Well, you made it. We made it. Together, we have reached the finish line - and there is now a warming light that is wrapping its arms around us as we exit the tunnel (and no, it’s not the on-coming TaLT train!).
2020 has been a tough and rough year - and for many, that may seem like an understatement. There has been much learning that took place - and some academics were willing to sit down and share their thoughts. Buckle up - because this is going to be a long one (separated into two blog posts in fact!) - but I'm hoping you will be nodding along in agreement - and hopefully inspired by some peoples work!
They have shared the highs and lows from their experiences and compare semester 1 and 2 in a variety of ways.
Note: This post is focused on Semester 2 - for comments on Semester 1, check out this post here.
The Good (Wins)
Although difficult and involved, the adaptation to 'Emergency Remote Teaching' in second semester was made somewhat easier by the fact that many academics had either gone through Semester 1 and had learned what works and what didn't - or they could rely on the feedback and guidance from those who had.
In reflecting on the year in general, most have found the situations forced the learning of new skills and growth in areas previously not sought out (due various constraints, including time) but which has now made them more comfortable and confident with trying new things - especially those that involve technology.
Moodle
Moodle was one of those pieces of technology that many people have used over the years, but to different degrees and with subsequently different results. After Semester 1, many knew they had to re-work their sites. One academic with whom I worked to assist in redesigning their Moodle site said "Moodle can be exciting and work well". Where there is clear navigation, clear signposting, and a clear learning pathway - students found that they could navigate the site easily enough to find the information they were looking for. For some units, this dramatically cut down on the number of emails they would usually get during a semester - most of which would normally be students looking for resources on Moodle.
A critical component to all this is being consistent between the weeks, and the nature of the content that students would be experiencing throughout the semester. This didn't mean having the exact same type of thing in the same order each week - but that students would be introduced in the first two weeks to the type of content they would experience throughout the semester helped to focus them and assuage anxieties around the unit or method of delivery / consumption.
Through shifting the focus from a more traditional 'synchronous' manner, many academics have found a new energy and preference for more 'asynchronous' teaching - where students do more in their own time as it suits them - particularly in post-grad contexts or where the student cohort is older with more life responsibilities to try and juggle. Through exploring this 'different' model, one academic noted they now have a "new respect for Moodle and its functionality". In particular, keeping an eye on making Moodle clean and clutter free to assist in keeping things as simple as possible for 2020 - the students responded overwhelmingly positively.
Asynchronous Video Content
The synchronous experience formerly known as 'the lecture' was replaced in many units by pre-recorded videos. However, like everything in 'remote teaching', this couldn't just be a 1:1 replacement. Two hour blocks of video weren't really going to cut it for the students, but then lay the challenge of how best to structure and present the information necessary for students to understand key concepts and ideas in a clear and concise manner.
Whilst this wasn't entirely new to many (at least conceptually) the implementation was; and for some it was a challenge to 'get right' first time through. Some found they rambled too much, while others disliked the amount of mistakes they made (again, allowing some mistakes has been found to be good for building rapport with the students; too many in quick succession might be an issue though). Where some avoided using a script - as they felt it encouraged too much perfection - some others found it helped to focus the videos, avoiding the ranting and rambling.
TaLT encourages the use of intros and outros to weeks (as appropriate) - so as to bookend the learning (explaining what the week entails, and then recapping what was learned and addressing any issues identified during the week with misconceptions etc). Some found that using a video format for these resulted in a positive response from the students, and that information that might have historically been overlooked was now being consumed.
Although Panopto was the preferred video hosting solution (as it allowed students in China to be able to watch the videos) some opted to use YouTube - as its auto-captioning feature worked more reliably and accurately. This also made it easier to share unreleased videos to students that would guide or assist them with their assessments for the unit.
As a result of the overall positive experience in creating these videos, and the reception by most students - many academics stated they "don't foresee ever giving a lecture in person ever again".
TIP: If you do choose to use YouTube, make sure to check in with students to ensure they're able to access the videos as necessary.
Synchronous Video Delivery
One of the technological advances in 2020 was the use of Zoom - and it extended from merely 'online meetings' to now being used for synchronous lectures and tutorials. Many adapted tutorials to be delivered through zoom as 'seminars', relying on TA's (where available) to facilitate or purely run these sessions solo.
It was in the older group of students - particularly in post-grad courses, where the synchronous video-based delivery and discussion of content really shone. As they were more willing to have their own cameras turned on, and engaged more frequently with each other. This helped build and shape a community between the cohort - to the point that they still met during the semester break to have a 'zoom with wine' catch-up session.
