Preparing to Teach Remotely (Part 4): Setting up the Website

Professor Nick James

In my last few blog posts I have been sharing the details of my preparation for remote teaching this semester. I thought carefully about my learning outcomes. I asked myself whether the assessment I will be administering in my subject is appropriate, rigorous and constructively aligned. I reflected on my learning activities, and what I will be doing with my students to help them to achieve the subject learning outcomes and complete the subject assessment tasks.

In the week leading up to my first online class, my focus has been upon my subject website and ensuring it will be ready to be made available to students. In this post I will share my views about this experience. I am mindful of the fact that some of my comments will be specific to Bond University or to its particular Learning Management System, Blackboard, but I hope there is enough here of general relevance.

For a generation of students that expects classroom learning and online learning to form a seamless whole, the subject website has shifted from being a helpful additional learning resource to the foundation of the student learning experience. If a subject website is designed well, it will guide the students along their learning journey and form the framework for all of their learning activities and assessment tasks. I have always put a lot of time and effort into building my subject websites, and now that my subject will be delivered entirely remotely, the subject site has become more important than ever. An additional challenge I faced in preparing for teaching this semester is the fact that all subject sites at Bond University have been moved to a new version of Backboard, called Blackboard ULTRA. I have had to build my new site from scratch, and teach myself how to use ULTRA. That experience has been an interesting one, with several challenges along the way.

The temptation at this point is to vent my frustration about the process of building a new site on a new platform, but I would prefer to remain upbeat and positive, so here are the things I like about ULTRA:

1. I like how easy it is to edit content on the site. Click edit, change the text, click save. Done. No fiddling about with formatting or upload files.
2. I have usually enjoyed being able to customise my sites in the past, with lots of colour and images. With the new version I am significantly constrained, and limited to a very simple, black and white ‘look and feel’. But this will ensure students have a more consistent experience from subject to subject, and to be honest it gives me one less thing to worry about.
3. The standard list of student tools on the left seems to include the most important ones, and again the inability to customise gives me one less thing to worry about.
4. I particularly like the ‘Attendance’ tool. It looks like a helpful way to easily keep a record of who shows up to the online classes.
5. I like how the front page clearly shows my personal details and the date, time and location of the next important event in the subject.
6. The horizontal menu at the top right of the page has some useful tools, including the subject Calendar which automatically includes all of my assessment due dates. I’ve added the days and times of my classes. Apparently the students’ Calendars aggregate their subject Calendars so they see all their class dates and times and all their assessment due dates in one place.

It was a steep learning curve but I’m now quite comfortable with most of the features on the site and – to be honest – I like it. I can see that the students are going to find it much easier to navigate than the old sites.

I decided to have only three folders on the front page: WELCOME, TOPICS and ASSESSMENT.

In my WELCOME folder I added:

• A short welcome video. I usually have one professionally created but this time I recorded it myself using my phone, posted it to YouTube, and inserted the link.
• A link to my Subject Outline.
• A link to a page where they can purchase the prescribed textbook.

In my TOPICS folder I created 12 sub-folders, one for each of the 12 Topics in the subject. In each Topic sub-folder I added:

• The PowerPoint presentation for the week’s lecture, just in case the streaming of the lecture is too slow and students can’t follow along as the slides change.
• A document explaining what ‘independent study’ I want them to do after each lecture, including the readings.

In my ASSESSMENT folder I created four sub-folders, one for each item of assessment.

• In the ‘Tutorial Preparation and Participation’ sub-folder I added a document explaining how students are expected to attempt the tutorial problems for each week, and I then created an Assessment – Essay task for each week’s tutorial questions. By specifying the due date for each task as the date of the relevant tutorial it inserted it into the subject Calendar. And the students can actually type their answers into the box on the website and submit it so I can check to make sure they have done it. I like that.
•  In the ‘Online Test’ sub-folder I again created a document that explains the assessment task, and then I built 12 online tests, one for each Topic. The publisher of my prescribed textbook has provided very large banks of multiple choice questions (100 per chapter) that I have used to set up the online tests in such a way that each student will be given a different test with different questions. (A relatively tight time limit of 15 minutes to answer 5 questions should ensure the students prepare for the tests and don’t try to simply Google each of the answers.)
• In the ‘Practice Problems’ folder I will add the instructions for the task and allow online submission. This will be done closer to the due date in Week 8.

