Remote Teaching (During a Pandemic)

(a work in progress)

Remote/online teaching is challenging in general, non-trivial to transition to, unloved by most, pedagogically unreliable, and currently unavoidable. Below is a high-level summary of teaching resources and pointers that I could find online to help you wrap your heads around this and get started. What you find useful below may depend on the kind of instruction you practice, and the lesson plans you are used to. Some inputs from instructors focused on the range of education technologies available, while other advice focused on providing more support to the students in this time of crisis. This post goes over both below, though it is far more emphatic on the latter. Let me know if you’d like me to make any additions. And good luck with your teaching!

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Questions to Ask
These are some key questions you might need to ask and make decisions about, based on the kind of instructor you are and the content you share with your students:

1. What kind of a classroom environment do you prefer? Synchronous, asynchronous, or a combination of both?
2. What types of lesson plans align best with your teaching style?
3. How, what, and how often do you need to communicate with your students during, before, and after class?
4. What kinds of support will you look to provide, especially those unrelated to course content?

Questions 1–3 have to do with teaching tools, class formats, and protocols, while the fourth is about creating avenues for students to express concerns that may be unrelated to the class. More on each of these below.

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Online Platforms: Setting up your Online Classroom
Georgia Tech uses Canvas, and provides free access to BlueJeans and WebEx, but there are many more tools that can be used to simulate a classroom environment. Many of these tools have also made their premium/fancier versions free at present. Here is a comprehensive list of options for teaching tools. Nitinder Mohan, from TU München, shared some of these below, most of which are currently free for up to 100 participants. You can click on the links for more information.

• Microsoft Teams — allows channels and video-conferencing
• Zoom — good for meetings, webinars, breakout rooms
• BlueJeans — almost identical to Zoom
• Google Hangouts Meet — more for meetings than webinars
• WebEx — good for meetings and webinars
• Slack — allows channels, not really for video-conferencing
• Others (e.g., GoToMeeting, etc.)

Nitinder’s tweet has more points of comparison if you are interested; the above is my quick summary. The question to ask, however, is not what tool does what, but what technology-supported environment you need to create for your pedagogical style and desired learning outcomes. Is your teaching lecture-style, discussion-oriented, group/individual work-oriented, or all of the above? Once you have thought through this, you can then decide whether you need a classroom environment that can accommodate screen-sharing, audio/video capability, breakout rooms or parallel channels, locations for synchronous/asynchronous discussions, channels to disseminate extra-curricular resources such as mental health options or heartwarming pet videos, etc. Think about your preferred classroom dynamics in a physical environment and which of these functionalities you could use to replicate those, to disseminate the content you wish to disseminate, in the formats you would like. Then decide which of the platforms listed above (one or a combination) would work best for you. If you have more elaborate needs (e.g., prototyping tools, etc.), you could also take a look at Michael Nebeling’s helpful pointers.

Most likely, no one platform will suit your needs perfectly, but maybe a combination of two or more would be better suited (yet not perfect, because what is?). Slack is not great for video-conferencing, for example, but it can be effective for parallel and/or threaded discussions. Screen-sharing capabilities (which most video-conferencing tools offer) can be helpful if you use slides or walk through code or math. It would help to keep your expectations low to begin with and not imagine that remote teaching will feel anywhere as satisfying as in-person teaching does. Prioritizing your needs will help at this stage. And certain exercises such as field trips might need to be tossed out of the window altogether.

An example classroom environment might = BlueJeans + Slack + (a good amount of) email, with some YouTube links of talks thrown in for good measure. This is the combination I currently plan to use for one of my classes. Not super high-tech; just enough context switching for me to stay sane (though my teaching assistant does a lot there to help). Most importantly, I have used BlueJeans, Slack, and email a good amount already. Familiarity may not always win over function, but it should come quite close.

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Organizing your Virtual Classroom
Knowing which virtual classroom environment you will use (e.g., Zoom + Slack, etc.) has little to do with what your lesson plan will be. You can keep the two separate, just keeping in mind which set of features is relevant for which portion of your lesson plan. Based on how “centralized” or “decentralized” you would like your lesson to be, these are the three options you have, broadly speaking: First, lectures or discussions where there are no parallel threads but everyone participates in a single “room”, with varying levels of participation and moderation of the students. Second, group/lab work where multiple students work together and may or may not interface much with the instructor. Third, all students working individually (on a lab or written assignment), with or without interaction with the instructor. Further, each of the above could be synchronous or asynchronous. Synchronous first.

