-  Thank you, everybody, for joining us today.  My name is Darlene McLennan and I'm the manager of ADCET.  This webinar will be live captioned.  To activate the closed captions, click on the CC button on the toolbar that is located either on the top or bottom of your screen.  We also have captions available via the browser and will now put the link into the chat.  There’s also some information on the screen now.  

I wanted to start by acknowledging that I'm on Lutruwita, Tasmanian Aboriginal land, sea and waterways and I want to acknowledge, with deep respect, the traditional custodians of this land, the Palawa people.  I stand for a future that profoundly respects and acknowledges Aboriginal perspectives, culture, language and history and the continued effort to fight for Aboriginal justice and rights, paving the way for a strong future.  I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the various lands on which we are working or studying today and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders participating in the webinar.  

For many of us, COVID has turned everything upside-down, including the students that we support.  Students have experienced significant change on how their education is delivered and we were keen to hear from them about what the impact has been, hear some success strategies and coping skills they have used and also look at some of the silver linings or unexpected benefits they have discovered.  We have had a few technical difficulties starting the webinar today.  Deb Hindle is planning to be the panel facilitator and many of you will know Deb from previous presentations.  Hopefully, she will, otherwise, I'll fill in.  

Before we hand over to Deb, I will ask Tim Pitman, the equity fellow for the National Centre of Student Equity and Higher Education, to provide us with an overview of the current key findings of some research he is doing into how universities can best support students with disability from regional, rural and remote Australia.  And also looking at the impact of COVID-19 on the university students.  

Before I throw to Tim, a couple more housekeeping details.  This webinar is being recorded and the recording will be available on ADCET in the coming days.  If you have any technical difficulties, you can email us at admin@adcet.edu.au.  The discussion will run for around 40-50 minutes and then at the end, we will be asking some questions from you, if you pose some.  With that in mind, if you have any questions of the students you would like us to ask at the end of the presentation, please add them to the Q&A pod.  And you can also rate in that pod.  You can get the most popular question that will be put up at the top for us to ask at the end.  We also are encouraging people to chat throughout the presentation, share some information, et cetera.  You can use the chat box for that.  But make sure that you choose “all panellists and attendees” and that way, we can all see it.  Alright.  Now, I will throw over to you, Tim.  Thank you.

-  Thanks, Darlene, I appreciate it.  I will be quick because my job here is to set the scene for our student presenters, the people we really want to hear from.  I'm doing a fellowship looking at how universities can best support people with disability in higher education.  I want to share just two slides today, very brief, but hopefully, it will set a context.  

This survey was conducted this year between May and July and over 1,700 responses were received, which is fantastic.  The response was overwhelming.  It also means from a statistical point of view, they give us high confidence in the findings.  In other words, what I'm about to present to you now is very representative of the more than 75,000 students with disability in the higher education sector.  Again, 35 universities participated.  This project was devised last year, in fact, the year before, so obviously, no-one had any idea of the coronavirus.  But it gave us, by pure luck, a moment to also gauge the effect that's had on students with disability.  

When we talk about supporting students, that's a range of things.  So, we ask students to rate or to give us their feedback on support across six key domains.  That's what I want to share with you now.  We ask people to say in these certain aspects of support, what is the support you are getting, poor, very poor, average, above average or excellent?  If the student considered their support to be above average or excellent, we considered that a positive response, obviously very poor and poor, a negative response.  

The way we presented the data here today just shows you in simple bars, the greener a line is and the further to the right of the screen it is, the more positive overall the response from the students.  At the top, we see attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.  This refers to how students are treated in their institution.  Are they treated like everyone else or, for example, do certain staff consider that they are getting special consideration and special treatment that they don't deserve?  

Here, we found 66 per cent, two out of three students, had a positive feeling about the support and only 9 per cent had a negative feeling.  The next thing in descending order was procedures and processes and rules.  This was the systems that universities put in place to, for example, make accommodations in courses or special exam arrangements, to pass on the information to the student about this is how you can get help and this is who you need speak to.  Again, pretty good satisfaction levels, 15 per cent of students were dissatisfied here.  

Next on the list was technology.  This is the software and hardware that students need or certain students with disabilities need to facilitate their studies.  It refers to both the solutions the universities bring themselves, but increasingly, we are seeing the students bringing their own solutions from their life and from their outside experience.  So, we are also gauging the extent to which universities can be flexible and accommodate those within their own environments.  Here, there was a 12 per cent dissatisfaction, but there was more neutrality.  Only 57 per cent of people were satisfied.  

Then we get to the physical built environment, room configurations, but also lighting, paths, seatings and ambient surroundings.  Here, just over half students were satisfied.  17 per cent were dissatisfied.  

