Fighting COVID-19 My Way: Preparing for the Worst in VR, with Broadstairs College’s Tim Jackson

Today’s guest, Broadstairs College Computing Programme Director Tim Jackson, saw COVID-19 coming, and expected it to flip the education system on its head. Luckily, it was the perfect opportunity to experiment transferring the classroom to a virtual environment.

Julie: Hello, my name is Julie Smithson, and I am your XR for Learning podcast host. I look forward to bringing you insight into changing the way that we learn and teach using XR technologies to explore, enhance, and individualize learning for everyone. Today, my guest is Tim Jackson. Tim has been teaching further and higher education at Broadstairs College, part of the EKC Group in Kent, UK, for over 18 years, teaching a broad range of topics, including network design and management, data security, project management, games design and development, and more. Recently, robotics and virtual reality, where he has built two specialist VR lab environments with the help of some of his students. His involvement with Educators In VR enabled him to be an active participant within the inaugural Educators In VR International Summit that took place in February 2020, as one of the track leads for diversity and accessibility. Since then -- and due to recent events -- Tim has now taken his teaching in VR further, by delivering his entire teaching timetable of 21 hours per week within the Altspace VR and ENGAGE virtual reality platforms. Now, Tim is regarded as one of the few educators who is regularly and consistently delivering quality technical and vocational teaching within an active VR environment. Thanks so much for joining me today, Tim.

Tim: Good morning, Julie. Really nice to be here. How are you?

Julie: I'm great, thanks.Why don't you start off by introducing yourself and just a little bit about what you're doing at Broadstairs College.

Tim: Sure. Okay. Well, I'm the program director for Higher Education Computing Courses at Broadstairs College, which is a fancy title. Basically, what it means is that I design and I run the programs. And these are specifically for learners who are learning at degree level. So year one and two of a degree, specializing in computing. I've been at the college for quite a while. I actually love what I do. It's a real passion of mine, teaching. And more recently, we've had a fairly new principal, he's been with us a couple of years now, called Kurt Salter, stunning guy. He really gets what we're trying to do and he's been so supportive. So these last couple of years, he's been able to allow me to develop some resources that really have enhanced the students' experience at the college. More recently, that's been things like robotics and virtual reality, which are elements that I've been able to bring into my higher education programs. And of course, the students didn't really need much convincing to get involved. So, yeah, it's been quite a ride these last couple of years. But more importantly, the last six months have been quite stunning, if you can call it that. And the last three months. Yes, very scary.

Julie: Yeah. I guess first, just making a statement about how amazing it is that your colleagues support you, that your superiors support you and see the potential of this technology in the education system.

Tim: Absolutely. And I think if you can go in and have a clear justification as to why you're doing what you're doing and most importantly, how the students are going to benefit from it, then I think any manager is going to listen to you. A dear friend of mine and colleague of Educators In VR, Daniel Dyboski-Bryant, once said to me, he said, "You know, the best way to convince a manager is, you can go in and tell them all day long how brilliant it's gonna be. Just go in and put a headset on th