Abstract:

In early 2020 the world as it was know changed almost overnight. By the mid-March, all schools and universities in the UK and in much of Western Europe had closed for all in-person teaching and tutorials due to COVID-19. Schools and universities were swift to move to an online-delivery model for classes, lectures and tutorials and while this 'kept the lights on' for academics and students alike, the remote nature of this 'new-normal' as it was ominously called at the time created a detachment between students and their peers, as well as between academics and their students.

Effective vaccines and herd immunity brought an end to many of the online learning arrangements, but yet some distance-learning arrangements have survived. There are many advantages of these arrangements for both academic staff and students: modern fibre internet connections allow lectures to be delivered live to students in remote geographic locations; some students with disabilities or those suffering from illness that would prevent them from attending an in-person class can join online instead; and pressures on physical space such as lecture rooms and computer labs in institutions can be vastly reduced.

First, this paper discusses both the challenges and opportunities of distance-delivery models.

Second, we propose a framework that will allow academics to build a learning-community with their students. The framework is built on five key pillars, which are: the presence of academic staff; building a rapport with students; real-time class-wide discussion opportunities; development of peer learning skills in student support groups; availability of prompt online support.

Third, we propose a monitoring and evaluation model to assess the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

We will propose a process of systematically gathering feedback directly from students in order to measure qualitative outcomes, as well as collecting data on academic performance and student retention to also measure success quantitatively. 

Keywords:

Distance-learning, student community, academic success, retention, digital, computing.