Background/context. While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous economic, health and wellbeing issues, it has also caused significant disruption across the education sector. Universities were prompted, or forced, to transition from face-to-face teaching to fully online teaching practices in a short period of time; with many being unprepared to do so (Jung et al., 2021; Metcalfe, 2021). This presentation explores the experience of the University of New England (UNE) in transitioning its learning, teaching and assessment to fully online. In contrast to other institutions either having to shut down their learning and teaching activities or resorting to restricted forms of operations (Naidu, 2021), the experience of educators at UNE wasn’t all bad. Against this backdrop, the presentation reflects how learning, teaching and assessment practices at UNE were modified in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adopting an optimistic stance, the presentation describes the challenges, opportunities, and the positive lessons learned, celebrating multiple successes. The initiative/practice. From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNE has continued its learning, teaching and assessment practices, although numerous adjustments have been necessary. Courses that were previously offered via mixed modes (online and on-campus) were transitioned to being fully online. On-campus activities such as practicals, laboratory demonstrations, and intensive schools were revised and re-imagined for fully online delivery. Methods of evaluative data collection and analysis. Semi-structured, conversational-style interviews were conducted with 18 academic staff at UNE about their experiences of transitioning to fully online delivery. These interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and subjected to thematic analysis to capture key ideas and emergent themes. Evidence of outcomes and effectiveness. Thematic analysis of interview data identified that despite the challenges, a range of positive experiences, practices and attitudes emerged from the transition to fully online delivery.

1. Moving fully online in response to
the COVID-19 pandemic: The good,
the bad, and the better
HERDSA Conference, 27th to 30th July 2022
Dr Sanaz Alian
Associate Professor Mitchell Parkes
Professor Steven Warburton
Education Futures, University of New England (UNE)

2. Outline
• Background
• University of New England (UNE) context
• Methodology
• Aim
• Findings
• The Good
• The Bad
• The Better
• Conclusion

3. Background – COVID 19
• Economic, Health and Wellbeing issues
• Significant disruption across the education sector
• Many universities were prompted, or forced, to transition from face-to-face teaching to fully
online teaching practices in a short period of time; with many being unprepared to do so (Jung
et al., 2021; Metcalfe, 2021).
• … “younger adult students (aged 18–24 years) had more symptoms of anxiety and depression
during COVID-19 than older adult students (≥25 years)” … (Dodd et al., 2021, p. 874).

4. Australian higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic
• “reduced interaction with academic staff and peers
• difficulties with IT and variation in staff expertise in
its use
• assessment changes
• isolation, lack of engagement and reduced
motivation
• difficulty with the translation of some subject areas
from an internal to an online mode of delivery”
Source: https://www.teqsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/student-experience-of-online-learning-in-australian-he-
during-covid-19.pdf?v=1606953179

5. ... “changes in the student experience in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been more keenly felt
by younger, internal and international students. This is borne out in results at the institution level”.
Graph showing UNE’s relatively strong performance during COVID
Source: https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2020-ses-national-report.pdf?sfvrsn=d1237953_5

6. University of New England
• UNE was the first Australian university established
outside a state capital city.
• Originally established in 1938 as the New England
University College, a College of the University of
Sydney. It became fully independent in 1954.
UNE Annual Report 2020

7. Research Aim
• How learning, teaching and assessment practices at UNE were modified in response to the COVID-19
pandemic?
• The presentation describes the challenges, opportunities, and the positive lessons learned, celebrating multiple
successes.
Source: https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/faculty-of-science-agriculture-business-and-law/school-of-law/international-partnerships/research

8. Methodology
• Stake (2010) suggests, qualitative research is about studying “how things work”
• Semi-structured, conversational-style interviews
• 18 Academic Staff (10 female, 8 Male)
• Variety of fields (Education, Sciences, Arts, Economics, Psychology)
• These interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and subjected to thematic analysis to capture key ideas and
emergent themes (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
• Ethics approval (HE21-192)
• Seed questions

9. The good of it (1)
We (UNE) are already online education providers
we were ahead of the game, initially in 2020 because we already knew how to do good online teaching (I1*)
we were sort of ahead of the game then, so Trimester 1 [in 2020] was a bit of a rush, but the Moodle support people were
amazing (I2)
[in 2020] we were a leading provider of online distance education … we have all the practices processes and infrastructure
in place, so this is pretty much business as usual for us (I3)
There was support from the school education committee and from the economic development within the university (I4)
New material for teaching
COVID in a way was an opportunity to shape some discussion around sociological issues. So, COVID gave me an
opportunity to utilize as an example, or a case study in a way (I1).
I was following last year the restaurants and the hospitality sector more broadly and I could bring some of those examples
into the classroom, you know how those hospitality businesses were responding or adapting to the COVID-19 guidelines
(I4)
*Interviewee
number

