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Reading a book on online teaching, perfectly timed (expensive indivd'ly - perfect for the Univ. library to get an e-book): https://www.igi-global.com/book/exploring-online-learning-through-synchronous/233693. First question: synch or asynch? I'm concluding, bolstered by Spring experience: blended!
100%-asynch limits student interaction/bonding w/each other & with faculty, eliminating that aspect of learning. I tried mostly asynch with one class post-COVID, & we had attrition from students who became unmotivated & lost. When we went synch at end of semest., they came back.
Some authors are making the case for at least weekly checkins in mostly asynch. classes. - even 30 mins of common time keeps people connected, let's them ask questions. Announcing things asynch. always seems to leave ppl confused (where do I find that?) v. showing on screen.
Interesting concept in @heatherleslie's article. 3 components of online ed: student-content interaction, student-student interaction, student-instructor interaction. Best class is when you have all 3.
Another idea from @heatherleslie, citing Bower&Hardy: "an online instructor’s most essential job is to engage&sustain students in high levels of interact'n & involvement." If they're not engaged, they won't learn, so focus must be on sparking that & not just "delivering content."
Yes, there are def. ppl who just want to upload stuff, have students look at it on their own time, & not interact. That's not me. It takes more work to sustain interaction b/w them & each other, & b/w them & me. But I'm glad the research confirms it boosts their learning!
Also helpful from @racheltoor https://www.chronicle.com/article/Turns-Out-You-Can-Build/249038: "Less is just as gd, or better, than more. Instead of assigning novels or bks, I will use shorter [rdgs] that accompl. the same pedag. goals" to "recogniz[e] that no one, incl. me, has the same attention span as b4 Covid-19."
Also @racheltoor: "Make all assign'ts due at the same time each wk.... Students told me that they were having trouble kpg track of what was due when for diff. classes, espec. those that were asynch." That one is tough b/c I often had thgs due day b4 class...but worth considering!
@racheltoor on assigning pers. essays to connect in online ed: "Students want to be seen... to be reminded that we understand that they’re struggling. Writing about themselves allowed that to happen & them to express themselves as the flawed, scared, & wonderful humans they are."
Great advice from @JoshuaElliott3 about bldg soc. presence in online clsroom, thru "icebreakers, netiquette activities, & disc'n activities." He gives lots of sugg'ns for how online icebreakers are diff. from f2f, esp. if asynch. (iMovies, web or PP pres'ns possib. as "About Me")
I may skip my Uni's formal online ed training for self-directed learning, b/c I'm not sure I want to bother w/peer review pt (v. being happy with where I am & turning back to writing!). But this @calstate-wide instrument is useful for self-assessment: http://courseredesign.csuprojects.org/wp/qualityassurance/qlt-informal-review/
Finished the excellent bk edited by @CynthiaChandler, & now am moving onto Univ.-suggested resources on online teaching. Hey, @TheTattooedProf, one of the first articles our IITS recommends in their self-paced curric. is your https://www.chronicle.com/article/Teaching-Online-Will-Make-You/247031. Great article!
@TheTattooedProf:"Developing exams for my online students led me to reassess why I used timed, closed-bk exams in the 1st place. Now, whether I’m teaching online or in pers., I use redesigned, untimed, open-resource exams b/c they accurately assess how students are actually lrng"
More wisdom from @TheTattooedProf: "In my online courses, instead of the usual threaded discussions via the LMS, I expanded my use of blogs, developing a system in which students essentially ran the blog and were responsible for most of its content throughout the course."
And still more from Kevin Gannon: "Did my assignments, as drafted for a physical classroom, rely too much on the fact that I could answer students’ questions after class?"
And more from Kevin Gannon on the virtue of transparency in explaining your online pedagogy to students: "Metacognition is most effective when learners realize they’re engaging in it." So important - thank you for emphasizing that, @TheTattooedProf.
Another article our IITS recommends is: https://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=3342226. It suggests that the online classroom must be grounded in 3 Rs: "relationships, relevance, and rigor."
Will I drop them into a rabbit hole if I ask them to search up #haiti #onhere at start of class to see why what they're learning is relevant, & how they'll know way more than most folks when they're done with class? Too many recent controversies here re Haiti/abol'ists etc. 
From @SyracuseU: "Are these assignments items that I lk forward to receiving from my students? If not, what... could I ask for that would be interesting or exciting for [them]?... Assign that product instead." https://answers.syr.edu/display/AC/Summer+Online+Course+Checklist
Also from Syracuse: each session/module should have:
--s'thg to read
--s'thg to hear/view
--s'thg to discuss
--s'thg to do
https://answers.syr.edu/display/AC/Summer+Online+Course+Checklist
--s'thg to read
--s'thg to hear/view
--s'thg to discuss
--s'thg to do
https://answers.syr.edu/display/AC/Summer+Online+Course+Checklist
Interesting idea: you could have them do some CATS ( https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/cats/) in the chat box if you're synch on zoom. So stop and say: what have you gotten so far out of our discussion & have them each type something into the chat box.
