Teacher reflections on lockdown-induced changes to teaching practices in School of Pharmacy programmes

The purpose of this research project is to stimulate reflection within those teaching into School of Pharmacy programmes whose teaching practices were affected by the rapid transition to online teaching brought about by University of Auckland COVID-19 teaching restrictions in March 2020. In addition we wish to collate data about what changes were made to teaching and assessment practices in the School and why, teacher views about their experiences of online teaching and the changes they made, and any plans and/or desires to continue their teaching in a more blended fashion going forward. A follow-up questionnaire planned for mid 2021 seeks to gather views on what changes were implemented and teacher perceptions of the benefits of those changes.

This is a descriptive study collecting data at two time points about teacher views and practices before, during and after a significant event (lockdown and other University of Auckland COVID-19-related teaching restrictions in 2020) using two anonymous unlinked reflective on-line questionnaires to collect data, and qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques.

Research questions:

1. What were the teaching practice-related changes, experiences and views of school of pharmacy teaching staff, occurring in semester 1, 2020 as a result of UoA COVID-19 teaching restrictions?
2. What, if anything, are teachers into School of Pharmacy programmes considering or would like to trial, with respect to using a more blended learning approach to their teaching going forward?
3. What are teacher perceptions of the blended learning they introduced or were involved with when face to face teaching resumed?

In addition to the value of the findings from this project for future teaching in the School, this is the first collaborative STRonG research project undertaken. It aims to provide the co-investigators with increased familiarity with ethics application completion, data collection and analysis techniques and research report writing as they are teaching staff with an interest in evaluating aspects of their own teaching.