Getting down to the bottom now.  Social life - now we're getting into the negatives, in other words, less than half students satisfied.  This is the nonacademic stuff.  This the extracurricular activities, but it's the extent to which the student feels included in the life of the university.  Here, one in five students were dissatisfied with the level of support they are getting from their university.  Finally, and for me, personally, most worryingly, communication enablers or barriers received the lowest rating with only 47 per cent of students satisfied.  This refers to supporting students' sensory and learning needs, talking about how do we deliver information critically, curriculum, pedagogy to students.  It could be closed captions, alternative formats or readers. This is essential to students' transition and support and success through university.  To see this at the bottom was personally, for me, very worrying.  

As I said, by good fortune rather than planning because we didn't have a crystal ball, the survey was delivered at the time of the coronavirus so we had a moment to say to students, tell us thinking back a year ago before the coronavirus, overall, how happy were you with the support you were receiving from your university and compare it to now in the post-coronavirus environment?  The results out there are pretty obvious and speak for themselves.  There was an overall, more than half positive before coronavirus, 61 per cent of students were satisfied, only 12 per cent were dissatisfied.  Now that's dropped to under half.  Only 46 per cent of students satisfied.  

So, what next?  Well, from my research, a thing that drives me when I use statistics is there's a saying and that is, “Statistics don't give a damn about you.”  For instance, I just presented that overall, universities are pretty good when it comes to attitudes, only 9 per cent of students dissatisfied.  But when you are talking about more than 75,000 students with disability in the sector, that 9 per cent represents literally thousands of students who are not getting the attitude support they need.  We need to hear from them.  

The second stage of my research is designed to go and engage directly with these students.  This is a fantastic opportunity and why I leapt at the chance to present because right here and now, we can hear from students from their own lived experience and they can tell us what it means to be supported by a university in this coronavirus-world.  With that, I will pass back to Debbie and hopefully, she can hear and take it from there.

-  It's Darlene.  I might give Deb a moment.  We're trying to bring Deb in by phone.

-  No worries.  Shall I stop sharing the screen?

-  That would be great.

-  No worries.

-  Deb, are you able to talk?  I have just unmuted Deb.  Are you talking, Deb?

-  Just a minute.

-  Yep.  Oh, well.  Sorry, everybody, for this little challenge that we have here.

-  I’m unmuted.

-  Now you need to mute on your computer so we don't get you twice.  As much as I love you.

-  Oh, I was getting me twice.  Yes, everyone.

-  Okay, fantastic.

-  Thank you.  Well, thanks, Tim for a great introduction.  I'm going to listen to that again because I must admit, I was foraging around trying to find my iPhone, microphone and headset for that.  Don't you love technology when it doesn't go well?  Is my voice clear, Jane and Darlene?  I want to make sure everyone can hear me.

-  Yes, it is okay.  It will do.  It's better than it cutting off completely.

-  Fantastic.  Thank you.  As Tim said, we want to hear from the students.  So, I'm going to throw over to them now and ask each of them to introduce themselves.  I think we're just so lucky to have four students from different universities across our wonderful country and with different experiences and different responses and different disability types.  So, we're in for a rich hour.  Ashley, would you like to start by introducing yourself and telling us what you are studying?

-  Yes, hi, everybody, my name is Ashley, this year I began studying the Master of Teaching in Secondary Education at UTS.  That began on campus, but of course, went online.  I just wanted to add that I completed my undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in writing online via UNE.  It's online study that made it possible for me to originally complete uni.

-  Thank you, Fabian?

-  Yes.  Hello.  My name is Fabian.  I am a first year law student at Griffith University doing a double degree, obviously, of law and business.  I hope to enter the legal profession in some form, either in consumer law or sports law and I have a little bit of an interest in corporate law.

-  Thank you.  So, as a first year student, you will have some great perspectives to share.  Rachel?

-  Hi.  I am studying to become a software engineer.  It's my first year.

-  Yep.  Your first year as well, great.

-  Yes.

-  And you are from UTAS, Rachel?

-  Yes, I'm from Tasmania.  University of Tasmania.

-  Thank you, Damon?

-  Damon, in my second year studying psychology at Charles Sturt University.  And disability background, I have been diagnosed with ADHD, autism and Tourettes, so I have a fun mix there, studying psychology.

-  Thank you, Damon.  So, second year.  You had one year on campus and then this year has been online.  Do you want to start by telling us your response about when you were informed that you would be moving to online study?  What was your reaction?  What was your response?

-  Initially, it was anxiety because I work really well in person, but online is very different.  I'm more reserved.  And it doesn't feel as naturally good for me.  And so, there is less communication as well, at least from my experience, having come online.

