Beyond Teaching series interview with Joanne Thong

Episode 3 of the Beyond Teaching series Source:Taylor’s Youtube Channel

I believe we’ve all heard the expression of “walking a mile in someone’s shoes”, or at least some variation of it.

I’m sure this sentence holds meaning for a lot of us, and it’s insightful to enter the headspace of people we respect or seek to understand deeper.

That was one of the goals of Beyond Teaching, a series produced by Joanne Thong and supported by Jeremy Teo, the same creative duo behind Game Unlocked”, which aired on Taylor’s University Youtube channel.

As the name goes, Beyond Teaching aims to take people deeper into the lives of our lecturers and tell stories that students otherwise won't know about.

“Taylor’s University/College has no shortage of amazing and inspiring academicians, their drive, passion and some of their personal stories are truly awe inspiring,” said Joanne Thong.

According to Thong, the series took a lot of planning and preparation as it was challenging to get someone whom you’ve only met for the first time to share their personal stories with you.

But some very warm and friendly lecturers have had the heart to have their stories documented, and their courage is certainly commendable.

The bigger challenge for the team was tracking down the respective students of the individual lecturers for a surprise thank you video message.

“It was fun to capture their reactions on camera; it never ever gets old.”

The production team notes that Beyond Teaching has had a bigger impact compared to their Front Runner series as it involves past and present students who have had any level of interaction with these lecturers.

“We also recognise that our educators are our 'frontliners' so to speak.

They are the ones you see and have most contact with, the ones who spend countless extra hours preparing for classes and had to innovate their approach due to the pandemic.

They are the ones people want to see and get to know before deciding on which institution they should enrol in, so we are also very careful in how we craft their stories to make sure we tell it well.”

As for engagement and organic views from the audience for this series, it’s been rather good not just on YouTube, but also on our other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn which is very encouraging according to the production team.

You can find the Beyond Teaching series uploads on Taylor’s University YouTube channel.