In-person teaching: what it’s like to return

From Monday 17 May 2021, all students are permitted to return to in-person teaching. For some this is exciting news, while for others there will understandably be some anxiety and concerns over COVID-safety.

We spoke to a range of colleagues who have returned to in-person teaching to hear what the experience has been like for them and how they hope the future will look for teaching at Oxford.

Velda Elliott, Associate Professor of English and Literacy Education, Department of Education

“I have just got back from maternity leave so the last teaching I did before returning last week was online. To be honest I was a bit nervous and worried because I haven’t really been anywhere inside with a lot of people except the hospital!

“Once I was there though it was nice to be back in my teaching space and I taught the first class in-person alongside my colleague so I felt like I was back in the fold. It was really worthwhile and I can’t wait to do it again.

“I think that being in person is really important for the Oxford style. You can just about do supervisions online but in general in-person you’re learning and teaching more naturally. For example we often use silence in classrooms to prompt a response because there is a lack of tolerance for silence but online it is less awkward to sit in silence so you’re getting fewer interactions.

“In terms of safety I felt fine. We made use of outside space for group work. The students sat at a distance and everyone stuck to the rules. We also have good ventilation in the seminar room we use. Everyone is very careful, sessions are staggered and things are being constantly sterilised.

“I hope we’ll go back to what we had before the pandemic. It needs to be the same or better. The students desperately want to be in the building. It’s not just teaching it’s interacting with the rest of the group, you can do this online but it feels more artificial.

“I think many students are feeling screen fatigue. There needs to be thought about the length of online sessions and non-traditional methods of breaking them up.”

Nicole Dingwall, Departmental Lecturer in English Education and Lead Tutor English PGCE, Department of Education

“I was able to return to teaching face-to-face for the start of Trinity term, as well as teaching online for part of the week. My students are learning to be teachers so have been in schools themselves and will continue to teach in schools between January and June.

“The students had three out of five days in person. I was excited to get back in the seminar room, I felt like a kid in a candy store, being in the room I was able to see their visual cues, the learning was more organic, and I felt the students interjected more in-person than online.

“We made sure the students felt happy coming in and they jumped at the chance. We asked them to socially distance and wear masks and broke them down into small groups. I felt safe and have done since Michaelmas term. The department has been very good about making sure everyone is protected and I know I could tell my line manager if I was feeling uncomfortable. 

“I, like most people, want normality. I love the flexibility of my job in where and when I work, I thoroughly enjoyed returning to face-to-face teaching and tutorials.

“In terms of what I’ve learnt from the pandemic, being online and meeting the course expectations there needs to be a heightened awareness regarding the teaching and our expectations of students. We need to be more explicit about the priorities of the course and shave off things that are there because of legacy rather than necessity. By creating space for a drop in for students to talk about their welfare, missing home or concerns around their teaching in schools, the students then have a safe place to talk outside of their tutorials and assessments.”

Professor Mike Charles, Professor of Environmental Archaeology, School of Archaeology

“I’m happy to be back in my usual space and it has been relatively easy to set up in my department. Because I’ve had my vaccine, and the precautions set up in the building, I’m not too concerned about the working on-site. Students are happy to be in classes and have requested more practical teaching. They have dealt well with adapting to safe, socially-distanced practicals.

I feel it is much more difficult to run lectures and tutorials online. Students find it harder to respond when not in-person and both being remote and wearing face masks makes it harder. Often when I ask a question online I’ll get no response, if I’m in person I have techniques I can use, like offering them a biscuit and a cup of tea in tutorials, to encourage them to talk - something I can’t do online.

The benefit of in-person is the ability to see what the student is seeing and doing. One of the courses I teach is based around lecture and tutorial based with a few practical classes. Fortunately we were able to do practicals again in December. Another course has a much larger practical component and this was severely curtailed in Hilary Term. We plan to do concentrated practical teaching in the next few weeks.

In terms of what I’ve learnt from teaching in the pandemic, some things have been crystalised. In practical classes having a set of images in electronic form is very useful. There are also advantages having to think through practical teaching, some students may not know how to use a microscope and they can learn the principals of this and other techniques before they encounter them in a lab.

There are things I’ve missed being able to do, I would usually take a group of students over to Gloucester Green market to walk around and talk about food, the same with the Parks and the floodplain below. I would like to be able to do this later. We would usually do fieldwork in the Britain or would be sending students to excavations in Europe. The biggest problem at the moment is for our DPhil students who aren’t able to get out into the field which is a shame.”

Support for returning to teaching on-site

While in-person teaching in Trinity term is being encouraged, there is no compulsion for it to take place.

Colleagues who have concerns about taking part in teaching - particularly if they believe they are vulnerable to COVID-19 - are encouraged to seek advice from Occupational Health. A Vulnerability Assessment is available on its website.