New to online teaching? Forget about technology for a moment
The Educationalist. By Alexandra Mihai
Welcome to a new issue of my newsletter! Following the debate about “moving online”, I often feel there is too much focus on technology and this is overshadowing the actual teaching and learning. So how about shifting the focus to what really matters? Forget about technology for a moment, take a pen and paper and get ready to revisit your courses and challenge your assumptions. Who knows, the result might surprise you! Read more in my latest blog post below. Have a nice end of the week and stay safe!
Alexandra
How to stop worrying and take back control of your course
Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, almost two months ago, a lot has been written about how students, teachers and universities should adjust to the new situation and prepare for the “new normal”- more online education in the coming semester(s). I sometimes have the feeling that the discussion tends to focus a bit too much on the “online” in online learning or on the “remote” in remote teaching. It’s true, the context is different, the medium is different but the good news is that there are still many things that teachers can control. For many, however, this focus on technology often results in anxiety and a reinforced negative feeling towards “going online”: What tools should I use? How long will it take me to get familiar with them? And what if I fail and look ridiculous in front of my students? If I don’t see my students how do I know they are learning? And anyway, my topic is impossible/ very difficult to teach online.
In order to avoid this vicious circle, we need to refocus on what really matters: learning. What if, instead of thinking how to best “move” your course online, you would take up the challenge to revisit your course, break it into pieces, question your initial assumptions and try to improve it? Forget about technology for a moment (it might be difficult these days but not impossible), take a pen and paper and go back to the drawing board. Despite the current constraints you might find this to be quite a refreshing exercise and in the process you will probably (re)discover what you like about teaching in the first place and who you are doing it for.
Here are a few ideas on how to get started: follow the 3 steps below and if you find it easier you can use this template:
Step 1: Focus on the essentials
Start by writing down the learning objectives- always the best place to start. Then try to think what is absolutely necessary for students to achieve those objectives, both in terms of knowledge and skills. Of course you can look through your current syllabus to pick up those essential elements but don’t forget to think beyond that too: what you might have missed when you first designed the course? To structure your thinking, use 3 categories: what is essential content? what learning activities are the most suitable for your students to reach the learning goals? what tools do you need (try to avoid the artificial dichotomy face-to-face vs. online). The most important thing at this stage is to think of what is really essential. I am emphasising it because it is not easy. We tend to be overprotective with our courses and find it easy to defend each element. This exercise is exactly about challenging this. It’s not about oversimplifying things, it’s not about reducing complexity. It’s about deciding what students need to know and be able to do at the end of your course. If you end up with a pretty similar syllabus, try again in a few days, on a fresh sheet of paper. Repeat the exercise until you feel you’ve narrowed it down to the core. One more tip: while tempting, try to avoid thinking mainly in terms of content (topics, chapters, etc) and think of learning moments or activities your students will experience (discussions, presentations, simulations, etc).
Step 2: Customise the learning experience
Once you are confident you have the essentials of your course clearly set, it’s time to move on to the next part: customising the learning experience. Here, two things are important: knowing your students (pretty) well — you can read more in my last post- and thinking of a few strategies to enhance students’ learning beyond the essentials. Here again it is a good idea to use the three categories I mentioned above (content/ learning activities/ tools). But now it is all about going in more depth and providing students with different paths to master the topic. So you can maybe start by picking up some of the things you could not quite fit in the essentials, like that simulation game you are fond of or the case studies students loved in the last years. Or maybe add that one activity your colleagues talked about and you always wanted to try. These could be some of the paths to offer your students, as long as they fit your learning goals. One thing to be mindful of: this is by no means “second hand content”, left overs from the core of your course. On the contrary: while the core needs to satisfy the basic requirements (which does not mean being boring!), this part is actually the value proposition of your course, something that makes students curious and keeps them engaged. After coming up with a few ideas, you can categorise them as you see best: “more theory”, “more practice”, “independent learning”, “collaboration”, etc. (see my suggested template for inspiration, of course you can add/delete/rename the blocks). The aim is to create a modular structure. And here is why:
Step 3: Design the learning journey
The last step is to orchestrate all the above mentioned elements into a coherent learning experience. Here again, a fresh sheet of paper can help you play around with the various blocks . The idea is to provide students with meaningful learning paths. Yes, you read correctly: paths (plural). Think of your course as a curriculum: with some core courses and some elective courses, all in a meaningful sequence. Beside “the essentials”, your students will need to take one or more of the other elements to customise their learning journey (you get to decide how many, the important think is to give them a choice). This can be very motivating for students as they feel they have ownership of their learning process. Once the picture becomes clear for you, don’t forget to think of the best way to communicate it to students. This step is almost as important as the whole design process described above.
You probably noticed I did not mention technology during the entire process. And still, this method is useful for (re)designing a course both for face-to-face and for online environments. Once all these elements are clear to you, finding the right tools does not seem so daunting anymore. The key is to realise the tools are not the priority, although we are often led into thinking they are. Online teaching is about good teaching. And good teaching takes time, regardless of the environment. This exercise is aimed at providing you with some structure and helping you reconnect with your course and with your students. Once you have that, you will instinctively know what technology to use and how.