Earlier this year, the Language Centre was approached by English lecturers from a Ukrainian University in order to organize an online workshop. For over a year, our colleagues in Ukraine have been practically cut off from international academic exchanges and continuing education opportunities. In order to provide one such opportunity, Chloe Esmonde and Andrew Hart organized two online workshops for their colleagues from NaUKMA (National University of Kyiv-Mohla Academy) in June 2023.

The first workshop focused on effective feedback for academic writing and was a guided discussion on the kinds of feedback teachers use when evaluating writing, best practices for evaluating writing, and various methods for delivering feedback. Participants were invited to share details of their current practices before exploring some of the advantages and disadvantages of different corrective, directive, evaluative and interactive methods. The session also afforded participants the opportunity to share details of how feedback can be delivered and to examine why audio feedback and screen casting can be useful alternatives to more traditional approaches of giving feedback.

The second webinar, EAP: Planning Presentations as Integrated Tasks, centred on discussion topics proposed in advance by NaUKMA lecturers. The session was highly interactive with three key areas the focus of conversation: topic selection for presentations, the function of short presentations and non-verbal communication in online presentations. Participants were particularly motivated to discuss identified challenges with teaching online as it is currently the modality by which English courses at NaUKMA are delivered. Participants began by sharing examples of various challenges which they had encountered whilst teaching presentation skills online, such as audience engagement and developing non-verbal communication skills. The group then addressed these issues and proposed potential solutions and alternative methods to counter the difficulties identified. Overall, the webinar offered the opportunity for lecturers to actively share practice knowledge and alternative perspectives regarding teaching presentation skills in an academic and online context.