Super helpful from @SyracuseU, netiquette guide for students. Those who never took online classes may not know how to act, & you don't know what rules to set in advance: https://answers.syr.edu/display/AC/Netiquette+for+Students
Some Zoom Best Practices from @uiowa, with links to Zoom help guides on securing meetings: https://teach.uiowa.edu/Zoom/teaching-best-practices
Excellent pt by my colleague Matt Atherton: don't think you need to do same as ppl who have been teaching online for years, that's too ambitious. For fall:"try to build a nice solid one story house." B/c "A sundeck, spa & all that stuff can come later" if you reteach it.
Also from Matt Atherton about social presence and building community: "you want to avoid that correspondence course [mentality], we sort of just give them homework and they do it" in solitude.
He says students also can engage more deeply with rdgs in online class when they are main event v. passively showing up to f2f cls & listening. Students say "I loved the rdgs!" much more in his online evals than for f2f. But he says: "they're the same readings!"
Also from M. Atherton: as much as you prepare to be online, your cls will succeed or fail not because of bells & whistles, but if you have a passion for material & show you care about students & engage them. So figuring out HOW TO KEEP THEM ENGAGED online remains the #1 task.
He stressed: KEEP IT SIMPLE. Don't add podcasting and fancy bells & whistles if you're new to distance learning. Stick with engaging them in the material, being responsive and passionate. That's a good thing to keep in mind as we're all feeling overwhelmed!
My colleague Cynthia Melendrez: we need to be ok w/the fact that they might not want to show selves on Zoom. Not only might they not have priv. space at home, but they could be in car to get Wifi or at work & not want us to see. I think keeping them engaged on Zoomchat can help.
Also C. Melendrez: If you just post a lecture & expect them to watch it, they don't get the chance to interact with you, and you’re going to lose them that way. Interactive atmosphere KEY, whether synch or asynch.
C. Melendrez & others: studies show that students lose attention span after 11 mins. Try not to record lectures that re longer.
Now I'm watching @SCMStudies Online Teaching Roundtable. Maya Smukler mentions importance of LMS not being too text heavy & overwhelming since it's their primary way to engage with content. I think I'll insert photos to "humanize" LMS page.
Also, @moodle made it harder to indent between items in last version. But at least I just learned how to indent in a list: https://www.umass.edu/it/moodle/use-moodle-text-editor. Played with last semester's LMS welcome page for a minute & it looks much better now.
Wow, the stuff that Sean Gouglas & colleagues are doing online at @UAlberta Game Studies is way ahead of what I can do (designing LMS exper. to be like game). But it's fascinating! Shoutout to racist/neocol. ludic exper. in #Colonization:
Super interesting information from @paufder re Fair Use. If you're using a film for educational purposes for your students, & it's locked into your LMS, you should be able to screen it. She showed Fair Use codes from @SCMStudies and other organizations.
Back today thking about COVID pedagogy & equity! On @SCMStudies roundtable, Andrea Wood says that asynch is the most equitable. I'm doing blended b/c I had attrition with asynch in Spr, & students wanted more synch. But she rec'd taping ev'thg & being flexible about "attendance."
Our students have choice in enrolling between fully asynch. and synch/blended. But certainly during COVID students will enroll with one job - & then lose jobs midsemester and find s'thg new that conflicts with class schedule. So we have to roll with it & be flexible.
I think that *experienced* online instructors often prefer asynch - b/c the students who CHOOSE online classes v. f2f WANT asynch. But we have diff. situation this fall, with students forced into online who don't like online because they need connection & accountability. #blended
Wisdom from Sean Gouglas: try to put yourself in the shoes of the most DISENFRANCHISED student in your class, & imagine how they would navigate your course: how will they find a route to succeed? Also...
He & others advised BEING GENTLE w/yourself. AVOID PERFECTIONISM in your recordings!! If you're recording lectures, speaking alone at home to a screen can be a mental health challenge.
A. Wood added that you should find some way to have FUN if you're recording: whether that's making a joke or showing a cool video clip. If you are having FUN, your JOY at teaching will translate & they'll engage more. It's rough for all of us (tchr/student) staring at screen.
A. Wood also says ORGANIZATION and EASE-OF-NAVIGATION of LMS page is key: they need to know how to navigate really well, or you'll get tons of emails. Consistency in when you announce the week's tasks, and having them in one place, helps.
Also from S. Gouglas: this is a GREAT time to reassess your learning objectives on courses you have taught for years: *what do they really need to get out of this class?* What is ESSENTIAL? Stick to that & not extra things that might work in f2f but won't online.
