UNSW’s Education Festival 2021 | Page 28

Transforming virtual to real connections

Dr Vanessa Honson
The importance of student support cannot be underestimated for learning and personal growth . With the second lockdown in as many years , students were fatigued , more anxious
Dr Vanessa Honson
As an Education Focussed Lecturer at the School of Optometry and Vision Science , Vanessa Honson currently lectures into several courses , convenes 2 undergraduate courses and co-ordinates the Colour Vision Clinic , overseeing this strand component of the Masters Optometry students .

Poster Authors

and less enamored with the chat function to ask
questions during online sessions .
This poster hopes to share methods used
to promote familiarity and trust between
peers , breaking down some of the barriers
that comes with joining online sessions and
being confronted with a ‘ sea of grey faces ’ in
the virtual classroom . These include an initial
‘ speed dating ’ communications prac , followed
up by breakout rooms on entry to following
practical sessions , a welcoming whiteboard
feature as the ‘ waiting room ’ for lectures to
start with , annotations throughout synchronous
lectures to replace the online polling features ,
teaming MS Forms with breakout sessions
and the use of the Moodle student quiz to help
collaborative skills outside of a group project . It
is hoped that these methods help to translate to
real bonds for when they return to campus .
46 47