Teaching as normal?

[paddington_bear]

I feel like the answer to this is obvious, but I'm not sure. Your modality may be different for your class(es), but are people still teaching as "normal"? Meaning, the number of assignments or the amount of reading (or viewing/listening) is the same? I'm teaching a face-to-face class this semester, and other than thinking about how to simulate "group/pair work" in a big lecture hall where students are social distancing (anyone have any ideas?) I've so far planned the same amount of readings and assignments as in non-pandemic times. Half my brain says, "Students know what the modality for their classes are before the semester started, so we're not suddenly shifting to something different."  The other half says, "We are still in the middle of a pandemic. Students are probably still stressed, getting used to their new modalities, etc. I should lighten the reading/assignment loads a bit." What are people doing?

[Parasaurolophus]

More or less the usual in my classes, adjusted for online delivery and completion. We won't be caught mid-semester this time around, since we announced we were going online for at least a year back in April or May. So I think everyone is sufficiently forewarned that if they're enrolled, it's up to them to make it work (with appropriate accommodations where necessary, of course).

If I was returning to in-person teaching, however, it would be a different matter, since I'd have to expect mid-semester disruption.

[dr_codex]

I'm trying hybrid for most of my courses. Split the groups into two (it's the only way to get them safely into the rooms) and then have them do the group work online.

Honestly? I realized this morning just how much more work this was going to be for me. It should keep their workload about the same, but I expect it's going to be a struggle for many of them.

Good luck, all.

dc

[paddington_bear]

More or less the usual in my classes, adjusted for online delivery and completion. We won't be caught mid-semester this time around, since we announced we were going online for at least a year back in April or May. So I think everyone is sufficiently forewarned that if they're enrolled, it's up to them to make it work (with appropriate accommodations where necessary, of course).

If I was returning to in-person teaching, however, it would be a different matter, since I'd have to expect mid-semester disruption.

Yes, the "not being caught off-guard like we were in the spring" factor makes me think that the assignments/readings/etc. should be the same.  I hope that we'll be able to stay F2F until Thanksgiving break. I doubt that we will. I've built the syllabus up until five weeks from now, since I didn't want to waste my energy making a syllabus that's just going to change at some point anyway. All the assigments will be submitted online and there won't be any group presentations like I'd normally do, since I didn't think that it'd be fair to have some students be able to give presentations in class and, if we went online again, others had to give them via Zoom. (I am considering requiring that they submit a video review of a film to our LMS - I'm teaching a film class - and having students respond.)

[mamselle]

The video review of a film might actually be kind of fun; there are folks with whole channels in which that's all they do, so students might enjoy taking on a "persona" and reviewing the film from that stance, or something.

M.

[kiana]

Total work should end up being about the same. Assigning roughly 25 minutes of videos to replace each 50-minute lecture (it turned out that that was just about perfect for covering all the material). Online homework will be a bit longer but there will be no in-class worksheets and quizzes that end up taking up the other half of the lecture.

[Hegemony]

My everything is the same, but when a student falls behind or stops showing up, now I check on them right away. Normally I'd just let them fade out, because they never used to answer my email queries anyway. But now they do answer my email queries, and the fade-out is almost always because of something pandemic-related. And so then, without being asked, I extend the deadline for the assignment that they missed. And they are overjoyed and astonished and embarrassingly thankful. And they get back on track and don't fall behind again. But many more of them are getting derailed along the way than is usual, so I feel this extra bit of attention and flexibility is warranted.

As an extra bonus, it means that they don't drop the class, adding to our mounting deficit and the salary cuts we've all received. So it's win-win.

[sinenomine]

I'll be doing the usual number of assignments and activities in my class this semester, which will be online, rather than on-ground. I've replaced some of my regular in class lecture/discussions with online resources and discussions, and have jettisoned the textbook for all OER materials, but overall, I'm replicating what I would be doing in the physical classroom.

Paddington_bear, what about using Google docs for the group/pair work in your socially distanced lecture hall? That way, students can interact without moving side-by-side.

[kiana]

My everything is the same, but when a student falls behind or stops showing up, now I check on them right away. Normally I'd just let them fade out, because they never used to answer my email queries anyway. But now they do answer my email queries, and the fade-out is almost always because of something pandemic-related. And so then, without being asked, I extend the deadline for the assignment that they missed. And they are overjoyed and astonished and embarrassingly thankful. And they get back on track and don't fall behind again. But many more of them are getting derailed along the way than is usual, so I feel this extra bit of attention and flexibility is warranted.

As an extra bonus, it means that they don't drop the class, adding to our mounting deficit and the salary cuts we've all received. So it's win-win.

Yes. I am a lot pushier about contacting people than I ever was.

[paddington_bear]

Paddington_bear, what about using Google docs for the group/pair work in your socially distanced lecture hall? That way, students can interact without moving side-by-side.

That's a good idea. When I decided to teach face to face, I wasn't considering that students couldn't get into physical groups or even pairs. I need to think more about the online mechanics of this.

[nonsensical]

I'm planning for the same amount of content as in a face-to-face class. Part of my thinking is that the course involves learning a certain amount, and it doesn't seem fair to deprive students of a chunk of that content. To some extent, students can choose how much of the material they actually want to learn (they can read carefully or skim, for instance). But not giving them the opportunity to learn something that I would have given them normally doesn't seem right. I know that students don't always think about course content in this way, but that doesn't change my own view. Plus, even if the course is only a credential, as opposed to an opportunity for learning, a similar argument applies - an A in a particular course should indicate mastery of a particular set of material.

I am, however, planning to be more flexible in terms of how people go through the process of that learning (e.g., flexibility with deadlines). I also appreciate the points others are raising about following up with students who seem to have disappeared, and I'll be incorporating that into my thinking about this fall semester.

[spork]

Paddington_bear, what about using Google docs for the group/pair work in your socially distanced lecture hall? That way, students can interact without moving side-by-side.

That's a good idea. When I decided to teach face to face, I wasn't considering that students couldn't get into physical groups or even pairs. I need to think more about the online mechanics of this.

I am doing this every time I have "class" on Zoom -- I'm teaching entirely online this fall. I don't really lecture in the physical classroom, and I'm not going to start doing it now. Small groups of students will be in breakout rooms, each group sharing a Google file to create something, and then someone from each group will report the results to the rest of the class after I close the breakout rooms.

As for students' workload, it's the same, though students will complain that it is "more" because they can no longer sit in a classroom and daydream about the far more important "campus experience" that an actual college education inconveniently interrupts. But what I have done is simplified my grading processes to create less work for me.

[tiva]

We'll be hyflex--some students in the class, distanced and masked, and others on Zoom. I plan to use PollEV for quick responses, and then use google slides for their Zoom breakout sessions (so they have the prompt in front of them, and so I can easily see what each breakout group is doing). I haven't decided yet if I'll require the in-person students to use google docs, or if they'll just try to talk with each other. Our practice session was chaos, with endless headset feedback and collapsing internet issues. So I'm dreading the entire thing, which starts tomorrow. I have a feeling I'll end up lecturing far more than I have in 20 years.