Teaching online - anyone find it better for student learning?

[ciao_yall]

So, when I hear all about teaching online, I hear about...

1) More convenient for students to not have to come to class
2) More convenient for faculty to not have to commute
3) Better writing due to discussion board posts
4) Students can listen to video lectures multiple times until they really get it.

What I never hear about is anyone saying "I prefer to teach online because I find my students really engage and learn better than when we are in a face-to-face classroom."

Am I talking to the wrong people? If someone is seeing better learning results (not just hey, at least they can take the class because it's online) I would really like to hear more.

[waterboy]

When all you see are black boxes on zoom, it's really hard to believe teaching online is an improvement.

[sinenomine]

I agree that trying to replicate an on-ground class by teaching it synchronously online isn't always great, but properly developed and delivered asynchronous or hybrid classes can be both engaging and impactful.

[fishbrains]

I prefer to teach online (English at a CC) as long as it's asynchronous. It's definitely a different type of learning and engagement, but I'd match my online students against someone else's face-to-face students any day in terms of meeting course outcomes.

That said, effective online teaching isn't easy, and it's not for everyone or every field. I'm not exactly Mr. Charismatic in the classroom, so online teaching plays to my strengths.

Except for one-on-one sessions for quick tutoring, I've never had students suggest adding Zoom to my online courses. Never.

[downer]

I teach asynchronous online. I like it. There is a problem of student cheating, which is probably a huge problem to be faced at some point. But so far I'm shelving that issue.

My main point is that in a classroom, about 25% of students participate. In an online discussion forum, 95% of students participate, because they have to. It's not perfect, but it is a much better overall interaction.

[Larimar]

When all you see are black boxes on zoom, it's really hard to believe teaching online is an improvement.

+1 to this. If I never teach another synchronous online class again it will be too soon.

[artalot]

Agree with others that asynchronous online learning can be engaging, when done well. I also think the black boxes of synchronous online are depressing and that the students have to be self-motivated to stay engaged, but what I truly will never do again is high flex, where some students are in the classroom and others are online. I found it impossible to effectively plan for and manage two modalities at once and I think learning outcomes were probably worse precisely because of the incompatibility of the two classroom spaces.
That said, I do have charisma, I truly enjoy the classroom, I'm a bit of a luddite, and my uni offers very few resources for teaching online. So, I think part of this also has to do with individual talents and preferences as well as access to resources.

[arcturus]

I teach a large enrollment, STEM GenEd course in an asynchronous online format. In their introductory discussion posts, students tell me that they expect this course to be easier than their other courses. From a content perspective, that is actually true. From a process perspective, however, it is not. I assign weekly work that requires them to engage with the material. In calculating the final grades, the weighting of this weekly work is higher than it would be in a face-to-face course (where exams would be more heavily weighted, given the nature of these courses at my institution).  For students who want to engage with the material, the online course is a better arrangement. For those that want to float through a GenEd with little work, this is not a good format. Guess what type of students enroll in my class?

I am actually quite proud of the course design (which was done pre-pandemic with the help of my institution's educational technologies team) and course content. If students want to learn, the opportunities are there.

[ciao_yall]

I agree that trying to replicate an on-ground class by teaching it synchronously online isn't always great, but properly developed and delivered asynchronous or hybrid classes can be both engaging and impactful.

Okay. So what is the "secret sauce?"

[Parasaurolophus]

Since the pandemic, I teach almost exclusively online and asynch (I've had one in-person section so far, and will have another this summer). At this point, that's... a lot of courses.

If I'm being honest, I don't think there's an appreciable difference in terms of outcomes for most of my classes. I think that the motivated students get a lot less out of it all, and the unmotivated students (which is most of them) get a little more, insofar as they do a tiny bit more of the work than they did in person (e.g. they consume more lectures). So in the end it balances out.

My outcomes in logic are a bit worse, with more students giving up outright on entire units they don't get (usually proofs, but sometimes... Venn diagrams 0_o). That's because when we're in person, I force every single student in the class to work through one or more problems in every single class session, both solo and in groups. That makes it a lot easier for me to fix problems as they arise. Online, they're on their own unless they come to my office hours, which they don't.

All that said, I was starting from a relatively low bar, so y'know.

[sinenomine]

I agree that trying to replicate an on-ground class by teaching it synchronously online isn't always great, but properly developed and delivered asynchronous or hybrid classes can be both engaging and impactful.

Okay. So what is the "secret sauce?"

I think it's building community within the course. For the ones I teach, that entails assignments that ask students to curate and share knowledge related to the topics we're covering, which leads to their developing a shared discourse and team spirit, along with individual reflections on their learning and it's future applicability.

[marshwiggle]

I prefer to teach online (English at a CC) as long as it's asynchronous. It's definitely a different type of learning and engagement, but I'd match my online students against someone else's face-to-face students any day in terms of meeting course outcomes.

I have a TA this term (in-person) who took the course during covid, i.e. asynchronous and remote. She is doing a fine job and adapts quickly even to content that wasn't covered in the asynchronous course (since they didn't have access to lab equipment.)

A good student in a well-designed online course can hold their own with a good student from an in-person course.

[marshwiggle]

I agree that trying to replicate an on-ground class by teaching it synchronously online isn't always great, but properly developed and delivered asynchronous or hybrid classes can be both engaging and impactful.

Okay. So what is the "secret sauce?"

A motorcycle makes a lousy replacement for a minivan. A minivan makes a lousy replacement for a motorcycle.

The "secret sauce" is to realize what can be done better in a remote, asynchronous setting. For instance, with labs, in-person means there are very strict time constraints on how quickly something must be completed. With asynchronous online exercises, those limits are unnecessary. Students CAN'T take an extra 15 minutes to complete a lab if the next group starts in 10 minutes. With a asynchronous exercise, 15 minutes makes no difference whatsoever.

In-person labs have the advantage of access to expensive infrastructure and in-person help.

The point is that good lab choices for in-person and online asynchronous are different, to take advantage of the different advantages of each environment.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

When all you see are black boxes on zoom, it's really hard to believe teaching online is an improvement.

I know the feeling.

[Caracal]

I prefer to teach online (English at a CC) as long as it's asynchronous. It's definitely a different type of learning and engagement, but I'd match my online students against someone else's face-to-face students any day in terms of meeting course outcomes.

That said, effective online teaching isn't easy, and it's not for everyone or every field. I'm not exactly Mr. Charismatic in the classroom, so online teaching plays to my strengths.

I think this is a good point. Things I can do well at my best: Try to transmit my energy and excitement for material to students. (Key part of this, Remember to have energy and excitement.) Mix discussion and lectures together into something that can  be interactive and engaging.

Things I don't do well: Organization, CMS Management, Tight Lectures that never get sidetracked

I've been teaching long enough to accept and manage the things I do badly, but a lot of that is just about projecting to students that I'm in control. I'm a little disorganized, but I'll make sure that they know what will be on the exam and when things are due. When I screw something up, I'll just fix it in a way that won't hurt them.

Online teaching basically is all the things I'm bad at, and none of the stuff I'm good at-and it makes it much harder for me to mitigate my weaknesses. I do teach online in the summer, but at least that's only one class at a time. I don't love it, but it's ok and it pays pretty well. If I had to teach multiple asynchronous classes every semester, it would be a mess.