-  So, you were more anxious about how you would go with that format of study?  You say you are more happy with in person?

-  Yes.

-  What about you, Ashley, what was your first response when you were told?

-  I was actually relieved because I had researched to try to do my degree online.  I was accepted into UTS first.  So, it actually suited me better and helped me complete two subjects, which was great.

-  What about you, Fabian?  What were your thoughts, your response when you were told you suddenly had to go online?

-  I suppose, the first week after I heard in the middle of a law lecture they said, look, this will be a last on-campus lecture.  I suppose, I felt nothing and I kind of fell into — I tried to go on campus as much as I could.  Then when they closed the campus, I just went, well, this is what the situation is now.  I've got work to do.  I'll try and stick to the on-campus schedule as much as I can and just get the work done.

-  Well done.  I love it they told you halfway through a law lecture.  Did they continue on with the lecture?

-  Yes, halfway through.  It's like, "This is your last lecture,” and, "By the way, this is your content.”

-  We will come back to that, trying to stick with the routine, because that seems like a helpful strategy for you.  What about you, Rach?  What was your response when first told?

-  It was not good.  I'm really bad at online learning.  I did stop going to uni probably a week before they went online just because I was trying to stay away from crowds and stuff like that.  And they weren't really prepared straightaway.  So, I feel like they are prepared for this semester.  It's a lot better than the last one.

-  Tell me more about that.  Did you notice that they weren't prepared to deliver online?

-  Yes.  They, just did recordings from last year's classes.  So, they just put up recordings from, like, I think it was the last semester or the year before of the exact same things we would go over, but they just didn't have the option of being able to talk to the teacher then and there.  You could email him, but it's really hard to get a question through in an email.

-  So, how did that impact on your learning?

-  Really bad.  Yes.  I unfortunately couldn't finish that -- I finished it, but I couldn't get a passing grade, unfortunately.

-  Were there any other things that impacted on your learning?

-  Yes, I think it's just — I'm just not very good at online.  I don't really have the motivation to do things online by myself.  So ... yes.

-  Did that mean that you didn't go to lectures or didn't listen to lectures, didn't ... tell me what that meant?

-  I did watch them last semester.  This one, I have been going to them.  But it's just the work that you usually do in class that you have to do on your own before its due date.  So, that kind of stuff, I struggle with.  Because I forget to check, like, the student online centre where we like have all of our assignments and stuff.  And we have quizzes and everything like that.  I forget to check all of the other stuff that we don't use every day, which has, like, assignments and quizzes — mini assignments and quizzes you are supposed to do.  I always forget about those.  Yes.

-  So, it sounds like you might have missed a few of them.

-  Yes, unfortunately.

-  Okay.  Fabian, you were starting to tell us about how it impacted on you.  Did you try to keep, as much as possible, that same schedule as if you were on campus?

-  Oh, I would say I tried.  I had an 8 o’clock lecture on campus, that was miserable, every week.  I tried to keep to that.  That was going well until it got to week 11 or 12.  I thought, why am I boring?  I will do the lecture later in the day so I can sleep.  I did that and I got all of my assignments in.  I haven't missed any work or anything like that in terms of assignments or exams.  Though, I will say that I have been skipping a few tutorials because, you know, the work you do in class in terms of going over the content, looking through slides, worksheets, is a lot easier to do on campus than it is online.  When you are online, you just don't see the point; you don't bother.

-  Is there anything else that makes it easier to do on campus?  It sounds like motivation is a big part of it, that it's easier on campus?

-  It's just, when you decide to go to campus, this place is where you go to get work done and there are rooms for working.  If I choose to go to campus, I know that if I don't get any work done, if I'm not productive, then I have wasted 40 minutes getting there and 40 minutes getting home.

-  So, it's like, I might as well make the most of it and attend?

-  Essentially.  If I have three tutorials and three lectures on campus, I will go to them all because that's what I came to campus to do, to get the work done.  If it's online, I'm like, they're going to record the lectures anyway.  But the tutorials are recorded ... I went to my law ones because they are important.  But I had never done them before.  But in terms of economics or any other business subject I have said, well, I'm understanding the content.  I'm online.  I'm at home, I don't need to go to the tute.  It's too hard.  I can't be bothered.

-  So, it's really easy to lose motivation by the sounds of it.

-  Yes.

-  Any other challenges you had in changing to online learning?

-  Not really.  I mean, I have had — I know how to use a laptop.  The software we are using is pretty easy to use.  It's just making sure all the formats, accessible formats for your reading.  I had everything ready to go at start of the trimester.  It's just a shift in focus from getting up, going to campus, to I have to get myself ready, get on the computer and start work, get into that same mindset.

