Learning to Work Online for the Long Term

Greetings from the ASCILITE 2020 Conference, where I presented on the first of two of two joint papers. I am the last author and so did not have much to say. But it was good to be able to present. This reflected the way the papers were prepared: collaboratively online. We all used tools such as Padlet to throw in ideas, after which a few turned this into a formal paper. The presentation was done the same way, with the Padlet shown and many of the authors speaking. This is very different to the process I am used to, where writing a paper is a solitary experience. I might collaborate with an author, but one person assembles all the materials and then one presents it. I was the last author, on the ASCILITE paper, so was surprised to be asked to speak and concerned how that would work. In practice having multiple speakers went okay.

I suggest university staff need to get used to researching and teaching online. This should not be treated as a short term emergency measure and we will all go back to the meeting room and lecture theater soon. Even if all goes well with COVID-19 measures, as they are in Australia, NZ and a few countries in the region, things will not be back to "normal" before the end of 2021. Also the deteriorating geopolitical situation for Australia may see international students unable to get to campus, without warning, again. This is something I warned about in 2017. So I suggested we design work and study to be online, with face to face, where possible.

The papers:

1. A collaborative design model to support hybrid learning environments during COVID19 by Cochrane, Birt, Cowie, Deneen, Goldacre, Narayan, Ransom, Sinfield & Worthington (Day 2, Session 4, Stream A, 11:30AM).
2. A mobile ecology of resources for Covid-19 learning by Narayan, Cochrane, Cowie, Birt, Hinze, Goldacre, Deneen, Ransom, Sinfield and Worthington (Day 2, Session 4, Stream C, 11:30AM).