My greatest anxiety in synchronous online teaching a class of students is this feeling of being disconnected and not literally, but again socially, emotionally, epistemologically. I am facing my two-dimensional screen, telling myself that all is good and to stick to my plan—delivering content, directing activities, facilitating turns “to speak”—all the while wondering… Are you there? Can you ‘see’ me? Are you okay? Where are you? Are we okay? (Tarc, p. 121) This sentiment from Paul Tarc, an Associate Professor in Education at Western University, is echoed, over and over again, in the transcripts and survey answers from the research study that Viola Manakore and I are currently working through involving ACIFA partners. Here are just a few quotes I lifted from instructors we asked to relate their greatest challenge in moving to online instruction:
Last month, when our online engagement learning team began to meet as a small community of practice, I think this disconnect was our starting point. But after several meetings, we began to ask ourselves some different questions:
Engagement or Interactivity? As you might have guessed, after reading the first two installments on this topic (April 12 & 19), our faculty learning team concluded that, while engagement and interactivity may be linked, they are not synonymous. This is especially the case when we limit our notion of engagement to deeply connecting with the content and skill development in our coursework. Having students compete in online quizzing (Kahoot, Quizizz and the like), respond through the chat or status bar, use the online whiteboard, engage in virtual icebreakers, and indicate their opinions through polling software (Mentimeter, Polly, etc.) might break up tedious synchronous lessons, but these activities may or may not promote true engagement. For some of our students—who prefer independent, asynchronous learning—such work is just busy work, more of a distraction than a support. That is not to devalue these interactive activities. If such activities keep many students attending and alert, and give the instructors a sense that “the students are there”, effective instructors will find ways to integrate such interactivity into both the synchronous and asynchronous coursework. In fact, such activities can enhance a feeling of community and promote student to student connections. Quizzing apps help students to consolidate and remember concepts and terms and promote competition and even teaming (depending on the app being used). Having students regularly indicate their status in the chat (Let me know if you are with me… thumbs up or down?) or having them “flood the chat” (Type your answers into the chat but refrain from hitting enter until the instructor gives the signal!), can help turn the chat box from a nuisance into a powerful feedback and learning tool. Before class or gap time energizers (Scavenger hunts, people bingo, riddles, chair exercises, etc.) can provide some humour and wake up a sleepy cohort. And polling helps the instructor gain a sense of where students are at, and how they might adjust their presentations and activities based upon student readiness. In addition to some of the interactive activities suggested above (quizzing, chat, icebreakers, and polling) which provide immediate feedback, some more suggestions put forward by our engagement team to create energy and build community included:
Coping with the Disconnect But while all of the activities above might encourage more participation and even help improve attendance in synchronous classes, they may not help instructors overcome the unease of teaching to a computer screen and the bittersweet longing for things “as they were before Covid”. In a recent publication Paul Tarc, captures this sentiment quite eloquently: For me, as an educator in higher education with considerable autonomy of my curricular materials and teaching approaches, the greatest lack in the in the virtual classroom are the greatly diminished multi-sensory feedback loops. These feedback loops are crucial to the relational, and emotionally-laden, labour of educating. The capability to quickly read the body language, facial expressions, class dynamic and circulation of ideas and affects is greatly minimized in the virtual classroom; in turn, so is a spontaneity and capacity to engage and expand the intersections of teacher (identity, experience and knowledge), students (Identities, experiences and knowledge) and curriculum. (Tarc, p. 122) There’s something about teaching face to face that many educators find energizing and invigorating. Much like the professional hockey players that have been forced to compete without the roaring crowds and professional musicians who play without the appreciation and applause of their patrons, experienced classroom instructors are also missing such immediacy and intimacy. Imagine a stand-up comic doing their routine without the cues and clues of a live audience! How hard must that be! It is a bit like writing a blog never knowing if people are reading and appreciating it, or simply clicking on it and leaving... So, what can we do to cope with the kind of disconnect that many instructors (and students) are feeling in the wake of this year-long and continuing emergency remote online teaching? Here’s a few reminders that I keep telling myself:
Considering the needs of both students and instructors As we march forward to a post-Covid reality, there is considerable buzz around what we have learned and achieved as post secondaries in our rapid move to online learning. Institutions are looking at the past year as evidence that we are ready to move on from 19th and 20th models of learning. The 21st century learner wants more flexibility in how, when and where they learn – and we found ways to make that happen! And there are savings and opportunities to be had! Having many more students take their programming online, and having instructors teach from anywhere significantly cuts down on the physical requirements of a college or university and opens up student enrollment on an international scale. As a result, many institutions are committing to more asynchronous online, hybrid or Hyflex models of instruction; this is the way forward after Covid! And it may be so. However, before we rush off and sound the death knell for structured, scheduled, corporeal, in-class instruction, we also need to need to remember that not all of our students are comfortable with the requirements and trade-offs of learning online. At NorQuest, many of our students have struggled with their schooling, and they have come to our college for the community, routine, support, and structure that face to face learning offers. We must remember the needs of these students and build a blend of programming options that allows our students to succeed. In addition, we must also look to the needs of our instructional staff. Throughout this pandemic they have been asked to shift the way that they teach, and for some instructors the change came rather easily. But, just like our students, we are not all the same. For many instructors, it was a very steep learning curve. I know of many instructors who have felt isolated, helpless (tech and tools were challenging), and frustrated. Like Paul Tarc, they wondered if they were truly getting through and they were concerned for the learning (and even well-being) of their students. Some of these instructors have confessed to me that the past year has caused them to re-consider their work and worth as an educator, and to entertain the notion of a career change. They no longer have the zeal they used to have when preparing for their classes and sharing a community with their students. And this wrinkle around instructor engagement often gets lost, as we try to press our hot irons through issues related to student enrollment and engagement in our current teaching reality! Just how can we make sure that our instructors are also feeling engaged in their learning? Especially those instructors who hunger for the kind of interactions and “multi-sensory feedback loops” that previously gave them energy and connections. How do we continue to support these faculty in their professional growth? How can re-instill confidence and provide validation for their efforts? How do we build programs that allow these instructors to thrive alongside their students? These are questions program builders and instructional leaders cannot afford to ignore. And they are just a few of the questions that keep me up at night. I’ll end this blog with several questions for you. What has sustained and kept you engaged as you worked through the pandemic pressured teaching transitions this past year? And what will keep you engaged and energized as we transition to new ways of providing education and training to our students? Feel free to send in your responses or further questions through the reply feature below! Tarc, P. (2000). Education post-‘Covid-19’: Re-visioning the face-to-face classroom. Current Issues in Comparative Education (CICE), 22(1), 121-124.
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The Future of Faculty In the past few weeks, I have been part of a NQ Futurist group tasked with opening up conversations and getting feedback regarding the future of teaching and learning at NorQuest. More specifically, gauging how ready our instructors are for the rapidly changing nature of post-secondary education. It was kinda fun. I ended up working with a small group (Heather, Justine, Farah and Rasoul) and we did some reading and research, considered the various scenarios that were already part of the Reimagine Higher Education document and tried to design an interactive workshop that might also secure meaningful data and suggestions. Then our little group went “on the road” (digitally) and did seven presentations in two weeks, reaching a sizable number of NorQuesters (126 responded in the Mentimeter polls!) All the same, I think we broadsided some instructors. Very early in our presentation, we asked participants to gauge how ready they were for current and emerging trends in post-secondary learning. For many, who focus mainly on supporting their students on a daily basis, the terms may have been a bit unfamiliar. I thought I might use this MMM to tackle these terms and provide helpful, reader-friendly links for those who want to know more. (No dry research articles in this lot!) Overall Trends https://thebestschools.org/magazine/current-trends-online-education/ Personalized Learning As the name suggests, this kind of learning allows students to complete an individualized or “customized” course/study that adapts and adjusts in light of their prior learning and experience, their specific learning strengths and needs, and their program and professional goals. This is a major shift from the standardized, one-size-fits-all courses and programs that most of us have encountered in post-secondary or at least, undergraduate education. For a better understanding of how personalized learning might look at the college level check out these links:
Students as Co-Creators This idea takes personalized learning and agency to the next level. From what I could learn, this approach asks students to help frame and build their own educational programs. Initially it reminded me of a couple of courses I designed for myself when completing my doctorate. My supervisors had to step aside from being the “experts” and facilitate my learning through coaching and check-ins while I tackled concepts and models that were unfamiliar to them. However, these co-creations seem to be more of an instructor-student collaborative study that has connections to research and designs for learning. While students collaborate with other students and instructors to do research In the process they learn and get credit for it. Moreover, there are co-creator programs that involve partnerships with organizations or industries. Although I could find could find many “references” to the idea of student co-creation being employed at a college level, I had a tough time finding short, summary-type articles on this. Instead, I pass on to you several examples of programs that use a co-creation model.