Pedagogy
Because of the rapid shift in Semester 1, the pedagogy took a back seat in many units purely out of necessity: there was very little time to think deeply and careful on how to adapt to an online mode of delivery. Semester 2, however, provided slightly more time to prepare and adapt.
Not everything can easily translate to an online format - and many have expressed struggles with this, with lots of comments on further thinking and research required to more effectively adapt the content and knowledge the academics are comfortable with into meaningful online formats or interactions.
Although H5P is a popular tool - it can also become quite burdensome in the time it takes to create a single activity, especially if considerations are made beyond the surface level of what the activity is doing. Thus, the use of forum posts with individual responses from academics and TAs was found to work just as well for an asynchronous activity - and the students responded positively to this also.
And it's through these types of asynchronous activities that students reported feeling a better connection to their cohort, with academics echoing similarly. It's very easy to lose track of the students you are teaching when in an online setting - so trying to leverage any form of activity that can help build a better connection or understanding of the students you are working with is critical.
One academic adopted a tick-tock approach, where one week was more content filled and 'harder' and the following week more reflective and 'easier'. Students voiced much satisfaction with this model, as it allowed them time to breathe and catch up with the work, whilst also allowing them to prepare mentally for a particular week to be harder or easier.
Academic life
It's no secret that there are academics in each department that are seen as champions in some area of teaching - which can often make those making their own smaller progresses feel underappreciated.
However, something that was brought up was the collegiality that was really grown during this past year. Some attributed it to the fact that we were all in this together - it was (by and large) a level playing field; and this meant there was more confidence in sharing failures, and openly sharing with each other tips and suggestions on what has worked in their unit with others having issues.
A side effect of using Zoom for teaching is how much more adept and confident everyone has gotten at scheduling and joining Zoom meetings - even if they often start off as a modern seance. This has meant a more inclusive and accessible means to talking to colleagues - who historically were separated by time and space (that is, different campuses with competing schedules).
And not only were academics kinder and more supportive to each other - many were also kinder to the students. Where they may historically been more direct with the students, the academics recognised that students were also doing it tough, and so would be kinder, more patient, and extra sympathetic to them.
The Bad (Challenges)
Some say you cannot know the good without the bad, and it's only through the experience of both that you can objectively identify each. So here are some related negative experiences to consider for future teaching:
Moodle
In many ways, Moodle itself wasn't the hardest part of semester 2 or 2020. The use of it, however, was. In running reports, some academics found that student's weren't using the site completely - and weren't accessing or engaging with many of the resources. This was really disappointing to the academics as they had spent considerable time to restructure the Moodle site, including finding more appropriate resources that were up-to-date and effective given online only teaching. Some even went the route of creating even more teaching resources to support the students who were struggling as the content got harder. Even then, very few engaged with the content designed explicitly for them. Outside the university's and academics control was also the fact that some students had issues with internet connectivity and thus accessing content in general.
Asynchronous Video Content
Synchronous Video Delivery
After the Semester 1 issues with Zoom were resolved, Semester 2 saw more academics presenting seminars and tutorials through Zoom. However, many found that students (particularly undergraduates) wouldn't turn on their camera's - which of course makes it difficult to build a connection or rapport with the students, and also makes one consider if they are even there. Some even suspected that many weren't even listening as there was no engagement in the chat or audio conversations from many students. Because of this lack of relationship with the students, one academic actually said it was easier to fail the students. Another acknowledged that whilst its easier to access a lesson through Zoom, it was no different to students not turning up to lectures or tutorials 'in real life'; students will always be students, and that we should treat them as adults.
While trying to adapt a tutorial that has successfully been run in person in a classroom, one academic noted that in person it's a lot easier to keep things flexible and dynamic - but through Zoom needed to be much more structured and didactic. This is true for 'observing' students in groups too - as entering breakout rooms will often kill the dynamic going on, whereas in a classroom a teacher can stand off to the side and focus on different groups from a distance.
Critically, some units rely on guest lecturers from industry coming and giving talks / seminars around key topics to demonstrate application of knowledge and practice. However, many were not comfortable with either pre-recording a video for students to watch, or attending a Zoom seminar (which would be recorded) as they saw this as creating free content for the university which would then also belong to the university.
