For semester one, your time spent on campus will include timetabled, in-person teaching sessions for interactive elements of your course such as seminars, tutorials, workshops, practical classes and lab-based activities. Wherever possible, you will be expected to attend your timetabled sessions on campus. You will also be expected to undertake independent study, outside of your timetable, and you will have access to our two libraries which will be fully open, with appropriate public health measures in place, to support you with this. While on campus you’ll be able to benefit from our many and varied student facilities, which we anticipate will all be open with appropriate public health measures in place. These include our sports and leisure facilities, on-campus catering, Guild of Students, Student Support Services and Careers Studio. These in-person sessions will be, at least for the first semester, supplemented by online sessions. This is most likely to apply to large group sessions, which are best suited to a virtual experience, and form just one part of your programme delivery.
OUR DEPARTMENT’S PLANS
For us in the School of Dentistry, we are planning to start the academic year with a mix of in-person and online teaching, with the expectation that all students will be in Liverpool from the start of term.
Work is currently underway to fully understand room capacities ahead of issuing your academic timetables, however, in terms of teaching delivery, you should expect the following:
In-person teaching
Our in-person learning sessions will offer the valuable opportunity to regularly interact with other students and your tutors to discuss topics, engage in thoughtful debate, or ask for support. They will also provide full access to any specialist learning environments, including laboratories, studios and practical training rooms, that you need as part of your programme.
In the School of Dentistry, you should expect to attend in-person teaching for the following types of sessions; clinical activity within the phantom head suites, practical sessions associated with the Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC) which start within the first few weeks, as well as small group sessions throughout the timetable including some communications skills sessions.
Typically, this will account for 1-2 sessions of your scheduled teaching per week.
Online learning
In-person teaching will be supported by online sessions. Many of our online activities will be in preparation for an on-campus face-to-face session where you can then engage and deepen your understanding through active learning activities.
In the School of Dentistry some of our online sessions will be delivered live by your tutor to encourage further interactivity. As with in-person sessions, this gives you the opportunity to actively participate by connecting with others during the session and asking questions in real-time. Some sessions will be recorded, and available on Canvas, our virtual learning environment platform, for you to work through at a time of your choosing. You can set the pace, go back as many times as you like to topics that you are unsure of, and take breaks as and when needed.
Problem based learning activities will take place online, with some sessions being interactive small group sessions and others taking place as a whole year group.
Clinical placements
Clinical activity will commence within the first few weeks with students initially learning and developing skills to use on the phantom heads. The aim later in semester two is students when ready will start to treat their own patients.
Programme material changes
This new way of teaching also means that our ability to deliver some modules during 2022/23 and the ability to deliver some content or assessment types within a given module may be subject to change. The vast majority of changes are minimal, and we believe will not significantly affect your learning experience with us.
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