Online Facilitation Online facilitation is nothing new. We’ve been taking and hosting online courses for a couple of decades already. What is new is the extent to which we are now teaching online (it’s 2020!) and they way in which online teaching has evolved in terms of course design, flexibility, student engagement, OERs, interactivity, assessment, synchronous and asynchronous delivery, and online platforms, tools, and apps. Here’s a few articles and links that explore the advantages and disadvantages of learning in this way and some of the recent developments in online facilitation.
Micro Credentialing
A micro-credential is a certification or badge of assessed learning. It allows students and employers the flexibility to take small and targeted studies to develop a specific skill or competency without having to spend time in a comprehensive program. Micro-credentials can help prospective students effectively address learning gaps or continuing employees acquire immediately required training. In post-secondary, These credentials can be bundled to provide equivalencies for courses and programs. At this moment, many Canadian colleges and Universities are using microcredentialing to attract more part-time students and are looking at how to make these micro-credentials transferrable from institution to institution. Here are some more detailed explanations of micro credentialing from some institutions you may know:
HyFlex Learning At our Teaching and Learning Day last Friday, Jenni Hayman shared the HyFlex approach to course design. Unfortunately, I had to run my own session so I was unable to attend! However, with a little surfing on the net, I was able to gain a better understanding of this approach. HyFlex courses allow students to choose how they want to participate in their courses. One day they might attend class in person, another they could choose to join synchronously online, and on a third day they might watch the class asynchronously when it was more convenient. It is the “hybrid” or “blended” approach taken to another level of flexibility. HyFlex allows students to choose when and how they might go through their course, allowing students to stay engaged (f they have self-discipline). However, HyFlex requires a lot! Instructors must become very familiar with their program outcomes and to be extremely adaptive using in-person and online strategies and structures to construct a learning experience that is complex (multi-layered and varied) yet consistent in learning expectations and overall assessment. More information on the HyFlex approach is here:
Virtual and Augmented Reality Virtual and augmented reality is something that our college has been experimenting with for a little while. In the Innovation Studio, we had a VR set up where nursing students could put on the VR goggles and attend to a patient in a hospital setting virtually. On the other side of the retractable wall, students learned about human body systems by using the Z Boards, which allowed students to explore various parts of the body through 3-D interaction. This fall, NorQuest is investigating VR models and systems with an eye to helping students learn professional judgement through simulated interactions. More information on how VR and AR are changing the face of education can be found here:
The Future is Now! When I first started teaching, many years ago, the world of teaching was a much different place (I know, I know, but I have changed very little!). I began my career in a small school on the outskirts of Chatham, Ontario. I taught multiple grades in the same classroom (7/8/9 and 9/10) and many of my resources (readers and texts) were from the 1950’s. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I taught typing on the old, manual machines (earplugs anyone?). There were only a couple of computers in the school, and I did not own one at the time. The school had one photocopy machine and it was expensive to use. The copies had a slippery surface and the kids liked to sniff the pages, there was kind of a chemical druggy type smell. Instead, we were encouraged to use the spirit duplicator and recycled green or pink papers, if we wanted to make handouts or worksheets. Spirit duplicators worked by applying alcohol to a carbon sheet and then cranking the drum so that the ink might transfer to individually fed sheets. Unfortunately, it could be a messy process. I often arrived to class with soggy copies and blue fingertips. The recycled paper did not hold up very well, but it was much faster than having students copy notes from the board. We were a little behind the other schools in terms of technology, but we did have cassette players and filmstrip machines. I put these to good use when I was teaching French - dimming the lights and having the all the students “Repetez, après moi!” If I was organized, I could request feature and documentary films from the local school board’s resource center. However, certain resources were popular, and you had to stake your claim well in advance and make sure you were at the right point in your curricula, when the films actually arrived. Our projector was a complicated beast, but you could run the film backward (a frequent request from the students) if you had a bit of time at the end of the period. Now jump forward 40 years. We’ve seen tremendous change. Affordable computers, the availability of resources through the internet, the influx of interactive whiteboards, Wi-Fi, the ever-presence of smartphones, and a constantly changing smorgasbord of learning apps has changed the way we teach and learn. And yet, with all that change in our lifetimes, it was still hard to make the leap to online teaching as a result of Covid. Many of us were stretched in ways we were not prepared for, pushed to learn new technologies and systems in a moment of near crisis, in what I like to call “the great hack of 2020”. That said, times of crisis could sometimes bring forth great leaps of progress. The Second World War necessitated tremendous advances in manufacturing and similarly, our year of Covid has seen tremendous improvements in online conferencing tools and teaching apps. You and I have learned a great deal about engaging and supporting learners in ways that we’ve never learned ourselves, and we continue to learn! In the next couple of weeks we continue on a visioning process for NorQuest, its learners and the people who make the place go (you and me)! There are sessions being offered by both the futurist group and the culture team. I’m very much involved in the Futurist work as a member of the group looking at “the role of faculty” and we will be connecting with you through LRN sessions as well as through presentations to individual faculties and departments. These presentations really won’t be “presentations”, we’re hoping to provide a few things to think about, ask several big questions, gather your thoughts and hopes, and continue to envision and prepare for the future of post-secondary learning. Some questions you might want to consider are:
Have a great week! Jeff Pandemic Pressures! “I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.” –J.R.R. Tolkien This weekend I found myself reflecting on some very difficult things:
I found it a bit wearying. It did not help that what we are experiencing on a global scale, we are also experiencing in a more immediate way; on a NorQuest scale.
