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Online teaching in higher education has become increasingly prevalent, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. While teaching online offers many benefits, it also presents several challenges. Sharing one’s lived experiences as an educator is essential to improving one’s teaching skills and enhancing the learning outcomes for the students. Here, we present our personal and lived experiences as higher education teachers in the VU Block Model® First Year College at Victoria University. In our allied health science subjects, we have identified the key challenges in online teaching, such as technology and infrastructure, student engagement and interaction, adapting learning styles, assessment integrity, digital literacy, social-isolation-related mental health, and workload. The benefits included flexibility, innovative teaching tools, personalised learning and accessibility, and the continuity of teaching and learning despite the pandemic disruption. Overcoming these challenges requires careful planning, effective pedagogy, and ongoing support for both teachers and students. The benefits of online teaching can be maximised when its limitations are acknowledged and addressed appropriately via sharing teacher’s personal narratives as an effective mode of communication.

In 2018, Victoria University adopted a new teaching delivery model, now known as the Block Teaching Model (BTM). The aim of this study focuses on how this new approach to teaching has impacted student learning and academic success, in particular for students who come from a disadvantaged background, compared with those who come from a non-disadvantaged background. In this study, disadvantage is defined by the following categories: non-English speaking background (NESB), first in family to attend university (FIF), low socio-economic status (SES), low Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) and gender (male students). Results indicate that when compared to non-disadvantaged students, the newly established BTM has achieved a significantly higher reduction in student failure rates across ATAR, SES, and NESB versus ESB and gender, while the reduction in fail rates for FIF was not reduced significantly more than NFIF. This work encapsulates the University's central vision, \"The VU Way\", which focuses on opportunity and success, and being transformational within the community in which it operates. More generally, this research lends support to the importance of active and intensive learning models in reducing disadvantage in tertiary education.

This study examines the impact on academic success of two different models of teaching for repeating students. Students who failed in 2017 under the traditional model of teaching, involving a 12 week semester with lectures and tutorials, were exposed the following year to the newly introduced 'block model' of teaching, whereby students study one unit at a time over 4 weeks in small classes. Repeating students who had previously failed the same unit were asked to complete a questionnaire online, which elicited their perceptions of the two different teaching models. In addition, data was extracted from the university's central database to compare the success rate of failing students on their second attempt under the different teaching approaches. Results show a significant improvement in grades and pass rates with this new intensive block model of teaching along with positive student perceptions toward this more intensive, workshop based teaching method. [Author abstract]

This study examines the use of three computer programs designed for the study of gross anatomy; An@tomedia Online, AnatomyTV, and Thieme, as in-class learning support programs within the newly adopted 'Block model' of teaching delivery at Victoria University. Victoria University is the first and only Australian university to have introduced a block model of education. With the introduction of 'The Block Teaching Model' the focus of the use of in-class time towards meaningful and active learning has become paramount. We used these programs as in-class student-centered inquiry based learning activity. The aim of this research was to investigate how the use of these programs impact on student engagement and student experience in their study of gross anatomy which is now offered in a time-compressed block teaching method. An opinion-based survey using the Qualtrics software was conducted at the end of each anatomy unit teaching block of semester 1 in 2019. The survey was distributed to all students enrolled in the unit. Results indicate that all programs used were viewed as making a positive contribution to student learning. The use of An@tomedia Online was particularly helpful in assisting first-year students studying gross anatomy with the interpretation of laboratory-based prosected cadaveric material within the new teaching context. [Author abstract]

This study examines the impact on academic success of two different models of teaching for repeating students. Students who failed in 2017 under the traditional model of teaching, involving a 12 week semester with lectures and tutorials, were exposed the following year to the newly introduced “block model” of teaching, whereby students study one unit at a time over 4 weeks in small classes. Repeating students who had previously failed the same unit were asked to complete a questionnaire online, which elicited their perceptions of the two different teaching models. In addition, data was extracted from the university’s central database to compare the success rate of failing students on their second attempt under the different teaching approaches. Results show a significant improvement in grades and pass rates with this new intensive block model of teaching along with positive student perceptions toward this more intensive, workshop based teaching method.

