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Next week is my first day of classes for the Spring semester, I am teaching a methods course exclusively online. I have the benefit of adapting a pre-existing syllabus. Here are some other things I'm doing:
The course is scheduled to meet twice a week, but we will only have one synchronous class per week. the other time slot will be available for me to hold 'office hours' for students who need 1:1 meetings
that time slot will also be when I expect grad students (it's a cross-listed course) to meet amongst themselves to deal with and talk about whatever they need to, whether it's my class or not. They are preparing projects and need to be with their cohort.
I have set up a series of guest lecturers, who I will be recording in conversation with me about their fieldwork and other research experiences. These will be made available to the students as sound files and transcripts.
Students will be assigned to small groups (4-5 each) to work through readings in Google Docs (one per group) before we meet synchronously. I will interact with each discussion doc, too, as prep for our conversation with voices.
The synchronous session will be structured by way of a conversation that 2 students are having with each other about the reading--one will be the Expert of the week, and one will be the Interviewer (h/t @AnitaBlanchard for this idea).
The students will kick off our discussion with their conversation, giving us all a way in via their exploration of the materials for that week. I will record these conversations and share the recording with transcripts for review and those who could not make it live.
I am using a "Bundles" grading system where stacking activities (participation, project completion, etc) at particular levels of completion result in particular grade paths. Inspired by this: https://cte.virginia.edu/blog/2020/12/04/alternative-grading-practices-support-both-equity-and-learning
The organizing principle of this class is conversations that allow us to not just deal with the readings but also develop spaces where we can support people trying to plan projects of their own, and imagine what methods might be useful for them in that work.
I hope it works!
Oh one last thing--I've got the syllabus and the reading schedule as Google Docs (linked from Canvas) so that students can annotate the syllabus throughout the semester. I'm hoping that can be another place for conversations.
