Hi-tech and hands-on perfect combo at Marcus Oldham

Known for its quality face-to-face agriculture business education, Marcus Oldham has used new hi-tech tools to shift to online classes during the pandemic.

World view: The lecture theatre in Marcus Oldham’s new Douglas Boyd Learning Centre.

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MARCUS Oldham principal Dr Simon Livingstone says the college’s shift to online teaching during the pandemic is a stop gap, and certainly no long-term replacement for the hands-on agriculture and agribusiness education delivered by the leading business college.

“Marcus Oldham has been known for the past 58 years for its quality in face-to-face instruction,” Dr Livingstone said. “That is 28 hours of classes per week, excellent lecturers, day tours, international study tours and case studies … and the high employability of the graduates.”

The college offers Bachelor of Business (agriculture) and Bachelor of Business (agribusiness) degrees, as well as a Diploma of Equine Management and Master of Agribusiness degree. All of its 260 students live on campus and take part in an immersive collegiate program.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students are now living and learning remotely. Staff have delivered lectures online using some of the hi-tech tools that are part of Marcus Oldham’s newly completed $10 million Douglas Boyd Learning Centre, which opened at the end of February.

“A few years ago we realised we needed to increase our communication ability and investigate international advances in technology related to teaching and learning,” Dr Livingstone. “I visited universities and colleges in the US, UK and Canada and looked at best practice with regard to technological advancements and learning environments.”

Marcus Oldham’s students work at tech-equipped tables in the new Douglas Boyd Learning Centre.

The new centre is equipped with video conference tools that allow national and international experts to give virtual lectures at Marcus Oldham.

“Delivering an annual leadership course with a professor from Harvard, for example,” Dr Livingstone said. “If you had a leading expert in genetics up in Rockhampton, for example, it allows us to connect with them from here. That will really strengthen those programs.”

Luckily, it has also worked in reverse, allowing teachers at the Geelong campus to deliver online lectures to students while they are studying remotely.

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“We have continued the teaching through the Learning Centre to the students at home,” Dr Livingstone said.

“All going well, in trimester 2 we are anticipating that students will return to the programs.”

The sudden transition to online learning illustrated the new teaching technologies enhanced the student experience, Dr Livingstone said.

“But, what it has also identified is that the students really enjoy the interaction with lecturers face to face and their student body,” he added. “You can’t replicate that – however hard you try.

“The value of good residential collegiate environment is worth a lot.”