During semester one of 2020, the units ‘Functional Anatomy of the Trunk’ and ‘Functional Anatomy of the Limbs’ which focus on human topographical anatomy were re-designed into an online delivery format and taught remotely in response to the COVID-19 lockdown. It was expected that the move to remote teaching would negatively impact student perception and learning experience, in particular that of the cadaver-based laboratory work. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the replacement of traditional face-to-face cadaver-based anatomy laboratories with an online version using digital anatomy resources and Zoom technology as the communication platform would achieve comparable student learning experience and outcomes. First Year Students (n=69) enrolled in these units were invited to participate in this study and were asked at the conclusion of each unit to complete an anonymous opinion-based survey via Qualtrics. The Qualtrics data, student grades and Learning Management System (LMS) statistics were analysed. Results indicate that student perception of the online gross anatomy laboratory learning was positive and that it had complemented their learning. Most students agreed that as a visual learning resource, it provided an improved understanding of anatomy and helped with the application of anatomical knowledge. Interestingly, student performance showed a similar range of marks compared with previous years. However, students strongly agreed that the online 2D learning experience had significant limitations when compared to live use of cadavers in laboratories.

Recent measures on improving payment practices have failed, yet again, to measure up to the extent of abuse in the industry. We all know about the devastating impact that such abuse has had on businesses over many years. It has sapped the industry's ability to make the investment needed in skills and technology to improve productivity and thereby deliver significant growth. Much has been made of the recent amendments to the payment reporting regulations. These were amended this year to require the inclusion of a value metric; the reporting now has to include the total value of payments not made within the contract terms. Contractual provisions on retention must now be reported, including whether a contractor is withholding the same amount of retention against its supply chain as is being withheld from the contractor.

It is extremely gratifying that the government has accepted the recommendation for a construction regulator, albeit implementation is not until 2028. More than 30 years ago, the Specialist Engineering Contractors Group recommended that an Office for Construction should be established. This was submitted to a joint government/industry inquiry into procurement and contracts. Unfortunately, they did not take up the idea. The proposal was then submitted to the Business and Enterprise Select Committee in 2008. Its response was that there should be a chief construction advisor. This was taken up by the previous government and then the post was abolished. Given that this was a recommendation in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report, the government will be reintroducing this post. In the past 30 years, we have had numerous reports cataloguing the industry's faults. But it seemed that the industry would not be distracted from its chosen path of non-collaboration, risk-transfer and payment abuse, which were all exposed in the aftermath of the Carillion collapse in 2018 and in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

Trade body Build UK claims to provide leadership to the construction industry. However, its roadmap to zero retentions by 2025, which was supported by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), has been criticized as ineffective. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have lost over £2.5 billion in retention monies due to upstream insolvencies. The Build UK's trade associations would hold them accountable for their failure to lobby for legislation protecting retention monies. The CLC, which is not accountable to anyone, is not a reliable solution. The government's response to the issue has been inadequate, with Lord Offord mentioning amendments to reporting regulations and the introduction of the Get it Right Initiative. These measures do not address the root problem. Retentions are deeply ingrained in the industry's procurement system, which prioritizes risk transfer and cost reduction. Radical reform is needed to promote collaboration and quality outcomes. The government has disregarded calls for legislation to ringfence retentions. It is crucial for SMEs to engage with MPs and demand support for protecting retention monies.

The UK construction industry has long had a worldwide reputation for its prowess in design, engineering, and project management skills. There is no other industry sector that outsources product/or service delivery to the extent seen in construction. Construction supply chains are not supply chains at all. Rapid mobilisation of numerous subcontractors at different levels of subcontracting can hardly be described as supply chains. A project bank account (PBA) is a ring‐fenced bank account out of which payments are made directly and simultaneously to a lead contractor and members of its supply chain. The motivation for some clients using PBAs is that they minimise disruption when a lead contractor goes into insolvency. The practice of retentions has been in existence for almost 200 years. It was originally introduced to provide a measure of security in the event that a contractor went into insolvency.