To What Extent “Body” Has Transformed
By Remote Education During the Post-pandemic Era

Literature Review

Body transform- Embodiment

According to phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty (1962, 1964), our embodiment's structure is fundamentally open, so we adopt digital tools and technologies as "fresh tools" into our own perceptual and corporeal organisation. McLuhan (1994) characterises media as physical extensions that enhance the body's senses. According to Bobbitt (2011), significant improvements in current communication and electronic media technologies have globalised our senses and nerves. Meanwhile, Farr, Price and Jewitt's (2012) work noted that the rise of computing continues to blur the boundaries of bodily interaction with digital information. For example, embodied or tactile interaction embeds items with digital information（Dourish, 2001; Shaer and Hornecker, 2010）. Vallee(2020) and Burton(2021) claimed that the COVID-19 allows us to redefine embodiment. The physical mobility of people's bodies is reduced in COVID-19, while networked and hybrid engagement are emphasised. Mobile became the major or obligatory form of social connection (Hardley and Richardson, 2021). It is suggested by Vallee (2020) that the epidemic provided people with an embodied experience where they might be 'Present' or 'Absent' at any time, regardless of location. However, consciousness is inextricable from perception, which is inextricable from the body's particular (Richardson and Harper, 2002). The presence of the body in a virtual world is a sort of embodiment (Rettie, 2005). By incorporating the virtual into our physical world, Richardson and Harper (2002) claim that virtual reality is not disembodied but a distinct embodiment element. So the real body should be worried.

Instance of Data scraping

Process of data scraping

The instance of data scraping derived from the Module and Programme Catalogue website of School of Media and Communication. We used the tool Web Scraper to scrape the timetable of the 26 modules in the above webpage, which refer to all the Taught Postgraduate Modules in our school. Following picture is the selector graph.

The data we scraped includes various relevant information, the most important of which is the type of activity and location, which indicate whether the class is online or not, as shown in the image. We can calculate the total hours of different lessons by adding start, end, and week figures.

We compiled this data in Excel after scraping all available information. It's worth noting that we placed a premium on data quality and meticulously examined these timetables. We separated the extra alternative classes and double-checked the location's availability. Some sessions were initially scheduled on campus, but they were moved online for unknown reasons. Therefore we classified these times as online hours.

Last but not least, the COMM5796M and COMM5797M modules have identical names, timetables, and introduction material. In other words, the two modules appear to be the same, but the codes and class sizes are different. In fact, just 5 students are enrolled in COMM5796M. We opted to integrate the data from module COMM5797M into COMM5796M to make the analysis more realistic. As a result, our dataset only includes 25 courses.

Finally, we fulfilled our dataset which is available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xgpNdzJEfxUvinbj0v0O2y_9qaVLR0wbYyoBV2hcbF4/edit#gid=0

Statistical analysis

This dataset is divided into two categories: course types and module types. Lectures, seminars, workshops, and other types of courses are available. Teaching approaches are intimately linked to different course kinds. Only 12% of seminars are held online, but 80% of courses are held online. Furthermore, the lectures account for almost 87 per cent of online hours (243.5 hours). The rationale for this is simple: the more students in a classroom, the more likely COVID-19 regulation will have an impact.

Let's have a look at how teaching approaches change between modules. COMM5801 (Urban Narratives) has the most (44h), approximately twice as many as the second in terms of most online hours. Every week, there are two hours of online lectures. In terms of the minimum, it's worth noting that six modules had all of their classes scheduled offline.

The mean of a module's online hours is 11.18, while the median and standard deviation are 11 and 9.74, respectively, across all 25 modules. We may deduce that these statistics are regularly distributed because the median and mean are nearly identical. In terms of total hours spent on these 25 modules, the mean, median, and standard deviation are 28.18, 24.43, and 9.43, respectively. Because the standard deviation of online hours is more than the total hours, the dispersion of online hours among various modules is greater than the general level.

Narrative Account

When we were thinking about how the body was modified in the post-pandemic age, we devised this activity to learn more about how other people, particularly students, felt about the topic. The outcomes of the activities we did with the focus group revealed that the online and in-person groups performed differently at the end. We've compiled a list of information that may be useful in explaining the data.

Setting

The circumstances influenced the results when we delivered the paper folding craft session in several modes. Participants found it difficult to follow up during the online session due to challenges such as netlag and a poor internet connection. Participants were also perplexed by the method because their camera angles differed from the teacher's. In the face-to-face session, all participants sat together with the instructor, allowing them to monitor the instructor's progress in real-time. Furthermore, sitting next to other participants allowed them to observe how each other worked.

In activity behaviour

Throughout the sessions, the participants have a tendency to act in a variety of ways. Only two individuals in the online session unlocked their cameras and microphones, so we couldn't check on each other's progress or see if they were on the correct road. Furthermore, three participants interacted with the teacher by asking questions, while others kept silent throughout the lesson. Due to the lower communication frequencies, it was difficult to tell whether the participants were interested in the class or doing something else. Though in the face-to-face session, the majority of participants preferred not to ask questions directly to the teacher, instead of asking the person next to them or having the individual illustrate the process with their hands. Furthermore, a few participants were distracted by cellphones at the start of the session, but they returned to follow up when they saw others accomplishing the task.
We set a ten-minute time constraint during the testing session to check if participants could complete the five types of paper folding crafts presented in the prior exercise. Fewer online participants finished the entire process rather than abandoning it in the middle. They said they couldn't feel the passage of time or the sense of taking an exam, so they were impatient and didn't take it seriously. While in the face-to-face activity, several participants stated that they would be eager to continue the test even if they were unable to complete it due to the presence of supervisors making them feel like they were in a real test and driving them to complete it faster.

After Activity Interview

We took into account all of the participants' feedback on the activity throughout the interviews. The practice was said to be fascinating but difficult to recall by participants in an online group. It was tough to monitor their own procedure and ask queries because they had to switch their focus between the screen and their hands. Some participants also stated that they did not pay full attention during the teaching session because they expected a replay after the teaching lesson so they could review the procedure again, which caused them to recall the process more slowly during the exam. Participants in the in-person activity indicated that mastering the paper folding crafts was difficult for them, but that with the help of other participants and the teacher, they were able to overcome the challenges. It was also a fun way to meet new people while participating in the activity. A test taker who scored the highest claimed that she was confident in the paper folding craft and had helped many other people. She also stated that she had refreshed her own memory of the crafts multiple times, which was the main reason she succeeded.