As my face-to-face lectures involved around 400 students, I sometimes envisioned myself as the Asian version of Ellen DeGeneres when I used the microphone. With my PowerPoint slides, the colourful Sharpie pens I used to demonstrate accounting solutions subsequently projected to the screen by the visualiser, I felt I was in my element and that I was doing everything I could to teach my students well.

COVID-19 changed all that. During the various versions of the movement control order, I still delivered lectures, facilitated tutorials and provided consultations, but all online. These were done through the rectangular gadgets called the 2-in-1 device and what I considered the most priceless investment I made in my teaching career - my Wacom pen. I worked round the clock producing educational videos while continuously conducting weekly live sessions. The Wacom pen replaced my colourful Sharpie pens and became a constant companion, whether I was teaching on Panopto or Blackboard. The Wacom pen helped me resolve a very important area in my online teaching – how to show accounting calculations and solutions during online teaching - but there were other challenges.

Delivering online lectures for a large class can be as challenging or more challenging than delivering face-to-face lectures in a venue that could fit a few hundred students. Under normal circumstances, face-to-face teaching in a lecture format to a large audience presented many challenges. Some of these included uncertainties whether students understood the contents presented as such settings tended to result in one-way communication, despite building in activities to engage students at regular intervals.

The online environment proved to be more challenging in getting students to participate and ensuring that they understood what was taught. I vividly recall that I was completely exhausted after my first live session in March 2020. Students had posted a few hundred messages on the chat function during the live Q & A session. Of course, this was understandable as I had asked students to watch the pre-recorded lectures and to use the live session for asking questions and seeking clarifications. However, the consequence was that I was overwhelmed by the number of questions that were posted in each live session. On the positive side, it demonstrated to me how committed and enthusiastic my students were. I could have had the opposite, where no one listened to the live sessions; that would have been worse.

In order to ensure a positive learning experience during the live Q&A sessions, I had to get my students interested and engaged in the sessions while keeping track of the number of questions posted. I usually would answer the first 5 questions. I would summarize the questions and illustrate the explanation using my Wacom pen. Then I would take more questions from students. Due to time constraints, there would be questions that I could not answer during the sessions. Therefore, I would get the students to post these questions in the discussion forum. I also had a pre-arrangement whereby I had appointed some students to contribute to the learning session as peer facilitators, by assisting me in answering these questions.

One thing the pandemic taught me was to be resilient during this unpredictable time. I knew I needed clear structures to ensure positive learning experience for all students during live sessions. To ensure these sessions were uninterrupted, I laid out all my expectations for the module in a pre-recorded video - which I named as the Introductory Tool Kit for Principles of Financial Accounting (ACC1014). Students were required to watch this video in the first week, prior to the live session. Knowing that the first-year students who had just enrolled into their university programmes could feel at a lost at times and might not have any friends they could refer to, I also used the Announcement section in Blackboard – the learning platform used by Sunway University - to provide step-by-step instructions to support the students. I have to admit that I sent out quite a few of such instructions, especially in the first week of the semester. However, my extra efforts in detailing all the instructions paid off. From receiving a huge volume of emails from students who had various questions and concerns, in addition to their anxiety, the number of emails dwindled after Week 3, reflecting that students had successfully settled into their studies.

ACC1014 is a subject taken by students from 5 programmes: Accounting and Finance, Financial Analysis, Financial Economics, Business Analytics and Actuarial Studies. This makes the student demography very diverse, from those with some Accounting background to those with no Accounting background at all. In a face-to-face setting, students could easily stay on after class to clarify doubts or book face-to-face consultation hours. In the online learning environment, many students who did not have Accounting background were at wits end. Not all students could embrace online learning instructions and environment. They felt a sense of hopelessness as physically, I was not in front to clarify issues and doubts. The only way they could clarify their doubts and queries was to write in to me or even meet virtually during consultation hours. This was not sufficient for many. To respond to the increased need for support, I leveraged on students who had Accounting knowledge for peer-to-peer support. These were the students who helped me facilitate the topic-based discussion forums that I mentioned earlier. The Discussion Forums on Blackboard. In total, there were between 10 – 14 peer facilitators that I had recruited and as a result, the supportive online learning environment that I tried to establish was enhanced further by students actively supporting each other. For my part, I supported these student facilitators by providing them with clarifications if there were unresolved queries or doubts. Beyond building an environment where students were supportive of each other, the greatest outcome of this strategy was that live sessions could then be dedicated to answering critical or unresolved questions.

I am aware that not all learners can cope with the remote learning environment, especially since every learner learns differently and at different pace. As a teacher, I can have all my pre-recorded lectures, live lecturers and tutorial classes with recordings and other resources made available in the learning management system for students to access at any time. However, what can be missing in this environment is a sense empathy. It is important for students to feel that their teachers acknowledge the challenges that they face and empathise with them. For that purpose, I did not just ask my students to view pre-recorded lectures and attend live sessions to achieve better engagement. I took additional steps by reflecting on my personal experience dealing with the changes caused by the pandemic and I shared these reflections with all my students. I wanted to send out a strong message to my students that we were all facing the same challenges, that I was also personally affected. I also shared how I persevered and was determined to do the best that I could, together with them. For example, in one reflection, I shared with students how I had to produce educational videos day and night, learn how to use technology to better assist me with conducting live sessions for my students and at the same time go out to queue for almost everything especially purchasing grocery and basic necessities. I was suddenly out of my comfort place, being cooped up at home and so, I could feel the students’ frustration. I would frequently tell the students to “pat their own back” for achieving a task and encouraged everyone to stay motivated. I reassured everyone that I was as anxious as they were but I believed that if we were supportive of each other, we had each other to fall back to. These reflections were labelled as ‘Love letter #1,2,3’. I believe all these had positive effects on students’ mental well-being especially during prolonged periods of social isolation due to the movement control order. I received appreciation emails from students who mentioned how much they enjoyed reading the letters, how my reflections made them feel connected to me and how they hoped they would be able to meet me in person when everything returned to normal.

The Covid19 pandemic and switch to online teaching made the past year or so a year of learning for me as I learned new tools, new skills and new ways of teaching. It was a journey that I took with my students who were committed to make their own adjustments. Today, I am still on my learning journey as the institution makes its own adaptations to support students. From face-to-face to blended to online teaching, my colleagues and I have undertaken yet another way of teaching, i.e. dual mode teaching. In dual mode teaching, I teach students who attend my classes face-to-face simultaneously with students who attend the sessions online. I am convinced that the dual mode of learning is here to stay as it provides another degree of flexibility to students.

As I continue to move forward, I reflect on many things so that I could continue to offer my students the best learning experience with me. I foresee the need to continue learning about the technical aspects of teaching in a dual mode setting. At the same time, I think about how crucial it is to explore the right balance between conducting live teaching sessions and providing pre-recorded lecturers, the design of learning activities that are engaging for all students, whether they are in class physically or are joining in online. As a module leader for an average class size of 400 students in a semester, it is important that I use technology efficiently and be more flexible and adaptable in using it to teach or support my students. Equally important is being more empathetic as a lecturer. We do not always know what challenges students face and only through understanding their circumstances and responding with empathy can we be truly supportive of our students.

Caroline Yap Yu Li 
Academic Enhancement Division
Email: [email protected]