-  And an 8a.m. one would make it a lot harder.  I'm there with you.

-  Yep.

-  Thanks.  Damon, now, you said before that you were feeling quite anxious when you were told that you would need to go off campus because you said you don't identify as a good online learner.  How did that play out for you?  What kind of challenges did you face as on online learner?

-  Well, much like Fabian, it was a lot harder in terms of classes and keeping up with content.  Because, again, it's that environment thing.  If you are at campus it's like, well, yeah, I am here.  I'm not going to waste the time it took to get here.  And then shifting online, it was like, oh, you also have to sit still a lot more.  It's hard to just get up and walk when you need to listen to an online class.  And chuck in the pre-recorded lectures, for someone with ADHD, pre-recorded lectures are a nightmare.  They give you a pause button - that is saying, you will pause it and never come back to it.

-  And that's what happened for you?

-  Most definitely.

-  Oh no, it turned a stop button, not a pause button.  If you were on campus, you would have stayed for the whole lecture?

-  Certainly.  When it's a live format, too, I mean, it's not a norm to do in lectures.  But I still ask questions just to clarify a point in real-time.  And then everyone else gets to hear that clarification as well.  Whereas, a pre-recorded lecture, it's just, they are there and they're talking and it's so monotone as well, so neutral and removed that you don't feel energised listening to that lecture because there is no personality behind it.  It's just bland and makes you tune out.

-  If you can't clarify information or engage in that way, I imagine that would make it even more difficult to pay attention and stay engaged.

-  Definitely.

-  Rach mentioned before about the missing quizzes and online assessments and some other key points in semester.  How did you go with that?

-  Oh, assessment-wise, I'm usually on top of it.  I sort of utilise my autism traits for, like, routine and structure.  And sort of like, this has to be done.  I may not have done extraordinarily well at some of them, but ... I have a pretty free personal life.  So, time is not really an issue for me.  It's just sort of remembering when things need to be done.  Just thinking, oh, I need to go do that now and then doing it that moment while I remember it.

-  So, that worked well.  Were there any other challenges that you had apart from keeping attentive and engaged in the lectures and feeling that, "I need to do a lecture even though I haven't travelled to get there?"

-  I'm not really sure there were many other problems.  We still had live class tutorials.  In the end, it just ended up with me attending just those.  When you have ADHD, if you're not finding the content or the format interesting, despite how much you want to do it, your brain just shuts off and you can't think on it.  Whereas, when it's live, you have basically been more forced to engage.  And the format is fluid as well, which makes it a lot easier than just pre-recorded or, "Go read your textbook chapter and email if you've got questions.”

-  It seems like the online tutorials were helpful, but you are the only one who was attending them in the end; is that right?

-  I wasn't the only one.

-  You lost your classmates?  

-  I wasn't the only one attending tutorials.  I was certainly the most chatty among them.  We did lose some participants, but class was still generally solid online.

-  Good.  Good to hear.  Ashley, how about you?  You are someone who had studied online before and you are actually hoping this would turn out online.  You got your wish.  Did it all turn out okay?

-  Yes, it did.  That's what I wanted to give a recommendation, especially for, you know, new students or first-year students.  At the beginning, definitely contact your accessibility department from your university to get that support.  And this year, UTS offered a software program called Read and Write Gold.  This was something I have actually needed the whole time.  I used to use an iPad and use an audio speaker to highlight the content for that.  But now, using Read and Write Gold, I can highlight it within my own computer and listen.  So, that's definitely helped me.  What I would recommend for people is to create — to get the month planner and do month by month so you know when your tests are, you know when assessments are due.  I have found that that has been the biggest help in terms of achieving my undergraduate degree and then, also, excelling in the Masters.  It definitely helped.  

Also, we had group-work.  One of my subjects, when we went online, we had that team support.  So, I didn't feel isolated, which was really lovely.  Because I was thinking about, like, I first began online university in 2015.  I remember how reserved I was at the beginning compared to how I interact now online.  And so, I can see that development over time.  I just wanted to share with people to hang in there if you are not feeling confident in the beginning.  Because as time progresses, you find out techniques that really suit you.

-  Awesome.  It seems like you have developed those over time and developed a real awareness of what helps you in this study online.  Interesting you mentioned Read and Write and one of the questions sent in prior to this webinar from our listeners, hope they are here today, is about assistive technology that might have helped during this time.  You found Read and Write Gold, which is a real gem.  Any others?  Fabian, did you use assistive technology more or less or some different assistive technology to help you with the transition?

