This guest post by Jake Wright (University of Minnesota, Rochester) is the fourth post in our COVID-19 teaching transition series. I hope you all find it helpful!
Performing Triage on Your Suddenly Online Class
So you’ve just gotten an email from the chancellor/president/provost announcing that your courses are moving online for the month/semester/god-only-knows. You have several days to make this transition if you’re lucky, and several hours if you’re not.
Surprise!
If you’re (understandably) freaking out a bit, I’d like to offer some suggestions as someone who has taught online for several years. The ongoing series on COVID-19 teaching and transition here at the Cocoon will offer a lot of helpful advice on how to manage this emergency shift. My suggestions will focus on how to triage your course.
In an emergency management context, triage is the process by which we determine how to use limited resources (e.g., supplies, personnel, and time) to address needs that outstrip the system’s capacity. Medically, triage is used to sort cases into three groups based on the presumed efficacy of treatment: those likely to survive in the absence of treatment, those unlikely to survive even if treatment is provided, and those for whom treatment is likely to make the difference between life and death. In triage, only the last group receives treatment because it is that group where one’s efforts are most likely to make a positive difference.
Academically, we are facing crisis conditions. We are tasked with making an enormous transition in our pedagogy in a matter of days or hours. Resources on which we would normally depend, like academic technologists and our teaching centers are likely to be severely overtaxed and unable to provide meaningful assistance. We therefore need to triage our classes in order to give our classes (and thereby our students) the best chance to succeed under these crisis conditions.
Performing triage on your course involves making two sets of judgments.
First, what needs to be addressed now, and what can wait? Just as we might not have every detail planned or lecture written at the start of the semester, there is no need to have every decision made and every component uploaded to the LMS when the curtain raises on our Brave New Online World. Do not be afraid to delay decisions that do not need immediate attention, though it is an excellent idea to keep a running list of such decisions so they will not fall through the cracks.
After you’ve made a decision on what can wait and what needs immediate attention, you can sort your course components into three baskets like those discussed above: components that will succeed in an online context whether you intervene or not, components that are unlikely to succeed despite your intervention, and components that will likely succeed because of your intervention.
In the first case, where course components do not need your intervention in order to be successful online, keep your hands off! There can be a temptation when making significant changes to a course—as we are all likely doing—to try and fix everything. Before we know it, we’re fiddling at the edges over minutiae. Do not do this. Your most precious resource at this point is time, and you need to use it to focus on interventions that will make the difference between success and failure.
In the second case, where your interventions are unlikely to lead to online success, eliminate the component from your course. You may worry about this because it a particular component may be a significant portion of the final grade or removing something seems like it cheapens the course. These are perfectly natural reactions, but keep in mind that (1) we are in crisis mode and (2) we are transitioning to a completely different form of instruction, with its own strengths and weaknesses. Given the time we have to make an effective transition, it is much better to spend that time focused on components that can more easily be made to work than spending hours trying to figure out how to get a single, uncooperative project off the ground. If necessary, readjust your syllabus or reweight assignments accordingly.
The third case, where your intervention now can mean the difference between success and failure, is where you should be spending your efforts. Given that you are changing your mode of delivery, there is likely plenty that will fall into this category. Teaching online is not just a matter of getting your materials uploaded to the LMS and waiting for the assignments to come rolling in. It’s as different as a 300 person lecture is from a 10 person seminar, perhaps more so. I would suggest giving immediate consideration to the following sorts of questions:
Will my course be synchronous or asynchronous? As already discussed in this series, there are excellent reasons to switch from synchronous learning (i.e., everyone is present and active at the same time) to asynchronous learning (i.e., everyone accesses materials at different times). One of the best reasons to choose an asynchronous course is that it will cut down on technology disruptions; asynchronous delivery tends to have more failsafes. But if you want to maintain your synchronous meeting schedule, the first order of business is figuring out how you will do this. The second order of business is determining how you will preserve your synchronous content for students who are unable to be present. Keep in mind that this number will increase not only because we are in a public health emergency, but because we will all be using unfamiliar technology.
How will I deliver lectures? If you lecture, as many of us do, you will need to figure out how to deliver material you would have covered in lecture to your students. When I teach online, I type out lectures as though they were additional reading assignments. You may not have this option of this preference, though. Either way, you will need to figure out how to get lecture material to students. If you want to actually lecture, consider using tools like Kaltura, PowerPoint, or Keynote to record short, 5-7 minute lectures. Students will generally not watch videos longer than this, especially if they are not dynamic and only feature you talking over slides. (There are plenty of ways to make your videos dynamic, but again, triage.) If possible, upload these videos to YouTube and take advantage of their auto captioning feature. While imperfect, it’s a great head start for making sure your materials are ADA compliant, and you can update any issues with the captions manually.
How will I evaluate student work? Worrying about academic dishonesty is one of the easiest ways to lose precious time, and online teaching presents special challenges on this front. I’ve found success by making all exams and quizzes open-book/open-note. If I know that all students have access to the materials, I can plan my evaluations accordingly and test for synthesis.
Has eliminating course components created any holes in need of filling? Excising course components that don’t mesh well with online delivery is part of triage, but if you leave a gaping hole, it may be advisable to fill it. For example, if a group presentation is 40% of the course grade, it may be a good idea to eliminate it on the grounds that synchronous group work will be difficult online. But it may also be advisable to add a short paper to make up some of that work. Knowing how you plan to fill in holes now will keep everyone on the same page and not leave students feeling blindsided when you assign new content three weeks from now.
How will I address access issues? It’s almost certain that there will be technological/access problems, as well as disruptions to students’ lives. We are being asked to trust edtech that is untested at this scale, and students will lose access to support systems like computer labs and campus internet, to say nothing of dining halls and residences. All of this will require a certain degree of charity and flexibility, but having a plan in advance that for how you will deal with access issues will reduce the chances that you will need to make a difficult decision in the moment without meaningful consideration.
How will I remain in contact with my students? Your office hours and student contact plan will also need revision. When you email your students letting them know how the course will change, be sure to tell them what your new contact policies will be. I recommend having a set time every day to check email (in addition to random times throughout the day that we check our phones, etc.), a policy on when students can expect a reply (e.g., no later than the next business day), and a preferred way for students to contact you with questions, either via virtual meetings or email. Update your syllabus accordingly. Remind students via regular announcements. But also remember that you are the nexus of a classroom community in a time where community bonds will be strained. Be proactive and find ways to meaningfully maintain community among your students, even if it’s merely a reminder that you are there to help students and that you care about them.
None of the choices we’re going to make over the next several days will be perfect, and it’s important to remember that we are being asked to make quick decisions in less-than-ideal circumstances. Don’t expect yourself to be perfect, and don’t expect the end product to be perfect. It only needs to be good enough. Effective triage will give you the best chance to have a class that is well-positioned for student success in these very challenging times. In the meantime, if there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 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).
Comments