Pedagogy
Perhaps one of the biggest areas of challenge has been around the pedagogy. There was the pressure of not wanting to change the unit too much as there was much discussion and focus on returning to "normal" in Semester 1, 2021. Given the online nature, this is heralded often by many as more flexible for students - but it was acknowledged by many that the big challenge was finding a balance between facilitation of learning and encouraging independent learning. Engagement issues were probably the biggest points of discussion and pain for 2020 in general - and given everything that was going on, and the struggles students were facing (including all academics - and everyone in the world in general) it's understandable why they may have had difficulty with motivation or engaging with the learning materials.
One unfortunate factor of some units is that students either love them or hate them - and this factors in greatly with their motivation to engage with the unit.
Outside of engagement, the other problem was the types of assessment that could be given to the students - as given certain subject areas, there were limited options for effective assessment of the students knowledge and understanding. Many exams moved to become open book - which possibly made it too easy for some units; and other units found that assessments did not translate well, and in fact became too difficult (as the weighting and requirements increased due to the removal of the end of semester exam). For this reason, many mentioned that they will be reintroducing exams as soon as they are able to for a host of reasons.
Academic Life
Second only to the pedagogical challenges was the impact to the individual academics in a variety of ways. Those who taught in both Semester 1 and 2 (especially those doing Winter subjects too) found that didn't have time to prepare for Semester 2 - including a lack of time to review the content from previous iterations of the unit.
A number expressed working many days and nights - and were especially worried in trying to make a positive experience for first year students, and ensuring they had good performance in the unit. In fact, one academic that taught both semesters mentioned that they worked in some capacity 7 days a week (including the week before and after semester). Because of these constraints, many felt they couldn't spend time to learn and master much of the 'tech side' of things. When various technologies were utilised - such as H5P - some found them to be under-used or completely ignored by the students, which has made the academic question the value or purpose of such tools.
Various pressures around budgets and value of teaching were also expressed - which caused additional anxieties and uncertainties around the teaching of units or entire courses - or even the location of the teaching; allocation of TAs and allowed hours made the administration of units with large cohorts much more difficult. Compounding this was the pastoral difficulties with these same large cohorts - with students trying to play the TA and CE off each other in one unit, through to many complaining about rude and disrespectful emails from students demanding remarks or questioning the grade on the various assessment tasks.
How did the semesters compare?
If you ask for feedback - or feedback opportunities are presented - those who have had a negative experience will be more likely to take the time to share about it. Students had a lot to say during, and in reflection of, Semester 1. However, academics also noticed quite a few difference between semesters.
Semester 1 was better
In some cases, academics found Semester 1 to be better for a variety of reasons - including having more support with TA's and associates, which could provide a more 'team-teaching' approach to content delivery. However, as budgets were tightened up as the year wore on, many lost this additional support - or had hours allowed dramatically cut, leading to some academics spending as much as 9 hours a day doing teaching on their own.
There was also a novelty factor which became a useful tool for engagement, which also saw more students using Zoom-based consultation sessions. It became very apparent going into Semester 2 that many were 'zoomed out' and just mentally exhausted from doing anything and everything through a computer screen. Given that many had to adapt quickly for Semester 1, the students tended to be a little more understanding (after a while) - but this also meant they had much higher expectations in Semester 2, so were less forgiving to mistakes.
It also appeared that students wouldn't expend any more energy than they needed to when it came to finding things or engaging online.
Semester 2 was better
Semester 2 wasn't all bad, though. In fact, some academics wound up teaching the same cohorts of students in Semester 2 - which made it easier to connect and assisted students by having a similar layout and approach on the Moodle site.
Some units also found a smaller cohort had enrolled, which made it more manageable when it came to moderating online discussions and synchronous activities. Conversely, some had larger cohorts, and so could rely on the assistance of TAs to help manage all that had to be done. These TAs were also invaluable as sounding boards to discuss and work through complaints from students or problems identified during the teaching.
There was a lot more time to adapt to the online-only delivery method, including learning by those who hadn't taught in Semester 1 from those that did. This meant that many Moodle sites were much better organised than in the past, with a special focus on making it easier to navigate for the students using headings as signposts - especially to helpful resources from the Library.
Assessment
Changes to assessment strategies were a critical component of adapting to online delivery. Thus, some tasks which were voluntary in Semester 1 become mandatory and assessed in Semester 2. Whilst many other assessment tasks could not easily or meaningfully be adapted to an online-only context, and having learned from the previous semester, talking to academics or hearing feedback from students - some academics went the route of simplifying the assessment tasks in Semester 2. As one example noted, there was a replacement of a writing task with a series of Multiple Choice and Short Answer quizzes.
What next?
Here ends the first part of this two-part post. Be sure to check back early in 2021 to see what academics plans for the new year are, and to see how TaLT can help you realise your teaching and learning visions.