·         In the ‘Final Exam’ folder I will upload the take home exam and allow online submission.

I have set up two forums in the ‘Discussions’ part of the site: one called ‘Topics’ where the students can ask content-related questions, and one called ‘Assessments’ where they can ask questions about the assessment. Neither are assessed.  I will use the ‘Announcements’ tool to post an announcement at the start of each week introducing the students to that week’s Topic and reminding them about assessment tasks. And to keep them interesting I’m planning on using the Parampara tool to create an interactive announcement each week.

And that’s my site. I have sent a message to the students telling them to meet me in the subject room (accessed via the left hand menu on the front page) at 2.00pm next Tuesday. I am ready to teach remotely!

As a law teacher, how can I help? Reduce subject-related anxiety.

Kylie Fletcher, Assistant Professor, Bond University

Law students are likely experiencing many challenges at the moment. They or their loved ones might be suffering from COVID19 or they might be in a high-risk demographic or location. They may be recently unemployed or stranded far from support networks. They may have new responsibilities as they care for or home school family members. There is little doubt that these experiences have significant potential to affect their mental wellbeing. I am also mindful of the less obvious influences on mental wellbeing. Many of these have been discussed in the media over the past few months. Among others, there is the anxiety caused by the uncertainty surrounding the COVID19 pandemic (Bowden, 2020), and the effects of lockdown isolation (Landowski, 2020). Naturally, I am wondering what I can do to assist my students during my next teaching semester.

Law students report higher degrees of psychological distress than the wider population (Kelk, Luscombe, Medlow & Hickie, 2009). Of course, this distress will likely be exacerbated by COVID19 and the necessary but hasty transition to an online learning environment. The results of a study of students at an Australian university demonstrates that many students believe that approaches to learning and teaching contribute to their mental wellbeing (Baik, Larcombe & Brooker, 2019). While I may not be able to manage the impacts of COVID19 or avoid the transition to online teaching, I can support my students by reducing, within reason, subject-related anxieties (Baik et al, 2017). This approach is informed by the scholarship in the field, including the recommendations outlined in Enhancing Student Mental Wellbeing: A Handbook for Academic Educators (Baik et al, 2017). Following are a handful of the more practical measures that I am considering:

1. Increasing subject organisation: Baik et al recommend that academics consider subject organisation in order to better contribute to student learning and foster mental wellbeing (Baik et al, 2017). I am considering how I might further organise my subject and tailor it to the online environment. This might be achieved by, for example, coordinating with my colleagues to ensure a more consistent user experience across subjects, organising content into smaller more digestible parts, providing earlier access to tasks and assessments, offering additional resources that emphasise hierarchies and relationships, orientating students to their new online learning environment by explaining the differences that they can expect to encounter and utilising online organisers such as class calendars, online booking systems, check lists and electronic reading lists.
2. Being clearer about my expectations: Students report that clarity surrounding expectations impacts their wellbeing (Baik, Larcombe and Brooker, 2019). A student will feel more content learning in an environment where expectations are made clear.These rapidly changing circumstances provide me with an opportunity to revise my subject learning outcomes and rubrics to ensure that they are appropriately transparent. I will also ensure that they are suited to an online learning environment. While I believe that I already do so, I intend to focus on providing clear explanations of content, tasks and assessments. Further, I hope to provide additional examples, exemplars and feedback opportunities.
3. Maintaining availability: Student concerns may be more readily addressed when academics are available to discuss those concerns. At the very least, most academics will maintain their current office hours in an online environment. I know many colleagues who are planning to host individual consultations that will run alongside more casual online group drop-in sessions. Of course, it is also important to considerhow one might accommodate the more organic and spontaneous learning needs of students. Students will still have those ‘seize the moment’ style questions that are typically asked during breaks and after class. Where students are happy to raise them for the benefit of or in front of the class, I can accommodate these questions through synchronous chat functions or on class discussion boards. For quick one-on-one questions, the ‘chat’ function in Microsoft Teams (or similar) might prove useful.
4. Ensuring access to resources: Prior to the COVID19 restrictions, many of my students purchased physical textbooks or visited the library to access hard copies. This may still be possible for some. However, it presents a particular difficulty for those studying from overseas. Needless to say, one solution to this problem is to include eBook resources in the list of prescribed resources. However, I am mindful that some of my students may be living on reduced incomes and may not be able to afford to purchase these resources. Library eBook subscriptions might bridge this gap. However, this will be monitored. The Information Resources Team at Bond Universitymonitors the use of online library resources to identify ‘in demand’ resources to inform purchasing decisions. Further, I will investigate the licencing arrangements of prescribed eBooks to ensure that they are available outside Australia. In certain circumstances, I might also provide students with a range of alterative options that include open access resources or digitised resources from published works in accordance with statutory licence allowances.
5. Reconsidering workload and assessment: Student wellbeing may be affected when academics misjudge student workload (Council of Australian Law Deans, 2013). These new circumstances provide me with an opportunity to consider the appropriateness of subject and assessment workloads. In particular, I am wary of the additional workload that might come with studying in an online environment. For example, it may be more time consuming for my students to compile a video than to present in person. I will also reflect on the nature of my assessments. High-stakes examinations tend to be a particular stressor for students (Baik et al, 2017). I am considering how I might reduce the weight of my final examination. Of course, this must be done in a way that retains academic rigor and will likely dictate other adjustments. One potential solution is to reduce the weighting of my end-of-semester examination by including a mid-semester examination. However, I am also mindful that promoting student autonomy may positively influence student wellbeing (Sheldon and Kreiger, 2007; Council of Australian Law Deans, 2013). Last semester, a number of my students vocalised a preference for my traditional assessments. Consequently, it may be useful if I present any variation as an option. So, instead of mandating it, students might be able to elect to participate in a mid-semester examination.
6. Assisting students to develop competence: Baik et al recommend that we support students’ mental wellbeing by assisting them to develop competence (Baik et al, 2017). Like most academics, in order to support the development of competence, I plan for generative learning. I do this by intentionally using existing knowledge and skills to introduce new knowledge and skills. Additionally, I adjust the guidance provided so that it is increased and decreased at the appropriate times. I also provide numerous practice and feedback opportunities. These strategies may need to be reconsidered in order to accommodate the additional cognitive load that comes with adjusting to new circumstances. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that I will have the luxury of reducing the rate at which I introduce new skills and knowledge. However, I am considering reducing guidance more gradually and providing additional practice and feedback opportunities. I may also bring forward and extend my end-of-semester revision program for the benefit of those students who wish to take part. This might be done by dispersing voluntary revision opportunities throughout the semester. Finally, I will also support my students in developing online learning competence, including competence in the skills required to use and engage with the relevant technologies.

I hope that my plans are of assistance to my academic colleagues. There are, of course, numerous other strategies that may be used to promote student wellbeing. Many of these extend beyond reducing subject-related anxieties. For further information, academics may wish to consult the following resources:

1. Enhancing Student Mental Wellbeing: A Handbook for Academic Educators (Baik et al, 2017); and
2. Promoting Law Student Well-Being Good Practice Guidelines for Law Schools and the resources referred to within that document (Council of Australian Law Deans, 2013).

References

I would like to thank Professor Rachael Field for her comments and editorial suggestions. I would also like to thank our Library Services Manager, Ian Edwards, for the suggested wording used in the 4^th practical measure.

Baik, C., Larcombe, W., & Brooker, A. (2019). How universities can enhance student mental wellbeing: The student perspective. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(4), 674–687.