-  I used the same two screen readers I have been using on campus, JAWS for Windows and NVDA.  But I had an idea during the mid-trimester break to increase my speech rates.  Knowing the amount of reading I would have to do and since everything was online and having less motivation and whatnot, to try to increase the speech rate and get through as much as I could in as little time as I could and comprehend it.  So, I suppose that's one thing I have been trying to work on, trying to maintain the drive, read the content, pay attention to the lectures and tutorials.  Just try and get everything done.  Keep on top of the work so I have enough time to relax in between.

-  Good.  Damon?  Did you use assistive technologies at all?

-  Not really.  I more so just went out and bought a lot of whiteboards for my house.  I have about four different whiteboards on the go for different scheduling things.  I have two calendars up on my wall as well.  So, everything is just very visual and every line has a different colour, so it stands out and doesn't just blend into the background.

-  That sounds like that was something that's really helped you keep up with the requirements and what you needed?

-  Definitely.

-  Good, thanks for that.  Rachel, did you use any assistive technology?  Or any other strategies to help you keep up with the routine?

-  I struggled with Read and Write for my first semester because I did maths and programming and it wasn't very good for programming.  This semester, I have been pretty good.  I struggle sometimes in maths with word questions.  So, one of the teachers usually reads out the question for me, if that happens.  But it's just ... I usually just use my glasses.

-  Thank you — which is assistive technology.  I just noticed Fabian, Tracy has put the question there, “Did it work well, increasing the speech rate with your JAWS?”

-  I mean, I would like to say so, but I’m only 7 weeks into the trimester.  I'm just hoping I haven't made things worse for myself by increasing the speech rates.  But you get used to it.  The more you hear the rate, I suppose, it slows down to more of a normal pace.  I have been able to understand the readings, but I have got to actually do an exam or like a final assignment to really find out if it's worked or not.

-  So, watch this space.  You would have an awful lot of reading in the units you are choosing.

-  Ah ... 130 pages most weeks.

-  Wow, wow!  That's a lot.  We have had lots of different strategies and I love the whiteboard and loved that semester planner and, you know, increasing the screen reader speech.  What other strategies have you used to successfully study at home?  Do you want to start us off, say, Ashley?  I know you gave some good strategies before.  Anything else you wanted to add there?

-  Yes.  When we first went to online, one of our group members was quite good with Microsoft Teams, so that's who introduced our group to Microsoft Teams.  I think there were about six of us.  We could share documents.  And also, what that benefited was that we could all do different things in our own time.  And so, that was like — helped us be really successful with the assessment.  Some people had children and things like that.  So, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, which we're on now and What'sApp as well.  Because then, we were all able to communicate if we needed to say something fast.  So, very helpful.

-  Thank you.  You also mentioned before — I will pick up a point you mentioned before about checking in with your disability adviser and making sure your learning access plan is up to date.  Is there anything more you wanted to add about that?

-  Definitely.  To know about extensions.  Because I actually did not know about them for a long time.  So, even though accessibility consultants exist, there is so much information.  Sometimes, things are definitely missed.  As I progressed, I learnt — for example, UNE, with the study access plan, you could have a two-week extension if you contact the course coordinator.  I didn't utilise these extensions until the final two years of my degree.  I just wanted to share about that because it takes so much pressure off and helped improve my grades.

-  Nice one.  Thank you.  Damon, any other strategies apart from… I'm picturing your house full of whiteboards which I think is great.  I have a couple around me at the moment.  What else, what other strategies did you find that were really helpful?

-  Oh, the last semester, I sort of fell back with what I was doing and just let whatever interested me in the course take hold.  So, utilising those ADHD behaviours.  Because back then, I was unmedicated as well.  Unmedicated ADHD is extraordinarily difficult to manage in academia.  I just sort of… when it came to written assessments, I would start with an overview several weeks before and then I would just take some — and then take some time off it to let it process in the back of my head.  And then, just continually keep doing that back and forth.  So, I would come up with fresh ideas and it was less conscious stress as well, really.

-  Cool.  So, really using that focus on that topic and especially if you are interested in it and keep thinking about it and considering it.  Is there anything that you would now do differently when you return to campus?

-  Ah ...

-  Like any of the strategies that you have developed, what will you carry forward from that?

-  Whiteboards will still be used.  That's a non-negotiable to me.  My main strategy, which didn't work last semester because they shut everything down, but it's different this semester because they have opened things up, I tailor different environments and spaces to different things.  The uni campus library is for uni work.  The local library is just to go do some fun reading and then home is for personal stuff.  And so, I am in a different frame of mind in each environment.
-  Okay.  It's knowing that, then.  Someone has asked, did you use ID Mapper?  Platform ID Mapper.

-  No.

-  There you go.  It might be worth checking out afterwards.  Rachel, is there anything you have learnt from this time you want to carry forward to continue to do when we return to campus?

