Zoom, practitioners, and creating a rich learning experience at DWU

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In this blog, I will briefly discuss the second teaching and learning strategy I used to teach a full-time undergraduate unit fully online in the second semester due to the COVID19 pandemic. In the first semester, I used the student-led seminar strategy as mentioned in my previous blog. In the second semester, I used a traditional strategy but infused again the usage of Zoom.

For the unit IR409 Foreign Policy in PNG offered in the second semester, instead of the traditional face-to-face lectures and tutorial discussions, I decided to organize 2 different online webinar series. One series featured practitioners in the the area of foreign policy while the other featured the students. This formed the synchronous part of the unit. 

We do not have a lot of books or journal articles written about our foreign policy or international relations. Many of the publications are out of date or not useful for students who want to know what the government is doing currently. As such, I have noticed that a lot of knowledge is contained within the minds of our citizens. If we can find a way to tap into their minds and facilitate the flow of knowledge and wisdom to the next generation using an effective teaching and learning strategy, then the future of our children might be better.

The sessional lecturer,  Mr. Lahui Ako gave a total of 10 webinar presentations via Zoom based on the 10 topics stated in the unit outline:

  1. Foreign policy: defining the concept
  2. Foreign policy: academics versus practitioners
  3. Foreign policy at independence
  4. Somare's influence
  5. Foreign policy review 1979
  6. Political stability and foreign policy shifts
  7. Wingti and the 'Look North' policy
  8. PNG Connect in a Globalized World
  9. Foreign policy review 2017
  10. Future trends in PNG's foreign policy

He was the former APEC Secretariat Director General and a former diplomat with many years of experience in the public service. His past experiences and knowledge about the PNG system of government and the APEC multilateral fora made the learning experience more rich and dynamic for the students. 

I recorded all 10 webinar presentations and shared on Moodle. I shared the audio files in a folder I created and labeled as '2021 audio files'. The videos were stored on my internal hard drive and then I uploaded them to my Google Drive. I then created a discussion forum on the unit webpage where I shared the links to the videos.

Google Drive has a maximum storage capacity of 15GB. Towards the end of the semester, I ran out of storage space. I could not upload any more videos from my internal hard drive to the cloud storage system. Google asked me to either delete my previous files to create space, or pay for more storage space.  

The students were required to form 6 different groups and select a case study from a list of 6 case studies. The case study assessment task was derived from the UNSW assessment webpage and weighted out of 40%. The major assessment task was divided into two parts; the synchronous part and the asynchronous part.

For the asynchronous part, the 6 groups were tasked to edit 6 different wiki activities. They shared information that they researched and collated about their respective case studies. I allocated 16% for the content which had different segments like the: 

  • introduction
  • problem statement
  • hypothesis
  • inquiry plan
  • findings
  • recommendations
  • summary

For the synchronous part, students were required to select a presenter from the group to give a brief oral presentation. We had a total of 6 student webinar sessions where students presented their case studies on: 

  1. Advantages of marketing PNG's agricultural products in the international market by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
  2. Importance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to PNG's economic growth
  3. Support for PNG's fight against climate change by the Pacific Islands Forum
  4. Benefits of China's Belt and Road Initiative on PNG's infrastructure development
  5. Impact of Australia's PacificAus Sports program on the development of rugby league in PNG.
  6. Influence of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence on foreign policy decision-making

Students were privileged to get feedback after their presentations by Mr. Ako including current PNG diplomats like Mr. Jonathan Kidu serving in New Zealand, and Mr. Philemon Senginawa serving in Malaysia. A former student, Mr. Alexis Esekia from the private sector, also attended the presentations and shared his point of views. Their comments and questions help the students to develop a deeper understanding of their case studies.

The closed Facebook group that I created years ago was used as a platform to live stream the webinars. Students advised that Zoom used up a lot of data so many attended the webinars via Facebook. Also, Facebook stored all our live streamed videos, there was no issue of storage capacity like what I experienced using Google Drive. Students were able to watch and download the videos.  

The notable benefits of the task include encouraging higher-order thinking skills like analyzing, evaluating and creating. Students were able to analyze data from primary or secondary sources. They then evaluated the data and organized neatly in reference to the marking criteria on the wiki. I did assign marks for creative use of the wiki to share information. 

Furthermore, it helped to develop the graduate attributes of research, social interaction and communication. They were engaged in collaborative learning where they met once or twice during a week to discuss. One particular member was assigned the role of editing the wiki, and the others were given different roles. 

The task helped the students to also developed their webpage designing and editing skills. They know how to hyperlink texts, or create another webpage on the wiki to share information. They can insert picture or video files to complement what they have written. They can create and insert audio files to help highlight a topic. 

I will continue using the 2 different teaching and learning strategies in 2022. I believe employing a variety of strategies exposes students to different ways of doing things. If students disagree then they can share their views in the online unit evaluations to help me determine which strategies are more effective or suitable to the PNG higher education context.    

Comments

  1. Hafford NoreaNovember 9, 2021 at 2:45 PM

    Hi Ben, the approaches are commendable. The pandemic has really challenged the mode of teaching and learning. To cope up with the situation, it needs a shift and what you are doing is ideally acceptable. The education department need to work with our School's Administration to implement these measures to be in par with the situation covid poses. Appreciate your style of leadership.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bernard Singu YegioraNovember 9, 2021 at 4:50 PM

      Thank you Hafford for your comment.

      We need to change the way we learn not only at the tertiary level but at all levels. The only challenge is access to technological tools like computers and tablets.

      Delete

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