10. The good of it (2)
More flexibility in some ways
… as a result of that demographic you need to be more flexible (I5)
I think you need to be flexible, I think because of our student cohort because we have such a high proportion of online
students and such a high proportion of students who work during the day (I6)
the flexibility with extensions was great, that gave us a lot of wiggle room and took a lot of pressure of students (I1)
Bringing students closer
online students who have [work] experiences … on campus students are more tech savvy, so they [on line and on campus
student] come with different skill sets and they can learn form each other (I4)
And within a couple of weeks, they were forming their own … zoom study groups (I7)

11. The bad of it (1)
Poor mental health
It impacts students’mental health and it impacts their ability to actually with their capacity, I suppose, to do university
while juggling everything else (I5)
I think they [students] were like me and more stressed like it's a hard time when you need to be on top of things (I8)
the welfare issues were more acute than ever … I think that was probably the most challenging thing was to be responsive to
students’needs which were heightened … their mental health needs were heightened (I2)
Working remotely
they're juggling like I was juggling with home-schooling (I2)
as a single parent, it was really difficult … academics are also people and they also have children, and they are also
trying to hold it together (I5)
You try to be as flexible as to their [students] hours, yeah like instead of spending time with the family Saturday and
Sunday … you know if it's campus working hours it would be much easier (I8)
I probably found it harder to stay motivated this year than last year (I1)

12. The bad of it (1)
Changes in the assessments
In 2020 … one of [my] units had a mandatory residential school that formerly had been face to face, there were
impacts having to figure out what to do … I felt that, students took more than they did than face to face, face to face is
great for that interaction … but as far as what they learned, I felt that they took more away from this because we were
focused on one thing. COVID allowed us to just focus on one thing … and I thought that really worked (I5)
So we came up with a concept of packaging kits for them, Microbiology at home kits … So they had videos that
explaining them what they had … manuals and protocols to work with that and … videos that show them like if you
were doing that in the lab … it would look like this (I9)
All my assignments got messed up … they're all this place-based stuff … architecture and urban design. I have
students out in the street … mapping and analysing various patterns of land use and built form. So all that all that
went out the window ... (I3)

13. The bad of it (2)
Other universities are teaching online
there's so much competition in this space now everybody has figured out how to do online …what differentiates us is
that we're regional university with a very different student demographic and profile (I5)
I am a little bit worried that we're going to lose our positioning in terms of online teaching just because these other
ones [universities] just throwing it at it. But on the other hand, I do think we have the staff who know what they're
doing in the space (I2)
we thought we were the top guns in that [online] space and then overnight, every other university across Australia,
was able to match us … (I3)

14. The better of it (1)
Engaging with the students in better ways
if anything, I think the convenience of the zoom platform has actually in some way kind of maintained the connection with my
students (I2)
I think I actually got to know some of my students better in that a lot of them are locked down … a lot of them seem to get a lot
more stressed, a lot more anxious and you [tell them] it's okay, calm down, you'll be right, you'll get through this sort of thing a lot
more, what I will call excellent accidental counselling (I7)
And I've published with two of my students [after the trimester] … I've also got a few potential PhDs (I1)
Used challenges to provide opportunities
I had to adapt last year and this year [the assessment tasks] but I'm thinking, this is an opportunity now actually to redesign the
assessment itself (I4)
So we did a lot of revamping of our lecture notes … more slides with less content, so … there was something visually stimulating
as well as the oral part of the delivery. I was also able to access a lot of [industry] videos … so the Moodle page became very
video rich … that's maybe being a good thing, and the students’feedback actually has been really good (I10)
The key positive and the key function of COVID and lockdowns was this kind of consciousness raising exercise, so what
technologies do exist, what else can we do to jazz up our performances (I4)

15. The better of it (2)
More reflective as academics
But it's sort of changed my perspective, a little bit in that I've tended to be a bit out of touch, but I was a little bit more
sympathetic … and I was engaging more in conversations (I7)
The main positive of this [COVID] … in terms of teaching has been helping us to be more reflective about things (I3)
Teaching into an online version [of a science unit] which was super hectic … on one hand, it was like a lot of work on the
other hand, it was a little bit of a good reflective process to see what … are the key outcomes that I want to achieve, and
how can I go about it in different ways, so reflection part of it, I found was very good (I9)
If what we do have to do is rationalize sometimes, then this [teaching during COVID] has given me more user friendly and
more pedagogically creative in ways of doing it. We can't give it up altogether, but there are ways that I could use it better,
that I could use online teaching now and I've learned that because I've had to learn it (I11)

16. • The good … already doing and what we are
doing well
• The bad … monitoring them
• The better … change in practice, support and …
maintain the practice
Conclusions

17. References
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Jung, J., Horta, H., & Postiglione, G. A. (2021). Living in uncertainty: the COVID-19 pandemic and higher education
in Hong Kong. Studies in Higher Education, 46(1), 107-120.
Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) .(2021). 2020 Student Experience Survey. Canberra: QILT.
Martin, L. (2020). Foundations for good practice: the student experience of online learning in Australian higher
education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canberra: TEQSA.
Metcalfe, A. S. (2021). Visualizing the COVID-19 pandemic response in Canadian higher education: an extended
photo essay. Studies in Higher Education, 46(1), 5-18.
Stake, R. E. (2010). Qualitative Research: Studying how things work. New York, NY: The Guildford Press.