I mean? Pretty much every school but us at this point.

And our idiot governor just said “schools should not close, events should not be canceled.”

Because, tourism dollars > public health

Schools in VA:

https://www.wavy.com/news/heal...s-in-person-classes/

Check out W&M, one of the few places giving faculty some time to prepare before starting online. Fancy!

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Keep us posted P*D.

We just received an announcement that the person being monitored was found to be negative for COVID, which of course is very good.

I still am hoping that they will announce that we move online after spring break (our spring break starts this Saturday).

Classes suspended

We're shifting online for now. I have to figure out how to do this effectively.

P*D have you ever taught online before? Does your school has tech teaching consultants?

I’ve been thinking about writing up a list to share with my Dept of some of the things I do in my summer online courses, if there’s thing that might be helpful more generally I’ll share it here.

Does your school use Canvas?

We're still in limbo. I've gotten emails from within my college pointing me to resources on how to teach online, but nothing from the university level other than, "We're still watching the situation."

Yesterday, I wrote all my students and told them that, although there had been no decision made about going online, I was making plans for what we would do if that decision was made. I asked any of them who thought they might have difficulties with internet access to let me know, and I reassured them that we would get through this. I especially made sure to let seniors know that I would work with them so that this wouldn't affect their ability to graduate.

I don't know what, if any, communications they're getting, and they have to be worried, so I did the best I could to allay those fears.

Good for you, MA. They need someone to provide steady leadership.

quote:

I did the best I could to allay those fears.

Yep, I'm doing this as well. I was initially surprised (but am not anymore) by how worried some students are about having all their classes moved online. I had one student say he was worried that if instruction moves online, he won't do well and won't learn what he needs to.

We just got word that we're going online for two weeks after next week's spring break. That takes us to April 3.

Interestingly, classes will still meet at the OKC Health Center campus and the Tulsa campus. The letter talks about the unique characteristics of these campuses, saying that because they're not residential colleges, class sizes are small, and they have health care instruction components, it's not necessary to stop in-person classes at this time, although they might close later.

One of those things is not like the others. I don't see why health care instruction components means that it's not necessary to suspend in-person classes. It seems to me that they want to keep those interns and medical students at the ready. It's obvious that this is an advantage in keeping the medical campus open, but I just looked up the programs at the Tulsa campus and they include a residency in community health and degree programs in public health, nursing, medical imaging, and so on.

Anyway, I was behind on paper grading. I'll finish that today, then I'll turn my attention to moving those classes online. It's a good thing I'm cooped up in my room on voluntary quarantine after spending a day in the petri dish of our nation's Capitol and four days in the petri dish of our nation's capital.

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:
It's a good thing I'm cooped up in my room on voluntary quarantine after spending a day in the petri dish of our nation's Capitol and four days in the petri dish of our nation's capital.

And I'm her serving boy.

He's very good at it!

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
P*D have you ever taught online before? Does your school has tech teaching consultants?

I’ve been thinking about writing up a list to share with my Dept of some of the things I do in my summer online courses, if there’s thing that might be helpful more generally I’ll share it here.

Does your school use Canvas?

I have prepared lots of little videos on specific complex topics, and have posted them to the class Blackboard site. But I have never taught entirely online. I'm not a fan. My skepticism is chapter 8 of my last book, actually.

But online for a small group of relatively mature students can work, though much of the engagement will be lost, along with some of the peer effects. Spilled milk. We have no choice.

We have this "Instructional Resilience Website" to help people shift to online. I suspect lots of universities have prepared the same type of tutorials and options.

Instructional Resilience Website

IT will be in overdrive now. I suspect its budget will grow, and other things will shrink.

quote:

I'm not a fan.

Neither am I. And I’ve received a fair amount of training for 100% online courses and have now taught three summers online (100% asynchronous).

But that’s what I’m hoping we’ll be doing for the rest of this semester anyway, teaching online.

Ugh.

My uni finally pulled the trigger. Finals are next week, and faculty are encouraged (but not required) to figure out a way to deliver them using some sort of remote method. Most classes in Spring term (starting in April) will be on line. I don't know which courses are exempted, or why.

As far as springing the need to deliver courses online, I found this on FB from a poster named Amy Young. I'm including it in whole (sorry about the length) because not everyone has FB (where the link would take you).

The advice seems pretty reasonable to me.

______________________________

So I attended a workshop to try to get us very quickly prepared to teach at a distance until the end of the month. There are a few things I've learned that I think are important to share:

1. Be kind to yourself and your students. Everyone is stressed, even if they're playing cool. That includes faculty. And that's okay.
2. Many universities have a considerable number of pedagogical experts that, quite frankly, I have only been dimly aware of until yesterday. Be kind to these people. They are suddenly very slammed.
3. There are a much larger number of faculty on university campuses that desperately need to retool. We have faculty who do not know how to use even the course management software that we've been on since I've been here (12 years). It is moments like this when that disparity becomes really fraught. It is also unacceptable.
4. You will not recreate your classroom, and you cannot hold yourself to that standard. Moving a class to a distance learning model in a day's time excludes the possibility of excellence. Give yourself a break.
5. Prioritize. What do students REALLY NEED TO KNOW for two weeks. This one is hard for me. But we have to strip it all the way down--in my campaigns class, that means I need them to post infographics on their research and now post narrative context and slides. But I'm going to punt on presentations because we just don't have time. Which sucks. But these are not normal circumstances.
6. If you're making videos, student viewership drops off precipitously at 5 minutes. Make them capsule videos if you make them. And UPLOAD to YOUTUBE because it TRANSCRIBES for you. Do not assume your audio is good enough or that students can understand without transcription. This is like using a microphone at meetings--I don't care if you don't need it, someone else does and they don't want to ask.
7. Make assignments lower or no stakes if you're using a new platform. Get students used to just using the platform. Then you can do something higher stakes. Do not ask students to do a high stakes exam or assignment on a new platform.
8. Stay in contact with students, and stay transparent. Talk to them about WHY you're prioritizing certain things or asking them to read or do certain things. I've moved to doing that in all of my face-to-face teaching anyway, and it improves student buy-in because they know content and delivery are purposeful.
9. Do not read on best practices for distance learning. That's not the situation we're in. We're in triage. Distance learning, when planned, can be really excellent. That's not what this is. Do what you absolutely have to and ditch what you can. Thinking you can manage best practices in a day or a week will lead to feeling like you've failed.
10. Be particularly kind to your graduating seniors. They're already panicking, and this isn't going to help. If you teach a class where they need to have completed something for certification, to apply to grad school, or whatever, figure out plan B. But talk to them. Radio silence, even if you're working, is not okay.

And this is not something I learned in the workshop (some of these other things aren't either, they just make good sense), but for those in positions where they have to report on their year's activities, including teaching and service--REPORT ON THIS. We are, in real time, doing very significant labor for the university at no additional compensation and with little training. Report on that in your activities for the year. Frame your work as both teaching AND service. You are helping put your university on more solid ground by doing this and doing this on the fly--that is LABOR. Frame it as such. I told every junior faculty person in my department to do this, especially, and told them I would highlight that in my reports on them so it's repeatedly on record.

Nina, I've seen that on FB, but it's definitely worth sharing and re-sharing!!

So, my uni finally, finally pulled the trigger as well. Next week is spring break, after spring break, we move instruction online. The university will stay open, students are encouraged to go home, but anyone (esp. international students etc) can stay on campus, stay in the dorms, student health clinic, dining halls etc. will stay open etc.

So this is all very good.

Now I can switch gears and start complaining about teaching online! :P