Are you thinking about your 2021 FLO topics yet? The Online Learning and Teaching (OLT) team are and would like to encourage all Topic Coordinators and other teaching staff to give them some thought too.

This year will be a bit more exciting than in the past, because FLO is getting an upgrade at the end of the year. Whilst the software underpinning FLO will remain the same, the interface will be refreshed. You can read more about the FLO upgrade and facelift in this article.

Some key dates

26 Nov 2020: eLearning teams commence semester 1 topic rollover.

14 Dec 2020:  Teaching teams get access to their semester 1 2021 FLO topics.

16 Dec 2020:  FLO upgrade and facelift.

19 Feb 2021:   Last day to request new shared topics.

22 Feb 2021:   Students get access to their semester 1 topics.

01 Mar 2021:  Semester 1 teaching starts.

What you need to do
Please make sure the topic Media Vault is up to date. To ensure that all teaching team members have access to topic video content, all topic video content needs to be added to the topic Media Vault, before eLearning teams start the 2021 topic rollover process. A step-by-step guide to doing this is available in the FLO Staff Support site – see the Option 3 entry.

Please have your topic Media Vault up to date by 14 November 2020 to ensure it can be rolled into 2021.

You’ll receive a confirmation email when your FLO topic site for 2021 has been rolled.

Topic has been rolled over, now what to do?
Most topic rollovers will likely have been completed by your eLearning team before the FLO upgrade happens. However, because the teaching team access date and the date of the upgrade are so close together, you might consider delaying having a look until after 16 December.

Once you have access to your topic you have an opportunity to review your content, refresh the site, update activity due dates, etc. The post-rollover checklist for Topic Co-ordinators highlights in more detail the steps you should consider.

How will the FLO upgrade impact rollover?

• Topic rollover in FLO will occur as it normally does and teaching staff will receive communication (along with a ‘preparing for teaching checklist’) when their topics have been rolled.
• Online Learning and Teaching and Online Learning System teams and FLO student helpdesk will do a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure the upgrade runs smoothly, with minimal effort by staff and students.

We will be here to support you through this change. Roadshows will be conducted to demonstrate the changes and support will be available.

Written by David Bain
eLearning Project manager (OLT team) – CILT