-  I haven't changed too much because my workload hasn't sort of like increased too much from last semester.  So, still pretty light workload for me.  So, there wasn't much change needed when we went online.  But I probably want to find a program that — a reminder program for checking everything on the student portals.  I think that's the only thing I would probably do going back on campus.

-  To help you organise and manage.

-  Yes.

-  Yes, okay, good point. okay.  We are just rushing through.  We're getting through this really well, but we have lots of questions.  I notice, someone has asked and it's of you, Ashley, like, the group that was set up, was that a study group?  Was that facilitated as a study group or was it part of a group assessment?  It sounds like it was a really good support during this time.

-  It definitely was.  It was part of — the subject was called Professional Learning.  It was actually teachers from all different streams, we actually got to choose our groups when we were on campus, the first month when we met in person.  Yes, there were six of us.  We worked so well together.  I felt like, you know, because I had another subject which I was doing, it's actually a second year English subject.  That one was completely individual.  I just saw the difference in having the group support, having — that subject was very supportive, compared to the other subject when you were by yourself.  I think that's why I was much more positive about the transition just from you know -- especially having people check in with their ideas as well.  Are you okay?  This is an idea.  And steering that direction.  Whereas, sometimes in other subjects, if you're not getting feedback instantly, you're not actually sure if you are on track.

-  Yes.  Definitely.  Good point.  Building on that, is there anything you would like to, say, let the teachers know about teaching online?  Any tips or advice that you would give?

-  Definitely --

-  Based on the experience of what has worked for you?

-  Definitely.  I feel like it's so important to let students know the feedback.  In one subject, they gave feedback instantly.  In other subject, we never got our feedback.  Because that teacher was, like,  busy or whatever happened.  We only got our final results.  So, that was very difficult because, for me, personally, feedback is what makes me stronger for the next assignment.  And I just feel that for most students, we just need that to know we're on track.

-  Yep.  Nice.  It sounds like if you can set up groups, that might be really a great way to go during the online assignment too, so, taking away isolation and giving feedback that you are on the right track for an assignment which is really difficult to know when you are sitting at home on your own.  

Damon, what advice would you want to give, or tips or advice for staff at universities and supporting online learners?

-  Ah --

-  Other teaching staff or other staff?

-  In terms of of teaching staff, like Ashley said, you know, timely response for feedback is, I find, one of the most crucial things.  When I'm writing assessments, I think, oh, am I on the right track?  You post on the discussion forum and then they can take a long time to get back to you.  It could just be a small question that is a really important one.  You are sitting there for nearly a week.  Like, I need the answer to this, but I don't have it.  So ... other than feedback, I'm not really sure.

-  That's okay.  That's fine.  How about Rachel?  And given you were doing different types of studies in the engineering and maths area and computing?

-  I think the big problem for me is if I don't understand something, the teachers seem to explain the same thing to you again.  Whereas, you might have to come at it from a different angle.  Like, not say the same thing over and over again in the hopes that the student will get it.  I have noticed online quite a bit that when they have finished explaining something they will ask the class, does anybody not understand?  A lot of the times, I say, I sort of don't understand, but I get flooded in with people saying, "No, we're all good, keep going".  I think that's the only things for me.

-  That kind of wasn't really helpful ... someone else did.  How did that make you feel?

-  I kind of went with it.  I didn't -- I was the only one who usually said, "I don't get that,” and the teacher had already moved on to the next question so I didn't want to be like, wait, go back.  Everyone else was like, "Yes, we're good.”

-  So, explain again, what would you have liked to have been different?

-  Just to, like… a different way of asking people if they understand or not.  Because writing in the chat box to say "yes" or "no”, if one person writes "no", 100 people write “yes” at the same time and that note will get lost.  Just other ways to do it.  A lot of the times, I don't have a microphone working during class or my video is not working during class, so it's not like I can pop on the video and say to go back.  Even then, the screen sharing is on.

-  So, more nuanced ways to check people's understanding rather than asking if you understand, "yes" or "no"?

-  Yes, yes.  And like, explaining it differently.  Not saying the same thing again.

-  Thank you.  Fabian, how about you?  What advice would you give to staff at uni about supporting students online?

-  I would say to course conveners to get to know - as part of your cohort - who has registered for the Disability Services in terms of, for example, for contracts a few weeks ago I sent an email as to how to download a case from a case database.  The email I got back just automatically assumed, yes, you click this and do this.  It was like, hang on, how does that work?  To get a response, you will either get it back in 10-20 minutes, which is great, or it might take a couple of days, especially if you need to turn in an assignment by Monday and you have only discovered the issue on Friday.  Then there is a big problem there.

-  That's a big problem.