As instructional staff, we are under a lot of daily pressure. Pressure to engage and support our students at the same levels as pre-pandemic. Pressure to ensure that our students will gain the knowledge, skills and professional judgements that will ensure their success in their careers. Pressure to work from anywhere, with less opportunity to collaborate, less opportunity to commiserate. Pressure to be a “team player”, to keep working on a positive culture and to look forward to the future of teaching and learning. If you are anything like me, you’ve probably been sighing more frequently lately, and you may also fervently long for when things were a little simpler, like say, a year ago? Oh, this pressure has not necessarily been put upon us by the college itself or by our deans, chairs and managers. The NQ leadership messaging from the outset has been encouraging and full of grace. In fact, much of the pressure comes from ourselves. Most instructors at NorQuest College are “wired for service”; we desperately want what is best for our students and we often sacrifice hours and hours trying to meet their needs. We are also acutely aware of our own shortcomings as educators, as “tech facilitators”, and as care providers.
No matter the source, the pressure is there. The isolation and the steady stream of negative news does not help. This past week there were numerous articles and TV features about stressed-out teachers. My frequent interactions with faculty also bore this out. Instructors told me that:
Yikes! When I listened to all of this, I realized that I was struggling with many of the same pressures. So I asked many of these same instructors for coping strategies. How did they continue to keep their heads above water and find satisfaction in their work? Here are just a few suggestions:
These strategies, suggested by our colleagues, can be quite helpful. However, just like dieting, knowing the plan and actually sticking to it are two different things. (Guilty as charged!) It might be worthwhile to find an “accountability partner”, a friend or a colleague who can “check in” to chastise us when our self-care actions do not actually align with our intentions. One last suggestion given – and this is my favorite – reach out and start a conversation with someone new or someone you have not talked to in a while. There is a tendency for all of us to get a bit myopic, seeing the world only through our own field of vision. One of our colleagues shared that, when she feels weighted down with planning, decisions and problem solving, she seeks out conversation. Just talking to a student or a colleague from a different faculty can help us see that there is a bigger world out there. Our work is just our work. Other people have very different stressors and satisfactions, and listening to them can give us new perspectives. Opening up your heart and mind to the world of someone else can be extremely beneficial, to them and to you! After this reflection and inquiry, I know that I have some work to do on establishing a healthy work/life balance. Perhaps you do too. I am looking forward to this week’s Faculty Talking Circle with Sarah Apedaile and Sherry Greenbank. I hope you have time to join us. That’s all for this week, Jeff Well it has been 7 weeks since my last Monday Morning Musing. I went on vacation at the beginning of July, and when I came back to work, things were quiet – except for the instructors in language instruction and LINC. They just kept motoring along! What I learned on my summer vacation… On my “staycation” I managed to do a lot of work on my patio. Cynthia and I spent most of our quality time doing intense, manual labor. I prefer to think of it as my “2020 Covid-19 fitness workout”. Now, nearing the end of our project, we are thrilled with how it all looks. However, there were some challenging moments. I had a feeling that the project would not be an easy one. However, as most do-it-yourselfers soon find out, I just had no clear idea of just how much planning, dumb labor, fine motor skill, perseverance, dumb labor, compromise, new learning, and dumb labor it would require. And don’t get me started on the number of times I ended up going to the hardware store or the rental shop to buy more materials or rent a tool for the day! I think the most stressful part was in operating the gas powered concrete saw to make cuts in the forty-pound pavers. I did not want to make any mistakes (I did make a few though), and I did not want to lose any fingers (I still have all ten)! Now, as I turn my focus back to supporting faculty with the world of online teaching, I can see a few parallels between planning and building our patio and planning and facilitating an online course.
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AuthorJeff Kuntz Ph.D. ImagesExcept where indicated, images used in the blog posts are personal photos, images from NorQuest College or images from Pixabay. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. https://pixabay.com/ Archives
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