Posted on Tue 26 Jan 2021 at 15:48 by
Melissa Thomas Hi Guys,
Welcome to my Semester 1 blog. Well this has been an interesting time to say the least. I hope everyone is keeping well and safe within these times.
My new outlook is to try and take atleast one postive thought out of my day.
Today positive thought is i am grateful for leggings and long line t shirts! You will understand the reason for this below.
In taking a postive from each day I have found im not so doom and gloom and find myself not eating so many biscuits (becoming a problem).
So i have only been in this job role since late November and to say i was rather overwhelmed in the processe of how the University runs is an absoloute understatement. However i have got know some students and staff pretty well in this time and really focussed on some feedback. I hope you are all aware of me by now and will take the oppurtunity to contact me with any feedback you may have postive or negtive or if anyone just wants a chat or a rant about anything (im a good listener).
FEEDBACK
Over semester 1 i recieved feedback on sumbmission dates, screen time, workload, and students wanted more interaction with other students.
All the above issues have been raised to relevent course leaders and lectures and these issues are now been viewed and some changes will be made. Which students are now aware of. Online learning is new for us all and comes with many frustrations that many of us share. The key to these is speaking about them and raising the concerns if we dont voice our views on different matters nothing can or will change. We need to make that step to communicate more. Not only as students but as people. Mental health issues are on the rise and i personally have felt the strains of this. So lets talk let it all out a probelem shared is a problem halved. I would like everyone to remeber this. No one should feel alone. We are all in this for the long run. Lets atleast share that with each other.
These are difficult times we are all facing i can understand and empathise with how challenging it can be to keep a positive attitude with a general feeling of not knowing what changes will come each day. I know we all have added strains daily with juggling home life and studying, and for me the weird wonderful new eating and sleeping habits i have now obtained ( 1 stone weight gain, oh dear). Its winter i need an extra layer for these cold evenings.
As we have all now moved into semester 2 with all new learning outcomes and the vast amount of knowledge we will be gaining i hope that you are all looking forward to the future and have found your own individual rythms in online learning. We are all in this together and we can keep going. Lets hope at some time in the near future the only thing we will have to worry about is we have our XL starbucks for lectures.
Please feel free to contact me Melissa.Thomas@wlv.ac.uk for any concerns, issues or just for a genreal chat. Aslong as the biscuit talk stays to a minimum.
Semester 2 we have got this in the bag!