If … there be kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~ Etienne Grellet
This post is part of a series to help you build an online class. If you want to begin at the beginning of the series, start here. A warm relationship with at least one professor is a high leverage practice--one that helps protect vulnerable students from dropping out. Small schools with low teacher to student... Continue Reading →
While we should be thinking about student privacy in all settings, online classes present an entirely different set of challenges, given that students are often working from their homesand that they are using technologies that allow them to be viewed and recorded there. This is particularly challenging this semester, when we are teaching students who... Continue Reading →
If you’ve been following this series of posts about building an online course by design, you’ve framed your course, selected your materials, chosen your assignments, written your syllabus, established the frame of your online course, added your lessons, and added your activities. This post helps you add the final touches. Has it felt hard and... Continue Reading →
If you require that students attend live classes digitally, you are putting their privacy at risk. The data that you demand is stolen by tech companies, the class can be terrorized by racists and other kinds of bigots, and the images that you require can be captured by others and circulated online forever. Students and... Continue Reading →
If you’ve been following this series of posts about building an online course by design, you’ve framed your course, selected your materials, chosen your assignments, written your syllabus, and established the frame of your online course. In this post, you will be adding your lessons (the material you want them to engage) and the activities... Continue Reading →
If you’ve been following this series of posts about building an online course by design, you’ve framed your course, selected your materials, chosen your assignments, and written your syllabus. In a typical F2F course, you'd be making copies of your syllabus and writing your assignments. For an online course, it's time to build the shell... Continue Reading →
By now, virtually everyone has canceled school for the remainder of the year. Some colleges have already announced that summer courses, many of which begin in just a month, will already be taught online; the announcement allows us time to do more than pivot to remote teaching but to build, even if hurriedly, online-by-design courses.... Continue Reading →
It's been the question filling up faculty listservs: What should we do about grades? I can see the variety of perspectives here (except the one about law schools and med schools demanding letter grades--they will figure something out if we refuse to give letter grades). BUT--let's be honest for a moment. The average GPA of... Continue Reading →
Online teaching is hard. I don't know anyone who does it well who thinks that it's easier than teaching in person. But there is a lot to love. Here are a few: 1. Your students will open up in ways that they cannot in a face-to-face class. Without worrying about how they look or how... Continue Reading →
If you are new to online teaching, here are some things that might grate on your nerves. I'm sorry. 1. Your administrators can enter into your digital classroom without notice, without warrant, and without you knowing about it. I'm sorry. It stinks. 2. For good and for bad, there is a digital record of all... Continue Reading →