Day Three: Friday, 23 July 2021

Papers 6:  Taking Care of Ourselves / Supporting Remote Students

Navigating through a Perfect Storm: The Journey of a Survivor

George John (Charles Sturt University, Australia)

In a perfect storm where the unprecedented COViD-19 pandemic changed the way the world functions, compounded with the challenges of global financial instability, the higher education sectoral changes, and the pivot to an entirely online experience. How do we cope in such a fluid environment? This paper will outline the wellbeing impact of a teacher in delivering a virtual practical for a large health science subject and outline some of the strategies used in mitigating the situation and emerging from the journey battle-hardened.

Teaching Remote Students in Medical Radiation Science during COVID-19.

Geoff Currie (Charles Sturt University, Australia)

The COVID-19 crisis forced rapid transition to online delivery, working at home, and students into a remote learning environment. While COVID-19 imposes potentially the greatest challenge many of us will experience in our personal and professional lifetimes, it also affords the opportunity to objectively re-evaluate and, where appropriate, re-design learning and teaching in higher education. For academic teaching in the medical radiation science (MRS) at Charles Sturt University, technology has allowed rapid assimilation to online learning environments with additional benefits that allows flexible, mobile, agile, sustainable, culturally safe, and equitable learning-focused educational environment in the post-COVID-19 “new normal”.

Evaluating the Transition to Emergency Online Teaching

Alexandra Mudd & Belinda Lange (Flinders University, Australia)

In 2020, in response to the COVID 19 pandemic, universities across the world made the transition to emergency online teaching. At a public university in South Australia, training was offered to staff on how to use the university’s preferred online platform. However, there was little time for staff to consider how to amend their teaching techniques to connect with students for effective learning. Meanwhile, students found themselves physically isolated from their peers, tutors, and university infrastructure. Our survey results explore the human experiences of students and teaching staff during this period of adaptation, focusing on what can be learnt for future.

Papers Discussion