Transferrable Skills Research Articles

Integrating Workforce Competencies into Introductory Religion Writing Assignments

Taking up the suggestions made by Eugene V. Gallagher and Joanne Maguire in their article, “Teaching Religion to Undergraduates in the 2020s: A Preliminary Reconnaissance,” this essay addresses one means of thinking about writing assignments in introductory religion courses at the undergraduate level with “broad goals” and “institutional mission” in mind. The essay begins with a description of the institutional context and proceeds to describe an argument analysis writing assignment for a general education religion course that attempt to draw out the “workforce competencies” developed in the exercise. Framing assignments explicitly in terms of the workforce skills students will hone offers teachers the ability to display the transferrable skills they help students develop and provides an avenue to connect assignments to the institution’s mission statement.

Pedagogical Possibilities: A Review of Approaches to Undergraduate Teaching in Buddhist Studies

This article presents a comprehensive review of the literature on teaching in Buddhist Studies within a framework of backward design, which begins by identifying our learning goals, then determining evidence of learning and planning course activities to facilitate such learning. It identifies big ideas in Buddhist Studies and transferrable skills that could serve as learning goals for our undergraduate courses. Finally, it concludes by suggesting future avenues of research about Buddhist pedagogy in the field of scholarship of teaching and learning.

Social context and transferable skill development in experiential learning

ABSTRACT Increasingly, employers are seeking candidates with transferable skills in addition to technical and educational requirements. Thus, university students seek opportunities to develop transferrable skills, often through extra and co-curricular programs. With this in mind, our research explores student assessments of their own development of transferable skills after participation in a co-curricular, experiential volunteer program (McMaster Children and Youth University) in Canada. Using pre/post-survey methods, we find statistically significant increases in participants’ self-assessments of leadership, problem solving, knowledge translation, and knowledge mobilization. Adaptability emerges as an unexpected skill several participants report developing as a result of working with young people. We conclude that co-curricular programs play an important role in transferable skill development. Further, we argue that social contexts of experiential learning opportunities play a significant role in shaping transferrable skill development.

Skill-based ESP Classroom: Teaching for Preserving and Enhancing Oman’s Comparative Advantages in an Era of Economic and Digital Transformation

English for Specific Purposes oriented inquiry spans different territories and domains (Basturkmen, 2013). Firmly established in the English for Specific Purposes teaching and learning practice developed in Oman’s tertiary education, this paper explores a skill-based teaching approach ascribable to its far-reaching partnership with Oman 2040 vision initiative, and 21st-century educational thinking and planning for the future. In particular, while debating current issues related to economic and digital transformation, it aims at examining student skill development in the context of an English for Specific Purposes classroom using Omani tertiary education students’ self-perceived responses. Students responded to a survey that investigated perceptions of transferable skill importance, self-efficacy, and opportunities for improvement. The results reveal that adaptability/flexibility, time management, oral communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving are the most essential student perceived transferrable skills concerning their future employability and professional success; however, the perceived opportunities to use and improve these skills as well as satisfaction with the ability to use them in the course vary, and, therefore, should be addressed when considering further development of the English for Business course curriculum and its delivery. As an outcome of this study, English for Specific Purposes program providers and educators will have a better understanding of the students’ skill-sets and provide their students with the tools and strategies they need to learn and thrive in English for Specific Purposes courses effectively.

The impact of research intercalation during medical school on post-graduate career progression

BackgroundMedical students at The University of Manchester have the option of research intercalation on the Master of Research programme. There is a paucity of evidence for the benefits of research intercalation. However, we hypothesised that research intercalation would accelerate post-graduate career progression and aimed to objectively measure the career enhancing impact, quantify the benefits and determine the alumni perception of research intercalation.MethodsData was collected retrospectively by electronic questionnaire (in 2018) from those commencing research intercalation between 2005 and 2012.ResultsParticipants (n=52) returned questionnaires (68% response), demonstrating that the cohort had completed 67 postgraduate qualifications, published 304 manuscripts (median 3 publications per person (PP); range: 0–53) and made 430 presentations (median 7 PP; range: 0–37). Alumni had been awarded 49 research grants; funding disclosed on 43% totalled £823,000. Career progression of 73% of alumni had taken the minimum number of years; 27% took longer due to time spent working abroad or to gain additional experience prior to specialty training. Fifty-five publications and 71 presentations were directly related to MRes projects.ConclusionResearch intercalation provides graduates with an opportunity to learn valuable transferrable skills, contribute to translational research, and objectively enhances medical career progression.

