Teaching amidst the Covid 19 Pandemic

If you are reading this then you have made it through 2020, a year that most of us would want to forget but yet seems to continue even though we find ourselves at the tail end of the first month of 2021. That is largely because we're still faced with much of the same situation as we did a few months ago. Teaching and learning has taken on a different form and the term "emergency remote teaching" has now become the new buzz phrase. I think we had the hope that we would return to some form of normalcy. So there is some considerable anxiety about what the future for the academic year holds. As the phrase indicates it appears that much of what we did in terms of teaching and learning was not because we wanted to but because we had to...it was an emergency and so we did what we could under the circumstances. This means that many of the tools that we used was not necessarily carefully thought through as the initial thought was simply to continue the teaching or to get information to the students in the hope that we would return to face to face to teaching sooner than later and continue with traditional classroom teaching.

Now we are faced with 2021 and pretty much the same scenario that we faced in 2020. What have we learnt from the academic year? Well, we simply weren't prepared for what was happening. Let's start from a learner's perspective and this is purely based on my own experience and from what I've heard learners comment. Firstly, is the isolation...the feeling disconnected from lecturers and peers.The big one was data cost and laptop or computer access. Lack of motivation and time-management skills was also mentioned by learners. Coupled with these factors was the home environments which were not conducive to learning. It was clear that learners had very little time at the start of the year to establish social bonds with their peers. Many learners also longed for the cultural aspects of university life that they may have anticipated or heard of. For many staying on residence would have been a welcome break from terrible home life. instead they were forced to retreat to their homes where they had many other distractions such as the added responsibilities that goes along with living at home. Among first-year students there was a lack of the adequate technological skills and it therefore took a while for students to get used to the remote teaching and learning situation.

I suppose it is normal to assume that all lecturers have the convenience of an internet connection from their homes. Academics suffered from much of the same kind of distractions as learners. Time-management and getting students to adhere to the stipulated contact times became a challenge as both parties struggled to get used to teaching and learning under the "new normal". The biggest challenge was for academics who had to teach on very practical based courses such as dentistry and physiotherapy and sport. How would they teach these skills remotely. many of theses challenges still exist going forward. It was against this backdrop that many lecturers simply used PPt's that they have been using in class and moved them to the online environment. The large file sizes made it difficult to upload and even harder for learners to download. I heard from a student in sport how they had to submit videos on their practical sessions to demonstrate that they knew a certain procedure. As a videographer I wondered whether they captured it correctly as I assume as an assessor it is easy to identify the proper procedure as you are tuned into the proper angles to look at. So on the subject of remote assessments, perhaps clear instructions on the particular angles to capture for assessment would help to ensure the quality of assessments done.

Understandably the pressure of getting through the academic year and ensuring students get access to information was paramount. The consequence was that we often then used what is immediately available without thinking carefully about the pedagogical value of the tools we used. Lecturers are already under pressure so it would be important to maximize ones efforts. Because there was little time for learners to connect face to face there was also little connection made in the online environment which added to the sense of isolation and being disconnected. In my own course I tried to create more of a presence by developing a welcome video for the learners to introduce them to each of thelecturers who would be teaching on the course. The needs would differ from one field of study to the next. Learners complained about boredom, too long videos or presentations. We need to be mindful that everyone's course is now online and that we need to compete and be compassionate to that fact. So what kind of activities would you engage in within that online environment that would make you session memorable or optimize the time available. The role as the teacher changes ...we have to give up control and allow the learner to take more charge of their own learning. Initially that might be difficult for both but I think the more we create a sense of trust in the environment, the easier it will become.

How do we therefore begin to address these challenges going forward? I get the sense that the vast majority prefer to be told which tools to use as it would save us time and effort. There is too much at stake! This is precisely where we need to see the fruits of a scholarship of teaching and learning. The  challenge is that we seldom learn how to select the tools that are appropriate for our own needs. The result is that we will often stick with something until someone comes along and shows us a better way. How would we teach our learners to make appropriate choices for themselves if we are not showing them through our own practice? Model the behaviour I was told. This got me thinking that perhaps I should try and share what my process is in choosing an appropriate medium to communicate content. This is specifically from a UWC perspective of course. I hope you find value in it.