What are your pandemic silver linings?

Dear Aggie,

While I know we haven’t quite put COVID-19 in our rearview mirror, we are offering in-person classes, and striving for a return to “normal”. As we begin to find that new normal, I was curious to know if there are things (practices, lessons learned, approaches) that you will be keeping from our “COVID” semesters? Do you think there is a silver lining that we can appreciate when we come out the other end of this pandemic?

~Glass Half Full

 

Dear Glass Half Full,

I absolutely think that there is a lot that we have learned since March 2020 that will improve our teaching and learning into the future! I am so glad that you are taking a positive spin on this, and looking for those silver linings. I can’t speak for everyone, but here are some of my silver linings.

 

Flipped classes with mini lecture screencasts

I got lots of positive feedback from students about my short and focused lecture screencasts in my online courses (created in Canvas Studio; no more than 2 x 10 mins for each week). I am continuing to use these in my flipped and blended course. Students watch the short lecture screencasts before the first class meeting each week, then come to class to work collaboratively on problems and case studies. This has transformed our in-person class time into productive and effective learning and working sessions.

 

Confidence to teach an effective online asynchronous class

While many of you were already ace online teachers, I had not dipped my toes in the fully online environment before March 2020. But I invested a lot of time in professional development, and I asked a lot of questions. In the end, I think my subsequent online classes ended up going (surprisingly) well. I am grateful for all the technical and instructional design support I had, and am glad to now feel confident in this teaching environment.

 

Digital Faculty Fellows (DFFs)

Speaking of support, I am grateful for the Digital Faculty Fellows (DFF) Program facilitated by Digital Learning and the Teaching Academy. I think I speak for all the DFFs when I say that we want to support our instructional colleagues in any way we can. We occupy a unique niche, bringing the faculty experience and perspective to Digital Learning.

 

Expanding Connections with Zoom

Yes, I know we all get sick of Zoom at times, but think about how it has allowed us to connect in ways that we didn’t before. We can host seminar speakers from abroad without breaking the bank on travel expenses, our graduate students with loved ones around the world can invite their friends and family to their dissertation defenses, the Academic Technology Open Lab is open pretty much all day, every day, and we can easily share screens and documents with remote collaborators. Yes, it means we have to get on Zoom, but some of these connections wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

 

Flexibility and Inclusivity

Flexibility contributes to equity and inclusivity in our teaching. And we really needed to be flexible with our students during COVID. But that flexibility benefits our students even when we are not in the midst of a global pandemic. For example, we can continue to consider flexibility in terms of giving students choices about topics to research, or formats in which to present their work, as well as reasonable flexibility and forgiveness around due dates.

https://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/creating-an-inclusive-classroom/inclusion-online/be-flexible/

 

If you use Zoom, you can encourage students to add their preferred pronouns to their displayname (and you can add yours). This also contributes to an inclusive environment. See the NMSU Zoom guide for setting your display name:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11sT8ooLVv2BLBwpUzQQoZ8TsctM0kUlDxXe3-CEMNcg/edit

(look for the section “How do I adjust my display name in the Zoom Client for Meetings?” in the section on Accessing NMSU Zoom)

Online Assignments and Exams

Even before the pandemic, I was a little germophobic and less than thrilled by having to handle and grade hundreds of papers that had been sneezed on, coughed on, and spilled on. Not only does online administration and submission eliminate the need to handle all those potentially germy papers, but it also offers a wealth of opportunities for flexibility.

 

I have kept my exams online in my large enrollment flipped class. I continue to use a full week for each exam (as I did while we were online), providing an un-graded practice exam in the first part of the week, and then the “actual” exam later in the week. Students can take the exam at any time of their own choosing during that time. I also allow them to take it twice, with the best score counting. This allows some grace for failing internet connections, as well as the opportunity to go back and study some more, before taking a second attempt (which promotes learning). This approach is also designed to reduce test anxiety, which in turn has positive impacts on performance.

 

Using online submissions for assignments also has added advantages. These include associating a rubric with the assignment (to make your expectations clear), assigning peer reviewers to first drafts (to allow students to use peer feedback to improve their work), and never having to worry that you misplaced a paper.

 

These are a few of my silver linings. I would welcome hearing from others about what good they have taken from the pandemic. Maybe we can eventually fill that half-full glass of yours!

 

~Aggie