Henry's factors and forces

Material

Raj is a member of one of the oldest universities in India and the development of the country's economy and subsequently of the the university has not allowed for things like broadband internet, up to date computers and software or even comfortable and sufficient seating in an overcorwded place within a fast growing student population. The stretched meant includes a lack quiet / private spaces to work and of course access to things like online materials at work or at home, on his salary and among his large extended family.

Social

As a professor, more is expected of him in terms of workload and different roles he fulfils - not just teaching and research, but also publishing and ambassadorship. It leaves very little time for learning new ICT skills. He only received a couple of days of training before being asked to teach online. He does not see how he will find time to teach while dealing with the backlog of work created by COVID-19. He’s had to pivot quickly to online learning and is very fearful whether he can meet expectations. The university online teaching response to COVID-19 has been chaotic, creating more problems than it has solved (e.g. to morale and confidence the issues can be overcome).

Intentional

He has never received any training through an online course, so he’s determined to experience what it’s like to be an online-learning or distance student. However, he needs to scale down on what he would like to achieve and what is possible. With adequate training he still won’t be able to reach students who have no or very slow internet access who constitute about 70%. Just 22 of his 200 students logged into his first remote learning class. He is not sure about online interaction generally or how to deal with a class of 30 students or more and whether his approach should be in the form of a lecture or more communicative. Raj wants to learn the ICT skills necessary for an academic of the 21st century.

Concerns

To summarise Raj's main concerns: Faculty are getting by using outdated resources and methods. He worries how with the pressures in hand, we will gain the resources, skills and experience needed to facilitate live classes online.

He needs educating / reassuring in the area of OER and OEP and will be worried about coming up against tradition in the university’s view of research, publishing and teacher autonomy.

Material

Connie is privileged in the sense that she comes from a wealthy Chinese family (her mother a doctor, father a businessman) and a country that is one of the most developed and connected in the world, she attends a modern university, with modern facilities. She can very much afford and find available, high speed internet, and she is used to using her smart phone and laptop for both studying, finding online resources (though usually only those recommended by her tutor and through her usual social networks) , for social networking and general communication. She lives in a comfortable flat where she has plenty of private space for a single young woman with few responsibilities (albeit with quite a few social pressures).

Social

Connie is seen as a rebel for going after a language teaching career. In fact, her parents think the MA in English is only a path to work in an international company - not academia – where excellent English might be required. Parental expectation pressure on her. In exchange for paying her tuition fees, they expect her to do well and even talk about her repaying her fees to them. Her internet and IT equipment access are limited to what she can afford via her mobile phone but at the university, it is free and unlimited. However, it restricts her time at home, where she'd rather be studying.

Connie has a very heavy workload and finds it very hard or impossible to reduce it because on the one hand, her work has been affected greatly by COVID-19 and, on the other, the country-wide protests in the country. This means she is completing a masters in a year as opposed to two. She also challenges herself to continue her teaching and her other interests that include literature and socialising with friends. I really just want to make my life easier...it is very intense’.

Intentional

At the same time, Connie is dealing with her lack of motivation to study Applied Linguistics subjects, many of which do not interest her as much as what seems to her to be a separate teaching side, which helps her greatly as L3 speaker of English - after Mandarin and other Chinese dialects and is also what he wants to do after graduating - teach English. At the same time, her parents are encouraging her to give it up to study a ‘real’ subject.

Concerns

To summarise Connie's main concerns:

Social / familial pressures have affected Connie in the intentional domain the most. She needs experiences that boost her self-efficacy that she has taken the correct career path and that the freedom it suggests both to travel, earn more and rrise further will not be affected by the curtailing of her rights to freedom of choice, and freedom of speech and belief that is currently under threat in her society. She worries if her freedom to access the internet will be curtailed and if her freedom to use OER will be curtailed if the free education system in HK is compromised. She worries that the skills she wants to learn for use as a teacher will not be wasted if she is forced to live a life under rigid restiction.

On a much lower level, her lack of interest in some aspects of her current study makes her question her current career path or at least affects her motivation. She needs an online experience that presents her whole subject area in an interesting and engaging light that lifts her level of interst.