WEEK 2
We are ready for week 2 of online teaching. Are we really
ready?
Week 1 was full of enthusiasm and now that the novelty of learning
something new and attending ‘n’ number of training and webinars on teaching
online are over it is going to dawn on you and the students that battle has
just begun. Transferring assessments, exams ,assignments to online, making sure
the students remain motivated and keeping the students engaged in the class is
just some of our challenges. Having everyone stay at home and coping with non
teaching challenges including avoiding the what’s app forwards is just another
day in our life now. When you are in a face to face class you can sense the
mood , discuss totally non academic
stuff give a quick break, talk movies , talk books and still come back to the
topic and finish the learning objectives of the day. When online and recording
your lecture, it is like being on stage and you better not forget your lines,
with just your luck your supervisor or the student will skim through the
lecture and pause when you were cracking the joke which seems so irrelevant out
of context on playback.
All is not lost. Let us begin the week with preparing
ourselves just like Week 1.
- 1. Your Topic or Content is new. Your student doesn’t know what your approach is going to be so just as in a face to face class start with a joke or an anecdote or just jump into the topic what ever you are comfortable with.
- 2. Let them talk for a few minutes on what their challenges were with previous week academic and non academic.( Don’t forget they are all cooped up and unable to meet friends plus stuck with chores which normally they could escape or postpone and above all worried about their future.
- 3. Continue to prepare way more than what you would expect to disburse in the class just as you would in a face to face class. Some homework is always good to keep them engaged if necessary.
- 4. Ask them for feedback on what went good and what needs attention and why that needs attention you might end up with an answer that the students did not put in enough efforts.
- 5. Most online modes ( WebEx Adobe connect, Zoom) allows you to share your screen so share with them. Past week I let the students annotate as and when and infact kept slides/ document for them to do. They played with the tools available till they learnt how to text type.
- 6. Patience was the key word asking them to bear with me and bearing their fun as we toggled the keys was very helpful.
- 7. By the end of this we will learn to tolerate and find a solution for everything, tomorrow is another day.
- 8. Be KIND to yourself and ‘Efficiency is More Important than perfection’.