Structuring Courses with Agile Research Studio: Five Components and Four Pedagogical Values

Structuring Courses with Agile Research Studio:Five Components and Four Pedagogical Values E.B. Hunter (bio) Introduction This essay describes how I adapted a system called Agile Research Studio (ARS) to design courses wherein students create projects, either individually or in groups. Originally developed at Northwestern University to manage a STEM research lab (Delta Lab),1 ARS is an academic research version of the "agile development" approach to project management. This approach, which originated in the software industry, now dominates several sectors (Rigby et al.; Nyce). In essence, ARS is a system of specific technologies (like Google Sheets and Slack) and communication practices (like student-to-student help-giving and –seeking) that train students how to self-direct complex projects. It is therefore well-suited to designing courses that incorporate project-based learning.2 Despite the many differences among my teaching context, the software industry, and ARS's birthplace, I have found the system an excellent cultivator of pedagogical values that transcend disciplinary boundaries: effective planning, community-building, and transferrable skills. To design courses with ARS, I use five components, the implementation of which I describe in a later section: 1) a semester divided into one- or two-week "sprints" of work; 2) theme-based Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that students join to frame their engagement with course content; 3) a collaborative spreadsheet that students use to plan and track their tasks during each sprint; 4) an online journal, where students reflect on their own work from the previous sprint; and 5) an online messaging forum like Slack, where students can plan, ask for help from classmates, give help to classmates, and generally create community around the projects they are making. But why use project-based learning in the first place? When compared to content delivery and exams, project-based learning has long been shown to improve knowledge acquisition, promote more robust critical thinking, and increase affinity for the subject material (McCarthy and Anderson; Flores et al.; Gauci et al.; Watkins et al.). Despite these benefits, obstacles to adopting project-based learning exist for both instructors and students. Instructors often worry that such an approach will require unsustainable mentoring and monitoring (Felder and Brent). Students across disciplines often resist projects that involve group work, citing inequitable labor distribution and an absence of teammate accountability (ibid.). And, confoundingly, new research shows that many students simply feel like they learn more when courses are comprised mostly of entertaining lectures, even though their performance on assessments demonstrates otherwise (Deslauriers et al.). ARS addresses these challenges by training students to take control of their projects' workflows without increasing the time instructors spend on management. Although ARS uses software that is free, the system does assume student access to a smartphone and internet connectivity, at minimum—an assumption shared by much of higher education, as the current circumstances of distance learning have illuminated. Just as important to note is that while many students enjoy screen-based technology, few arrive to university already adept at leveraging it as a learning tool.3 Consequently, ARS works best if an instructor is comfortable using ARS's technolo- gies. [End Page 31] This familiarity is necessary not only to facilitate course design, but also so that the instructor can provide the in-the-moment troubleshooting many students may need to avoid computer-user frustration. With these limitations in mind, this essay is geared toward instructors who already use tools like Slack and Google's online software. Not incidentally, ARS's deep integration of these technologies makes the system a highly effective disaster pedagogy. As I discovered in spring 2020, an on-campus course designed in this way is not hard to transfer online with only a few days' notice, because it relies upon tools, workflows, and communication practices that can exist asynchronously and online. ARS made spring 2020's shift to emergency remote learning less chaotic than I expected, because students had already spent six weeks practicing the fundamentals of project management and learning how to use distance-learning technologies. ARS can also help lessen the anxiety that accompanies a sudden global or personal disruption, because the system gives students concrete steps to follow. As the sections below explain...

