As the summer term draws to an end, it’s a good idea to summarise what it was like for me. This time was exceptional since it was my first encounter with full remote studying (apart from pre-pandemic self-learning episodes with text tutorials and YouTube educational videos).
Modules
Compared to autumn and spring terms, the number of modules for second year computing students was much smaller. We only had to work on a group project and the introduction to law module.
The project was called “Designing for Real People” (DRP). In groups of 4, we had to create a web or mobile application that solved a real-world problem. We were required to pick several target users outside of our team and be in touch with them throughout the entire project development time in order to get feedback on software we were making. This wasn’t an easy task during the pandemic! Thankfully, my teammate used his connections and therefore managed to get enough people to talk to 🙂
There was also the law module, but it was nothing too complicated. Just 4 hours of lectures about copyright, contracts and GDPR + a small piece of coursework which counted as a part of the DRP project grade.
But how did we work?
It wasn’t as hard as it seemed to be. All lecture recordings were available on Panopto and there were lab/clinic/Q&A sessions delivered on either Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Within our group, we held audio meetings nearly every day on Teams, chatted using both Teams and Facebook and communicated with the users and project markers on Zoom. We didn’t have any time zone problems as we were located in three adjacent time zones, including the UK one.
There were also two larger presentation sessions on Zoom and these went almost flawlessly. Why almost? In the middle of some other group’s presentation, I unmuted my microphone by accident. Oops! Luckily, this unwanted interruption lasted only a few seconds.
The end
This marks the end of my student blogger role. It’s been a pleasure to write here and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading all of my posts. As always, stay safe 🙂
One comment for “What was my remote studying like this term?”
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I had to get used to Zoom and Teams for a long time. I also muted my microphone during the presentation of my work (I was nervous). But since this is a new experience for all of us, such small mistakes are forgivable.
It was great to have the opportunity to finish the semester remotely, doing all the same tasks as effectively as in a real classroom.
Thank you, Max! I may not have read all your posts, but a lot of them!