Dear students,
Firstly, I hope this email finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy in these ever-moving times.
Secondly, I wanted to personally thank you for your patience, your incredible resilience, support to your lecturers and fellow students and kindness to the whole College while we bring together the plan for your successful completion of the Semester 1, 2020. Undoubtedly, this is not going to be a conventional semester but please know that the College is working to ensure delivery of the subjects that will minimise the disruption to your learning and progression through your degree.
The first part of the plan was instigation of the live streaming of the theory lectures from one campus, release of pre-recorded lectures (where available) and release of attendance requirements. The live streaming is no longer possible as all campuses are now closed until 4th May, 2020 as health and wellbeing of you, your loved ones and lecturers is paramount to the College. To ensure uninterrupted delivery of the subjects the College has decided to implement the following:
1. theory subjects with pre-recorded lectures will continue to have these available plus a dedicated 1 hour support webinar for each 3-hour session delivered twice per week (e.g. 4CP subjects in this category to have 4 support webinars per week) - this will allow you dedicated time with allocated lecturer to go over prepared questions that would solidify your content learning (HOMM122, HOMT122, BIOH111, BIOB111, BIOH122, BIOO211, BIOP211, BIOS222, BIOC211, CMPR112, NMDF121, NMDH322 (recordings currently being prepared), NMDM121, NMDS111, NATF311, NATP121, SOCE311, SOCF111, SOCH311, SOCQ121)
2. theory subjects without pre-recorded lectures will have each 3-hour session delivered as a 3-hour webinar twice per week - this will allow you to chose which live webinar you would like to join and work through the content and tutorial material (as applicable) with the dedicated lecturer (HMCL223, CMHB211, CMHB221, CMPR113, CMPR311, CMPR411, NMDA321, NMDC221, all NUT clinic workshops, NMDD211, NMDE211, NMDF211, NMDS311, NMDW221, NATC414 (w), NATC425B (w), WHMC311, WHMF112, WHMF121, WHMF212, WHMF221, WHMF314, SOCP121)
3. practical subjects - where possible theory parts of each practical session will be delivered in 1-2 hours webinars twice per week; this will allow you to continue learning theory grounding for the practical skills you will learn and practice when you come back to the intensive delivery when the College re-opens (BIOE221, CMAC222, CMAC223, CMAC311, CMAC321, CMAC411, CMDE411, HMCL211, HMCL222, HMCL312, MSTA121, MSTE311, MSTM311, MSTR211, MSTT211, MSTT212, MSTT317)
4. clinic subjects will be delivered as intensives once the College re-opens
A few further points for you to know:
- all theory subjects will continue to be delivered online when the College re-opens
- all webinars (support and delivery) will be recorded and will be uploaded to the appropriate LMS week per subject within 48 hours of the recording
- you will still be asked to work through tutorials in a group (as appropriate for subject and session) - this will now be a virtual group with your fellow students from all around Australia
- assessments in theory subjects (this includes clinic workshops) will not change in terms of due date; format of some assessments will change: mid-semester exams that were supposed to be delivered in class are currently being moved to online exams and any in-class oral presentations will need to be recorded and uploaded (Subject Coordinators will be in touch with the specific details)
- we are currently planning the practical and clinic intensives - we will be in touch soon with a plan
- assessments in practical and clinic subjects will change to accommodate the intensive delivery as we know that students take multiple practical and clinic classes (or combination of both) at the same time
- your classroom lecturers are still available to you via LMS and email - please ask them any content and assessments questions
- you still have access to Academic Consultations - these will be now done via phone rather than in person
While the live delivery and support of the theory subjects starts tomorrow (please see Loop and Noticeboards of the specific subjects for details), there may be technical issues that will need to be addressed as we settle into this new way of our subject delivery - I ask you to be patient and kind to your lecturers and the IT departments while we work through the issues together. Please be assured that any gaps in delivery or support of these subjects will be addressed by a separate recording or an extra support webinar. Also, please keep your eye on the Loop of your subjects - Subject Coordinators will be communicating any changes and updates through this avenue.
Thank you for being incredible, kind and calm students - we are dedicated to delivering the highest standard of online live education delivery and are working to ensure this occurs across all of the above mentioned subjects.
Thank you for your patience and collaboration - the only way through this very unprecedented situation is together.
Kind regards,
Dr Andrea Bugarcic
Director of Education