[1A3] Learning from the pandemic: the need for connection and flexibility

Online learning has led us to find novel approaches to promote connection and provide flexibility for students, which we continue to adopt and improve on as we move back on campus. It is easy to feel invisible as a student amongst 760 other second-year biochemistry students, so we worked towards encouraging student-teacher communication throughout the semester. Although much of these were administrative, such as requests for simple extensions, reschedule of practical classes, or queries about assessment marks, our setup of SRES portals remind students that they can reach out if they need to. We also encouraged student-student connections by directing all questions about content to an online discussion board to allow onshore and offshore students to meaningfully interact with each other. Some students even provided high-quality responses that were similar to instructor-responses.