Of course, what one does in an emergency couldn’t be the same as what one would normally do.<\/p>\n Pressure from above<\/strong><\/p>\n Distance learning<\/em> is different. It’s an entire field of knowledge. They give PhDs in this stuff. So now there may be a demand (mostly from those PhDs) that all faculty must up their game. Now. In the middle of the pandemic (yup, sorry, I think we’re still in the middle for summer and fall, but that’s only because I know about 1918-19).<\/p>\n We don’t want to do this<\/strong><\/p>\n Increasing instructor dependence on the LMS, adding various products and materials from publishers, will not turn newbies into online instructors. It’s better to face the fact that those who were not teaching online before the pandemic were resisting because they didn’t want to do it. It wasn’t their thing. They didn’t care for the online environment. They were forced into this, and are still being forced. Maybe now they can use their LMS better. But they’re not happy.<\/p>\n Yes, there’s plenty of training out there, but they don’t want to be doing any of this. I don’t blame them.<\/p>\n A Bit of Pedagogy<\/strong><\/p>\n What’s the middle ground? A Bit<\/em> of Pedagogy. Bring ourselves back into our teaching, even though we must do it online. Change things? Sure. Not everything went well this time around. Good faculty will want to make changes. What they won’t want to do is become online teachers. And that’s ok.<\/p>\n Some ideas for the in between, the middle ground, a bit of pedagogy:<\/p>\n 1. Work to your strengths.<\/strong> 2. Decrease areas of weakness.<\/strong> 3. Pull in your pedagogy.<\/strong> 4. Be kind.<\/strong>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/courbetself.jpg?resize=201%2C165&ssl=1\")
<\/strong>What just happened did not, in most cases, cause newbie online faculty to create a pedagogical plan based on their own teaching. There wasn’t time. So it wasn’t normal “online instruction”. It’s been emergency remote instruction<\/em>, often instituted in the middle of the class. See, for example:<\/p>\n\n
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And commercial pressure? I’m sure you’ve seen it all ready. Faculty mailboxes have been jammed with “we’re here for you” emails from every conceivable online learning product, textbook, and service. All free! Well, for now, anyway. They advertise like old 50s commercials. Got a problem? We understand! Our product will solve it for you! Try now with no obligation to buy!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/monalisa.jpg?resize=172%2C172&ssl=1\")
A bit of pedagogy would consist of doing some thinking, on ones own or with others, about how we can adapt to work with our strengths. If I fell in love with Zoom, and it was effective for my students, I should use it again. If I wasn’t, I should look at different ways to do things.<\/p>\n
\nWhat did you do this term online that you liked, or seemed to work for both you and your students? That should be the central guiding idea for summer or fall.<\/p>\n
\nWhat didn’t work? Can you get rid of it? For some, synchronous (Zoom) meetings were horrible. Students wouldn’t show their face (why should they?) and you didn’t want to show yours. Are you required to do synchronous sessions? Then think of ways around the worst parts of it. For example, show slides, narrate, and record the session. Require students to view if they don’t attend, and submit questions to a discussion board. During the session, have a student monitor the chat for questions. Make it “present and chat”, not the Brady Bunch. Don’t expect enthusiastic participation if Zoom isn’t your strength. And if you aren’t required to have synchronous sessions, consider how to teach without it.<\/p>\n
\nWhat do you like best about your pedagogy in the classroom? If\u00a0 you are a lecturer, get better at online lecture. If you like discussion, work more with the discussion board, and do some database searches for how to create good online discussions. If you like student-led inquiry, think about how to do that online. A set of collaborative documents, maybe. If you like creating an environment with rich resources, then leaving students to it, do that.<\/p>\n
\nIt’s tempting to think that this time around, students will know what they’re getting into. They may, but that doesn’t mean they like it any better than you do. In fact, those students who were hoping to celebrate a big life change (entering or transferring to university) may well be angry about this. So the same advice is as true now as it was for emergency instruction. ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/kilburn-1.jpg?resize=186%2C233&ssl=1\")
Don’t expect too much. Lower the bar a little, but keep the challenge. The good students want to do well. Some will depend on your class to be a distraction from the real world. Some will need to feel they can reach out to you, and get that deadline extended. Do it for them. Consider how you’ll answer the question, “how did you help students get through the plague year?”<\/p>\n