Filling the Void

Lindy Rudd

doi:10.31273/jppp.vol1.2021.928

Abstract

This reflective piece records my experience of switching to online seminars during the pandemic with small groups of first year English literature undergraduates. I reflect on issues I experienced promoting student interaction in small group seminars and how professional development opportunities available through the Warwick Academic Development Centre helped with my use of technology and improving the level of engagement. I hope that it contains some ideas which may be useful starting points for PGRs looking to develop flipped or blended learning environments in the future. Perhaps it will also shed light on the way the current cohort of students reacted to online learning which may help in supporting them when returning to more traditional, or, more likely, hybrid pedagogies.

Highlights

This reflective piece records my experience of switching to online seminars during the pandemic with small groups of first year English literature undergraduates
Students on campus found that they had numerous problems with hardware, and the university’s IT infrastructure initially seemed unprepared for the massive increase in online traffic. If students turned their cameras on their screens would freeze, the audio would periodically drop out so we could only hear one in every five words, multiple students would unmute their microphones at the same time and the only sound we could hear would be feedback, and I lost count of the number of times the ‘unstable connection’ message appeared, signalling a complete breakdown in communication
I felt that technology was preventing me from developing any meaningful engagement with the students

Summary

Introduction

This reflective piece records my experience of switching to online seminars during the pandemic with small groups of first year English literature undergraduates. With cameras off and microphones muted, the very nature of online communication had altered teaching and learning completely. Whereas in a face-to-face situation, the group supports each other’s contributions with verbal and non-verbal cues, these communication tools were not there in the online environment.

Results

Conclusion