Teaching in the Time of COVID-19
Dear Faculty,
As you all transition your classes to an exclusively online environment, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your work and dedication and share a few words of encouragement. You all know how rapidly this situation is evolving and how often we are exposed to new decisions, from the global down to the local levels including how our own institution is responding.
I can only imagine how unsettling some of the uncertainty may be as you try to adjust to new directives and navigate disruptions in your own lives. I know that you are concerned about your students and the welfare of your immediate community. I recognize the enormous work you are all doing to ensure academic continuity and provide the best pedagogical experience possible to our students. I am inspired by the Aggie spirit and how compassion and service are activated in difficult times. I am deeply grateful for such effort and dedication.
To alleviate some of the concerns you may have in how effective you may be in this new virtual environment, let me share a few principles I gathered in recent days on how to navigate this national online experiment. First, Dr. Andrew Klein, the Speaker of the Faculty Senate, put our task into a proper perspective:
“We successfully completed more than 50% of the semester”, so take heart in that we have a minority of the effort left to transfer to an online environment.
And to do that, I recommend we follow his advice: “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”
Let me share some common guidance I have gathered on how to transition classes successfully from face-to-face to a virtual environment.
- Simplify. Don’t apply the same high-level expectations you have developed over your previous years of experience delivering courses in face-to-face environments. It takes time to develop and properly use all the sophisticated tools that make an online course attractive. But you can still be successful if you simplify and provide a clear organization for your course material.
- Communicate. The second most critical aspect you need to keep in mind to achieve a successful online instruction is not how many virtual bells and whistles you can manage, but something much simpler: communication. You communicate well already and moving your class online doesn’t diminish the need to communicate with students, but rather heightens this need. Continuous feedback and communication is even more critical in the virtual educational world than in the physical classroom. With fewer opportunities to ask questions or read body language, students will often make assumptions about what they are being judged on. There is more danger for them to feel isolated, to become disengaged from the material and to miss crucial direction and information. Be clear and organized, as you are in face-to-face environment.
- Inclusivity. Finally, be mindful that some learners may feel embarrassed if they are confused by technology, or don’t have access to the proper technology (a computer or tablet, appropriate WIFI coverage or bandwidth). These learners may feel discouraged from speaking up online. Be proactive in reassuring them that we are all in this together and that confusion about technology or poor/lack of access, does not impact your opinion of their performance in the class. Also be mindful that some students may need accommodations for learning. Our technical crew is here to help assist you in how to turn some of your material ADA accessible. Remember, simplify. Don’t try to figure it all out on your own. We are all in this together so let us know how we can help.
I would like to end with some advice for you in this period of fluid conditions: be gentle with yourselves. You are exceptional professionals accustomed to high levels of achievements. For some of you, teaching in the virtual world will be a cause of stress which will add to the general uncertainty we are all living in. Our reality has shifted and our expectation of what success looks like needs to be realigned to this new reality, at least for the coming weeks. We will all need to connect in different ways (this is the time “Zoom” became a verb!). We will also need to readjust priorities and focus. For example, safety becomes a new priority - safety of self and of community (close and at large). How do we engage in these conversations and shift behaviors when timelines are unclear and when information appears ambiguous?
But remember one thing: faculty are irreplaceable.
We often tend to focus much of our instructional energy on having our students understand content. And for good reason; we are regularly evaluated on how successfully we guide our students though the discovery, reflection, and understanding of that content.
It is less often, however, that we focus on context – e.g. social and situational conditions that affect learning and/or give content a different dimension or value. But we are starting to adjust and to take context into consideration at an accelerated rate. For example, we all lived through significant weather events in recent years that disrupted our relations with students and how we teach. We have also learned to make room for context such as inclusive approaches that recognize diversity of perspectives and identities within our classrooms, whether they are virtual or physical.
I believe that we are living in a time when context drives the educational experience. And in my mind that’s where faculty are the most critical in the educational environment. I urge you to consider using this experience to help students understand and adjust to uncertainty. You can lead them by demonstrating compassion, empathy, and flexibility. You can help them develop the skills that will make them the leaders of tomorrow because of the example you provide in how to manage uncertainty and navigate disruption.
You will become the inspiring force that helps them accept uncertainty and ambiguity, navigate disruption in a volatile environment, and manage complexity.
To use President Young’s own words in a recent meeting, after we have ensured that our focus is appropriately targeting safety, meeting our co-academic function, and prioritizing graduation, we need to keep in mind recovery. Let’s project what success looks like to our students and our community. Recovery is in our sight because we are a resilient and caring community. The Aggie Spirit is the strength of commitment to selfless service, and creating a strong community is what we do best.
What you do matters and I appreciate every single one of you. My messages to you will be catalogued for easy reference in coming days.
Thank you for what you do. Let me know how I can help.