Brave New World of Online Teaching

                                                                                                                     

This is the first academic year at AUB that has started completely online. Teaching online allows one some freedom, but is it fun teaching in semi self-isolation because of widespread corona measures? Isolation can help you focus on your work as a teacher, promoting productivity, but that is where the fun ends. You would hope that your students, too, are not going out too much or being distracted otherwise, but you feel sorry for them, just as you do for yourself. Often you can sense from their work that they do actually have time to read and write, possibly more than they did before corona. The quality of their work is not too bad either. 

Every week, I try to include at least one synchronous session, where we are together in class for a lecture, or for discussion or student presentations, just like in a face-to-face university classroom. Lecture summaries and recordings are made available for those who cannot be with us live, whether due to technical reasons or because of a time difference - a number of students may be currently living in a different time zone. The rest of the sessions are asynchronous, involving active learning on the part of the students, either individually or in teams, with flexible deadlines. Not everything is graded; there is practice work and self-assessment where students get credit for trying rather than for how much they score. Plus, learners are never entirely on their own. They may contact me live or by email whenever they need to talk or ask questions.

There are some weird aspects to teaching online though. You feel let down when a student admits his aunt searched the web for him, for example. You feel alarmed the first time you hear someone doing dishes in the background while you converse with a student. A bit like parents walking into your classroom with pots and pans. Your whole course is out there for families and friends to see. They can hear your voice, see you, and watch your every move in the course. It can feel creepy, but you get used to it, just as everyone is getting used to living with this virus.

There are amusing incidents too. The other day, a young child took over a pupil’s microphone while she was out of the room. Having unmuted the microphone, the little girl addressed the class, almost hijacking the lesson. At first, we wondered whether it was a hacker, but it turned out to be a child playing. We smiled and continued with the lesson. This is what this virus has done to our lives – to teaching and learning. Yet, life goes on. More later.