S. Gouglas also: to help with social presence, NO CANNED LECTURES. They need to know that you're recording as you go, based on engaging w/them (link to current events) rather than record all lectures in summer & drop like a Netflix season, which will leave them feeling isolated.
Moving from SCMS sem., back to the EQUITY sect. of my University's online training (
to @CSUSM_IITS & @ProfKendra). This art. is useful for thinking re equity in general, not just online: https://www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy/2016/winter/bensimon. For me, with multi-ling. learners, imp. to state things simply.
to @CSUSM_IITS & @ProfKendra). This art. is useful for thinking re equity in general, not just online: https://www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy/2016/winter/bensimon. For me, with multi-ling. learners, imp. to state things simply.
Nicholas Lacy of SDSU: 2016 study showed that in online environment, 134/159 BIPOC students felt LESS supported in online environment. They found it more stressful & less effective. How can you remember that 1 size doesn't fit all & help keep them connected?
Also from N. Lacy. On top of other tech inequities, there's also able-bodiedness: on synch chat, students who can use hands less won't be able to type as fast. He also Zooms outside off. hrs w/students who don't have private space during his reg. office hrs (if other folks home).
Back today to learn more about Accessibility #online. Univ. has been saying for yrs that we need to be PROACTIVE in making LMS usable for students w/disabilities, even if they are not registered & we don't know about them. ADA compliance is important. But inclusivity is key too.
Talitha Matlin of @csusm_library stresses the POUR framework for your LMS. The P stands for perceivable: who knew sans serif fonts are harder to read than serif? ( #notme). So Arial is much better than TNR for anything you post. Easy fix - will help people!
Also from T. Matlin: if you use images you need alt-text. I still have no idea how to add that (note to self!) - but since I'd resolved to add pictures to break up text-heavy LMS and humanize course, I'm going to need to figure that out!
One other tip from T. Matlin: font needs to be sharp contrast to background. I had a problem in spring where a student couldn't read the font (which was white on a blue background) on Mac. When I changed it to black, it helped. Better to think in advance so no problems!
Another reminder that for hyper links, it should not say CLICK HERE, but actually be the content that you want them to reach (for instance University Library). She also mentioned the importance of using auto-headings in word docs.
Interesting sem. from @CSUSM on Building Resilience in students during COVID (or more generally!!) from Prof. Haylee DeLuca Bishop of Psych Dept. We're used to thinking of students who are on top of things early as 'good' & students who let thgs slide til end as needing org.
She notes that lots of factors (poverty, life stress) can affect resilience - & make them appear not to be putting in 'effort.' If they didn't start assignment earlier, it's their own fault!! She argues we need to think about their risk factors & not make snap judgments.
H. Bishop: Mentoring & high-quality tchg can mitigate the effect of poverty in causing stress that causes students not to perform well. If parents lost job: how can we counteract that to promote resilience and ensure student success? Once again, CONNECTION with students....
...helps them feel more secure (just like caregiver attachment) & promotes resiliency. With 1st yr class, she recommends having a discussion of challenges of Univ. life. This will be esp. useful for 1st yr students beginning college online! (& create connections b/w them & you)
She discusses her own successes/failures on the route to her PhD in introducing herself. She also recommends a "best 8/10 strategy for work." I'll remember to do that: let them drop the grades for a few assignments so all won't be lost if something goes awry, even w/o EC pts.
She also suggests asking questions in mid-semester eval. to get them to reflect on their own practices: how much are they finding they're able to focus on readings & lectures? are there things they can manage to do (sleep, diet) that might help them achieve their goals more?
Dr. @JRobertsonHowel actually recommends applying mindfulness strategies for yourself to your students. Start by acknowledging stress we are all under, & do some mindfulness/breathing to connect & start class. May not be natural for us all, or for everyday - but worth trying!
I think it would be helpful on 1st day too, if I acknowledge how weird it is to start semes. this way, that they may have lost jobs or friends/family to COVID, but that I congratulate them on being here, staying focused instead of giving up, & being ready to start new semester
Jay Robertson-Howell also encouraged us to remind them of their own resilience strategies by asking them what they've been doing so far to cope with stay-at-home or COVID stress - reminder that these are things they can return to as semester gets going.
Great comments from my colleagues in the Zoom chat. Math Prof. Amber Puha recommends doing group work really early in the semester to help them get connected to each other, since that will be one of the strangest thgs - you can't just turn and talk to the person next to you!
It's really important also to model your own coping strategies and talk about what you're doing to stay sane in the middle of all of this!
The Univ. session on Student Engagement duplicates a lot of what I've learned in other rdgs & seminars. But Brooke Soles in our School of Ed. adds that using voice feature to record assignment feedback in LMS has been a big hit for her students - they like hearing her voice!
But OH! I didn't know about Poodll! And it works right in Moodle just to pop in an audio announcement - or a video announcement - without using Zoom! I still need to learn about the captioning function; in theory there is one but I don't know if it's automatic or not!