Teaching Paradise Lost: Radical Contingency, Comparative Studies, and Community Engagement

Teaching Paradise Lost:Radical Contingency, Comparative Studies, and Community Engagement W. Scott Howard (bio) This essay connects a reading of Paradise Lost to an exhortation for the field of Milton studies, reflects upon my recent pedagogic activities at the University of Denver, and offers suggestions for teaching that emphasize comparative studies and community engagement.1 My work here derives from my teaching at all levels (from first-year undergraduates to doctoral students) at the dynamic intersections of my community's contiguous cohorts. My argument is this: Paradise Lost is a work of radical contingency beyond Milton's control that likewise exceeds our best efforts to grasp the whole poem, thereby engendering an open work in a vital field of endless variations upon the text's history of adaptation, interpretation, and production. Milton scholars and early modernists should therefore subordinate their desires to control the text (via established critical methods) to the work's generative legacy of artistic collaborations (among authors, editors, musicians, painters and printers, translators and typographers, et al.). Comparative studies across disciplines may be energized in meaningful ways for twenty-first-century students through community-engaged practices that amplify the poem's inherent openness to diversity, multimodality, and transferrable skills. We should celebrate the epic's living legacy through [End Page 231] spontaneous acts of open-access knowledge sharing and experiential learning that could be transformational for the path forward for literary studies. Within the limited scope of this essay's appearance in this cluster, my focus for comparative studies and community engagement will concern literary adaptations of Paradise Lost with particular emphasis given to the multimedia fields of book arts and letterpress printing. ________ Great works of literary art are so much greater than any individual or collective work of scholarship. Indeed, such classics are more than the sum of their parts at every moment in their journeys through time: from their engagements with their source materials and historical moments to their processes of inspiration, composition, revision, production, distribution, exchange, adaptation, interpretation, remediation, and translation.2 Such texts are beyond the control of their authors and audiences because their complexities escape capture and conversion; such classics are vibrant, open works that "display an intrinsic mobility, a kaleidoscopic capacity to suggest themselves in constantly renewed aspects."3 We should embrace this vital spirit of the open work's radical contingency. By radical, I mean a fundamental concern for and critique of the linguistic roots of reality; by contingency, I mean chance affinities among materials and methods that are neither designed nor foreseen—yet still possible due to either present or absent accidents, conditions, or forces. Paradise Lost is certainly intricate, but it is not "designed like a complex clock."4 Paradise Lost is a poem of baroque asymmetrical structures and signal escapes engendered by numerous discontinuities within and across the work's individual books as well as among the many paratexts added to the poem after the first three issues of the 1667 ten-book first edition.5 Considering these countless edits, revisions, and chance variables involved in the epic's journey from the 1667 edition to the 1674 twelve-book second edition, we should read, discuss, and teach Paradise Lost as a work of radical contingency that emerges from collaborative and collective efforts, including the text's dictation, transcription, revision, and preparation for printing and distribution, as William Poole's Milton and the Making of Paradise Lost (2017) thoroughly demonstrates. We should celebrate the work's multimodal legacy in the spirit of Blake's illuminated poem that strives to correct Milton's vision by breaking apart his overdetermined selfhood.6 Numerous kindred literary adaptations of Paradise Lost reimagine and refashion the poem's materials and methods for modern audiences, such as Erin Shields's Paradise Lost (2018); Danny Snelson's RADIOS (2016); Pablo Auladell's Paradise Lost [End Page 232] (2014); Ronald Johnson's RADI OS (1977); and John Collier's Milton's Paradise Lost: Screenplay for Cinema of the Mind (1973), just to name a few.7 Milton's paradoxical refrain, "know to know no more," underscores these principles and reflections in ways that exceed ready explanations—notwithstanding the best efforts of countless editors and scholars...

Infographics, Podcasts, and Videos: Promoting Creativity and Building Transferable Skills among Undergraduate Students

Introducing multimedia learning in the classroom has numerous benefits for students, including a higher level of engagement for an array of learning styles, development of transferrable skills, and encouraging creativity. In this commentary, I introduce two multimedia assignments, an infographic and a podcast/video, that I have successfully implemented in my courses. I outline the rationale, goals, guidelines, resources, assessment rubrics, potential modifications, student reactions, and examples of student work for each assignment with the hope that more educators will be able to integrate similar forms of deeper learning.

