Moodle | The Queen's Foundation

To all Staff and Students (including new students!)

Many of you will remember the Common Awards announcement back in July about a webinar on 4^th September from our own Prof Beckford.  I was sent the announcement on a Friday- we posted it to you all on Tuesday morning (as I happened to be out of the office on that Friday and Monday)- only for all of you to find that the event was fully booked.  We thanked Common Awards for arranging these seminars but asked them to review their booking system.  I am pleased to say that they have done so and have today emailed me with ADVANCED WARNING of the booking for the next seminar in the series will open next week (I don’t have an exact day) with increased zoom capacity.  Follow the link to the seminar website next week to book on- if you are keen put a reminder to check this page every day until you spot it!

https://www.dur.ac.uk/common.awards/diversity-inclusion/webinars/

The seminar which any Queen’s student or staff member can join (it is open to non-common awards students) is:

Rethinking Mission and Evangelism and will run on Friday 30^th October 2-3pm with Dr Cathy Ross and Rev Dr Anderson Jeremiah HOST: Chine McDonald

I really hope that a) lots of you get to go this time and b) would ask that (after the fuss I kicked up) if you book a ticket and then find you CAN’T attend that you let Eve at Common Awards know so someone else can benefit from your ticket:

eve.r.parker@durham.ac.uk    

In addition they have let us know that ‘the recent Common Awards webinar: The Bible and Resisting Racism, that took place 4 September, was recorded and the webinar will hopefully be available for TEIs by next week, (w/c 14^th September) links will be included on the CA website’:

https://www.dur.ac.uk/common.awards/diversity-inclusion/webinars/

The original announcement

The Common Awards team is excited to announce a new series of webinars that will begin in September.  

The webinars are aimed at Common Awards students and staff but open to others with an interest in the subject areas addressed. Each webinar will include leading scholars and/or faith practitioners who will offer diverse insights into a range of topics that will directly relate to the core modules taken by Common Awards students.  

The first webinar will take place 4 September, 2-3pm, via zoom, on the theme: The Bible and Resisting Racism.  

About this webinar: 

How does the Bible address issues of racism, prejudice and oppression? What are the implications of our social location on how we understand the Bible? How can the Bible help us in our formation to become racial justice advocates in our theology and ministry...? 

These are just some of the questions that will be addressed in the first Common Awards webinar of the series, entitled: The Bible and Resisting Racism. 

Prof Robert Beckford, professor of Black Theology at The Queens Foundation, will be in conversation with Prof Grant Macaskill, Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen. The Webinar will be hosted by Augustine Tanner-Ihm, winner of the 2020 Theology Slam. 

Please note that a BSL interpreter will be present at this event. 

More details for the webinars can be found on the Hub, under “Hub Resources – Common Awards Webinars” and also on the Common Awards website

If you have any further questions about the webinars please get in touch with Eve Parker at eve.r.parker@durham.ac.uk  

Apologies for the fourth whole college new item this week- we only use this channel for really important messages, but this is a busy time of year!

Best wishes for the weekend, Katherine Onion, Academic Registrar

To all students,

The Academic Handbooks 2020-21 (Common Awards version and Newman Version) have now been published on the Academic Information Page on Moodle:

https://queens.commonawards.org/course/view.php?id=79

This is a very important document that we recommend you re familiarise yourself with each year.  It should take about 20 minutes to read.  Below this message is a list of sections which have been updated this year.  For new students this is a document worth reading prior to your induction event if possible so you can ask questions in the appropriate session.

Also now published on this Moodle page is a guide to the student database Student Advantage.  A lot of work has gone on over the summer to improve and expand this resource following feedback.  You will login in the same way with the same link but a different structure has been used behind the scenes so it worth reviewing all areas of the menu with the guide so that you can see what information is available to you now from here, including for continuing students showing module results from last year that are now 'confirmed by the exam board' etc.  Do take 10 minutes to look through this guide and again bookmark pages that you find useful.  New students your accounts are being created for this currently- they should all be in place in time for your induction event.  Note that Advantage is designed to be read on a tablet as well as a computer screen and so often information is spread across a number of subpages within a menu in order to allow for viewing on a narrower screen.  You will note that some areas say under development there is more work for us to do to fully utilize the database's capabilities, look out for updates during the year.

We hope these guides are useful.

Katherine Onion, Academic Registrar

ACADEMIC HANDBOOK Changes to note for ongoing students:

1.     New welcome section from Proff Clive Marsh

2.     New distance learning module type page 3

3.     Updates about permission for recording sessions to including virtual teaching page 5

4.     Updated chaplain availability for all student’s page 6

5.     Provision of Library service re Covid 19 amended Page 6

6.     Expanded list of academic reps needed to include distance learning students page 8

7.     Reminder not to leave asking for an extension until the day of the deadline (unless it is an emergency)-your personal tutor may be busy, and you may not get this approved in time.  If it is an emergency and something happens on that day and you can’t get hold of your personal tutor or centre director contact registry to ask them to find someone to stand in as tutor for you. Page 12

8.     Increased explanation of what the Serious Adverse Circumstances (SAC) process is for page 16

9.     Core resubmission deadlines listed page 18

10.  Updated list of awards to add the Graduate Certificate, plus more explanation about what moving from the PG Dip to the MA means page 21 (ie you leave with one large award the MA not two the PG Dip and MA).

To all students, this email is to apologise for the email that many of you have received notifying you that you have not submitted an assignment that was due 7 days ago.  The auto email has affected the following modules:

QF628-PROB-20-21-C1

TMM3141-LC2-2021-C2

TMM3487-QDC3-2021-C1

TMM3487-QDC3-2021-C2

TMM43020-PGT-2021-C1

TMM43020-WR-20-21-C1

TMM3141-LC2-20-21

TMM42360-PGT-PT-2021

TMM3261-CITI-20-21

TMM1031-SJDL-2021-C1

TMM1031-SJDL-2021-C2

TMM1151-SJDL20-21-C1

TMM1151-SJDL20-21-C2

TMM1521-SJDL20-21-C1

TMM1521-SJDL20-21-C2

TMM2021-CITI20-21-C1

TMM2021-CITI20-21-C2

TMM42220-SJDL2021-C1

TMM42220-SJDL2021-C2

TMM43520QDLB-2021-C2

 This error has been caused as we rolled forward the curriculum but had not yet updated submission dates.  The error is entirely our fault, thank you for those how emailed and alerted us.  Continuing students will be aware that August and September are our busiest months with 19-20 academic year still ongoing, the bulk of admissions work only starting in July, a new academic year to create, financial year end and major data returns to complete. This year the planned bulk transfer of students and staff from St John's not taking place on 1st August has had an impact which we have worked hard to mitigate- but failed in this respect.  We apologise sincerely for any distress caused and for time you may have wasted investigating the possible trigger.

A caveat- we still have deadlines for 19-20 ongoing, if you have received an email like this and your module code says '19-20' then do NOT ignore that, get in touch with registry and your personal tutor immediately to discuss further.

Katherine Onion, Academic Registrar