ISRRT_COVID-19_book

Student and staff perspectives on teaching, learning and assessing online
Radiography courses are traditionally delivered as face-to-face courses, however, during the
lockdown, we had to learn new ways of teaching using online platforms like Zoom, Microsoft
Teams, and Blackboard collaborate, among others. Zoom, with its breakout meeting room
facilities, was the most popular online platform used by universities. These and other online
platforms have been invaluable in keeping that essential contact and communication with the
students and with each other. The online platforms have offered us the potential to change
the face and direction of how education is delivered in the future. We were able to share
documents during teaching sessions and meetings. During small group breakout sessions,
students could share their documents that they have been working on, too.
We suddenly found ourselves embracing a range of new pedagogical practices and new
means of connecting with students through online meeting rooms. Although universities
provided support, toolkits, and licenses for developing the online learning environment, the
tasks and overall burden of ensuring the conversion of otherwise face-to-face delivered
content and assessment, and delivering a high quality programme, rested with the course
teams. Most radiography courses already integrate online educational technologies to
provide a blended approach in their teaching, learning, and assessment practices so many
embraced the opportunity to develop the online learning arena further.
New methods to communicate
Meeting the need to continue teaching during the lockdown saw this pedagogical shift from
the traditional face-to-face interaction usually enjoyed and valued in radiography classrooms
to teaching on virtual platforms. If you asked any academic or student before the COVID-19
pandemic what they know about platforms such as Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate and
Microsoft Teams, I think the response, in all but a few cases, would have been a blank gaze.
A year later and we are not only familiar with these platforms, but we also know how to use
and navigate these spaces. Our new reality consists of online meetings and classes while
extensively using email and WhatsApp messages for communication. We have almost
become distant from face-to-face contact.
After 18 months post the start of the pandemic, we are seeing a paradigm shift with many
students in favour of online learning compared with face-to-face means. Simulation learning
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