In one of my previous blog posts, I have been referring to learning from the past and the importance of not repeating the same mistakes in the future. As I was offered in the past (all the way back in 2016) a role of University Lecturer Majored in Game Design teaching specifically Object Orientated Design & Development for University in Changde, Hunan Province (4h / 400 km outside of Wuhan) I have been following closely any developments from People’s Republic of China.
This is why I got really concerned about the new flu disease developing and being reported as early as in January by various mainstream media (AFP 2020, Associated Press in Beijing 2020, BBC 2020) as I am old enough to remember the SARS outbreak almost 20 years ago I knew it can get bad really quickly, as since then international travel and trade only grew and there were no significant investments to prevent this from reoccurring (Gates, 2015). What made matter worse was that at that point, there was already chatter about the potential second bigger wave of UCU strike actions, which were later confirmed in February (UCU, 2020).
Both of those events made me realise that it is only a matter of time until my students learning will be heavily disrupted and/or fully cancelled with no access to facilities. This is why I have decided and informed my line manager to speed up my teaching delivery to close off the year as early as I can. I focused on presentations and materials needed for my students’ final year projects and skipped over some in-the-work extras that would smooth out the curve. I have made it with the full awareness that I will go into summer term (if such would even take place) with no teaching materials at all as I was delivering month-long materials (based around practice and activities) within a week by skipping the practice, in the class and shifting it to homework + online support, and focusing on the theory side. I am able to do this as a major part of materials I teach is available online on my course Moodle page and can be worked on by students either in class or at home, but this was a conscious choice in delivering and teaching such way to make this possible.
Also consequentially I have cancelled extra activities like year 3 and year 2 students coming to see 1st years and talking about their experience prior to the student survey, to push the survey earlier on all 3 years and getting 100% response rate from all participating students for both years 1 and 2, and over 80% for year 3. As I wanted to be evaluated based on their experience so far, and knowing what we have done right or wrong, rather than external factors outside of my control dominating the dialogue. I am looking forward to the results, whatever they may be.
I do think that IF this turns into a pandemic and IF we go into lockdown or for any reason we will be forced to do distance teaching (as we would not have enough prep time or experience to do online teaching, which requires very different skillset) I do believe it is going to impact not only our intake for years to come but how we run the day to day operations. I do think that universities to cut costs and increase class sizes will push for reduced in-class contact hours to swap them with online 1/1 tutorials or even subject delivery as it will relieve many of their resources.
As such I might not be able to have time to keep this Blog up-to-dated as much as I wanted and discuss everything I read, so please feel free to check out my Trello Board for this Unit and discuss any of the subjects you find interesting down in the comments.
References:
Associated Free Press (2020) ‘Mystery pneumonia outbreak in China sparks fear of deadly SARS virus’, CBS News, 02 January. Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-sars-virus-fears-as-mystery-pneumonia-outbreak-sickens-dozens-in-wuhan-2020-01-02/ (Accessed: 12 April 2020).
Associated Press in Beijing (2020) ‘Mystery illness in Chinese city not Sars, say authorities’, Guardian, 05 January. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/05/mystery-illness-to-strike-chinese-city-is-not-sars-say-authorities-wuhan (Accessed: 12 April 2020).
BBC (2020) ‘China pneumonia outbreak: Mystery virus probed in Wuhan’, BBC, 03 January. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-50984025 (Accessed: 12 April 2020).
Gates, B. in TED (2015) The next outbreak? We’re not ready | Bill Gates. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI (Accessed: 12 April 2020).
UCU (2020) UCU announces 14 strike days at 74 UK universities in February and March. Available at: https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10621/UCU-announces-14-strike-days-at-74-UK-universities-in-February-and-March (Accessed: 12 April 2020).