A FARMING lecturer has been teaching Borders College students through homemade videos.

Coronavirus restrictions mean students on the agriculture national certificate programme are unable to attend site visits.

But rural skills lecturer Stuart Nimmo has been shooting short films of himself at his Ancrum farm to demonstrate techniques.

The 58-year-old said: "I don't know how we'd work without technology."

Usually students would join a three-hour class with Mr Nimmo to learn about crop production equipment.

But the video lessons, up to 10 minutes in length, have been proving to be effective substitutes.

Mr Nimmo films himself completing a practical task, before sharing with students for them to use as guidance.

"We've got a [Microsoft] Teams classroom so I post the videos there as an assignment and then students can fill out a worksheet so they know what to do," said Mr Nimmo. "We're covering all the things they'd normally do in class."

Mr Nimmo said he is grateful for advancements in technology.

"Just looking back 15 years, even to the foot-and-mouth outbreak, we had to send written reports out and wait for them to come back – at least now everything's online," he said.

Some IT assistance from one of his daughters has come in handy, however.

"I'm not tech-savvy, so my middle daughter edits the videos, which takes longer than actually recording them. If I was left to it myself, it would all take much longer," said Mr Nimmo, who has worked at the college since 1999.

As many farming students would normally have been on lambing placements in March and April, the timing of lockdown did not pose as great a blow to Mr Nimmo's classes as it might have done, he said, as some students would not have been able to attend anyway.

But looking to the future, post-lockdown, Mr Nimmo is unsure what to expect.

He said: "We'll have a lot of gaps to fill. I think it's difficult to say, it will be a struggle to finish the course.

"Most students are engaging and getting work done.

"We just have to do the best we can and get the results for them."

To view one of Mr Nimmo's classes, you can visit YouTube.

For more information on Borders College courses, visit the college website.