The shift to online delivery of content has necessitated the adaption of various techniques to connect with the students and connect the student with the learning materials. I have employed several different approaches to help engage the students and aid in their learning.

Pencasts, storytelling and analogies

Creating a community

In all the courses I convene I strive to make connections with the students and to help them build their networks within the course and with alumni in industry. There are several ways in which I have approached

PHAR3101, Drug Discovery, Design and Development, is a third-year course that is part of the Pharmacology major in the suite of Science degrees. This course follows the process of drug discovery from project and target selection through lead identification, pre-clinical studies, and clinical trials to registration

The issue

I strive for excellence in my teaching, to make connections with my students that encourage them to engage with the subject matter I teach and develop their critical thinking and professional skills. I achieve this in the following ways. (i) My passion for the discipline of pharmacology and my experience in molecular pharmacology research and drug discovery

Of the many assessment tasks I have developed, I’ve found that scaffolded assessment tasks introduce the students to a community of practice and develop their transferable skills. In the second-year course PHAR2011, Introductory Pharmacology and Toxicology, the final product of such a scaffolded assessment task was a commentary article. This assignment reflects the professional

Practical classes allow students to experience hands-on techniques as well as reinforcing the theory taught in lectures and develop critical analysis skills. However, it is more often the case that the focus is on getting the equipment to work and collecting the data. This is compounded by students arriving at class ill-prepared having not read their