Hi Everyone,

Well, it’s been over 6 months since the university closed its doors for teaching. It’s also been 6 months since many new students now arriving at UEA stopped attending sixth form and college, and it has been 6 months since everyone last sat in a classroom together and learned. However, students have successfully completed A-levels, BTEC’s and assignments. Students have successfully made it into the next year of study and have successfully found their way to university.

Despite the differences in delivery of teaching this year, there are many tools and new resources to help you learn well. With less face-to-face sessions and more remote online learning, it is important to know where you can get support and resources. There will also be changes to some room capacities and expectations when you come onto campus. Let me take you through some recent updates from different areas of the university:

Learning and Teaching Hours

As you will have seen through some of the videos created by UEA, there will be more student-led study and pre-recorded or live remote teaching. In fact, there will be more hours where you will be watching, reading and engaging online than there will be in face-to-face.

Teaching Delivery – The university wants to provide all students with ‘some’ face-to-face teaching. For many that have received their timetable, they will not have any sessions like these in place but the university is working to remedy this from week 5 onwards. Much of your learning will be recorded or streamed live. You will be using many platforms such as Blackboard Collaborate, as well as Teams and Zoom where the lecturer feels it is appropriate. If you need any support with this, please make sure you keep in contact with your adviser and use the support services in the Learning Enhancement Team at UEA.

Support for students learning – There are a whole host of resources and services available to support you. Learning Enhancement at UEA can help you with a host of issues and you may be receiving some online support through UEA Peer Assisted Learning (PAL). We are also working on bringing you UG Dissertation Café again this year, in collaboration with UEA.

Student Preparedness – UEA has worked on building a Blackboard course that helps you navigate a new type of learning as a student. This is a good place to start, with tips for getting the right bandwidth and connection, preparing your study space and keeping track of your learning.

Academic Services

• There is no IT helpdesk in the library! For IT help start here https://my.uea.ac.uk/divisions/it-and-computing-services  
• You need a campus card to get in to the Library. You cannot get in without one. This is to ensure the Library can capture essential NHS test and trace data
• The Library has walk-in study spaces and bookable spaces via eVision but they have reduced study space capacity to ensure 2m social distancing. You should only use spaces with a green tick, and the Library cannot offer any group working spaces.
• Face coverings must be worn when moving around the Library building.
• The Library are keen to hear from you – our helpdesk will be open 9am-5pm Mon – Fri but you can also call them on 01603 592993, email them lib.helpdesk@uea.ac.uk or live chat from my.uea.ac.uk during helpdesk opening hours.

The returns drop boxes will stay – if you are just returning items, the Library does not need you to come into the building, so you can make returns via the drop boxes for the near future. This also enables the library to quarantine (yes, books also need to isolate) these items before returning them to the shelves.

We have also created a quick tick-list for you. This is to make sure you know who the key people in the university are and where to go to find out so you have all the right support networks in place.

Your Academic Checklist

This is a difficult time and many of you are likely to be worried about the transition into a new type of learning. The first semester will be lots of trial and error, and we want to hear from you about how you are finding learning and support at UEA. Please get in contact with us via socials @ueasuundergraduate, follow our Instagram @unionuea or give me an email on callum.perry@uea.ac.uk

Wishing you all the success for the beginning of the academic year!

Cal X