Page 63 - The Wish Stream Year of 2020 Crest

Padlet discussion on the nature of terrorism
tion and dispersion that might come with the sense of distance that students may encounter in a remote learning environment. In this environ- ment, students can experience the direct chal- lenge of struggling to develop a direct relation- ship with their tutor. Similarly, while they continue training together, this does not necessarily nor automatically translate into the habit of exchang- ing ideas, creating arguments and fostering discussion in an academic context. The depart- ment undertook three key steps to respond to the challenge of maintaining cadets as active members of a learning community.
The first step was to establish and maintain clear channels of communication with students, even if F2F contact has been limited. This has meant that each lecturer had to maximise their contact with students, utilising email correspondence and individual as well as group-based ad-hoc MS Teams meetings, which often went beyond the established contact hours assigned for lectures and online seminars. Another key tool was What- sApp. Here we created WhatsApp chatgroups for all companies, with Points of Contact (POCs) for each, on both the staff and student sides. These groups guaranteed a direct line of communica- tion that allowed us to quickly respond to chang- ing circumstances and for students and staff to be consistently “up-to-date” with regards to any sudden developments and possible changes to the schedule. This combination of individual and
collective communication efforts avoids the risk of students’ feeling alienated from the learning process in Faraday Hall.
Additionally, this has required an extra effort from the students. The second step, indeed, has requested students to be ready to take even more responsibility for their learning and dem- onstrate a strong sense of self-direction. This is not a new aspect at RMAS, where cadets have to consistently manage different aspects of the course, often requiring them to multitask. How- ever, they could often rely on picking up last-min- ute information through a quick after-class chat with their tutors in the corridor. The eLearning strategy requires cadets to be even more atten- tive to their personal administration and requires them to adopt an even more proactive attitude towards the academic component of the course. Additionally, the completion of DIA tasks requires a more sustained engagement with the learning material and a more frequent request to produce written outputs. In other words, to a large extent, an eLearning approach can be more resource intensive, not only for the lecturer but also for cadets. Hence, besides an effective and sus- tained communication strategy, students must be helped to perform well in this new teaching environment, through paying greater attention to their diverse educational backgrounds and learning styles.
SANDHURST 61