The Transition to Online Teaching and Learning

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 provided both a need and an opportunity for educational institutions in Sydney to explore new ways of providing teaching and learning for their students. UBSS was able to respond quickly because it had already prepared to introduce online learning. In mid-2019, the institution had decided to offer an online option and a senior staff member and support staff had been working since then to convert existing product into suitable online format. By the time the demand for online teaching and learning arrived, the institution was already well placed for the conversion.

RFE/RL Never Had a Separate Broadcast Service in Romanian for Soviet Moldavia… Interview with A. Ross Johnson, Former Director of Radio Free Europe (Sergiu Musteață)

A. Ross JOHNSON is a History and Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and Senior Adviser at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Johnson was a senior executive of RFE/RL from 1988 to 2002, serving as director of Radio Free Europe, director of the RFE/RL Research Institute, acting president, and counselor of RFE/RL. He was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2002 to 2016 and senior staff member of the RAND Corporation from 1969 to 1988, where he specialized in East European and Soviet security issues. He is author of the book Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. The CIA Years and Beyond.

Good CoP: what makes a community of practice successful?

<p>We have established a community of practice focussed on student learning in first-year science. It is recognised that transition, whether from school to university or other possible transitions, is an issue that is a concern for the entire sector, and this is acknowledged both at Faculty and University level. One of the factors to which we attribute the success of this CoP is that we are working within the context of a well-established set of transition pedagogies which have been strongly promoted and supported within UTS. There is also an internal grants scheme that provides small amounts of funding for initiatives aimed at improving transition and engagement as part of the widening participation strategy. Another factor for the success of this group is the leadership and active engagement of a senior staff member. This CoP has not evolved organically as a grass-roots group, nor has it been commissioned from on-high. The Faculty of Science has also recently appointed an academic developer to support course renewal and the mapping of graduate attributes, and this role includes the support of initiatives like setting up CoPs.</p>