Stage / Charact. |
1: Emergency flurry
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2: Settling into a dusty road
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3: The long haul
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Overall Mood
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Fear, trepidation, enthusiasm, excitement.
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A little calmer, but there is now pressure to deliver better quality teaching. Fear that I cannot keep the pressure at this level.
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Reflection, interspersed with panic, long-term planning, fighting the encroaching exhaustion. Is everyone this tired? (Can I get fed by tube?)
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Attitudes towards students
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We’re all in this together. We know you are struggling, so are we. Please have patience, we’re doing what we can. This won’t last, we will get through this together.
(And they ask me for advice on how to study under these circumstances? How should I know? I’ve never had to do this. All I can do is trot out platitudes and clichés, and try to calm them.)
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This is continuing. How can we make this better? How can I be available for my students who seem to need me 24/7, without compromising family life and my own sanity? We have come a long way, and we are coping…I think.
But how are my students coping? How often should I check in with them to see how they are doing?
I cannot assume their tech familiarity. How will this affect students’ evaluations of my course? Should I care? Should I adjust my teaching to get good ratings?
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This is longer than we anticipated, but please see it as part of your professional training; this is how you will be dealing with patients and colleagues.
But all the time I am aware that I may not be delivering the same quality education, and I am letting my students down, and not meeting their new needs. And their needs change with their own levels of sophistication. Am I overloading my students with all this new stuff?
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Teaching Focus
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Getting the material into the LMS. I do something in my “normal” teaching, how do I do this online? How to create webinars, podcasts, how to record PowerPoints? And PBL and CBL? What tasks are suitable, and how do I convert them? I see a host of other tools in the LMS. They look interesting, but there is no time to check.
What is Zoom, anyway? How do I check all my students are there? That they stay? What does “attendance” even mean in this context? Should their cameras and mics be on? Do I just speak into the void?
How can clinical teaching be converted into online scenarios? Do I just make videos with voice-over?
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Quality use of the material. How do I encourage interaction? What are my colleagues doing to solve these problems? Is there a better way of doing this?
The LMS is more than just a PowerPoint distribution site, so there is interesting experimentation. I found some useful tools. How do I improve these tasks and classes?
Small-group work is good, but it is such hard work. Flipped classroom? Mmm. And, for the students, is it really good to have multiple devices, windows and browsers open, and all these simultaneous activities?
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How has my teaching changed? How will this impact my face-to-face teaching? How is this to be sustained?
Reviewing of my earlier online courses and materials; embarrassment at earlier work, and attempt to improve.
How long will those courses be available to me? To my students? Should I backup everything?
Refining and meeting standards. What standards are there? Local, national, international? Which is the best? What is the best practice?
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Research, Reading and Writing Focus
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Research? In all of this, you still expect me to keep up with my research?
Basic, “How To” articles, Twelve Tips.
This is what we did, and what we learned from it. We will do it better next time, if there is a next time.
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What works best in different situations? Students needs and expectations are changing: how to cope with this?
Where can I find suggestions from experienced teachers: not “you can do this,” but rather, “I actually do this.”
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Using data analytics for long-term projections. All these data - is there a role for AI in all of this? How are we supposed to meet international standards?
How do we know what is effective, or are we all just groping in the dark?
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Computer usage
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Standard computers, both my own and institutional, basic, free, new software, learning about how to record, edit, upload. Using known software in ways not previously used.
(And recording takes so much extra time and effort, and working from home has its own complexities).
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More advanced software, and using the more advanced features of the basic software, using non-standard apps and social media. Using software like a pro (I think); demanding more from the software than before.
Beginning to hit institutional and other limits; finding work-arounds. Learning about cloud-computing.
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More professional editing tools; collaborative production and editing. Developing more tailored systems. But students have so many different devices and they don’t all work equally. Looking for extra plugins, extra enhancements, specialised software. Hope to experiment with AI.
Technological limits are now impacting on my teaching. I need a new computer. I’d be lost without cloud-computing. Work-arounds are too complex and time-consuming. How can I create Khan-academy-level materials?
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Theoretical knowledge and self-growth
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New terminology: synchronous versus asynchronous, encryption, hybrid, HyFlex, online breakout rooms. Feeling swamped in the jargon soup – it’s easier just to go with the practical side of things.
(And if I hear “new normal” once more, I will scream.)
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Is there any theoretical background or justification for what I am doing? Where do I find it? Am I really doing the right stuff? Am I really that bad a teacher? Is it all just hit and miss? When it works, I don’t even know why, but I repeat it and hope that it works again.
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There’s an entire world of theoretical approaches to online learning. It’s not like face-to-face teaching, and it wasn’t just me. Why did I not know about this stuff before?
Peer-observation? What?
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Assessment
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How to create online quizzes, all the settings, how to prevent cheating, should we use proctoring software or not, and how?
How can clinical assessment be converted into online scenarios?
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What other assessment tools exist? This basic stuff doesn’t do the job. Video assessment? Audio and video feedback? How to do OSCEs and OSPEs online? Open-book exams? Case-based scenarios with multiple questions attached? Item banks and randomisation?
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Re-evaluation of our assessment assumptions. What about those analytics? Could they be used for assessment? What are the ethics of proctoring, especially if it requires a 360-degree view of a student’s bedroom? Is that even legal?
And clinical skills assessment? What are we assessing? How far to compromise? This is a logistic nightmare. Does everyone just lurch from exam to exam?
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Institutional Support
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Encouragement mainly; support services are mostly overwhelmed; I am on my own, and rely on the old champions whose quirky tech knowledge now appears crucial (They quickly become my “go-to” every time I have a problem, but I feel guilty.)
Official support may run some workshops, so I need to attend workshops and seminars, but they’re so long-winded, and I don’t have the time. Why don’t they just make videos?
I wish someone would settle on a technical standard, because I cannot keep jumping around all the time.
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Slightly improved support, links to other sites. I am becoming more self-reliant; forming groups; less reliant on support for the basics, making extra demands, but still relying on the champions.
I also have to face 150 students complaining about the quality of the work. But I have great sympathy for the support staff attempts – I see some of them working far beyond the expected, with little acknowledgement.
There may be financial support, but the institution is struggling to meet the demand and the new requirements.
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I now require more sophisticated support from the Institution; online is not merely a copy of face-to-face, and the administration does not seem to understand that.
Colleagues sometimes ask me for tech support; official support does not match my needs, leading to frustration. They still want to teach me how to build a quiz; I’m beyond that. I don’t need another tech workshop; I want input from educators.
Are they even aware of international standards? I’m responsible for my course, but they call the shots. They ask: “Why do you want to do that?”, and I answer “Because I’m trying to be the best possible teacher.” But that doesn’t seem to mean anything to them. They seem to block all my attempts at innovation with the words, “Budget” or “Security” or “No-one else has asked for that.” And then I see them struggling and feel guilty.
The Centre is not holding…
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