policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
semester in and semester out is not a ripe
environment for high-quality work. In fact,
the very precariousness of their working
situation may have meant they have had
to live and die by their reputation as a
quality educator.
And the reports from faculty corridors
are that they have risen to this challenge,
excelled, and demonstrated initiative
and a capacity for resilience. They have
sometimes upskilled in large numbers,
turning to teaching or education degrees
or even online short courses.
Many may have completed a PhD
during this time. Some have re-tooled as
learning or instructional designers. Some
have become specialists in educational
technology of all the various apps and
learning management systems out there
by being masters of the tools that support
their teaching delivery.
Some have pioneered new ways of
working at scale: marking large numbers
of students with personalised, meaningful
and prompt feedback; facilitating lively
discussion board conversations for large
groups of students spread across the
globe; and responding to large volumes
of emails. Before 2020, many turned to
online teaching – perhaps after-hours
– and honed their skills in synchronous
class delivery and online troubleshooting
through live webinars.
This – as I remind my current colleagues
and others globally – is currently at the
vanguard of educational excellence. This
army of ready-to-go academics is at the
frontline equipped with the expertise,
knowledge and know-how to best navigate
this transition. We should ensure new
knowledge creation is promoted across our
faculties, and active listening to new ideas
is balanced with traditional best practices.
Some of these are teaching-only
academics, who have served their
institutions well over the past few years
primarily with teaching-only loads. Many
are sessionals, who could be feeling
maligned. Who could blame them for
feeling aggravated by the current situation?
Many have been overlooked for transfer
to a continuous position, or more stable
employment offerings that are scant.
Of course, much of this teaching
innovation and dedication is possible
due to the removal of other tasks such
as research, publishing and engagement.
But much of this is also unsupported,
unpaid and unrecognised. This is perhaps
even further evidence of the greater
commitment these educators have: the
passion for their students, their wellbeing,
and for themselves as agents of change
and mentorship of their cohorts.
But this ease is not universal, and some
tenured academics are feeling the exact
opposite, feeling unsupported under a
deluge of ‘how-to guides’, a cohort whose
needs are now much more invisible and
less tangible, and potentially a loss of the
intrinsic elements of teaching: seeing
students’ faces, walking from lecture
theatres fielding questions, the very human
transformation of a student in workshop
when it ‘clicks’.
Many of these psychosocial factors
were highlighted by some of our very
own university reports on the visions of,
and preparedness for, the fourth industrial
revolution and the future of work. Who
could ever have thought that this seismic
transformation would come to our own
sector, and so swiftly?
I fear that the stigma of online teaching –
that it is somehow devoid of these human
elements, or simply too hard – means that
we carry this inertia into our strategies
and policies. At this present moment, it is
survival, and universities across the world
are seeking to rationalise and attempt
policies of austerity to cope with the loss of
student enrolment revenue.
What we fail to do in moments such
as this is look internally and scope out
where excellence exists, and where
quality has been quietly flourishing. We
forget our enthusiastic teachers who have
been building banks of resources and
optimising workflows.
We have untapped talent in the wings,
and they have all made significant progress
into what we deem as well regarded
online teaching. For many, it has been their
internal and driving logic for some time,
because it was so vital.
So, why the sudden return of ’pedagogy’
as a determinant of university decision-
making at the faculty level? Because from
my own virtual classroom experience, and
from large surveys of the literature, good
quality teaching is exactly that.
We cannot ignore some of the
foundational principles of what is “good”
and what is “effective”: being responsive to
your students; showing compassion and
understanding, energy and enthusiasm;
promoting community; coherency in
teaching materials designed; and excelling
with administrate abilities to troubleshoot,
fix and organise.
An understanding of what works for
teaching and learning is often problematic
when it comes to a reliable evidence
base. However, when it does agree, it
consistently reinforces teacher efficacy:
having a teaching team that is proactive,
open-minded to experiment, and has the
courage, autonomy and opportunity to
develop its online teaching practice.
It has served current teaching-only
academics and sessionals well, as their jobs
depended on a level of necessity. Now,
most faculties have no choice but to place
a focus on the teaching function itself as an
essential service.
On top of that, the academic community
needs to act as guardians of our domains
of knowledge, ensuring we are at the
cutting-edge of our fields, and able to
translate this to our students, and fellow
colleagues. Most importantly, this renewed
and crystallised focus will help remind our
For now, most frontline
teaching academics are
struggling to navigate the new
demands placed on them.
communities and society of the value our
institutions provide that is both practical
and developmental.
We should not forget the good work
done by passionate teachers over the past
10 years of growth. We should not forget
our fundamental principles of teaching and
learning. We should return to the textbooks
and referential guides and pedagogic
theory if we are unsure or hesitant, and use
this moment to light a fire in us as learners
once again. We know from the empirical
evidence that this works.
This time, we should be learning about
learning, and what it means given these
new frontiers for teaching. Irrespective of
format and mode, settle on what is high
quality for you and your subjects, and
pursue this as doggedly as we pursue any
challenge posed to us. It is the simplest
advice of all. ■
Tom Whitford is an academic teaching
and learning specialist and lecturer in
marketing at Melbourne University’s
Faculty of Business and Economics.
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