Baik, C., Larcombe, W., Brooker A., Wyn, J., Allen, L., Brett, M., Field, R., James., R. (2017). Enhancing student mental wellbeing: a handbook for academic educators. Retrieved from https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/2408604/MCSHE-Student-Wellbeing-Handbook-FINAL.pdf

Bowden, T. (2020, April 27). Coping with anxiety brought on by loneliness, job loss and coronavirus uncertainty, ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-27/coronavirus-uncertainty-increasing-anxiety-mental-health/12182736

Council of Australian Law Deans (2013). Promoting law student well-being good practice guidelines for law schools. Retrieved from https://cald.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Promoting-Law-Student-Well-Being-Good-Practice-Guidelines-for-Law-Schools.pdf

Kelk, N., Luscombe, G., Medlow, S. & Hickie, I. (2009). Courting the blues: Attitudes towards depression in Australian law students and lawyers. Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney.

Landowski, L. (2020, May 8). Coronavirus isolation affects your brain: A neuroscientist explains how and what to do about it, ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-05-08/neuroscience-of-isolation-coronavirus-pandemic/12200144

Sheldon, K., & Krieger, L. (2007). Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test of Self-Determination Theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(6), 883–897.

Preparing to Teach Remotely (Part 2): Designing Assessment Tasks

Professor Nick James

Last week I began describing my efforts to prepare for remote teaching next semester: I will be coordinating the new subject Enterprise Law, a compulsory subject in Bond University’s new Transformation degrees including the Bachelor of Legal Transformation. My first step was to engage with a broad overview of remote teaching. (Since that post, my colleague Tory Baumfield has drawn my attention to this excellent article, written specifically for law teachers struggling with the transition to remote teaching, and which I strongly encourage you to read if you are not sure where to begin.) I then thought carefully about my learning outcomes, and whether they remain suitable in a remote teaching context.

This week my focus will be upon ensuring the assessment I will be administering in my subject is appropriate, rigorous and aligned with my learning outcomes. This final point is important: as explained last week, the notion of constructive alignment tells us that the assessment tasks we give our students should evaluate the extent to which the students have achieved the learning outcomes we set for the subject. If I have stated a learning outcome but I don’t assess it, or if I have an assessment task that measures something other than a learning outcome, I really should reconsider either the learning outcomes or the assessment task.

Remote teaching will prevent me from using some forms of assessment I have used in the past, but it is also encouraging me to adopt other forms of assessment, some of which may on reflection be more suitable and better aligned with my learning outcomes. They may also be more authentic. One of the more traditional types of assessment used in the discipline of law – the invigilated, handwritten, closed-book examination – prioritises the integrity of the assessment process and challenges the students to demonstrate their understanding of the subject in quite difficult conditions, but it lacks authenticity in that it is difficult to imagine circumstances in which the students will be required to complete a similar task – hand-writing a legal advice in only a couple of hours without access to resource materials – in ‘real life’. A ‘take home’ exam delivered online, where the students have a longer period to complete the task and can access their notes, the textbook and any online resources, certainly raises concerns about integrity and rigour (which can be addressed), but it is more authentic in that it more closely replicates the kind of task they might be asked to undertake in their professional lives.

In choosing appropriate assessment tasks, I want to ensure I use a combination of formative and summative assessment tasks. A formative assessment task is one with the principal objective of enhancing student understanding; marks for the task may or may not contribute to the final grade for the subject. It might be a quiz, the marks for which don’t ‘count’, or it might even be as simple as asking oral questions of my students in class. A summative assessment task, on the other hand, has the principal objective of evaluating student understanding or competence; marks for the task will contribute to the final grade for the subject. It is the summative assessment tasks that are my focus at this stage.

