To support students when reviewing material, presentations are accompanied with an audio recording and transcript. During the pandemic, when video recording became more common, these were also accompanied with a transcript of the presentation. A transcript is important for inclusive and accessible learning as it allows students to read the presentation.

Online Intercultural Exchanges offer a form of computer-mediated learning whereby students from geographically remote classes work together online (in pairs or small groups) on learning tasks developed by teachers or educational facilitators. They allow students to have a meaningful intercultural experience as part of their education, increasing mutual understanding and global citizenship. Besides, our students’ feedback has also shown that this pedagogy has helped them to boost their mental health and wellbeing. This was particularly evident during the Covid-19 lockdown.

This is a very straightforward and easy practice: stay behind for a few minutes at the end of a lecture in case any students have any questions they’d like to ask individually.

Promoting student societies to help build a culture of student collaborative learning.

Providing the choice of different kinds of assessments on different modules to enable students to choose a path that most suits them but also gives them variety. This can additionally involve creating assignments different from the traditional essay or exam. It hopes to relieve stress by spreading assignments throughout the year rather than having them all at the end.

Students develop Multiple Choice Questions as part of a formative assessment process, a percentage of which contribute to their summative assessment. This fosters respect, reciprocity and shared responsibility and provides understanding of the development of their assessment as well as investment in a collaborative partnership approach to their assessment.

At the end of the introductory day the new group is consulted to see whether they would like to be included in the formation of a WhatsApp (or other social media type platform) group. The purpose of this group will be for the group to support each other in between taught elements of the programme. It might be a place where the students can informally discuss the teaching content and assignments. We also suggest that it can be used as a platform for setting up a buddy system for assignments where the students pair up to proof read each other’s work prior to submission (eg: checking referencing and typos, critiquing etc) It is also suggested that it is an opportunity to practice the attitudinal qualities of mindfulness in particular compassion for all members of the group.

In the Chemistry department, every student in their 1st year has compulsory intercultural training as part of their core modules.