News Archive

Dear Heads of Schools and Education Leaders Network,

As we continue to respond to the COV​​ID-19 situation, I would like to remind everyone of the ongoing support that is available to teaching staff. I hope it will be useful for you and your teams in regards to the support the University can provide for your teaching staff.

Firstly, I want to reiterate that the role of the Capability Team within the Educational Enhancement Unit (EEU) is to provide frontline support to academic staff. The EEU teams have fully focused their efforts on supporting the staff to make adjustments in their units in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Any academic looking for support in learning and teaching should be encouraged to get in touch with the EEU Capability Team. All Learning Designers (LDs) and Educational Technologists (ETs) will provide at-elbow support for teaching staff impacted, as requested by such staff (self-identified) or instructed by Associate Deans, Learning and Teaching (ADLTs) once impacted units/Unit Coordinators (UCs) are known.​

All requests for assistance ar​e to be made through the EEU-Faculty Team emails: [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected]

Documents and Information:

1. UWA EDUFLEX Website : As a reminder for teaching staff, in the first instance, please look at the UWA EEU EDUFlex Website for up-to-date instructional resources, which includes an array of EEU resources on UWA’s educational technology options, links to LinkedIn Learning and MS Teams resources. The EEU EDUFLex Toolkit , a live and regularly updated document available on the website, contains suggestions for transforming classroom and assessment options in response to COVID-19. This website, created by the EEU Capability Development Team is to help teaching staff think through some of the key issues in teaching inclusively in response to the current situation. The website and resources are regularly updated, there is a ‘Latest Updates’ section, and a link available on the LMS homepage for staff – www.worldclasseducation.uwa.edu.au/eeu/resources/eduflex
2. Echo360 Universal Capture : Recording of lectures/teaching can happen anywhere staff can take a mobile device – laptop, Ipad et al. This can be done through Echo360 Universal Capture and resources on its use are available on the UWA EEU EDUFlex Website .
3. Zoom Site licence : We are pleased to inform you that UWA now has a site licence for Zoom. Existing Zoom accounts are automatically uplifted, and new users can now self-register at https://UWA.zoom.us and they’ll automatically get the uplifted license as well. Resources on the use of Zoom are available on the UWA EEU EDUFlex Website .
4. MS Teams: IT are managing the administration of the MS Teams software to affected teaching staff, and will be the people you need to contact for technical set up and support. The EEU are providing pedagogical support for it for teaching staff. Resources on its use are available on the EDUFlex website .
5. IT Updates Regarding China Access : IT are continuing to update us as information comes to hand. Please note the inability for staff to use YouTube or Google platforms. Regularly updated communications are on the EDUFlex website .
6. Offshore Students Groups in LMS: As of Friday 21 February 2020, students impacted by COVID-19 have been placed in groups identified as ‘OffshoreStudents’. Unit Coordinators with offshore students are advised to ‘ Add a Smart View for OffshoreStudents groups ’ into the Grade Centre. This feature will enable teaching staff to easily identify and communicate with our offshore students via digital-supported learning throughout the teaching period. Unit Coordinators with offshore students are also advised to familiarize themselves with the process of ‘Adding students into OffshoreStudents groups ’ and to add newly enrolled offshore students into these groups. Once students have arrived, Unit Coordinators are advised to remove them from the ‘OffshoreStudents’ group. The ‘ Removing students from LMS groups: OffshoreStudents ’ fact sheet provides step-by-step instructions for manually removing students from LMS groups.

In addition:

1. EEU Learning Designers (LDs) and Educational Technologists (ETs) will be running workshops/drop-in and at-elbow support sessions in Faculties at their request for the following: MS Teams; Zoom; Blackboard Collaborate; Echo360, and Universal Capture.
2. If you are unsure about how to support your students you can also direct them to the STUDYSmarter Study Success LMS Community Unit (see attached document).

As a reminder:

1. University IT will prioritise support for teaching staff. This team will be available on call over the phone on +61 8 6488 1234 or email at [email protected] .

2. Email [email protected] if there are issues regarding audio visual in venues. If there is anything faulty in venues, give them a call on +61 8 6488 2026.

3. Please send technical LMS support enquiries to [email protected] who are responsible for the LMS, Echo360 (LCS),  and other learning technologies. They manage technical issues and scheduling. Please send all enquires to them directly, or call them on +61 8 6488 8190 so they can action your requests as soon as possible.

4. The EEU Faculty teams are available to provide just-in-time, at-elbow support for teaching staff on adapting teaching practices to meet the needs of their students. Contact them if you or your teaching team require advice on approaches to blended teaching, including adapting your existing learning activities or assessments, as well as pedagogical support for the use of educational technologies. All requests for assistance are to be made through the EEU-Faculty Team emails: [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected]

If you need any additional support from the EEU then please don’t hesitate to reach out to Dr Elaine Lopes, Associate Director, Capability Development, or Dr Ashleigh Prosser, Manager, Capability Development (ABLE & EMS), or Ezrina Fewings, Manager, Capability Development (HMS & Science) accordingly.​

Professor Peter J. Dean SFHEA
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education)