Here is an excerpt of how I recently reflected on an interaction with a student and their personalized matters, including registration issues, and how this impacted my adaptability and  emotionally intelligence which are central to my L.E.T.E.T.I.A Teaching Philosophy.

I was able to journal about this experience and use Rolfe's Reflective Model  of Reflection . This has deepened my introspective lenses in and out of the classroom. I was able to identify areas I can improve on and enhance the existing methods I use, particularly in the online space.

Do enjoy reading my anecdote and reflective process. 

I have had a recent eye-opening experience where a student's situation tested my level of empathy. The student was not fully registered for the course and thus, reached out to me as the course Lecturer to explain the reason for this. His financial situation hindered his full registration capability and thus, access to the course platform on myelearning. I decided to send the student the materials for the assignments and indicated that he should reach out to the class representative for the additional notes and files, as well as lecture recordings. I truly empathized with the situation and wanted to ensure the student felt the full support from my end in assisting the learning process. 

Week by week, the student sent emails to indicate the assignments would be submitted, although the deadlines had passed. I reached out to enquire if the student was aware of this. Some part of my intuition indicated that the student was not taking the course seriously, while at the same time I had the emotional intelligence to understand that financial struggles are also not easy to deal with. In that regard, I felt torn between being the educator who upholds the rules and regulations of the University, as well as the soft hearted side of me, who tries to 'walk around in someone else's skin' as the book 'To Kill A Mockingbird' suggests.

 However, I decided to seek advice from a Department colleague and the Head of Department who engaged in a rapport with the student. To this end the student was warned that inconsistency in meeting deadlines for assignments, as well as not attendings some classes, could result in demotion to a Diploma from the Masters. I do admit, it seemed harsh, but at the same time, I felt supported in my stance to indicate to the student the penalties for the non-submission of assignments. My goal as an educator is always to adjust to suit based on individual student circumstances, however my patience and empathy were truly tested i this situation. I learnt that there is a fine line to balance both of these sentiments, and that seeking advice and opinions from my colleagues truly gives me valuable insights to enhance my approach in similar situations in future.

In this situation I realised that there were a number of considerations to reflect on. This course offering would be the final one and the content involved statistical applications which most students were not used to. There were parts of me which mused on if the student was more so overwhelmed by the content of the course and hence, was stalling on the submissions. At the same time, I knew that I gave as much transparency, scaffolding and support to assist the student with the submission, despite the woes of finances and registration. 

My main aim has always been for students to learn.  I reflected on situations in the past courses where students who were unable to access my eLearning for similar reasons were in constant contact with me to ensure they obtained course materials and submitted assignments on time. I was quite surprised by this case since I expected this student to reach out to me even more than the registered students. This challenged my previous beliefs and expectations of students. I wondered if this was just an isolated case or if there is a new student profile evolving where they are taking certain courses less seriously than others. 

I was well aware that the student was more engaged in another course and attended those lectures more.  The meaningful insights I have gained from this experience has led me to believe that I have to adjust my approach in empathising with certain student cases. While I do understand the challenges, I realised the importance of maintaining academic integrity. I reached out to the student to have a consultation with greater transparency on the course guidelines when it comes to meeting deadlines and that late assignments on a regular basis is unacceptable and I will no longer allow such. This has tested my own boundaries of what I will and will not tolerate in the academic space from students. It is still a work in progress.

This situation has really pushed me to think critically about the content I create for my courses. While these are available on my eLearning, I do think there are merits in having more screencasts available to students via platforms such as YouTube so that they can access content easily, even with registration issues. As the world as been able to adapt to online and hybrid learning, I find it has been very useful to use more Web 2.0 technological tools (quizzes, podcasts, blogs and other social media tools) to support the lectures asynchronously, especially in fully online courses such as this. 

While this student’s registration issues and non-adherence to deadlines represent a more isolated case, it has also given me more food for thought on a larger scale about providing students with easily accessible online content, such as practice quizzes using the online scholarly resource, Khan Academy, where I can still track their progress. While my eLearning is the recommended platform for registered students, I do believe that accommodating students with more accessible asynchronous activities, can benefit them greatly. 

Anxiety to hand in assignments on time can be a hindrance to a student who can otherwise gain incremental marks in bite sized activities they can access anytime. I have started to incorporate Datacamp.com short course credits in R statistical software for students who love to use mobile devices and can access this content freely. This has appeared to be successful so far, and I will continue this in future course iterations.

March 25-2023