Lessons for screen production pedagogy from pandemic-era experiences of teaching online

Screen production educators throughout Australasia pivoted to online and remote teaching as the Covid-19 pandemic restricted face-to-face teaching. Teachers’ experiences in 2020–2021 are instructive for the lessons we can learn about effective online teaching for this typically hands-on and collaborative field. This article presents an analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with nine screen production educators working across nine universities and film schools in Australia and New Zealand. The insights gathered through these interviews point to the challenges specific to teaching screen production online, particularly related to students acquiring skills in operating professional equipment and collaborating as a crew with their peers. Interviewees found some surprising value and possibilities during their adaptation to this mode under pandemic conditions but generally experienced it as unsuitable for the discipline and for students’ successful acquisition of the suite of core skills. The swiftly adapted teaching practices undertaken in this period have helped to elucidate the possibilities and significant limitations of online teaching, as well as the needs and satisfaction levels of both staff and students when teaching and learning in this mode.