Social work involvement in the COVID-19 response in China: Interdisciplinary remote networking

Summary Social workers in China have been involved significantly in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article introduces the innovative interdisciplinary remote networking framework which both provides a guide for medical and community social workers’ involvement during the COVID-19 outbreaks, and also to support interdisciplinary collaboration with the aim of helping individuals and families in need during the pandemic. Findings The implementation of interdisciplinary remote networking, developed by Chinese social workers, has effectively addressed the different domains of need experienced by the affected population and has established a new approach for social work in the field of health. The framework also provides an effective model for setting up a targeted and sustained service system that links social workers with psychological and medical resources, which capitalize on social resources to buffer the negative impacts of the disease. Social workers play an essential role during such a public health emergency, providing critical services for patients and families, medical workers, self-quarantined residents, and the general population. Applications The service mode of interdisciplinary remote networking, based on the frontline experiences of social work interventions in China, may serve as a framework for combating COVID-19 in other countries. The framework is among the initiatives that provide transferrable skills to social work practitioners working in network-based social work services during public health emergencies. Thus, the framework presents implications for future practice development in both disaster social work and also public health social work.

The value of ‘Soft Skills’ in popular music education in nurturing musical livelihoods

ABSTRACT A survey of 80 graduates of an Australian popular music degree revealed that graduates had a deep understanding of the value of soft skills to their employability and musical livelihoods. Soft skills are defined here as interpersonal and intrapersonal transferrable skills such as effective collaboration and communication, as opposed to the hard skills related to the technical requirements of a specific task. On breaking down the curriculum and pedagogical framework of the degree over its 3-year delivery, it is shown that the self-directed, collaborative and peer-learning environment is a major contributor to that understanding. The interpersonal and intrapersonal soft skills identified by graduates as essential outcomes of their learning are crucial to navigate the uncertainties of the portfolio career most music students will progress into. Embedding collaborative and entrepreneurial elements across all courses in the program content ensures they become intuitive practice for graduates, applicable across the range of roles they may engage with throughout their musical livelihoods.

Career planning courses increase career readiness of graduate and postdoctoral trainees.

Background: Given national calls for intentional career development during graduate and post-graduate scientific training, this study assessed career readiness development within the context of academic career courses. The current study evaluated the effects of academic career courses offered at two institutions that were specifically designed to increase career awareness, interest, and career-related confidence among doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. Methods: Participants enrolled in a career course at trainees' respective academic institutions and responded to pre- and post-course surveys (n=32, n=148). The paper offers a thematic analysis of each of the two courses using an individualized learning plan career development framework and describes the results of their respective pretest-posttest evaluations which indicated increases in career readiness. Results: Though the format and content provided in each course varied, participation was associated with increases in career readiness. Participants reported increased career-awareness including a greater familiarity with different types of careers overall. Furthermore, interest in tenure track faculty careers increased in both samples, which may assuage fears that exposure to diverse career pathways could reduce interest in academic careers. Transferrable skills, including career planning and awareness also significantly increased. Course participants reported an increase in the number and type of mentors they interacted with beyond their principal faculty mentor (other faculty, professional PhDs, peers, and administrative staff). Conclusions: Findings provide supporting evidence for the benefits of implementing structured career development efforts during PhD training; even with varying content, delivery methods, and instructor type, both academic career courses led to significant gains in career awareness and readiness. Successful development and delivery of academic career courses, with a focus on career planning skills, suggest that institutions can utilize these and are an effective way to prepare PhDs for their transition from training positions into careers.

