Joyce Tyldesley - From Mummies to Microchips: A Case-Study in Effective Online Teaching Developed at the University of Manchester

This volume offers a detailed case study of the internationally acclaimed online programmes in Egyptology at the University of Manchester, UK. It distils over a decade of online teaching experience and student feedback, providing guidance for instructors developing their own online offerings.

Today, many universities are actively encouraging their teaching staff towards the development of:

Unfortunately, the staff tasked with the development of online learning rarely have access to the expertise that they need to help them utilise their teaching skills to their full potential. Technical assistance may be provided by the university e-learning department, but pedagogical and practical help the support of colleagues with many years experience teaching online is lacking.

Written by experts, the book provides an invaluable guide for those wishing or being compelled to establish their own online courses within the humanities.

Joyce Tyldesley is Reader in Egyptology at the University of Manchester, where she teaches a suite of online courses including the worlds first online MA in Egyptology. She wrote the highly successful MOOC Ancient Egypt: A History in Six Objects. Joyce studied the archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean at Liverpool University, then obtained a D.Phil. in prehistoric archaeology from Oxford University. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bolton. She is a research associate of the Manchester Museum and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Joyce has published more than 20 books and many articles, including three television tie-in books and Cleopatra, Last Queen of Egypt, which was a Radio 4 Book of the Week. She has published three books for children, and her play for children, The Lost Scroll, premiered at Kendal Museum in April 2011. Tutankhamens Curse: The Developing History of an Egyptian King (US title Tutankhamen) won the Felicia A. Holton Book Award from the Archaeological Institute of America. Her most recent book is Nefertitis Face: The Creation of an Icon.

Nicky Nielsen is Lecturer in Online Egyptology at the University of Manchester, teaching on the Certificate, Diploma, Short Courses and MA Egyptology programmes. Originally from Denmark, Nicky was awarded an AHRC Block Grant to undertake PhD research at the University of Liverpool investigating subsistence strategies and craft production at the Ramesside fortress site of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham. He has excavated in Europe, Turkey and Egypt and is currently field director of the University of Liverpool Tell Nabasha Survey Project. He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Alongside a series of scholarly papers, Nicky has recently published Pharaoh Seti I: Father of Egyptian Greatness.

First published 2020

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Joyce Tyldesley and Nicky Nielsen

The right of Joyce Tyldesley and Nicky Nielsen to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-0-367-40627-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-80938-6 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Many colleagues and friends have contributed to the evolution of Egyptology Online and the Manchester Method of online Egyptology. We would particularly like to acknowledge the help and support given by Kate Hilton and Ian Miller of the Faculty of Life Sciences eLearning team, our tireless course administrators Anne Pinkerton and Lisa Monks, and Dr Glenn Godenho of Liverpool University, who spent many years working on our developing suite of online programmes and learning experiences. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude for the support and feedback given year after year by our students. Thanks everyone: we could not have done this without you.

Joyce Tyldesley and Nicky Nielsen

Joyce Tyldesley

Picture the scene. A meeting in the Department of Archaeology, or Art History, or any other university-taught humanities subject in Britain. The room smells of stale coffee and of the cheese and pickle sandwiches unwisely provided as lunch (for this is a lunchtime meeting the working lunch being an almost daily necessity in a busy department running scores of timetabled classes). The assembled lecturers are being told that their traditional teaching methods are now outdated. They must, with immediate effect, start to include an element of online learning in their programmes. Of course, funding is tight or non-existent in this small department, so this is something that staff will be expected to implement in their own time. Technical support may be available from the already overworked IT support team, but there is no one to offer practical advice on course design or content because, although there has been a lot of recent talk about online learning at high levels within the faculty, it has all been theoretical. No one has actually done it. Those in authority are convinced, however, that this lack of experience is not a problem. How difficult can it be, to put tried and tested course material online? There can be no looking back! The staff are to go away and come back in a weeks time with a plan that will move the suddenly out-of-date department forward into the modern world, saving a great deal of money in the process.

This scene may seem exaggerated, but as many academics will testify, it is not so very far from the truth. Rapid advances in digital technology have moved distance and flexible learning from a niche speciality to a basic educational tool, and British universities have slowly but surely started to wake up to the potential of the virtual classroom and less formal online learning. After many years during which the Open University, the UKs flagship provider of flexible and part-time teaching, was regrettably all too often regarded as a lesser educational establishment, the provision of conspicuous online courses is suddenly seen as a sign that a university has assumed its rightful place alongside other global educators.

The benefits of online learning are obvious. By using the virtual classroom, universities are able to connect with high-achieving students worldwide, students who otherwise could never dream of attending a traditional, face-to-face programme at a campus university.younger students those who cannot remember life without a tablet or smart phone, and who have been using iPads since their nursery days simply see it as a logical use of available technologies.