ISRRT_COVID-19_book

session to say ‘good-bye’. This strategy was more successful in gaining the cooperation of
students to turn on cameras.
Fostering ‘community’ with and among students was a challenge to do using online means.
Due to cohort sizes, it was not possible to bring whole classes onto campus, so this further
restricted our willingness to integrate the students to create a feeling of community. This was
hard to achieve being in lockdown. We nonetheless offered coffee meet online for students
to engage with lecturers and each other in an informal manner. These for also useful for
disseminating course updates and answering student queries, allaying fears, and providing
reassurance. Students found this initiative supportive so we continued to offer the online
coffee meets throughout the year.
Greater staff vigilance was required in monitoring student attendance online and following
up non-attendees for well-being checks, especially for those living alone in university halls,
self-isolating, or struggling with mental health issues. Multiple episodes of exposure to
infected persons also meant a constant cycle of students in self-isolation who needed
university support.
Practical, hands-on sessions and mandatory training were delivered to prepare students for
placement but at a cost of staff time. Changes in teaching room accommodation on campus
due to social distancing, however, affected how many students could attend in-person
teaching per session. Teaching room and laboratory capacity had, therefore, drastically
reduced resulting in lecturers working much harder and through long hours to deliver the
same learning to all students.
Working at a distance also affected teamwork among lecturers and the usual camaraderie
that one would share with work colleagues “at work” was missing. Prolonged screen time
affected eye health and general health well-being due to the very long hours of sitting during
meetings and teaching sessions.
Lecturers had to make additional efforts to monitor attendance and then individually had to
reach out to the students via alternative methods such as WhatsApp, or email. Lecturers were
faced with language barriers, as students sometimes reverted to ‘SMS’ language, often hard
to interpret and follow. It also had the consequence that lecturers had to either provide
individual guidance and sessions and repeat the sessions several times just to accommodate
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