“I’ll just have a nice relaxing read of the Sunday papers- ...oh.”

“Be the Department Education Lead,” they said. “It’s fun,” they said. (Actually, no one said it’s fun. But it’s a hell of a ride.)

I’ve been involved in online learning and distance learning before now, and the thing that stood out most was that no matter how long you think it will take to deliver an online module, multiply it by three and add in some chaos just for fun.

I quite like developing online material (she said, at the risk of the gods deluging her with it) because it’s good to finesse work into captivating chunks. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy sci comm and public engagement. But it demands a very strong and planned infrastructure.

I’ve accepted I won’t get any research done this summer. Tbh, I’m not in a researchy frame of mind while all this is going on. I’ve got two book chapters to write for and the rest of the time will be me saying “hello? Hello? Can you hear me now?” on a Teams meeting.