Student Collaboration and Engagement in Emergency Remote Teaching

Matthew Adam Rossman & Nicola Jan Smith (RMIT University Vietnam)

In a conversation between two teaching colleagues at RMIT University in Vietnam, we narrate the story of how we adjusted our face-to-face classroom skills in engaging students and encouraging collaboration to the context of emergency remote teaching during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We start by describing how teaching in the online environment made us feel off-balanced. In other words, it made us feel like beginner teachers again; it affected our confidence; it caused us extra stress.

We then relate our responses to this disruption. First, we share stories of connectivity issues that influenced our use of technology. Then, we relate how we adapted our teacher talk to the online learning environment. After that, we give an account that illustrates the ways in which we ensured that students were engaged with the lesson ideas and activities. Finally, we describe scenarios of successful digital collaboration between our students.

Overall, the lessons we drew from this have supported our teaching practice not only in face-to-face teaching, but also in any potential return to remote teaching.