Can student and staff involvement in quality assurance and promotion be achieved in the health sciences through mHealth and e-learning? A conceptual platform design

With the new generation of health professionals, some skills such as diagnosing and treating an array of diseases has become complex and challenging. These health professionals also seem to portray other transferrable skills which can be embedded with future curricular through the use of e-learning. It has been reported that universities have a responsibility and an opportunity to effectively prepare future health professionals to address health related issues with evolving changes within the healthcare landscapes through enhanced student involvement. Practical activities based on local institutional creativity and regional issues can reinvigorate the links between clinical practice and the health of people, through quality assurance and promotion. One form of a practical activity that can be identified is through the use of e-learning and technology. Over the last decade, developments in e-learning and technologies are creating the groundwork for health sciences education. There may be a similar trajectory within the health sciences domain where both health sciences students and qualified health professionals frequently use their mobile phones when consulting with patients. Given the diversity of e-learning methods, there are many ways to carry out such an evaluation. However, the current literature shows us that we have yet to reach any form of consensus about which indicators to evaluate. There is a greater need for an evaluation tool or platform that is properly constructed, validated and tested within the health sciences, that can also be used to enhance student involvement and quality assurance. Given the limited success rate of e-learning within the health sciences field, this article aims to fill this gap by proposing how such an mHealth and e-learning methodology for a platform can be evaluated and established, to optimise learning (for students and academic staff), student involvement, quality assurance and healthcare (for patients) in South Africa.

Redeployment of dental trainees: challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic

Dental trainees require a degree of adaptability to navigate a training pathway. We outline the transferrable skills that can be adapted and utilised during the process of redeployment in response to COVID-19. Despite the challenging circumstances, opportunities can arise for trainees redeployed to different areas of healthcare, and contribute towards the formation of a holistic and rounded professional. Transferable skills acquired from different areas of healthcare contribute towards the formation of a holistic dental professional.

Regional extracorporeal membrane oxygenation retrieval service during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic: an interdisciplinary team approach to maintain service provision despite increased demand.

OBJECTIVESCoronavirus disease 2019 is a new contagious disease that has spread rapidly across the world. It is associated with high mortality in those who develop respiratory complications and require admission to intensive care. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a supportive therapy option for selected severely ill patients who deteriorate despite the best supportive care. During the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, extra demand led to staff reorganization; hence, cardiac surgery consultants joined the ECMO retrieval team. This article describes how we increased service provisions to adapt to the changes in activity and staffing.METHODSThe data were collected from 16 March 2020 to 8 May 2020. The patients were referred through a dedicated Web-based referral portal to cope with increasing demand. The retrieval team attended the referring hospital, reviewed the patients and made the final decision to proceed with ECMO.RESULTSWe reported 41 ECMO retrieval runs during this study period. Apart from staffing changes, other retrieval protocols were maintained. The preferred cannulation method for veno-venous ECMO was drainage via the femoral vein and return to the right internal jugular vein. There were no complications reported during cannulation or transport.CONCLUSIONSStaff reorganization in a crisis is of paramount importance. For those with precise transferrable skills, experience can be gained quickly with appropriate supervision. Therefore, the team members were selected based on skill mix rather than on roles that are more traditional. We have demonstrated that an ECMO retrieval service can be reorganized swiftly and successfully to cope with the sudden increase in demand by spending cardiac surgeons services to supplement the anaesthetic-intensivist roles.

Bilingual education through a pluri-centric approach: A case study of the effects of simultaneously learning two languages on L1 and L2 reading and writing proficiency

Language education has often been conducted based on monoglossic ideologies that keep L1 and L2 separate, a practice that receives growing criticism as out of sync with today’s multilingual globalized world. Informed by interdependence hypotheses and translanguaging theory, this research study explored the effects of a pluri-centric approach to learning L1 and L2 simultaneously. Through a bilingual intervention course with data collected from interviews, parents’ logbooks, observation field notes, questionnaires, and L1 and L2 reading and writing tests, this case study (n = 9) revealed that the approach effectively improved learners’ L1 and L2 proficiency, learning behaviour outside the classroom, self-efficacy, and confidence. Overall, the participants also perceived the bilingual course as effective, efficient, and innovative. The study provides a basis to reflect upon transferrable skills and core underlying proficiency as powerful concepts to draw upon in enhancing bilingual proficiency and effecting positive changes in learners’ behaviour and psychological well-being.

