Complexity and Simplicity during COVID-19: Reflections on Moving Pre-Sessional Programmes Online at Pace

ABSTRACT

This article describes how a complex and large Pre-Sessional (PS) programme at the University of Southampton (UoS) moved online at pace during the COVID-19 pandemic. It outlines the scale of the challenge and the ideas that informed our approach. It gives an overview of the technical and learning design used to deliver the programme, and makes observations on how this was achieved using Blackboard, MS Teams, and Padlet. It indicates how a mix of whole-cohort content and smaller, online group spaces within one site were used to recreate a personalised, small-group teaching experience. It closes with some comments on lessons learned from the experience. [For the complete volume, "Languages at Work, Competent Multilinguals and the Pedagogical Challenges of COVID-19," see ED612070.]