Asynchronous Learning
The aim of Asynchronous learning in the ‘Writing For The Stage’ module was to replicate workshop content without the presence of the tutor. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a workshop group of fourteen needed to be split into two groups to meet room capacity restrictions. This required some content to be delivered asynchronously, via blended delivery and in a socially distanced manner when face to face. The aim was to create meaningful, engaged and stimulating content for helping to generate, redraft, critique, and situate/understand ‘Writing for the Stage’.
Asynchronous Tasks: Self-Reflection
Early workshops for the module were geared towards responsive and instinctive tasks on stimuli. To help students develop a system of instinctive drafting with more reflective redrafting (a method of approach that could be applied to the assessment process) students were then set more reflective, asynchronous tasks. This included…
- Responding to synchronous content (See images 1 + 2 below)
- Reviewing example scripts. Reviewing the example script at different stages of the drafting process (see image 3).
Workshop: Socially distanced learning
Workshop content, (which was only to return to face to face from week 4 onwards) considered the ways in which live performance can use unspoken communication to help communicate with audiences. This included replacing text with gesture, exploring the proximity of performers within a performance space, and lighting impact on atmosphere, narrative and location.
Impact and Student Responses
The approaches allowed for the smooth transition of physical workshop content to blended/socially distanced learning. Students had the following to say about the module:
“Being able to creatively explore my own idea with as much free reign as I like” “Feeling like part of a team of writers, not left on my own to simply go at it alone”
“My favourite part was experimenting with the lighting”
“Trialling the play in workshops”
“Just a thank you for making this module still very accessible in combined online and face-to-face learning”
(Data taken from the Module Evaluation Surveys)