Day Three: Friday, 23 July 2021
Papers 8: Taking Care of Ourselves
11:00 UTC What About Quality? Focusing on an Item Lost to COVID-19
Alexandra Lehmann (Protestant University of Applied Sciences Rhineland-Westphalia-Lippe, Germany)
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit our university world in spring 2020, the essential thing was to get our teaching settings working in the virtual world. Lectures had to be transferred to video overnight, meetings with students suddenly depended on stable internet connections, and how do you get a final thesis bonded with the copy shops closed? We all coped more or less well, and became semi-professional in technical support (or knew how to get it). It works, we function. Time to ask: How do we feel about this? Is this the sort of teaching we are content with?
11:20 UTC University Teacher Self-Care: An Absolute Essential Within and Without a Global Pandemic
Helen Kwanashie (Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria) & Michael Kwanashie (Veritas University, Nigeria)
Self-care is underrated globally and frequently misrepresented as selfish and unnecessary—more so for teachers for whom it is considered out-of-sync with the much revered concept of student-centered learning. However, routine teacher self-care reduces burnout, helping teachers better serve their students, especially within crisis situations like the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. Regardless of the quantity and quality of technological backups, the pandemic-associated remote and/or hybrid learning modalities with attendant extra stressors, accentuate the need for university teacher self-care practices. Drawing from the literature, the authors will offer a generic toolkit that university teachers may deploy in developing individualized self-care plans.
Papers 8 Discussion
Chat Transcript
00:38:07 Sofiko Lobzhanidze: Dear colleagues, it is nice to meet you. Hopefully, next year we will be able to hold a face-to-face conference in Tbilisi.
The internet connection is bad so I have the camera off
00:44:59 Wolfgang Fellin: Cheating in an exam also hinders practical working, since the miss important knowledge. However, this is not realized by the young ones. Maby a matter of trust again. The do not trust that the teacher teaches valuable things
00:54:52 Ooi Wei: Hi Alexandra, agreed with you. It has been great challenges to educators.
00:58:04 Birgit Pitscheider: And it is cheaper for university when no one is around
01:00:19 Birgit Pitscheider: Just for everyone’s information: we are very lucky here in Austria, because our students have the equipment (camera, laptop, etc.). Equipment is no or hardly ever an issue
01:01:11 Anita Campbell: My students came to campus for tests. I gave a student a makeup test on Zoom and noticed someone else’s hand from under his desk. I think students can always find a way to cheat if they feel desperate.
01:01:35 Anita Campbell: It’s more beneficial to identify and address the motivation to cheat.
01:03:46 Jen Walklate (Aberdeen, she/her): It’s been really interesting to see the different circumstances and resources that everyone has been working in. We’ve switched to take home exams and/or coursework, and we are very much in a position where not all of our students have the equipment or connection to make it online all the time or put the camera on. Some of them are also in less than ideal housing accomodations. For these reasons, we cannot make cameras obligatory.
01:05:10 Janina Tosic: Same for my students, Jen. We have the explicit order from our president that we are not allowed to make students turn on cameras for that exact reason.
01:05:27 Elizabeth Black: And same for us at Glasgow.
01:10:02 Nicola Cousins: There’s that word again – trust!
01:11:07 Anna: Our students are adults and probably want to learn.
01:11:56 Nicola Cousins: Generally I find that most want to do well and have high ethical standards and therefore wouldn’t cheat. There are always the minority that don’t…
01:12:57 Janina Tosic: Exactly, Anne. I don’t see my role as a Teacher to control my students’ learning but to give them feedback on it to foster more learning
01:13:15 Jen Walklate (Aberdeen, she/her): Yes, Lucie, completely agreed
01:13:26 Birgit Pitscheider: Very good point, Lucie. It is, however, easy for me to say so because I’ve got mainly small classes.
01:15:56 Anna: I think that feeling that what we do is good enough under the circumstances is very important for self-care.
01:16:29 Lucie Viktorová: @Anna: That’s actually absolutly crucial under any circumstance 🙂
01:16:48 Nicola Cousins: I think that the fact we are here shows how much we care and we need to be kind to ourselves.
01:16:49 Jen Walklate (Aberdeen, she/her): The perfect is the enemy of the good, as it were
01:27:39 Birgit Pitscheider: @Elke and everyone: Elke is a wonderful colleague who stands up for what she believes in and speaks her mind (as you can hear)
01:31:36 Nicola Cousins: Really interesting Jen. I am recently back at Aberdeen after leaving in 2012 so completely missed that!
01:31:59 Alex Mudd: yes so interesting!
01:32:05 Janet Kyle: @Jen there has been a very clear sea shift here at Aberdeen
01:32:31 Jen Walklate (Aberdeen, she/her): @Janet Yeah, I’ve seen that, even only having been here since 2019.
01:32:42 Nicola Cousins: And I should say it “feels” better since I have been back (since Feb 2021), and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Now I know!
