Tuesday 31 March 2020 8:11am
Going online … Kelly-Ann Tahitahi teaches her Māori Performing Arts papers MAOR108 via Zoom today. She says: “We were working to go online well before the lockdown to accommodate our international students who had been recalled to their respective countries but still wanted to continue with this paper. Using capture was great because the recordings were transferred to Blackboard and we record each song we learn at the end of every practical session to assist students when they're learning at home. When we went into lockdown, a continuity plan was done, students were informed about the future delivery of the programme as well as the reallocation of marks and deadlines. For now, everything seems to be fine, and I think that’s because we did a bit of preparation prior to lockdown."
Online teaching began yesterday, with Otago staff having rapidly transformed face-to-face classes into distance learning.
Across the University’s four divisions, leaders are applauding the efforts of their staff, who have responded quickly and professionally to the COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown, prioritising the needs of their students during a very challenging time.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Pat Cragg says feedback from Day One has been excellent.
“I have heard from all of the Divisions, who tell me that from a teaching staff perspective day one went well, even for those staff who are new to any form of online teaching.”
Business
Otago Business School Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Robin Gauld says many staff in his Division are highly skilled in online delivery and have embraced the challenge of the swift shift in delivery modes.
"We are now bringing what we do with delivering the world-leading online MBA to all of our undergraduate and graduate courses."
“Not only that, they have done so while always keeping their colleagues’ and students’ emotional needs in the forefront of their minds. We have seen same admirable acts of collegiately in these trying times.”
Otago’s Business School includes some world leaders in online teaching – those in top ranking online MBA programme, established in 2014.
Professor Gauld says many staff looked to this when considering online teaching.
“We are now bringing what we do with delivering the world-leading online MBA to all of our undergraduate and graduate courses.”
Sciences
"The Division acknowledges the huge amount of additional time and work undertaken by staff to enact these changes..."
In Sciences, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard Barker says staff spent several weeks preparing for the move to online teaching.
“Our staff are doing everything they can preparing and developing alternate resources to support future online learning. The Division acknowledges the huge amount of additional time and work undertaken by staff to enact these changes, and also thanks every science student for their flexibility in adapting to this constantly changing and challenging environment."
Humanities
Division of Humanities Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Tony Ballantyne says his Division’s staff have shown “great creativity” while preparing for online teaching.
"Our staff have shown real creativity in responding to these challenges..."
“There is a tremendous diversity in teaching and learning within our Division, ranging from laboratory work in Archaeology and Geography, to one-on-one instrument teaching in Music, from technical work on staging theatre productions to language teaching, in addition to fieldwork, internships, teaching placements, lectures, and tutorials.
“We have had to adjust our plans for each type of teaching delivery and for every course that we deliver. Our staff have shown real creativity in responding to these challenges and I know that they are deeply committed to ensuring that students can continue to learn, develop their skills, and move forward with their qualifications against the backdrop of rapid change and uncertainty,” he says.
Health Sciences
Health Sciences Acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Vernon Ward says all areas within his Division – which stretches across many parts of the country – had been “working very hard preparing for online delivery”.
“All schools in the Division have plans for all didactic mode teaching and plans have been developed for clinical teaching and laboratory classes.”
"We should be proud of how active they have been to get to a position of going online for teaching. This adjustment in such a short time is to be applauded."
With clinical teaching not able to be delivered online and postgraduate study often requiring specialist laboratories and hands-on research, the Division had faced unique challenges and complexities when preparing for remote learning, Professor Ward says.
While the Division had worked through those complexities where possible, some practical training would need to be delayed, while laboratory classes would now be managed through demonstration/video approaches where possible.
“Staff have worked incredibly hard to plan for and ensure we can deliver as best an experience as we can. They have worked long hours preparing to go online and develop alternate resources to support teaching our students from afar.
“This has actually been a massive effort from many staff. We should be proud of how active they have been to get to a position of going online for teaching. This adjustment in such a short time is to be applauded.”
Professor Cragg says she is very proud of the hard work of teachers across the University, and the assistance provided by experts.
“There has been amazing assistance from support staff to get us into online delivery mode and a group of academics led by the Director of Distance Learning and the Higher Education Development Centre have been providing training modules. Inevitably there will be some glitches and we ask for constructive feedback from our students to help us fine-tune our online delivery."