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How a global pandemic is influencing agricultural learning

Posted by stephanie rogers on July 21, 2020 in News
Technology provides the delivery mechanism, it is not the engine.
Technology provides the delivery mechanism, it is not the engine.

With only two weeks notice, in mid-March, the Faculty of Agriculture was one of 13 faculties of Dalhousie University that closed its doors, sent students home for the remainder of the semester and prepared for remote delivery of programs.

“Since working and studying remotely happened so quickly, we didn’t have the luxury of time to ensure that students would be in for the kind of experience we strive for in high quality online courses,” explained Sondra Mantle, Instructional Media Designer in Educational Technology & Design.(ETD) “Our efforts were best spent initially on assisting instructors in their communication strategy to students, remote lecture delivery and assessment modification.”

The Educational Technology & Design office provides instructional and visual design expertise to instructors and helps to determine the best solution for integrating technology into teaching.

“One of our most important roles for the Faculty of Agriculture is creating a positive online learning experience for students,” explained Sondra.  “This involves both a careful design of the course content, how it is presented visually and instructionally, as well as the deliberate selection of the types of technology used.”

The two-person unit directed the more independent instructors to a collection of resources and commenced multiple, brief consultations with instructors to provide solutions for more unique teaching circumstances and needs.

“It was quickly apparent that our campus was in better shape than we initially imagined. CLT in Halifax made available to all Dalhousie faculty and staff some excellent new resources. Also, many of our instructors with online teaching experience graciously assisted their fellow colleagues in their sudden pivot to remote delivery.”

In the context of a global pandemic, remote delivery is an immediate response to alleviate the massive disruption of an otherwise normal face-to-face semester on campus.  Remote delivery left little choice but to proceed with minimal preparation. Although ETD is not a large unit, their work over the years has helped bring the campus at large to an elevated level of literacy in terms of both online course design and delivery.

Both the Manager of ETD, Brian Lesser and Sondra have extensive experience in online course design and development and their approach this year is to streamline their efforts and consult with instructors in stages.

“Our campus will be offering a series of workshops that instructors can access remotely (as we continue to work from home) that will cover many of the common teaching approaches and tools. Additionally, the Halifax campus will be offering supplemental training sessions on specific Brightspace and other integrated tools. ETD will also welcome two summer students, both with experience developing online courses and working in Brightspace.”

The larger task of design and development of the online course experience, in a condensed format, will be the primary focus of the ETD office in the first part of the summer. As courses begin to take shape, their focus will shift to helping prepare individual instructors to deliver their course online.

Courses that are already online will serve as resources, in particular the sections of the course that provide resources and support to students, can be easily shared or adapted for use in other courses.

“My work in ETD focuses on new course development in the summer months, the key difference this year will be volume.  Any shortcomings exposed at the end of the winter semester will influence our recommendations for technology options when developing and designing for online delivery for the fall.”

Technology provides the delivery mechanism; it is not the engine.

“I love my job, as I get to use some of my visually-based artistic skills to help create quality learning sites for courses. Every day brings a different instructor or challenge to my attention. And, being an animal lover and an alum, I love being in a job that continues to support agriculture and agricultural learning.”