With such a high percentage of our students situated in our online teaching spaces, UNE Business School is working hard to deliver high quality content that supports our students and facilitates the discussion of complex concepts in a way that enables an understanding of their real-world application.

Dr Simon Burgess recently co-ordinated MM322: Business Ethics for Trimester 1, 2017. His Adobe Connect sessions were well received by his online students – with an approach intended to offer this live, real-time support around the 3 assessment tasks for the unit, each session took a particular focus. These sessions provided an opportunity for students to direct questions to Simon, who was then able to answer them as they appeared via Adobe Connect’s on-screen text function.

Successful Adobe Connect sessions is a key goal of UNE Business School, and the healthy attendance rate for these MM322 sessions indicates the work Simon has put in to promoting the usefulness of this additional resources. Simon notes that the sessions were set up so students had clear video and audio, although he generally could not see or hear students, making use of the on-screen text function for questions. Sessions were offered a week or two prior to  the assessment task concerned, and ran on a weeknight, either from 8 – 8.30pm or 7.30 – 8pm.

Feedback in student teaching and unit evaluations regarding on the Adobe Connect sessions from MM322 was positive, with students noting in response to the question: What were the best aspects of this unit?

• “Adobe lessons by Simon were good”
• “The adobe sessions were fantastic”
• “The notes and adobe presentations”

One student also noted “The adobe connect sessions was appreciated and made me feel part of the class. I would like to see more of these activities with future courses where possible.”

UNE Business School teaching continues to focus on ways to use the many digital resources available for connecting with our online students, and it is excellent to see participation in these sessions growing as we find ways to make connections in the online space.

Students can find out more about setting themselves up to get the most out of their Adobe Connect session here.