Something I’ve been grappling with for a couple weeks now is how to interpret the feedback I received from students on how I handled the transition to remote learning/teaching due to Covid19 this past semester. My instinct when we went online was to consult the experts- professors who already teach online courses. I therefore modeled my three classes after a traditionally online class. What I’ve been slowly processing is that, while I think I led a successfully formatted or standard online class, my students hated it! Hate may be a strong word, but through their evaluations, I see that I was less successful in their eyes than how I viewed my pedagogical shift. What I’m coming up with echoes what we’ve been saying all along- this mid-semester shift was unprecedented and unlike anything most of us had been tasked to do before, on this kind of scale.
While I stand by my instincts to “consult an expert”, I see now more of the diverse cracks in the pedagogical mold. Teaching to a population of undergraduate students who explicitly priviledge the close-knit in-person experience at a small liberal arts school is vastly different than the insight I took from a large state school’s online graduate classes, which is where I got my intel from in that first week. The information and insight from the professor I asked were absolutely spot on– for their student population. Just as traditional online classes are a different category in and of themselves in the new spectrum of remote learning/teaching, I needed to incorporate the unique strengths and individualized aspects of a small liberal arts college into my online pedagogy, which is ultimately what was lacking in my planning and execution.
As I reflect on reading through this article by Flower Darby and even attending a similar webinar from Darby weeks ago, I am starting to see some light through my Spring 2020 evaluations to reflect on some shining moments from last semester. Although my online class formatting may have been somewhat of a flop, I found myself taking pleasure in getting to know many of my students in more personal ways- learning more intimately about their interests in the course topics and more closely advising them on final papers and projects and future classes. I felt I was more authentically myself in my weekly emails, lengthy and time consuming individual feedback, and lecture notes as I tried to view my course material from their perspectives while also empathizing that our new situation was a shock for faculty as well as students. What stood out to me from Darby’s article and webinar was that it did not provide a “How to” checklist for online teaching but was more of a way to approach the task and challenge of remote learning/teaching by showing up and being yourself as an educator and individual. Through these humbling tips, a more clear, precise, and transparent student-centered pedagogy can follow. I’m taking this to heart as good practice in any format of teaching.
There are some interesting critiques of the “best practices” mindset, and I think you’ve identified a really important one: “teach to your particular students in their particular context” overrides all other advice. I was not at all prepared for the degree to which Kenyon students (this spring at least) really wanted class by videoconference, or the number of our classes which didn’t experience significant time zone or Internet/technology access problems.
I’ve also heard from a lot of faculty who, like you, are trying to figure out how to keep getting the amount and kind of contact with students in office hours that they got this spring. That’s a conversation CIP should encourage. I’m glad that was good for you and I think it’s insightful to say that you were “more authentically yourself” when you were trying to see through their eyes.
Flower’s book is terrific; I’m glad to see lots of people are reading it this summer. As with the article and webinar, I think there’s a lot in it which translates for really any modern class. I’ve seen her at conferences a couple times and she’s a terrific speaker/workshop facilitator; I hope the webinar was as good.
Thank you for these tips and resources! I am happy to hear, on the larger scale, that the issues that my evaluations revealed are not necessarily mine alone. All in all, the past semester was a huge learning opportunity and a testament to flexibility in responsive pedagogy!