What do we mean by “transferable skills”? A literature review of how the concept is conceptualized in undergraduate health sciences education

PurposeDue to rapid changes in the future labor market, transferable skills are recognized as a vital learning outcome for students in undergraduate higher education. However, ambiguities surrounding the concept and content of transferable skills hamper the actual teaching and learning of transferable skills. Consequently, there is a great need for an overview of the literature on transferable skills to qualify and develop the approaches to transferrable skills in higher education. This study aims to outline a typology of how transferable skills are conceptualized in health sciences education, that is, medicine, nursing and related health professionals’ education.Design/methodology/approachThe study was a mixed studies literature review, which included quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies. A seven-stage sequential exploratory synthesis of the included studies was conducted.FindingsThis review showed that transferable skills reflected three main conceptualizations: Program Requirements, Employability and Holistic Development. Overall, the global methodological quality of the empirical studies of interventions to further transferable skills development in health science education was weak.Research limitations/implicationsThis study aids clear conceptualization in future empirical studies.Practical implicationsBy distinguishing between three main conceptualizations of transferable skills, this study's typology supports alignment in transferable skills curricula because conceptually sound learning objectives provide teachers and students in health sciences education with a clear purpose and direct educators' choice of relevant teaching and assessment strategies.Originality/valueThis review – the first of its kind – contributes to conceptualization of transferable skills as the basis for curriculum development and research.

Non-technical skills for urological surgeons (NoTSUS): development and evaluation of curriculum and assessment scale

ObjectiveIn the last decade non-technical skills (NTS) have emerged as a vital area for improvement within surgery. This study aims to develop and evaluate a Non-technical Skills for Urological Surgeons (NoTSUS) training curriculum and assessment scale.MethodsThis international, longitudinal and observational study began with a 3-round Delphi methodology to refine curriculum contents and rating scale. Sessions with up to four participants were delivered where each candidate undertook an independent scenario within the validated full immersion simulation environment. Candidates were assessed using both the NoTSS (Non-technical Skills for Surgeons) and NoTSUS rating scales by NTS-trained and non-trained experts. A post-training evaluation survey was distributed.Results62 participants comprising trainees (n = 43) and specialists (n = 19) undertook the NoTSUS course. The NoTSS and NoTSUS scales correlated well, with a mean difference of 3.3 in the overall total (p = 0.10, r = 0.53). However, there was significant differences in scores between the NoTSS-trained and non-trained raters (n = 28, p = 0.03). A one-way ANOVA test revealed significant improvement throughout the four simulation scenarios in each session (p = 0.02). The NoTSUS curriculum received positive feedback from participants and demonstrated educational value and acceptability.ConclusionsThe NoTSUS curriculum has demonstrated high educational value for NTS training aimed at urologists, with marked improvement throughout sessions. Correlation of NoTSUS and NoTSS scales proves its suitability for evaluating NTS in future training. Demonstration of inter-rater reliability indicates that the scale is reliable for use in assessment by expert faculty members. Furthermore, qualitative feedback from participants suggests gain of transferrable skills over the course.

A course-based and formal structured mentoring programme with Chinese university students

ABSTRACT This paper reports the design, delivery, and evaluation of a mentoring programme which aimed to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills in Chinese university students. Several new elements in this mentoring programme distinguish it from many previous such programmes within the context of higher education. These new elements include anchoring on a course which allowed junior year students to mentor senior year students, an equal emphasis on learning by both mentors and mentees, and the specific objectives promoting transferrable generic skills rather than discipline-specific knowledge. Evidence from quantitative and qualitative data analyses suggests that a mentoring programme of this kind can be implemented successfully with Chinese learners, provided that it is well structured. Our experience sheds new light on how this type of programme can be designed and implemented non-traditionally in higher education and will have a broader appeal to educators in higher education teaching learners with passive learning styles.

