In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we deal with closed campuses and everything going online, we find ourselves teaching in the face of an array of circumstances that make learning difficult. The undercurrents of the unknown run deep. There are our own health
“Students don’t like group work, especially the bright students.” You hear that a lot from faculty; it’s a widely held opinion. But how much do we actually know about student attitudes toward working with others? I thought it might be useful to explore what the
Dear Students,
Confused by remote learning? Uncertain? Anxious? Worried? Stressed? Unclear what next week will bring? For many of us faculty, the answer to all these is yes. I am guessing that many of you are experiencing this as well. We are all in this together.
Most higher education institutions have put their classes online for the remainder of the term. Higher education is well positioned to take classes online because so much of teaching in higher education is lecture driven rather than reliant on one-on-one interactions as in the K–12
I think I killed my yeast.
It has been years, nay, decades, since I last baked bread without using a bread machine. It has even been years since I used a bread machine. I once regularly made a delicious honey graham bread. It always turned out
Many faculty don’t expect to learn a lot from those end-of-course student comments. Students don’t write much, don’t always think carefully about what they write, and have been known to make ugly comments. Low expectations would seem to be justified, and that’s unfortunate. Because they’ve
We observed a new level of interest and excitement among participants during a recent faculty-teaching workshop. We attribute most of this energy to an innovative course design tool that we have been piloting at our university. Course design cards help faculty to brainstorm new approaches
I often wonder what students think about the assignments we create. In my experience, they frequently see assignments as having a limited and somewhat task-oriented relationship with their course work. Their concern about what counts for a grade is frequently one-dimensional and often usurps the
Research on active learning is moving beyond the “does it work better than lecture?” question to explore how particular kinds of active learning experiences influence learning. How appropriate and welcome! Do some of its many techniques promote learning better than others? Which ones? And what
A national survey found that Generation Z students (defined as those born between 1995 and 2012) ranked YouTube as their favorite learning tool (Overland, 2018). Yet many instructors think to themselves, “There is no way I could create videos like the professionals.” The good news
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In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we deal with closed campuses and everything going online, we find ourselves teaching in the face of an array of circumstances that make learning difficult. The undercurrents of the unknown run deep. There are our own health concerns and those of the ones we love. There are financial worries. Will there be food in the grocery stores? How do we avoid getting on each other’s nerves here at home? How long will this last? And finally, how do we teach when minds and hearts are a thousand places other than learning?
We can help students focus by providing the leadership that they’ve come to expect from us. Although we may feel inches from chaos, we do know how to teach, and we understand how students learn. That doesn’t mean we ignore or downplay the challenges, but what’s happening in the course—that’s our bailiwick. Calm, steady leadership quiets panic and conveys confidence that we’ll figure it out together.
Teaching under a new set of circumstances requires flexibility—the ability to respond to events on the fly. It’s not a time for rigid standards and fixed policies or for clinging to how things have always been done. At this point, most of us have cobbled together a plan for what’s going to happen in the course, but it’s a work in progress and will evolve as circumstances change. We’ve unexpectedly been jolted off course, but we are still on the road and committed to doing what it takes to move the course forward.
Along with the uncertainty of the situation comes an opportunity to be with our students in different and deeper ways. Helping these students become a community of learners may be easier than it’s been in any other course. As challenges emerge, we can talk about them! We can ask students to describe how problems look from their perspective and encourage them to share ideas, solutions, and other options. There’s no need for social distancing with remote teaching. In fact, it’s a case for a close relationship with the teacher and students working together in the face of shared struggles.
It’s not always bad for students to see teachers struggling with the details. My colleague Lolita was telling me stories the other day about her first attempts with a synchronous online session—and she’s an experienced online instructor. She was ready for her second set of PowerPoints, but where were they? She clicked on icons and moved from screen to screen—her face registering the disgust, frustration, and embarrassment she felt, forgetting that 40 students were looking on. With no PowerPoints, she had to give up and end the session early, but with poise and grit in her voice she announced that she would find them and do better next class session. I’ll bet students identified with her, comforted by the fact it’s a trying time for everyone.
The gift teachers most need to give themselves right now is space for a less-than-best performance. Frustrating teaching experiences are filled with potential for learning—for the teacher, yes, but also for the students who get to see how a pro builds mistakes into a better performance. Instructors need to occupy that space with humility but also with confidence. We are master learners who know that mistakes are powerful teachers.
Teaching in troubling times opens up learning possibilities beyond those the course provides. In compelling ways, we are making sense of our priorities and seeing more clearly what really matters. Life is possible with fewer than 24 rolls stashed in the bathroom. We are experiencing emptiness without our communities—and grubby fullness with too much family. But the absence and closeness of those most meaningful to us awakens the frightful possibility of losing any of them. This is life on the edge with lessons ready for learning. All that’s missing is a teacher.
