Flinders University’s swift adaptation and enthusiastic embrace of online teaching innovations due to enforced COVID-19 restrictions has resulted in a raft of positive interactions and teaching methods that have been absorbed into efficient education delivery.
Even before lockdown in late March, Flinders University already had quite a high uptake of Online Learning Systems, especially through its FLO portal, although systems have seen massive growth in the use of some online video and collaborative tools.
Collaborate Virtual Classroom usage shows enormous growth, of up to 60 times greater than the same time last year.
Usage of the Kaltura video platform shows five times the number of plays and unique viewers, nearly ten times the number of minutes viewed, and up to ten times increase in the amount of content uploaded compared to the same time last year.
Lecture Capture shows up to 18 times more usage than the same time last year, although the number of on-demand streams is now dipping as more lecturers choose to work with the Kaltura system.
Leganto – the student reading list management system – has also been busy, with up to 16% growth of students viewing their reading lists, and up to 6% increase in students viewing individual citations in their reading lists.
FLO usage has been up to 10% higher than the same time in 2019.
“Students, staff and industry have come together to respond to the situation to ensure that students learning continues with minimal disruption,” says Professor Deb West, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching Innovation). “This process has not been without its difficulties, but we have harnessed the opportunities this situation has provided and seen some amazing innovation by our teaching staff.”
As an example of positive teaching changes, Bert Verhoeven – Associate Professor in Innovation and Enterprise (College of Business, Government and Law) – has delivered interactive, action-oriented, three-hour online workshop tutorials that have maintained dynamic interactions via simultaneous virtual engagement between students from different years and from several colleges. He has also created an online version of New Venture Institute’s Venture Dorm start-up acceleration program, which was previously only delivered face-to-face.
“I’ve been leaving cameras on as much as possible, which is better for engagement, chat function is super helpful (particularly for the more introverted students), breakout groups are very easy to do online and lead to great engagement, and students are becoming really good at digital presenting – some almost at radio/podcast level,” says Associate Professor Verhoeven.
“The model was popular as the breakout groups create a good environment for students to work together on creative problem solving, files and assignments at the same time. These outcomes from online teaching are as good as face-to-face classes, which is remarkable.”
Associate Professor Verhoeven also discussed the importance of these online teaching innovations in an article – Entrepreneurship as the Unsung Hero during the Current COVID-19 Economic Crisis: Australian Perspectives – published in Sustainability journal. “Looking beyond the crisis, Innovation & Entrepreneurship education seeks to prepare people to be responsible, enterprising individuals who have the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to adapt continuously, achieve their goals, and live purposeful lives – not just enduring but embracing change and using the future as an ally,” wrote Associate Professor Verhoeven.
“The COVID-19 situation accelerates this development as student-driven, self-determined learning design (heutagogy) to teach user-driven innovation in experiential project-based workshops.”
Other notable innovations during lockdown include:
Associate Professor Kerry Bissaker (College of Education, Psychology and Social Work) has transnational students which she would normally teach via face-to-face intensives in China, but has been able to provide online classes from Australia, making sure that students were engaged and that the quality of learning outcomes were not compromised.
Rebecca Phyland (College of Science and Engineering) provided a practicum experience for students of Plant and Algal Diversity, by helping building a virtual tour of wetlands for the course’s Wetlands Investigation (https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/unisapanotours/OaklandsVirtualTour/Introduction.html).
Dr Anna Shillabeer, Teaching Program Director in Computing and Mathematical Sciences (College of Science and Engineering), has overseen great change in her sector – primarily with a view to prevent plagiarism and heighten student engagement. This included creating short lecturette videos with embedded questions serving as frequent check points to test understanding and promote learning (they also provide convenient revision videos). The teachers also engaged students socially in online learning by implementing a social space – where students come together and share stories, review books and games and have informal chats with each other and teaching team members – designed to ensure connectivity outside of academic matters to mirror what would happen on campus.
Dr Liu-Fei Tan (College of Medicine and Public Health) ran live sessions via Collaborate for students to review information and then later in the week attend a virtual workshop with activities to interact with each other and the lecturer, as both a class cohort and in break-out groups to complete activities. She has also coordinated a class debate via Collaborate. For a practical test, students had to complete an online virtual simulation at their own pace (involving a video and questions), followed by a face-to-face virtual class via Collaborate to go through the questions and analyse results together.
Shelly Abbott (College of Nursing and Health Sciences) is topic coordinator of a first year nursing topic that involves 855 students, 26 staff and 2 concurrent availabilities. She provided an incisive interview that explains how she adapted to less synchronous time on campus and greater use of digital learning due to the COVID-19 restrictions. https://blogs.flinders.edu.au/cilt/2020/06/17/making-the-most-of-face-to-face-time/