His Review of How Things are Going

I enrolled him on my Blackboard site so he could see the structure of the class, and see the prerecorded mini-lectures I have added to the class. Then he sat in on one class (via Zoom), and we talked for another half-hour after things wrapped up.

Nice!

I have a friend from grad school who now works as an educational technologist at UC-Davis. She said that she and her colleagues lobbied to get the university to stop referring to this as "online learning" or "online instruction," arguing that those terms refer to a specific activity for which people train and spend months designing instructional content.

Instead, UC-Davis is calling it "remote learning" and "remote instruction." (And my friend said they sometime describe it as "emergency remote instruction.")

It's a subtle distinction, and probably not one that a lot of people will consciously recognize. But, for example she said she doesn't want instructors to say, after this experience, "I hate online teaching," when that's not what they're doing. So she can at least point to this terminology distinction.

BTW P*D, for pre-recorded lectures that you make, how long/how many minutes are they?

My "mini-lectures" vary wildly. Some are about eight minutes. One monster ran to twenty-six minutes. I understand the case for brevity. Funny though, that case is a case in point for why online learning is often problematic for all but the most mature and focussed people.

And about nomenclature. Yes, when people hear "online class" they usually have no clue how many modes of instruction that can include. The usual presumption is an almost instructor-less MOOC where students watch videos and answer multiple choice questions.

quote:

Some are about eight minutes. One monster ran to twenty-six minutes.

Ok, that's pretty much exactly what I end up with! I aim for less that 15 minutes (with 10 minutes being ideal). But just making the dang things is time consuming, so making one 27-minute video (what I did yesterday) ends up taking less time than making 3 9-minute videos. Also, figuring out where to break a lecture is a bit of a pita.

quote:

I understand the case for brevity. Funny though, that case is a case in point for why online learning is often problematic for all but the most mature and focussed people.

Exactly!! grrr.

Last week I made some videos on phonology (for my intro to linguistics class, nacth), and beforehand, I made the mistake of googling phonology videos. First of all, there are tons of really high quality videos out there. And I made the mistake of watching one that was really very similar to what I would do in a classroom but so well-produced. I could not duplicate that, or what I would do i the classroom, without a green room, a Wacom tablet that I could write on for high-quality drawing and description.... It just makes you want to give up.

I mentioned that to my friend (the ed-techologist) and she pointed out that most of those high quality instructional videos are made with a pretty big budget and a lot of tech resources.

For my other classes, this isn't really an issue because there aren't videos that duplicate what I do in my Japanese business class, for example. But probably for any intro class on a a general topic, the same holds true.

Sigh.

Blackboard will allow you to import videos directly into your broader Panopto lecture, or directly onto your Bb site. Well, as long as the videos are publicly accessible. You don't need to reinvent every wheel.

quote:

You don't need to reinvent every wheel.

No, definitely not. But at the same time, I feel like most of the content delivery needs to come from me... Otherwise, why not just fire me, give students a textbook and some YouTube links...

I know, that's a little over the top. But I'm basically motivated by paranoia, so... :P

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Nice!

I have a friend from grad school who now works as an educational technologist at UC-Davis. She said that she and her colleagues lobbied to get the university to stop referring to this as "online learning" or "online instruction," arguing that those terms refer to a specific activity for which people train and spend months designing instructional content.

Instead, UC-Davis is calling it "remote learning" and "remote instruction." (And my friend said they sometime describe it as "emergency remote instruction.")

It's a subtle distinction, and probably not one that a lot of people will consciously recognize. But, for example she said she doesn't want instructors to say, after this experience, "I hate online teaching," when that's not what they're doing. So she can at least point to this terminology distinction.

I like it.

quote:

But at the same time, I feel like most of the content delivery needs to come from me... Otherwise, why not just fire me, give students a textbook and some YouTube links...

Well, because I'm guessing your classes aren't easily canned for large groups of (often minimally-motivated) students!

I have occasionally embedded videos about certain ideas, or about certain events, right into my own presentations. The videos supplement rather than supplanting, because my approach to the subject is very personal. I'm guessing yours is too.

Zimmer is freaking out over how hard this is to do. He’s working very very hard and is changing everything he thinks he knows about teaching a class. Lab classes are a particular problem.

I am not sure that the average student really cares that much and all he/she really wants to do is whatever it takes to get a good grade. I’m fairly sure that the average employer doesn’t care either

I’m also not sure makes any difference as long as everyone else is doing the same thing.

YMMV.

Steve who is Zimmer?

quote:

I am not sure that the average student really cares that much and all he/she really wants to do is whatever it takes to get a good grade.

While some (maybe a lot of) students may feel this way regarding some gen ed classes or intro level classes, beyond that, I think most students realize that it's important for them to understand the material. 90% of the students in my classes are either majors in one of the the two programs I'm involved in, or (as with this linguistics class I'm teaching) they're majors in some other modern language. In both cases, students tend to be very aware that the material in my classes will be built on in the next class(es), and their success depends on how well the master what we're working on.

This is why so many of my students are especially anxious right now, because they are worried that they won't do as well in online instruction and it will impact them beyond just this semester.

quote:

I’m also not sure makes any difference as long as everyone else is doing the same thing.

Ultimately, I am not all that interested in what everyone else is doing, I want to do the best I can given the circumstances. Partly I feel that way because it's the right way to be, and I care about being a good teacher. And partly I feel that way because I am pre-tenure, and my student evals are part of the larger package of things that will be evaluated in my tenure case. So there's a lot of instrumental and intrinsic motivations all mixed together.

quote:

Well, because I'm guessing your classes aren't easily canned for large groups of (often minimally-motivated) students!

Yes, that's true actually. I don't need to get too freaked out about the video stuff... Even though getting freaked out is kind of everyone's MO right now... :P