I received very little feedback, i.e., none, on my post from the other day titled I Don’t Think We Should Ever “Go Back To Normal”. I’d like to think this is not because people do not think this is an important conversation to be having, but more because most people are just plain overwhelmed with the adjustments required of them amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In any event, if you did read my last post, you may be thinking, “So how does it work?“
Well…that depends. Remember, I told you in a previous post I don’t have all the answers! I do have thoughts though, and I will share them below. Please note, these thoughts are based on my particular institution and may not be entirely applicable to every institution of higher education.
For better or for worse, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed us all. Like most educators across the country, I’ve been scrambling to adjust and transition my classes to the online space. As someone who has worked in eLearning design and development since about 2007, I feel fortunate to have a background that made this transition fairly easy for me. I know this isn’t the case for everyone and I am empathetic to their struggles, however, as more days have gone past, I’ve had a feeling that we might not make it back to our physical spaces just this year, but a return next fall may be in danger too. If this happens, it will truly be, as Future puts it, MASK OFF, for all educators. We will have nothing to hide behind.
I started having the, “we should prepare for fall online” conversation with a couple of my colleagues earlier this week. I think it is an important one for all educators to begin engaging in, so I am going to share some of my initial thoughts. Please note, this is the rough cut. The polish isn’t there yet, but I am hoping that making my thinking transparent and public others will chime in.
This Weekly Project Planner GDocs template can be used in F2F and Online courses to scaffold student organization and planning as well as serve as a formative assessment tool.
Like a bazillion other people last week, I participated in a Zoom meeting with my work colleagues. It went fine, even for the less tech savvy in our crowd. WHY HAVEN’T WE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS? As a result, I plan to cut the number of actual F2F meetings I attend from here on out in half. There is no reason to try to find a physical space and common time between a decent number of people when we can just Zoom. If some people want to meet together, so be it. But requiring physical bodies in physical spaces at the same time for routine informational meetings has always seemed ridiculous to me, even more so since the COVID-19 cultural event.
I have really digressed from my reason for writing with that rant, but I feel better and I think I’m ready to roll now.
One thing I noticed as a reoccurring theme in my department meeting last week was faculty who were struggling to know how they could keep students moving on larger class projects with no physical presence to check in, assess how students were progressing with their work and provide feedback. While this is certainly a difficult task to manage with 100+ college students when you see them a few times a week, it seemed to be a challenge many of my colleagues were facing and concerned about in our rapid transition to online learning.
