Online Student Engagement of At-Risk Students During a Pandemic: A Reflective Essay

Abstract

The importance of reflection in teaching has been advocated to address complex decisions that teachers make. This has been heightened by many complexities of the environment within which academics navigate and was highlighted more in the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There is a dearth of publications that address the reflections of academic staff members and the support programmes for students at risk within the accounting field in higher education. This is coupled with a lack of focus on academic support interventions. The objective of this reflective essay is to describe the decisions of higher education academics in an accounting department in their quest to provide a multi-pronged academic support programme (ASP) to undergraduate students identified as at risk during a pandemic. The essay reflects on three components of the actions of the teachers: academic support, peer mentorship, soft skills and work readiness workshops. The essay uses an integrated reflective cycle model by considering the experience of planning and delivery of the ASP and Schon's reflective approach by outlining reflection-in-action and reflections-on-action and recommendations for preparation for future ASPs. This essay contributes to the much-needed reflection of higher education's response to the lockdown relating to teaching and learning and adds to the body of knowledge on approaches to support interventions for students identified to be at risk in the accounting field and the need for accounting academics to reflect on their pedagogy