Repurposing apparel: A guided process for sustainable design education

ABSTRACT The goal of this study was to explore educational strategies to teach repurposing, in the apparel design classroom guided by the gold standard project-based learning (GSPBL) model. The researchers collected and analysed project reflections from participants over four semesters, utilising a qualitative research approach. Results of the data analysis impacted the evolution of the project (four iterations) and suggested five instructional practices to build upon the project structure to teach repurposing in the apparel design classroom. Educational strategies made throughout the study influenced students’ approach to their design process, conscientious of textile waste, and perception toward repurposing. Successful outcomes of the study included the development of transferrable skills, such as creative and critical design thinking, problem-solving, and time management, as well as learning satisfaction. Additionally, findings of this study contributed to the body of knowledge of sustainable design: repurposing. Overall, this research guides teaching sustainable design practices.

Occupational therapy has gone online: What will remain beyond COVID‐19?

As I wrote the Editorial for the last issue of the journal, I could never have imagined the different world in which we now live as a result of COVID-19. The importance of information that is consistent and evidence-based has never been more essential for occupational therapists and the people who access our services. Occupational Therapy Australia have supported the profession with lobbying and advocacy activities, regular communications, and resources such as guidelines that outline the practical and ethical considerations for delivering clinical care using telehealth (Occupational Therapy Australia, 2020). The sudden move to online technologies has been experienced by many within the profession and this editorial will discuss online learning within occupational therapy education. In the COVID-19 response, university educators were required to move all teaching and assessment activities online at relatively short notice. As a result, all classes, simulations, practicums, vivas, and assessment, etc. were adapted for the online environment and launched. From an educator perspective, the hours of planning and preparation, and the newly developed skills have been exceptional. From a student perspective, there has been adaptation and the opportunity to develop new skills, possibly including the provision of occupational therapy services via telehealth. As an example, imagine an online classroom with five breakout rooms—within each breakout room there is an actor who is a simulated patient. Each simulated patient will meet with a different student every 20 min in an occupational therapy session, and 100 students will have this experience across the day. In the background, staff are marshalling the students, coordinating the entry into and out of the virtual breakout rooms, and providing feedback and support to the students and actors. This type of activity is exhausting for staff and anxiety producing for students when conducted face-to-face in rooms along an actual corridor—and this is magnified when conducted virtually. All educators, students, support staff, and actors are to be congratulated for what you have navigated and achieved. This is not the first time that learning has been delivered online within occupational therapy curricula. Blended learning is the preferred approach of education providers, promoting the integration of online and traditional face-to-face learning experiences within a program. However, this is the first time that all learning has been delivered online and, from an organisational perspective, each university will undoubtedly seek to understand the student experience and explore what can be retained as online learning into the future. There is a need for caution here: these changes have been made in a short timeframe, under extreme circumstances, and it is important that any future decisions consider the impact on the learning environment and the learning outcomes. More importantly, it is essential that we consider the ongoing issue of equity. COVID-19 and the switch to online learning has created inequities within the student body. Students are disadvantaged when they do not have access to a computer or internet at home. This has been particularly noticeable during the COVID-19 online learning environment when all alternate options for computer and internet access were unavailable, such as in public libraries or university campuses. From a curriculum perspective, it is essential to review how online learning aligns with the pedagogy of the program, and the experience and well-being of the students. Students in the current online environment have spoken of challenges with self-regulation skills such as time management and motivation, and that they feel isolated and distant from the learning. This experience aligns with previous findings that student challenges in the online environment of blending learning include: self-regulation; technological literacy and competency; student isolation; technological sufficiency; and technological complexity (Rasheed, Kamsin, & Abdullah, 2020). There is a need to keep the focus on the students, their experiences, and their learning. Smith and Hill (2018) highlight that blended learning is only effective when the purpose of the online content is clear with explicit links made to the face-to-face classes. The learning environment is complex and further research is required to determine when and how online learning can support occupational therapy curricula to achieve their learning and graduate outcomes. In conclusion, occupational therapy education has momentarily gone online. The educators and occupational therapy students have demonstrated that we can adapt courses and programs to an online format, and both groups will have undoubtedly gained transferrable skills within this online environment. However, despite demonstrating that it is possible, it is important to remember that this change has been undertaken during a crisis situation, and we must move carefully forwards adopting an evidence-based approach. Blended learning should remain the preferred approach and research is required to establish what online components can remain to support the development of occupational therapy knowledge, skills, and competencies.