-  Yep.  Almost had issues there.  But also, in terms of just establishing a connection in terms of the tutors themselves who run the tutes to the students in those classes, to check in with those classes on a regular basis, be it every couple of weeks or every month.  I don't know, but just to try to suss out how the class might be going, whether anyone has issues.  I am not sure if this is possible, but also more consultation hours offered, just so there is more opportunity without having to go through the process of emailing and having to wait for a response to establish an appointment to resolve what might be an important issue.

-  Okay.  Thanks.  So, mainly, it's a combination of your thoughts about checking in, that proactively checking in now, are you doing okay, keeping up and understanding the content?  And combining it with Rachel, not asking questions, do you understand "yes" or "no", but asking some questions to really get some responses about how people are going and what they might be struggling with and what they might need help with.  

I'm going to ask you the last question from me.  We only have a few minutes left.  I want you to give your best advice for students who may be new, who may be just starting next semester, trimester and will be starting online, what would be your advice about how to manage the workload, to stay well and healthy and resilient through that time?  Fabian, do you want to start for us?

-  I would say, do exactly as I did.  It would be the same process on campus or online.  As soon as you get your offer, you go through that process of enrolling, get that sorted quickly.  As soon as that's done, contact the disability service and get registered with them and sort out exactly what formats you will need your readings in, what subjects you are likely to take if it's your first semester or trimester, what the requirements are and whether you might need someone in those classes to help interpret graphs or to help explain concepts or whatnot.  If you are online, as soon as you have registered, I would orient yourself around your university’s student portal or hub.  And the course website, so, you know, where the content is likely to be, how to access it, where the online classrooms are, whether they are on Blackboard Collaborate, which is what we have been using, or Microsoft Teams or Zoom or any other platform and get used to how that works so you’re ready for when the work starts piling up.

-  So, it's the preparation beforehand.  I like the point about getting the know the platforms you will be using and understanding how they work.  It's hard enough learning them without learning content as well at the same time.  How about you, Rachel, what advice would you give to students if they need to go online?

-  I would do what Fabian said, get in contact with disabilities.  Find out if you can — if you have any access to campus, I have some access to my campus because of, just because disability students have access to special areas of campus during COVID.  I would also suggest finding out if there are any, like, student groups at the university that, like, disability groups and join up with them.  Because they always — they can convene once a week or once a month and just swap ideas on what has been an issue and how they have solved it.  And I also recommend doing a little bit of Googling on how to attend university with whatever disability you have.  I Googled how to go through uni with dyslexia and it gave me a lot of tips and stuff.

-  Awesome.  Hopefully, you found ADCET in your Google searches.  We can talk about that later.

-  I also forgot, I also recommend having a chat personally with your lecturers, just whether it's through email or phone or something and let them know what, you know, who you are and what your struggle is at uni and make sure they actually have a personal chat with you.  Not just like a, "Here's my plan.”  You know?

-  But really chat to you about how that impacts on your learning?

-  Yes.

-  What helps you learn?

-  Yes.  So, when you come up to them for questions they know oh, wait, if she asks a question, I have to explain it to her differently.  Or, they say, "Come see me afterwards,” and they are more open to giving you a bit of extra time after class as well if you need it.

-  Thank you.  Damon, what advice would you have for students who may need to study online, who weren't expecting it?

-  Well, in addition to the previous points made, which are all very excellent, my advice is more, think about why you are here, what you want out of it and, first year, I look at it as a momentum game, especially online.  It's really tough.  But you get through first year and then you have established the momentum.  You have the tools and skills and experience to be able to push that momentum forward into later years.  The best way I find to get through the first year is to think about why you are here, why are you doing this course?  The purpose behind what you want to do with it, to really just push you through the initial stage.

-  That's nice.  That supplements what Rachel and Fabian said so well.  Ashley, is there anything you can add?

-  I definitely think students have to choose what they are interested in.  I spent such a long time comparing every degree, every course structure in terms of subjects, what do I actually want to be doing?  Because I knew it was whatever you're interested in, you will find it easier and when it is challenging, you will remind yourself that this is my passion area and I want to succeed at this.  I feel like that gives you the drive to actually stick with your studies.

-  It's that inherent drive.  Because sometimes, those characteristic approaches don't work and you need to be driven within.  They are great points, I think, to finish the formal questions.

-  I would like to add one more.

-  Yes, go on, Damon.

-  Because my advice is also, don't get too hung up if the current course you're in, you lose interest later down the line.  I have been through two previous courses before arriving at psychology.  I was in computer science and then business management.  And then I hopped over to psychology and I have loved psychology since I started it.  It's just realising what you first think may not turn out to be the thing for you.  But also realising that that is totally fine.  You don't know your favourite colour ice-cream unless you try all of the flavours, right?