Brooke Soles also recommends @Animoto for annc'mnts. It looks interesting - but I remember advice from our Online 101 sem. w/Matt Atherton (& @SCMStudies) not to go too crazy with bells & whistles in first semester. So that might be something I add on if we're online in spring.
Back today thinking about Backwards Design. Assessment is not my fave thg, & I have 3 existing classes I have to completely transform for fall, but some good takeaways in Univ. BD workshop. M. Atherton notes we should shift more agency to students in online...
...for Haitian history, maybe I should outsource some music selections to students: ask them either to find 
an music on YouTube & research the lyrics - or make some Haitian friends on social media and ask them for their fave songs! My students always report that Haitians...
an music on YouTube & research the lyrics - or make some Haitian friends on social media and ask them for their fave songs! My students always report that Haitians...
...are so impressed by what they've learned in my class, and so that could be a fun mutual exchange. I've got a playlist with my own faves & others (thanks to @AftertheDance, @1hugegHugues, @SinconcienciaNY & others) but that could be super interesting & more engaging for them.
(BTW, it's WAY more int'rg to think of all the ways I *could* transform my classes than to sit down & do it. It will be a nightmare: 3 successful super-interactive f2f classes turned into meaningful virtual classes, esp. when 2020 requires so much ADDING even w/o online pressure)
Really great tip from M. Atherton: imagine that super engaged student in the front row on the LAST DAY of class, & what you think they learned. That's the end of your story. Go back & start from beginning building that stuff in.
Another pearl from M. Atherton for reframing thinking about fall: in spring we were reactive & doing triage conversion. Now, we have more time to be INTENTIONAL & to start thinking about core objectives before revising syllabus. (this is way more fun than assessment usually is)
Back today with the final step on Univ's pathway for online learning: more Backwards Design, this time with Assessment. Already I'm thinking about lessons from yesterday's BD workshop. If geographical knowledge is NOT one of my most core learning objectives...
...then I should prob. toss the map quiz from an History. I don't want to do lockdown browsers & all that stressful test-security stuff anyway. I would MUCH rather students leave cls knowing that received ideas about history are often WRONG & w/apprec'n for Haitian culture....
an History. I don't want to do lockdown browsers & all that stressful test-security stuff anyway. I would MUCH rather students leave cls knowing that received ideas about history are often WRONG & w/apprec'n for Haitian culture....
...then if they can remember where Jacmel is v. Jérémie! But it's still important that they realize how close #Haiti is to Florida, to Cuba, etc., & diff. b/w North and South. So I'll maybe SHOW map and TALK about map...but not test on map!
Melissa Simnitt suggests that learning objectives should be MATCHED to your assignments, which is good to remember. That's obvious in Hist. Methods (obj: learn to produce hist. research paper; assignment: write the research paper) but less so in Rev. Europe & in Haitian History.
She also suggests "writing on board" (which would be announcing online or putting on PP or virtual whiteboard) the LEARNING OBJECTIVE for the day. That is intriguing - it would force one to be intentional. But sometimes there are implicit LOs that we don't necessarily announce.
One colleague, Pamela Redela, noted that in Spring crisis teaching, she had a quiz scheduled. She turned short answer part into discussion forum instead, where they had to post before they could see each other's answers, and then could comment on each other.
Our Dean of Students gave handout on some Zoom scenarios. One refers to "crashers" on day 1. I had thought: the folks on my waitlist can't show up to try to get in online, unlike in person, cuz we're using zoom. Handout: the link can be shared! So I may have to use waiting room.
It will be super awk. otherwise to have people on 1st day zoom who are not enrolled & who I have no info on. So many things to consider. Post-covid last March, a password was enough to join Zoom - I already had a set roster & no crashers trying to join mid-semester!
Did you know you can check student attendance via Zoom *after* class? In spring I had no idea so didn't keep track. Here's the instructions to get a roster, to the @CSUF IITS folks! https://csuf.screenstepslive.com/s/12867/m/59146/l/1219888-taking-attendance-in-a-zoom-meeting
to the @CSUF IITS folks! https://csuf.screenstepslive.com/s/12867/m/59146/l/1219888-taking-attendance-in-a-zoom-meeting
In the 1st cls I'm transforming, am dropping in-class quiz & in-class final. Am going to do maybe an un-midterm (once I decide what that means) 
and/or a @RachelMesch-style Teach Your Fam. Final exam will definitely be takehome essay. In the COVID world, low-stress is the word!
and/or a @RachelMesch-style Teach Your Fam. Final exam will definitely be takehome essay. In the COVID world, low-stress is the word!
Also, did you know you can reconfigure your zoom screen to see up to *49* people in Gallery view instead of just 16? The instructions are here! https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360000005883
