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UCT recently surveyed students about experiences of Emergency Remote Teaching during term 2. Thank you to the 3818 students who provided feedback: your perspectives will help improve remote teaching for Semester 2. Here are 9 insights which we shared with the UCT community:
The top challenge reported by students was mental health (including anxiety, stress or depression). While #covid19 and living circumstances take their toll, encouraging positive physical and mental health behaviours can help, and http://www.students.uct.ac.za/students/support/health-counselling/student-wellness offers online support.
Most students felt there was too much course content for the available time, especially in Law and Commerce courses (although programmes in these Faculties have historically always been tough). CILT's https://bit.ly/UCTRemoteTeachingChecklist can help convenors review courses for workload.
Students appreciated course sites which were well designed and easy to navigate, but reported a wide satisfaction gap between their most and least favourite sites. Design, navigation, scaffolding, and clear instructions are important. Ask us for help! http://bit.ly/vula-consultations
Students found assessments challenging because of time and workload, home circumstances, Internet and power issues, but also because instructions weren't always easy to follow. Lecturers can help with clearer instructions and practice runs to familiarise students with new formats
Social connectedness is a challenge: students did not feel strongly connected to each other online. Buddy systems, social media, group activities, collaborative tasks and online ice-breakers (sensitively designed) can help here.
Data data data! Most students got by on the 10G of daytime data provided by UCT and many other universities, but could always do with more. Lecturers can help by estimating data use of non-zero-rated resources which students need using these guidelines: http://bit.ly/datausage-staff
While many courses used longer lecture videos (30 minutes or longer), students strongly preferred shorter lecture videos. For new videos, aim for a length of 5 to 10 minutes and here are other great suggestions: https://twitter.com/nataliebmilman/status/1286341870742843393
A number of courses used live sessions (synchronous tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams), but not all students found these useful. Use synchronous interaction only where necessary, following the https://bit.ly/UCTSynchroGuide
And some appreciation: the majority of students said that course convenors communicated well with them about what to expect, they were able to access academic support when needed, and they got appropriate support when they ran into issues with remote assessments.