-  Yep, exactly.  I'm still trying it.  That's my excuse.  I'm still finding my favourite flavour.

-  Learning is a life process.

-  Kerrie wants to know, did any of you use wellbeing strategies such as mindfulness or meditation to help you cope with the study online?  I will leave it for anyone to jump in there.

-  I actually was going to add this.  I was thinking about it yesterday.  I had to rest a lot during my undergraduate studies.  When I rested, I would use creative visualisation.  I would see myself strong.  I would see the assessment done.  And I still use that now.  If I get an assessment and it first seems very overwhelming, if I visualise it complete, I go through it much more smoothly.

-  Nice.  So, you do a visual meditation for that?  Interesting.  Anyone else want to add an answer to that question?

-  I have got an interesting way of doing things.  Probably, the best example is an e-portfolio I got given to complete for a business assignment.  As soon as I saw the absolute mountain of work that that thing is, I started telling myself, you've got this massive mountain and if you don't move, it's going to — you are going to be buried.  I kept on doing it for a week, making it seem a lot worse than it was and then I started working harder and I thought, hang on, I have actually got a lot of this done, calm down, there is nothing much left to do, it works well.  So, making things look a lot worse than they are and then thinking, okay, there wasn't actually that much to do.

-  For you, that wellbeing or resilience strategy is to challenge your own thinking, I'm making this bigger; if I break it down into small steps, it's not as big as I thought it was once I start?

-  Essentially.  But it's also just, I will let myself, you know, wallow in the panic of, "This is going to be painful,” and I will let that sink in.  Then I just go, well, you know what?  It's here.  Let's just start working on it.  And then, you just go along at a comfortable pace, you don't rush.  You don't think about it again, you go, okay, I have just got this little aspect to do and then you discover you are almost finished it and got three weeks to spare.

-  Nice.  Put away the wallowing and just do it.  Rachel, what would be the one of your resilience strategies you have used in this time to keep your wellbeing up and okay?

-  I would say, my partner.  He is probably ... yes.  He finished uni.  He is actually the one who convinced me to go back.  Because I have attempted uni twice.  He is the one that keeps me on track.  I don't really have any strategies of my own that would probably be helpful to me.  So, I would definitely put it all towards him.

-  I think being open and listening to him is a great strategy.  Well done.

-  Yep.

-  It's finding those people in our lives and listening and being open to that that can make a big difference.  

Damon, was there any strategy you used to help you build your resilience in this time?

-  My one will come from psychological literature on perception and it takes time to get used to doing this.  When you see things like high workload or I have to do this, I have to do that and then you have a stress response, what I tend to think and fall back on is the actual — it's not the workload itself that is stressful, it's my response to it.  Because everything is neutral until we assign the meaning towards it.  And when you are aware of that, you can start more consciously assigning meanings to things throughout your life.  And so, how you view it reflects in your attitudes as well.

-  Lovely.  That's part of mindfulness, isn't it?  It's not the event itself or the situation itself that's stressful, but it's how we respond to it.  Good pick-up there.  Interesting use of that technique which is tricky to learn.  So, well done.  I'm going to hand over to Darlene and Tim and thank you, everybody, for supporting me on the phone.

-  That's a fantastic.  Thanks, heaps, Deb and thanks to the students, it's absolutely brilliant hearing from you.  Over to you, Tim for a quick wrap-up and then I will spruik our next webinar.

-  It is really quick because I can't add to what the panellists have said.  The main take away I got from listening to them all, in one sentence, would be online is a good option, but not if it's the only option.  It works for some people and it can work and all of the panellists offered some excellent advice and actually led from experience there.  

Like I say, the other thing that I found very interesting was, again, reiterating the need for social contact and the need to come into the campus for some students in some situations.  Yes, look, only because maybe some people might have missed this because it was buried in all of the incredible detail, I think it was Damon, I could be wrong, was talking about — actually, I think a couple of them mentioned if you spend a couple of hours traveling to campus, it becomes an investment in your education and you will make sure you do the work, whereas when you are at home, it doesn't happen.  I thought that was really interesting.  I want to thank everyone for this excellent advice and feedback.  Thank you.

-  That's great.  Thanks, Tim.  So, next week we actually have a webinar where we will hear from TAFE students.  So, that's on our website.  If people have not signed up for that and would like to, please do.  Once again, also, we had some questions that didn't get answered and we will try to talk to some of the students and maybe put some of that information on the website under the recording.  So, thank you, once again, for everybody joining us, to the students, to Tim and most of all, Debbie, through the stress of trying to get you connected to us all, you managed very well and asked questions articulately, so, well done, everybody.  Have a good rest of the day.  Take care.