The experiences of sessional academics in undergraduate science education during the COVID-19 pandemic

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the higher education sector is undeniable. Sessional academics had to adapt to online teaching practices from their traditional teaching practices (e.g., face-to-face laboratories) with little to no training or prior experience. Recent literature describes the anecdotal experiences of individual teaching staff (or teams), such as lack of social interaction and communication (Bartolic et al., 2022; Pather et al., 2020). Sessional academics play a crucial role in the higher education sector, as they are responsible for a majority of face-to-face laboratory teaching and other teaching activities. Due to the sudden transition to online teaching, these casual staff had to learn new software and tools, while isolated in a home environment and often with increased home responsibilities (Bartolic et al., 2022). This project aimed to capture the individual experiences and circumstances of sessional science teaching academics during the pandemic in order to keep a record of what happened and to draw together threads for future online teaching. The study was conducted with the tutors and demonstrators within the faculties of Science at The University of Sydney and Deakin University. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 teaching assistants at these institutions located in different states. The states and institutions had different responses to COVID-19, which led to different impacts on the sessional staff. Lack of interaction with students, difficulty in monitoring student engagement, and most importantly, job insecurity, were the main causes of dissatisfaction and anxiety. It was mentioned by some participants that teaching online could provide flexibility in terms of work-life balance, while some stated that it was difficult for them to separate work from personal life due to working from home. Most participants agreed that the level of support they received from the university management and unit coordinators was adequate although the support could have been better.    Interesting findings from the interviews will be highlighted in this presentation alongside proposed future directions to support sessional academics. REFERENCES Bartolic, S. K., Boud, D., Agapito, J., Verpoorten, D., Williams, S., Lutze-Mann, L., Matzat, U., Ma Monica Moreno, M. M., Patsie Polly, P., Tai, J., Marsh, H., L., Lin, L., Burgess, J., Habtu, S., Rodrigo, M. M. M., Roth, M., Heap, T. & Guppy, N. (2022) A multi-institutional assessment of changes in higher education teaching and learning in the face of COVID-19, Educational Review, 74(3), 517-533. Pather, N., Blyth, P., Chapman, J. A., Dayal, M. R., Flack, M. S., Fogg, Q. A., Green, R. A., Hulme, A. K., Johnson, I. P., Meyer, A. J., Morley, J. W., Shortland, P. J., Štrkalj, G., Štrkalj, M., Valter, K., Webb, A. L., Woodley, S. J., & Lazarus, M. D. (2020). Forced Disruption of Anatomy Education in Australia and New Zealand: An Acute Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Anatomical Sciences Education, 13(3), 284-30

Evaluating the online teaching experience of University of Sydney staff from 2020-2021: What are the lessons learnt?

This study aimed to address the broad concern of how teaching staff in the higher education sector were impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/2021. Importantly, we sought to extend this to consider how reflecting on these experiences has informed future practice or plans for innovation. Invited participants completed an online qualitative questionnaire composed of reflective questions. Respondents (14) included members of the research team from the Faculty of Science and Business School, The University of Sydney. Subsequent deductive thematic coding was undertaken with a focus to identify common experiences and challenges raised (Ryan & Bernard, 2003). In this presentation, we will give an overview of the key findings from this study including the challenges and lessons learnt. In this study there was a degree of concern raised about making the transition from face-to-face teaching to online teaching. This was primarily related to increased workload and lack of engagement with online teaching. However, as respondents went through the process of change, they reported feeling more positive and confident about their ability to use EdTech and make changes in a short space of time. The research has demonstrated a strong resilience of staff in adapting to unforeseen changes such as that experienced by all during the pandemic. REFERENCE Ryan, G. W. & Bernard, H. R. (2003). Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods, 15, 85-109

Promises of stem cell therapy for retinal degenerative diseases

With the development of stem cell technology, stem cell-based therapy for retinal degeneration has been proposed to restore the visual function. Many animal studies and some clinical trials have shown encouraging results of stem cell-based therapy in retinal degenerative diseases. While stem cell-based therapy is a promising strategy to replace damaged retinal cells and ultimately cure retinal degeneration, there are several important challenges which need to be overcome before stem cell technology can be applied widely in clinical settings. In this review, different types of donor cell origins used in retinal treatments, potential target cell types for therapy, methods of stem cell delivery to the eye, assessments of potential risks in stem cell therapy, as well as future developments of retinal stem cells therapy, will be discussed

BMPRII+ neural precursor cells isolated and characterized from organotypic neurospheres: an in vitro model of human fetal spinal cord development

Roof plate secretion of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) directs the cellular fate of sensory neurons during spinal cord development, including the formation of the ascending sensory columns, though their biology is not well understood. Type-II BMP receptor (BMPRII), the cognate receptor, is expressed by neural precursor cells during embryogenesis; however, an in vitro method of enriching BMPRII+ human neural precursor cells (hNPCs) from the fetal spinal cord is absent. Immunofluorescence was undertaken on intact second-trimester human fetal spinal cord using antibodies to BMPRII and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Regions of highest BMPRII+ immunofluorescence localized to sensory columns. Parenchymal and meningeal-associated BMPRII+ vascular cells were identified in both intact fetal spinal cord and cortex by co-positivity with vascular lineage markers, CD34/CD39. LIF immunostaining identified a population of somas concentrated in dorsal and ventral horn interneurons, mirroring the expression of LIF receptor/CD118. A combination of LIF supplementation and high-density culture maintained culture growth beyond 10 passages, while synergistically increasing the proportion of neurospheres with a stratified, cytoarchitecture. These neurospheres were characterized by BMPRII+/MAP2ab+/–/βIII-tubulin+/nestin–/vimentin–/GFAP–/NeuN– surface hNPCs surrounding a heterogeneous core of βIII-tubulin+/nestin+/vimentin+/GFAP+/MAP2ab–/NeuN– multipotent precursors. Dissociated cultures from tripotential neurospheres contained neuronal (βIII-tubulin+), astrocytic (GFAP+), and oligodendrocytic (O4+) lineage cells. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting-sorted BMPRII+ hNPCs were MAP2ab+/–/βIII-tubulin+/GFAP–/O4– in culture. This is the first isolation of BMPRII+ hNPCs identified and characterized in human fetal spinal cords. Our data show that LIF combines synergistically with high-density reaggregate cultures to support the organotypic reorganization of neurospheres, characterized by surface BMPRII+ hNPCs. Our study has provided a new methodology for an in vitro model capable of amplifying human fetal spinal cord cell numbers for > 10 passages. Investigations of the role BMPRII plays in spinal cord development have primarily relied upon mouse and rat models, with interpolations to human development being derived through inference. Because of significant species differences between murine biology and human, including anatomical dissimilarities in central nervous system (CNS) structure, the findings made in murine models cannot be presumed to apply to human spinal cord development. For these reasons, our human in vitro model offers a novel tool to better understand neurodevelopmental pathways, including BMP signaling, as well as spinal cord injury research and testing drug therapies