Our shift to fully online learning has been swift and incredibly well received by students. This semester, we first had to learn how to teach in a mixed mode, with some students learning face-to-face and some overseas. Then, we had to adapt to teaching completely online with most educators and support staff doing so from off-campus locations.
We need to develop approaches that are pedagogically suited to teaching online, taking into account staff workload and founded on the possibilities and limitations of the technology available.
Whilst most of our units have used blended delivery for many years, we have had little or no time to truly plan for and design fully online teaching. As we approach the mid-semester break, many are thinking about how to improve their online teaching and assessment for the remainder of semester 1 and how to take forward the lessons and ideas into re-thinking approaches for semester 2 in whatever mode of delivery we might be using then. We need to develop approaches that are pedagogically suited to teaching online, which take into account staff workload and which are founded on a knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of the technology available.
As we reimagine our teaching for online delivery, educational designers and developers across the University are thinking of new ways to help you. We have been providing guides and online workshops as well as providing support via the EI Helpdesk and Yammer groups. However, it is often not just about technology. Sometimes it is just more helpful to talk a problem, scenario or idea through with an expert in educational design and online-supported learning.
Inspired by the UTS LX.lab, we are working with central and faculty educational designers, learning experience designers, academic developers, and anyone in between to offer online consultations to do exactly this. If you’d like to chat about any aspect of teaching online, educational video and streaming, teaching through Canvas, designing effective assessment and feedback, and personalising engagement for students, book an online consultation today:
Book an online consultation with an educational designer
You can book 30 minute online consults on the same day or up to two weeks in advance. Consults will usually be held via Zoom, and will help you come up with effective and contextualised solutions supported through educational technology.
If you are an educational designer or education-focussed academic and want to help, we’d love to hear from you! Please email [email protected].
