Hello fellow academics.
Let's face it... this isn't the semester you thought it would be. If you were already teaching all of your classes online, ignore this post. For the rest of us, let's take a deep breath. Overnight everything changed. The semester you had planned, the classes and laboratories, are all suddenly in flux. As a business/engineering professor who has been teaching at least one class a year online, and who works closely with PK-grad educators around the world, I wanted to share some thoughts and suggestions. As with all advice, you will almost certainly not agree with all of it. That's fine. Perhaps there are one or two things here that might help you. Or not- feel free to ignore this.
- Be kind to yourself and others. We are in the midst of a global emergency. Everything has changed. Remember that, and focus first on the health (both mental and physical) of yourself and your students. Give yourself, and them, some grace this semester.
- This semester, "good enough" is good enough. For all the "how to teach X online" threads/workshops popping up, we should admit right now that we are dealing with "how do you do it this semester when you had no time to prep and you and your students are currently in a traumatic situation." That is *different* than "How should we teach x online when we had time to prep and our students actually signed up to learn it online?" situations. This is a triage, emergency situation friends. Yes, you're going to skip content. Yes, it's not perfect. But you know what? Just do your best. And ask for help.
- Listen to and learn from PK-12 educators.Let's be honest. Most college professors do not have formal training in pedagogy and psychology. To be a certified PK-12 teacher in the United States requires rigorous study, and practice, of course design, pedagogy, classroom management, adolescent psychology, and diverse learning strategies. To be a college professor... you usually just need a PhD and research training. (I know I'm simplifying this.) So as you are trying to support your students, look to the online resources that our PK-12 colleagues are sharing. They apply to all learners!
- Please stop obsessing over whether your students can cheat on an exam. People are sick and dying. Students are sharing computers and wifi with family members. Students are struggling to pay rent or help with childcare. I am in shock at how many faculty members are insisting we need to use Zoom or proctoring services to make sure that our students don't cheat on tests. Is it a matter of life or death? If your test is for medical students and making sure that they know their stuff for certification? Ok... maybe find a way to proctor it. But for me? My engineering design students and sustainability students will be trusted to proctor their own tests and send them back to me. I have them check off a box that says they did the work on their own. This semester, to me, that's enough. Showing them that you trust them is a gift right now.
- Please stop making your students turn on their cameras during classes. A professor insisted to me that we need to make sure the students are paying attention. You know what? I don't care. That is for them to decide right now. Especially if they didn't sign up to take the class online. Maybe they are cramped in a house with others and don't want to share that with their classmates. Maybe they're not sleeping well from stress and aren't comfortable screen sharing. Maybe they don't have a camera on their computer. Again, they didn't sign up to take your class online, so please help make it easy for them.
- Don't require students to attend class at the normal time. If your university sent students home, they may now be in a different time zone. Your "normal" class time might now be in the middle of the night for them. Or they my be sharing a computer/bandwidth with others in their house who need it at that time. I'm all for group online meetups, but I think they should be optional. Also, consider doing two short meetings instead of a single long meeting, at different times so that students who can't attend at the "old" time can have options. (This is especially useful for international students who may now be on dramatically different schedules than they were on campus.)
- Admit your own trauma right now. You might not be making the best decisions right now. You might make mistakes. You are probably teaching from your house, you might be worried about your family/colleagues/neighbors. You might be depressed. You might be sick. You are human. Those are all normal states and emotions right now. So do the best you can. Take care of yourself. Ask for help. Also, apply this same principle to your colleagues and students.
- Find a support network. For the past three weeks I've been co-leading a twice daily, Monday through Friday, meetup of educators. We meet for 30 minutes at a time, and come from around the globe. Some are preschool teachers, some are college professors, some do education outreach for government agencies, some run after school programs. Starting and ending with a deep breath, we spend the half hour sharing stories and suggestions. If you'd like to join us, email me for the link to our Zoom meetups. All are welcome. If that doesn't sound like your thing, try to find another group of people that you can lean on for support.
- Help others. Some of us are comfortable with online course management systems. Others have never done anything online. (Heck, I know some amazing academics who have barely made powerpoint presentations let alone used Zoom with students.) Reach out (if you are up to it) and help your colleagues. They didn't ask for this and they didn't plan for this. Suddenly they, too, are alone trying to teach online while in the midst of a pandemic. I recommend gently asking your students to let you know if they are aware of professors who are struggling to transition to online. This isn't tattling or blaming... this is helping others.
- Get through this semester, but plan for next time. We all need to plan for how to do this next time. Our syllabi will now certainly all have asterisks saying that "in the case of emergency this class will move to a virtual format." and we must all start planning for that. Right now we're in the disaster mode. So ask for help and do the best you can. Don't expect your students to do things the "normal" way. This isn't that semester.We will all do our best! And then plan for next time.
One day at a time friends. Please do your best to take care of yourselves, your families, your colleagues, and your students.
~AnnMarie