Some first principles for emergency online teaching
Many of us are struggling to transition our courses from well-planned in-person offerings to online delivery in various states of panic. Perhaps we are worried because we have high expectations for our courses. Perhaps we have never taught online before and aren’t sure where to begin. And perhaps we are simply overcome by the news of the day and the speed at which it seems to be moving.
I am confident that many of the pieces being written for this series will ably handle specifics of how to rapidly prepare one’s course for online delivery in the midst of a crisis. I also believe that one of the best things we can do to be successful is to take a moment, take a breath, and consider some first principles that might guide us through this rapid transition. I would like to share my first principles here. They all boil down to a pretty simple ethos: we find ourselves in challenging times that are deeply unsettling, but we can get through it by maintaining our communities and trusting ourselves, our students, and each other.
Trust your students
Even in normal circumstances, there is no better place to start than by trusting your students. We all deserve grace and compassion in the best of times, and we especially need it in times of rapidly developing crisis. These are not times where we want to obsess over how a rogue student might game the system to their advantage. Rather, we should keep in mind that our students want to do right by themselves and us as surely as we want to do right by them. Trusting your students will not only allow you to build and maintain an academic community (see below), but also frees you up to concentrate on what really matters—creating an online environment where students can successfully learn and demonstrate that learning.
Accept that this is a time for triage
If you are reading this series looking for tips on how to create a meaningful online experience, I think it’s safe to assume that you care about creating a quality educational experience for your students. This is wonderful! Unfortunately, a crisis is not the time to try and tweak things until they are perfect. This is a time for triage. Our responsibility as instructors is to get our courses to a point that students can complete them in a way that is policy- and legally-compliant. The colleges and universities at which we teach have tasked us with doing so rapidly. We likely will not be able to rely on overburdened teaching centers, instructional designers, and technologists. At this point, done is better than perfect.
Online teaching is not easy
Recognize that online teaching is more than simply collecting your materials, uploading them to the LMS, and waiting for student assignments to come rolling in. There are difficult decisions you will have to make about course delivery, student communication, timing of materials, and more that you may have taken for granted in in-person courses because they are so second-nature. Sorting out these issues takes weeks of planning and deliberation in the best of circumstances. If you find yourself struggling, it’s not because you’re a bad instructor. You are being thrown, with essentially no notice, into a strange new world as surely as if you were asked to teach a lecture of 300 or a seminar of 10 for the first time. Do your best, but don’t expect perfection of yourself.
Be flexible. Disruption will be everywhere.
Edtech is about to undergo an unprecedented stress test. Somewhere, in some unexpected way, it will fail. Add to this the fact that students are being asked to vacate campuses, removing some of them from vital services ranging from computer labs and university-provided internet to housing, food, and mental and physical health services. Students and their loved ones may become ill or worse. You and your loved ones may become ill or worse. Plan for this in advance by putting a flexible structure in place that allows for asynchronous completion. Have backup structures in place that allows students to easily access information missed for any reason. Relax your standards for ticky-tack formatting issues; students may be reduced to writing papers on their phones. As we feel our way through uncharted pedagogical waters, uncertainty will sometimes be the order of the day. This is perfectly okay; just be prepared to be charitable and flexible.
Community comes first
At the end of the day, remember that it’s just class. We find ourselves, at least temporarily, in deeply uncertain times. The best thing you can do for your students is to be there for them. As Josh Eyler, the Director of Faculty Development at Ole Miss, noted, “Community, belonging, and your presence will matter as much, if not more, than the material you are teaching. Caring will be crucial.” Find a way to remind your students that, even though you are not physically proximate, you are still a community and you still care about them as students and people. We’re all philosophers, and we care deeply about our discipline. We all want (or should want) to be master teachers of the subject we love. But we are members of the human community and members of our campus community first and foremost, and we have a job to do that extends beyond our teaching.
Be the helper
After September 11th, Mr. Rogers gave a famous interview where he said that, in times of catastrophe, we should “always look for the helpers.” What he left unsaid, because the question was about what he would say to frightened children, was that it was up to adults and those of us in positions of authority to be the helpers. As instructors—whether we are tenured, on the tenure track, contingent, or graduate students—we face a moment where we are called on to be the helpers to our students, who face the same uncertainties and fears we do. One of the best things we can do is to remove what uncertainty we can, be honest about uncertainty that remains, and make clear to our students that we are here for them. We can also make that clear to each other as colleagues; we are in this together and here for one another. If there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can find me on Twitter (@bcnjake) or email me at jwwright [at] r [dot] umn [dot] edu. Courage, grace, and good humor to us all!
Jake Wright is a senior lecturer at the University of Minnesota Rochester, where he researches the moral and pedagogical justifications for classroom practices at the introductory level. You can follow him on Twitter (@bcnjake) or email him (jwwright [at] r [dot] umn [dot] edu).
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