Lectures/Discussions: If you typically speak to the class without any additional materials, and let students ask questions during or after the talk, you can use video-conferencing with chat, without worrying about breakout rooms. On Zoom, participants can raise their hands to ask a question, and in most conferencing tools, they can type a question in a chat window. They can then choose to send this question to someone in the room, to everyone, or just to the instructor. Remember that while audio might serve the purpose, seeing a talking head is so much more satisfying.

Example format: set up a Zoom call, start speaking into the camera (laptop/webcam), keep an eye on notifications for raised hands/chat messages (with the former, you can choose when to ask them to speak, and with the latter, you can take a look at written questions you’d like to take — maybe not all). If you would like to use slides, you can either (1) share your slides beforehand via email or other tools such as Canvas, (2) share your screen with the students, or (3) go back and forth between sharing and not sharing slides (so that students can occasionally also see your talking head).

Group/Lab Work: Slack and Zoom can together lend themselves well to group discussions, since Slack can allow private/open channels (which are easily archived when their use is exhausted) and Zoom allows breakout rooms. You can decide who to place in which room. Students can share their own screens with the rest of the class, with the instructor alone, and/or with their small group. In lab settings, this feature can be useful because students can share their screen and get the instructor to give them feedback on their work/code/writing/presentation, etc. As Max Wilson shares, GitLab may also be useful for students to work in teams and share group work.

Example format: set up a Zoom call, place students in their small groups as you like (or randomly place them in groups), and ask them to discuss the readings for the week and put together a slide or short presentation that summarizes their takeaways for the rest of the class (or the instructor). Leave the last 15 minutes to cycle through the groups and have them present their slides by sharing their screens and talking about their discussions in the groups. They can designate one group member to represent the group.

Individual Reflections/Exams/Labs: You can set up the classroom so as to have students engage in individual reflections, exams, or labs. They can share content with you directly (by sharing their screen or messaging you) to get feedback as well.

Example format: Students can be given a prompt to use for writing a reflection such as a blog post (say in the first 15 minutes), engaging with and discussing each others’ reflections — best done using Slack (over the next 30 minutes), and augmenting their own based on what they read and discussed (in the last 15 minutes). A Medium publication could be used to host blog posts from all the students, if these are to be shared for the world to see. Internally, Slack could serve this purpose.

In asynchronous formats, things are slightly more straightforward because the instructor has more time to control the flow of events. However, they may also be more time-consuming, and significantly less interactive. On the students’ end, the asynchronous communication may be a plus especially if they are in different time zones and if their internet connectivity is not great. This is for you to assess, but please check in with the students first.

Lectures/discussions in asynchronous format could entail pre-recorded videos or slides with voice-overs. Group/lab work could entail issuing assignments over email and/or Slack and letting students work on their own time over a few days (e.g., using messenger options or Slack, as they like). Individual reflections/exams/labs could be done in the same way, with feedback from the instructor once it has been graded.

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Communicating with the Students
There are various ways in which students might like to (or need to) engage with the instructor — before, during, and after a class. This communication is important in general, but even more critical in a remote teaching environment to make sure that the instructor and the students remain on the same page. I’m listing some options below that may be worth considering (or not).

Interactions During Class: There are many ways for students to interact with the instructor in class.

• Students can verbally interrupt the class (if the instructor is comfortable with this format).
• Students can raise their hand (virtually, e.g., on Zoom) and wait for the instructor to see this notification and ask the student to speak.
• Students can write their questions on the chat window and the instructor can choose to process and respond to these as they prefer.

Lesson Plans and Summaries: Instructors can communicate their plans and class takeaways before and after class in multiple ways, via email or using one of the platforms mentioned above.

• A lesson plan could be mailed out to the students before class, preferably at the start of the week but definitely before the start of the class. In this email, you can also link to any resources you plan to use (e.g., slides, links to TED talks, code, etc.).
• You could send an email to recap what the students learned in class, and this could list the resources that students could refer to in addition to what was discussed. You could also do both — communicating the agenda as well as the recap.
• Instead of email, you could use Canvas or Slack as well, sharing the content of your email as an announcement on Canvas, or in a dedicated channel for announcements on Slack. You can also choose to do both email and announcement. More reminders may be necessary, in fact, when face-to-face time is reduced.

Room for Questions: Students may have more questions than normal, and student-instructor interaction time will be reduced as well. There are ways to work around this, particularly when class is not on.

• While normally you may be accustomed to taking questions before or after class, this may no longer be possible. Instead, consider doing extra office hours when you are available online, or do offline Slack hours when you are available and anyone can ask questions.
• Create avenues for students to be able to pose questions to and learn from one another offline. Piazza and Slack both offer such options.