I have expressed the learning outcomes for my subject as:

1. Explain and critique the law regulating enterprises in Australia, including tort law, contract law, consumer protection and competition regulation, IP law and business law
2. Communicate their knowledge of the legal system and enterprise law effectively and appropriately, in writing and verbally
3. Identify, analyse and solve authentic legal problems, taking into consideration their ethical dimensions

I would normally build assessment tasks around these learning outcomes as follows:

• An interim assessment task that requires the students to keep up to date with the material as it is presented, challenges them to think critically about the material, and tests their understanding of both basic and advanced concepts, e.g. a mid-semester test.
• Class participation tasks that require the students to participate regularly in class discussions and demonstrate their understanding of the material orally, e.g. tutorial participation marks.
• A final assessment task that requires the students to synthesise what they have learned in the subject and apply their understanding to solving complex legal and ethical problems, e.g. a final exam.

I don’t need to throw these out and start again. I can retain my broad categories of assessment task, but the way I administer them will change in the online environment.

• Interim assessment: A mid-semester test can of course be administered online. But I am no longer obligated to administer all of the questions at once. I could instead set up a series of online tests that assess student understanding as it is taught. I might have three mini-tests during the semester. The extreme example is a series of online tests, administered each week of the semester, where I assess concepts from that week. The questions could be well-designed MCQs (which can be marked automatically), complex problems, or anything in between. In my subject I am going to set weekly online tests worth a total of 30% of the final mark, each test comprising a combination of MCQs and short answer questions. It will take some work up front to create a bank of good quality questions, but that effort will pay off during the semester with a reduced marking load.
• Class participation: If I am teaching my classes online, I should still be able to assess student participation in class. There are however some additional challenges to be taken into account. Does the platform allow me to ‘see’ all of my students? What if a student has a technical difficulty and cannot attend or participate? What if the class is too large for me to easily evaluate student performance online? I may need to provide an alternative ‘channel’ for students to demonstrate that they have met the relevant learning outcome, e.g. an a synchronous discussion board where students can post a written contribution or a short video. In my subject, I will allocate 10% of the final mark to participation. The classes will be small enough for me to assess student participation using a good marking rubric, but I will also give my students the option of posting a short video answer to that week’s tutorial exercise on the subject discussion board.
• Final assessment: As previously stated, I can replace my normal end-of semester invigilated, handwritten examination with a take-home examination where the students have 24 hours to complete the task and submit their work via the subject website. This will require me to think very carefully about the questions I set. I don’t want to give them a task where they can easily Google the answers. The classic legal problem used in law schools is well suited to this task. Provided it is a relatively novel problem, the students will not be able to find the answer online. I am however conscious of not making the final assessment task unnecessarily stressful, particularly during what is already a very stressful time. I’m also mindful of my own marking load at what will be a very hectic end of semester period. I would normally weight the final task at 60% (relatively high compared to other disciplines but still much less than Law’s traditional 100% final exam). I now think 40% would be more appropriate, and I can ‘move’ the other 20% to earlier in the semester by setting a legal problem similar to what the students would ordinarily do on the exam, but require them to complete it and submit their answer much earlier. This will also allow me to identify problems with their problem solving ability sooner, and provide them with useful feedback about how they can improve.

Once I have settled my assessment regime, I need to make sure I am clear with my students about my expectations regarding their performance. I need to ensure that at the very minimum I provide my students with:

• a brief description of each assessment task;
• the marks and weighting allocated to each assessment task;
• the due date for each assessment task; and
• the subject learning outcomes aligned with each assessment task.

It is also helpful if I provide my students with additional assessment information, including:

• a detailed description (including word limits) of each assessment task;
• submission instructions (including deadlines, how to submit online, and penalties for late submission) or examination conditions (e.g. duration, closed book/open book) for each assessment task;
• the marking criteria for each assessment task;
• the dates students can expect each assessment task to be marked and feedback provided;
• the form that feedback will take (e.g. written feedback, oral feedback, etc);
• the penalties for exceeding word limits;
• the process of applying for extensions;
• late submission penalties; and
• any policy regarding student appeals of assessment results.

Some of this information will be included in the subject outline, but it will be helpful if all of it is clearly set out on my subject website.

Next week: Choosing appropriate learning activities. Meanwhile don’t forget to check the CPLE’s list of remote teaching resources.

