This Australian university case study explores the transition to emergency, remote teaching (ERT) in an intensive Block Model curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey investigated academics’ experiences of factors that helped or hindered their transition. A thematic analysis of the data revealed a symbiotic relationship between the Block Model curriculum, professional learning, and academics’ sense of agency as they experienced their transition. We relate our findings to Whittle et al.’s 2020 framework and propose an extended framework based on (...) how teaching was influenced by the changed environment. Drawing on the extended framework, we propose lessons for the future based on how academics were reflectively adapting to ERT. In the four-week Block Model, lessons were learned and applied in the subsequent Block. Critical lessons relevant to higher education institutions include increasing diversity of effective, un-invigilated assessment types, and fostering student wellbeing by facilitating learning spaces where students connect with peers and academics. Furthermore, academics need connections with peers and safe spaces in which to debrief on evolving situations and build confidence in using new learning technologies. Professional learning fostering an emergency-informed, safe learning environment effectively reduces isolation and better prepares institutions for future emergencies. (shrink)

Individual choice and freedom are repeatedly invoked in contemporary policy debates, including those with a focus on risk behaviors such as smoking and health insurance coverage. The idea of making the right choice with regard to health and well-being has been fortified by the neoliberal discourse of self-reliance, personal autonomy, and responsibility. This neoliberal view, stemming from the conceptualization of freedom of philosopher John Stuart Mill justifying the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control, holds that success, (...) good health, and favorable educational outcomes are largely due to individual effort. Correspondingly, so too is failure, including failure of.. (shrink)