This document summarizes a case study exploring the transition to online delivery of teaching content in China due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Academics from the Royal Agricultural University normally travel to China to teach students in-person, but had to shift to delivering pre-recorded lectures and holding interactive Zoom sessions. While online teaching can overcome geographical barriers, it also presents challenges like language differences and student engagement. Feedback from students indicated interactive sessions worked best when broken into shorter segments. Academics found recording lectures technically straightforward but time-consuming and felt isolated from students. Mixed methods were argued to provide multiple views for understanding the student experience in this transnational online environment.

1. The Transnational Online Pivot:
A Case Study Exploring Online Delivery in China.
Marieke Guy, Digital Learning Manager, & Pip McDonald, Learning Technologist at Royal Agricultural University (RAU)
What type of approaches What worked well in the
did you use to engage interactive sessions?
students in interactive sessions?
Rank the main challenges you faced as part of the project
Would you find peer review helpful?
Please describe any feedback obtained from the students about
interactive sessions
How did you approach assessment How can we improve
& feedback in the interactive sessions? Panopto & interactive sessions?
Select tools on which would like training & best format
Do you think the ‘transnational online pivot’ was different to
online teaching in a normal transnational context? Explain
why/why not?
Describe how you felt adapting your lectures for Panopto?
What types of learning occurred Which learning tools were
during the interactive sessions? easier to use?
Language
barrier
Better served by
shorter lectures
Technically very
straightforward
Time consuming
Apprehension &
isolation
Hard to tell if
engaged
Conversion
instructions clear
As part of a longstanding partnership between the Royal
Agricultural University (RAU) and Shandong Agriculture
University (SDAU) academic staff travel to China to
deliver teaching to students in a face to face classroom
setting. Due to the global pandemic content was
delivered in an online capacity - a transnational ‘online
pivot’. Lecturers pre-recorded their lecture content using
Panopto by adding recorded audio to PowerPoint
presentations and supported this content with interactive
sessions using Zoom.
Whilst one of the benefits of online delivery is the
opportunity to overcome “…geographical access
limitations…” (McBurnie & Ziguras, 2007: p26), it
also presents challenges.
Mixed method research has been argued to
encourage us “…to not only look at the world in
different ways but to share those multiple, different
views in making sense of the world…” (Cohen,
Manion & Morrison, 2018: pp31-32).
Perhaps we will not achieve the ‘Habermasian
Public Sphere’ (Schneider, 2018 in Fei, 2020)
Bibliography
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K, (2018)
Research Methods in Education (8th ed) (Oxon:
Routledge)
McBurnie, G & Ziguras, C 2007 Transnational
Education Issues and trends in offshore higher
education (Oxon: Routledge)
Fei, Y (2020) Managing 'Digital CHina' During the
Covid-19 Pandemic: Nationalist Stmiulation and its
Backlash in Postdigital Science and Education
(Online) Available at:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42438-
020-00181-w [Accessed: 14th September 2020]
Shandong University
Zoom session with colleagues
from Shandong University
Getting delivery
timings right