Readapting Assessments in Response to COVID-19: Bond Law Perspective

Dr Umair Ghori

There was a time when we as academics used to love debating about online exams, its nuances, pros and cons…and then like all academics we went back to our favourite pastime: answering emails! And, of course, marking research essays and conducting our own research. The thought that we will ever depart from our comfortably set routine of traditional end-of-semester exams was limited to seminars and staff meetings… and then a one-in-a-hundred-year event jolted us into action. What was once an interesting option suddenly became the only viable way forward.

All over the world, universities encountered the challenge of readapting to the changing circumstances with some institutions, such as Imperial College London holding their medical exams exclusively online. In Australia and New Zealand, Monash University and Victoria University of Wellington have adopted a series of measures that saw examinations move to an online medium.

However, what may be true in the case for larger institutions might not necessarily be true for smaller institutions that prize their more hands-on learning environment. While the transition to online teaching and assessment is all but inevitable, what will be its iteration within law schools that emphasise a personalised learning experience such as Bond University’s Faculty of Law?

Faculties often have their own teaching approaches that meld with the requirements and the dynamics of the underlying disciplines. At Bond, the Faculty of Law emphasises purposive learning and the teaching of skills through a strong student-teacher interaction in lectures, tutorials and a private, one-on-one consultations. It is simplistic to assume that the Bond “feel” will remain the same with Collaborate, Zoom or Microsoft Teams platforms. The transition, therefore, must be such that our character and peculiar advantage must remain intact.

At the academic level, instructors will have to come to grips with multi-layered challenges. For example:

1. Email stress: where communications with students, colleagues and support staff will impose an increasing strain. Dorie Clark writing for the Harvard Business Review states that an average professional spends approximately 4.1 hours answering work emails. I am sure some of our colleagues easily meets or exceeds this estimate! One useful resource has been produced by University of Michigan which provides a great refresher for many of us struggling to cope with heightened email traffic. Email stress features here because the closer the assessment dates draw close the frequency of emails from students to instructors increases exponentially. Delay in responding to student emails due to sheer volume of messages in the inbox is quite obviously a challenge that has to be resolved going forward.    
2. Re-adapting the skills exercise program to make it such that remote conduct is qualitatively equivalent to actual skills exercises in our moot courts and skills room: Bond Law has its own unique way of doing things, hence there is no exemplar that can be used effectively. For mooting based, skills exercises, one challenge is to cultivate the student’s preparation and readiness levels to wean them away from script reading from the screen. Another challenge is to manage the scheduling of exercises for students in different time-zones or where internet is not reliable. Essentially, this means that if students are unable to conduct their skills exercises we must have a fall-back plan for them that meets the university assessment standards and any other external benchmarking.
3. Credibility and integrity of the assessment process: The traditional exams are gone! Even after COVID-19 crisis is over, the era of end-of-semester, sit down exams is coming to an end. This shift offers both challenges and exciting opportunities. Our solution this semester at Bond was to allow 24 hours to do an exam that normally would have taken much less. Clearly, this cannot be made the basis of assessments going forward. If take-home exams or assignments are going to be the new norm then the emphasis on quality of legal analysis increases. For the instructors, this means that legal analysis has to be explicitly taught within the four-corners of every subject instead of leaving it on the students to figure it out. Practically, this may also mean acknowledgment of the fact that what may be appropriate as legal analysis in one subject might not be suitable for adaptation in another subject. One possible solution to this is that the assessment design should be used as the basis of teaching – a task that is easier said than done. Traditionally, in the subject of law there has been a strong emphasis on summative assessment whereby student proficiency is judged against pre-determined benchmarks. Under a revised paradigm, instructors would have to consider pre-deciding their assessments and then teaching legal analysis within that framework.

We cannot assume that transition towards online learning will be universally popular. On the contrary, we may see a digital divide between regions and demographics where certain students or staff will struggle to adapt to new technologies. Such individuals may be tempted to view their negative experience of online learning during the Covid-19 crisis as representative of online learning on a more general scale. The silver lining is that the next few months will afford us, the academics, to experiment and try new things which can later form the foundation of the law school experience in a new era.