Feedback from Students: When students are unable to get much face time with the instructor, more avenues for feedback may need to be created. The best way to do this might be using a simple Google Form using the brief yet tremendously useful “I like-I wish-What if…” template. I use one of these to get mid-semester feedback from students and it has made a world of difference to have this exchange, semester after semester. In an online environment, however, it may be more useful to do this weekly, or to remind students that they could fill this out (anonymously, please) on any day of their choosing.

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Providing Support at a Time of Crisis
Last and most importantly — more than instructional resources even — it is absolutely critical to create avenues for students to be able to connect with each other and the instructor, to the extent that this is possible virtually. Although there are many education technologies available for use, instructors’ time may be better spent interacting with students than trying out dozens of platforms. Thus, if you can provide additional office hours, say via Google Hangouts, or just make time to have a virtual coffee/tea break with students, it might create room for them to engage with you on class topics and ask questions, or hear from other students (also so important).

This above is especially important to ensure that students feel supported and at ease with everything that is changing around them right now. I know that the pandemic has added enough of a cognitive burden for me; I cannot imagine how my students must be responding. Think of ways in which your students can hear from each other and from you that could lessen their anxiety around the suspension of classes and the state of the world overall. Remember that learning is important, but there are many different types of learning that your students could be engaging in now that will make them better equipped and more resilient to take on their futures. We could be more present to these and make space for such conversations to happen.

Relaxing deadlines or adjusting lateness policies may be worth considering at this time. Let students know how you have reviewed and updated the syllabus (after you have reviewed and updated it) to accommodate their needs and constraints at this time. They will be grateful to you for it, I promise you.

If you use Slack, you could even create a Slack channel for sharing uplifting content/messages/memes, or simply for discussing news regarding how things are developing in different parts of the world (where the students might currently be located). Also, remind students that they can set their time preferences on Slack so that they only receive notifications when they are awake or wish to be tuned in, for example, and so that others can see when they are reachable.

This could also be a time for students to learn from you about other things, such as possible career trajectories, or other topics they may have wanted to talk to you about but kept pushing out. I know that there are many stories I could share with my Intro to Global Development class that many of my students frequently ask about, but ones that I could not fit into my syllabus. Maybe there is a research project or an extra credit assignment you could create the option for, if students would like to be more involved somehow, or use their new-found spare time more productively, but just do not know how.

Finally, do please keep reinforcing the importance of being social, connecting with friends and family, and not letting mental health suffer. If you can recommend options for what to do if they are indeed struggling (even if this includes recommendations for Netflix shows or documentaries to watch, digital books to read, or podcasts to listen to), all the better.

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The above pointers may not work for you, it is true, because everyone’s teaching style is different, but I do hope they help you think about where we might align and where we might diverge. At Georgia Tech, we received two weeks’ notice before having to go into remote teaching, but maybe two weeks are insufficient as well to think about all of the above. If you would like to bounce ideas off someone for how to translate your course into an online course for the last few weeks, I’m happy to be of help. And if nothing else, just remember: it is okay for teaching to take lesser priority in these confusing times and for your lesson plans to be less than perfect; it is important to remain available to your students for as many virtual interactions as possible; it is essential for you to create avenues of support beyond curricular needs.

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Additional Online Resources
What resources are being shared or distributed online? Here are resources that some universities have begun to put together:

• Stanford University
• University of Michigan
• Cornell University
• Southern New Hampshire University
• On working with community partners at Georgia Tech
• [more to come]

And how are other instructors faring? Take a look at suggestions to include, e.g., podcast-based flexible learning, guest lectures, or to learn about the challenges that many others are facing. You are certainly not alone!

• On a lighter vein: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/welcome-to-your-hastily-prepared-online-college-course
• On emergency online pedagogy: http://tfisherip.org/emergency-online-pedagogy/
• On podcasts: https://twitter.com/drpontus/status/1239298394658680840
• On reaching out to students: https://twitter.com/chowleen/status/1239294572406112256
• On doing guest lectures: https://twitter.com/tap2k/status/1239177765909409792
• More guest lectures: https://twitter.com/jeffbigham/status/1239216523388092416
• On testing students: https://twitter.com/Branhammertime/status/1239567946902425600
• [more to come]

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This post is a work in progress. If there is anything you would like me to add, or anything you would like me to change/take out, please let me know! I am an assistant professor who spends a lot of time teaching undergraduate and graduate students, with a degree in learning, design and technology I occasionally make use of. However, this above is not currently my research focus, and I welcome all questions and feedback.

A *big* thank you to Luigi De Russis, Alicia Martinez, Karthik Bhat, Diyi Yang, Joe Bankoff, Mike Best, David Joyner, Devarsi Rawal, Naveena Karusala, and Max Wilson for feedback, resources, and a listening ear.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash