Doubtfully Digital

So You’re Going Synchronous: Seeing People Live!  You believe that your class content requires that you hold face-to-face sessions. Your university is requiring that you hold synchronous sessions. You’ve decided that to stay connected as a learning community holding some “live sessions” are beneficial to everyone. You’re talking about synchronous, real time teaching in an online classroom.  There are many benefits to this, without question. Let’s go through some helpful information that you can utilize to get started.  Credit Where Credit is Due   I have to share with you that most of what I will present here in today’s blog comes from the resources offered to all from Columbia University’s School of Social Work. I participated in the Institute for Teaching Online Pedagogy about 2 years ago. This course is open to all regardless of your connection to Columbia.  I’ve learned so much about being effective at building online learning communities and leading them in distance e

Shock and Awe: We May Be Ready, But They Are Not Yesterday our students returned from spring break. And many of those students participate in our online classes, so we didn't believe we would need the week many others of you may have between spring break and going to online classes because our students were already online learners. I was prepared for the slow transition from break, where students may not be as receptive as usual.  You too know that dread of getting back to work after some time off. Oh my ignorance. Oh my naiveté.  Oh my poor assessment skills.  You see, despite most of my students being online learners, both in synchronous and asynchronous classes, they were not ready. COVID-19 had upended life for them in ways they were not prepared for. I discovered this, to my embarrassment, when I began receiving emails form students late yesterday afternoon.  Several students have shared that they just cannot come back to class this week. They are juggling e-learni

Pivot Point: Which Delivery Method Meets Your Need Most of us are either waiting to hear from our institution that we are to take our teaching online, or have gotten that message to get to it.  Many are also getting information on how to make that happen, with links and instructional videos, and directions and ......... so much to take in as we also respond to communication from anxious students. We are officially at the pivot point.  Just like the basketball player pivoting back and forth on one foot to protect the ball, you are now asked to do the same to ensure your students meet their learning outcomes.  You are the the learning expert and you now need to decide which way you will do that.   Transition Time Tip : You are not designing an online class.  You are taking a face to face class online.  You are pivoting to get the job done during an emergency.   To Go Live or Not To Go Live How many weeks or sessions of material do you have to cover?  Most likely, you hav

Doubtful About Teaching With Tech: The Prep and The Plan: Part 2 Quick Tips for Online Teaching  My first post covered the first of our quick tips for online teaching.  Many of you are here because you just discovered your university will practice social distancing hoping to slow down the spread of a pandemic. Sounds dramatic but let's applaud all who are working to keep our students and each of us healthy.  Quick review: You've outlined your class session goals, reviewed what you have and what you need, and developed a communication plan. Let's move on to our final steps in The Prep and The Plan stage. Learning About Your Tools  Most schools and universities have a learning management system (LMS). They also have various degrees of use by teachers and faculty.  By this I mean that some of us are required to use our LMS often and some of us only us it for a few things like providing students with access to articles and our syllabus. In either situation,

EDITOR'S NOTE:  This is the first in a series about how to transfer your face to face courses into effective online learning communities.  This is not only the first blog post in a series to help those who are now moving your classes from face to face delivery to an online platform but  - it's the first blog post for the Doubtfully Digital Blog. You can read about our goals for the blog here but for now let's get to it. Whether we agree about the effectiveness of online course delivery or not, the global health crisis we are facing has forced our hand.  In order to keep our students moving towards their educational goals, we are going online. This first blog post  will focus on helping you with steps you can take to prepare yourself, your courses, and your students for the new world of online learning communities.  This post, and the others that follow in this series, are based on my experiences doing this, quite reluctantly, when a colleague of mine was injured