DIGITAL RESOURCES

Every sector in society has felt the effects of COVID-19. With the closure of Higher Education Institutions, lecturers everywhere have had to adapt their teaching methods to accommodate online learning, distance learning, video conferencing and other online digital tools to help continue the education of their students. While these were previously considered a luxury, they have now become a necessity. Never before has the use of digital educational resources been so vital. Below are some examples of resources I have used.

Phase Diagrams Explained (click here to Download)

For my reusable digital teaching resource, I created a teaching aid which can be used alongside Lesson Plan 1 - Phase Diagrams. Through feedback and previous experience, I found that students often struggle with this particular topic so I thought a digital aid could work nicely to engage the students, and provide them with a resource they can access and play at home when tackling or practicing this topic (especially in the lead up to exam time)

I tried a couple of different animation tools online (PowToon etc.), but these did not have the capacity to add my own images, and customize it to the level I required. I used Microsoft Powerpoint (recorded a slideshow with animations) to take the students through the basic concepts and theory, and then practice a simple binary phase diagram related exam question, followed by a brief introduction to more complex phase diagrams.

Payback Period Explained (click here to Download)

Another example of a digital teaching resource is this simple walkthrough of how to calculate the payback period of an investment based on its cost and the cash-flow it creates. This resource was used for my Engineering in Business course. I created many such resources - 5 minute recap for students to peruse at their leisure. They found them most helpful in preparation for their upcoming exams.

Exam Revision and Preparation - Strength of Materials (click here to Download)

Previously, I always conducted a lecture to recap on what had been covered throughout the year to prepare my students for the upcoming end of year exams. This was no longer possible due to COVID-19, so I created a suite of digital resources for each question type, uploading these to the course website for the students to watch when attempting similar questions from past exam papers. This resource tackles the area of strength, stiffness and fracture toughness for my Materials Science and Processes Module.