student's module and not not something that is possible to complete with generative IO I think that's quite interesting that's uh Javine you were talking about you know the different kinds of things that you would do in courses right and the difference between the the classes that you go into and you're having a discussion or your you know there's some sort of back and forth and human interaction as opposed to you know yes or no questions that seems to be related to what you're talking about Chloe as well I wanted to ask um Emmanuel you mentioned marks and and you know grades and you know if it makes a difference between getting a two one or you know something better why wouldn't you so I think this isn't necessarily a AI question but an education question right so what does it mean to get good grades versus getting an education is that a distinction that is meaningful and important and and then how is that related to what we were just talking about I mean in relation to the education aspect the I feel like this is where chat GPT can become like really um worrying just because when you're in person it's like you're going to scrap it there's sort of like there's nowhere to hide like chat GPT isn't going to save you in terms of the fact that yes you can prepare beforehand but I feel like having like you know like done readings et cetera like you have that sort of like that knowledge bank in your head et cetera and like your process of like how you you know come through information et cetera that is a skill in itself and um I feel like this is something where like the in person element can sort of like um combat maybe like the the worrying aspects of chat GPT per se because I know like I attended the there was a a talk yesterday I can't remember who but it's like the selfie generation and then how we talked about student engagement is being affected by um students on their on their laptops per se and um and like whether um lecturers or like tutors they were they asked their students to not go in on laptops and I feel like I know relying back on like relying on that students interaction in a classroom is like it's going to make them want to actually um get a good education rather than like because the good education is tested in the in person element of the classroom in terms of how you bounce back in discussions et cetera um like the principle bottle you offer to like someone else's argument and like that is where the good good education aspect that sort of like kicks in and compares to just using chat GPT to get in like good grades so I feel like like the in person element of like let's say attending like classrooms et cetera away from online learning can sort of alleviate that in terms of testing you know um I know like like how far someone is in terms of the responses they give or how well they've actually truly understood the reading like what on a poison critical argument study offer et cetera and um yeah I feel like there's ways around chat GPT but I don't like I think it goes back to that as an idea like the level goes on like undetected I feel like how long can like students like um I know have to like the moral high ground per se and like you I feel like that conversation needs to be have like that conversation needs to be had just because um um and then they like um especially if you come for like a like a disadvantage background um a company's going to look at um obviously like what university you go to and then say and also um your skills your skills as well and also what grade you get and like the more competitive like the the I don't know like the job market gets as well those like small matters are going to actually be very important so in let's say a final year like can you actually like do you have the opportunity or like do you have the do you like are you actually able to not use chat GPT per se et cetera I love that if you're good at something it's because you don't use the tool um I think we're almost done I wanted to end with each of you getting the opportunity to give advice to either your university the one that you went to or to universities generally so in the same way that you got to give advice to a hypothetical student you have the leaders of your university in front of you what do you want them to know so I'm saying repeat myself again but the importance of asking students so not just speaking to one student and saying oh this student said this they prefer online um it's always going to vary from course to course so asking your students not just so for example what I've said today that wouldn't apply to everyone's students so I think that opinion is really really needed Geoffie okay I'm trying to not repeat myself but I do think strongly about the student platform where they can speak together I think all universities should have that where everyone could access it like easily and also again the mix of online and in person not like a more of a 50-50 rather than like a 70-30 percentage because students benefit from different spaces and also maybe having more of a mix in terms of like the with the a mix in terms of the amount of people in the in the lecture for example like we have like seminars but maybe more consistent seminars for each specific subject because I know for psychology we only have like one seminar a month or like maybe we have like once a term we have like three in the whole year and a lot of students would benefit from maybe more like constant ones so I think we should have it like weekly or maybe every two weeks so yeah let me just first state that actually um I really enjoy my time at university Manchester and also like please don't like exclude me from the from the course but um you you get to criticise the people you love that's okay I love you I love Manchester I love I love it so much please that um but I just wanted to say like just be more proactive in like your approach towards like students like if you see something that's not like going well like don't be afraid to sort of like in like take that proactive approach like stop I don't know like said I love Manchester but don't um don't like um I just like to stop being like I don't know just be more fast in like what you're trying to do like um and um you just be more proactive if you see something go wrong try and correct it as soon as possible don't like yeah like like you are the expert for say like um like I don't know like students are on a your care as an institution I'm like I don't know that's the responsibility that you should like um yeah be proactive in like we can show you a duty so I'm hearing communication I'm hearing proactivity I think that um some institutions do wait around for the student to fail utterly before they intervene and I think there is um more work involved in constantly offering and checking and that sort of labour isn't always valued or visible in universities but also this notion that you all three have talked about of facilitating communication and community across students right and not assuming that that's just going to happen because you're all in the same place I feel like maybe as a pilot scheme but this I'll I'm also sure that this has been done but like maybe like mandatory study groups as well that aren't necessarily um um so like recently at the University of Manchester so like participation marks actually can affect your grade so how how like if you were taking if you were taking lectures and if you are well like if you missed tutorials you know that could be different between a two one or like a first and um if you're only doing the participation mark aspect like you've really committed to that then I don't know maybe go once at first and say okay cool um you do want to increase engagement among students probably hence why you probably moved it in person and then maybe to like go another step on top of that just um create mandatory study groups as well like I feel like the University has a lot of power to like do certain things as well like um but it's like also I don't it's I feel like it goes back to my first point like you you still have to manage that student independence so it's like like the ability for students actually to be able to go out and like all and like set up their own like um study group that is a skill one as well like sort of the confidence you gain to be able to go up to new people and like do that but I didn't like how long can you wait for students to be proactive in that approach especially when there are only like what 10 weeks in the there are only like 10 weeks in the for the course as well and then towards assessment towards the assessment time barely anyone attends like tutorials or lectures and then there may be reading week in that so you just probably six to five weeks actually where students actually attend tutorials and I don't know like I feel like the mandatory aspect if you are going to be in person like I don't know what's the word like go hard or go home pussy yeah You can go ahead um because so the first question you want to say what it is yeah because I was just saying like um potentially a staff are watching it for um I remember on when I'll start in university like a few weeks before um I was trying to join like different societies and each society you get sent for like um I think it was afro-caribbean society or something you get sent like a link and it's just specific to you so maybe if they had that for um university or they had that just for psychology students here's this link like if you want to be put in this group chat and this is a big forum for all the students so we had that for the ACS when it was like over like a thousand people in it so maybe that for um specific um like like specific um courses they have um year one psychology group chat without staff watching in or yeah so that'd be so in that case staff were not watching it and you were confident about that yeah okay um I want to thank each of you for your generosity and your time I think um I hope everybody listened and learned a lot and um just thank you thank you so much please thanks and I don't know what happens next so Billy perhaps you should tell them so I think if we could just again give a huge huge round of applause to our we do have a little gift for you to say thank you um but I certainly found that very insightful and I've made lots of notes and I'm sure colleagues in the room have as well so they will take back those amazing comments and feedback and act upon them um thank you very much it's time for a rest break so we'll see you at your next session thank you very much