Contrary to assumptions, homespun delivery can ‘boost engagement’

Learning content created “on a shoestring” has imbued the ivory tower with endearing humility and helped bridge the gap between academics and students, an Australasian conference has heard.

Teaching and learning specialists say Covid campus closures have delivered an unexpected upside, with newfound “authenticity” compensating for the rudimentary production values of lessons produced on the fly.

“We no longer have to do everything in a polished way,” e-learning expert Michael Sankey told Times Higher Education’s THE Live ANZ event. “All of a sudden we had to produce short videos and things like that. We had lecturers sitting in their gardens with their mobile phones, just talking to students. And students really appreciated it.”

Professor Sankey, director of learning futures at Charles Darwin University and president of the Australasian Council on Open, Distance and e-Learning, said it was assumed that students expected studio-quality online content. “But there’s something about just touching the person, which we’ve found through this pandemic has been so important.

“[Students] loved the thought that this person was just talking to them – that this person is real. He or she is just like me, sitting in the garden, studying.”

University of Technology Sydney educator Amanda White said students had warmed to the “storytelling aspect” of lectures beamed from lecturers’ homes. “It’s including the dog barking; it’s including your kids coming into the class,” said Dr White, deputy head of students and subjects in the university’s accounting discipline.

“It helps students relate to us. We are real people, not just some floating figurehead that stands at the front of the lecture theatre as a person of authority. The fact…that they can connect to us is really important to build trust. Students in online learning are more willing to engage where they feel they can trust us. They want to trust people that they feel they know.”

Jane Frost, associate professor of nursing at the University of Canberra, said academics’ slapdash technological skills had helped draw students in. “They saw our vulnerability. Students were stepping in, [saying]: ‘This is how you unmute yourself.’ They were really engaged in those classes.”

Murdoch University biochemist Garth Maker, a self-professed “film geek”, said students had embraced simple online teaching efforts in much the same way that some movie buffs preferred director John Carpenter’s low-budget creations to Steven Spielberg’s blockbusters.

“People recognise the authenticity,” said Dr Maker, Murdoch’s interim dean of learning and teaching. “It doesn’t have to be multimillion-dollar-budget activities. If it’s got that personal touch, it really has resonance with the students and stays with them a lot longer than it might if they felt it was something brought in off the shelf – even if that had better production values.”

Phillip Dawson, associate director of Deakin University’s Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, said it was a good time to explore delivery models for the “flexi-learning world” fostered by the pandemic. “I don’t see budgets going up any time soon,” Professor Dawson noted.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com