As a facilitator of the Phase 1 Medicine Society & Health course in the beginning of 2020, one comment from a student on how I could improve my teaching was "Maybe when the class is silent, she could more quickly call on people". I reflected on this and I agree that it is difficult to get students engaged and speak up, more so when the course transitioned online half way through Term 1. Thus, when I facilitated in Ageing and Endings B in Term 3 of 2020, I took a different approach to avoid long silence from the students and to get them all more engaged. I made sure that every one of the students in the class answered questions or took turn in leading the breakout groups. Instead of waiting for a student to answer a question, I picked a name from the class list and I made sure I always picked different students and that they all had a chance to contribute. I thought the students might not like this approach, but student feedback (myExperience) said the opposite! Example of feedback: "Encouraging student participation by picking on students to answer and making sure all the content was covered in an efficient, but detailed enough manner"; " Gave everyone a chance to talk - did not just call on the same few people for answers".
Furthermore, because the course was online and the students were all starting to become "zoom-fatigued", I made it high priority to include a more informal, social side of the scenario group sessions. The facilitator guide always dedicated the first 5 min to an ice-breaker activity. However, I allowed the group to spend a minimum of 15 minutes, but more often 30 min, at the beginning to socialise. I always asked every student how they were doing, what they had done on the weekend, what country would they like to travel to once the international boarders would open etc. I also had a session when I asked the students to ask me questions! That was a big hit amongst the students!
Other examples of student feedback from this cohort on the best features of my teaching:
"Her class engagement and facilitation of discussion in class";
"Her enthusiasm, her ability to stimulate a friendly atmosphere with the fun activities at the beginning of the class. She was receptive to the class, and chose good moments to use the BB quiz functions and the white board";
"Jennie is one of the best facilitators I've had, which is even more impressive since this term's SG was all online due to Covid-19! She adapted to the online teaching format very well, both from a technical perspective but also from a teaching style perspective, and managed to make SG feel enjoyable but also like a family. She was good at time management and allocation of tasks which helped SG not feel too stale. For example, she would pull us back into the main group when we are finished in breakout groups instead of making us wait for unnecessary amount of time. She also lead the 'bonding activities' at the start of each SG very well and encouraged us to participate with good questions, which helped me feel more involved in the SG even though it was online. This was also helped by the fact that she was very friendly and willing to share her personal experiences and life with us which made SG much more interesting as she led by example. I like how her camera is on all the time as it is more engaging."
"Was always very positive and made a real effort to get to know us as students – made online learning feel more personal and enjoyable."
"Extremely nice, made us comfortable in asking questions and engaging with the class"
"She was very engaging, helped us to bond as an SG even though it was online"