Stop the angst about your new remote teaching and start learning: 10 tips for newly remote professors

If you are one of the thousands of professors who are suddenly being asked to teach online (aka “teaching remotely”) due to Universities and colleges closing campuses during the coronavirus pandemic, you might well be feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. You might even be feeling a lot of angst.

If you are thinking to yourself, but I can’t create the same experience online, well, you are correct. You can not. But as someone who has been running my own online education company for several years now, I want to assure you that much is possible in the weird world of online or remote/online teaching. It is not the same. It is different. Different is not necessarily bad.

But the first thing you have to do is switch from being the expert who knows what she is doing to adopting a rapid-learning posture. You probably have somewhere between a few days to a few weeks to figure out how to transition your entire teaching program online; that’s not a lot of time. Fortunately, if you are already a professor at a University you know how to learn. So, take a deep breath. No, you did not sign up for this. Yes, there are a lot of emotions, including grief, that may be associated with this pivot: I write about that in this article on Grief, Education and a Deeper listening during the pandemic. Don’t pretend you don’t have a lot of emotions around this if you do. The good news is that you are not alone.

I started my online educational company, Sequoia Samanvaya, three years ago as a “non-techie” wanting to provide high-quality education critical for adapting to a changing climate to adult learners. Some part of me doubted the online format — could I really provide the quality of learning that I wanted? I was surprised with how much is possible in the weird world of online learning. I now have a 95% success rate — by which I mean that 95% of my adult students who pay to learn from me say that the courses I teach are not just “good” but “amazing,” “foundational,” “inspirational” and even, for some, “life-changing.” Even though none of my students are obliged to take my courses as I’m not teaching as part of a degree program (meaning they really do not have to pay me to teach them), I still get over 80% repeat students. That suggests that I am doing something right. Below are 10 suggestions based on my experience.

A quick caveat: obviously some subjects, such as laboratory-based biology, are particularly difficult to teach remotely. I recommend looking elsewhere for tips on that — such as Rush University, which has the number one online graduate program in nursing. We are entering a weird and unprecedented space, and each University has different regulations during this time: not everything here is applicable for each university; obviously you need to follow your department’s guidelines. Some of these suggestions will not be applicable based on your own situation.

Don’t be shy in reaching out for support, or even in encouraging your University to actively consult with those known for their superb online education programs. Ohio State University, Embry-Riddle Aeronatuical University in Florida, and the University of Illinois-Chicago are consistently ranked in the top 5 for online bachelor education; Indian University-Bloomington and University of North-Carolina-Chapel Hill have been ranked as amongst the best online MBA programs.

Perhaps most important: no matter what kind of education you are doing, I encourage you to embrace your own active learning during this time. Most educators who have a vocational, not just an obligatory, stance towards their role as educators recognize that it is in teaching that we learn the most. Or as that old Latin proverb says, “docendo discimus” — by teaching we learn.

Remember that your students are amongst your greatest teachers. They are often creative, inquisitive, and might have solutions you have not thought of. How can you support their leadership and learning during this time? Where can you be open about what you don’t know in ways that enhance your collective learning? In other words, how can you all learn together?

A Note on Large Lectures

Transitioning from large in-person lectures to online lectures is relatively simple. You can “simply” video tape the lectures and put them up online. I put “simply” in parenthesis because unless you are used to this, it might take some practice to get it right.

I recommend practicing with the technology at your disposal a few times before you upload your lectures or teach your first online live class. Where do you need to position the camera/computer to get the best view and the best audio? What is the best equipment for this? Can you use a mini-white board? Share your screen for a powerpoint? Play around with whatever equipment and platform your University is providing you.

If you are recording and then uploading the lectures, you might want to have one or two people (colleagues or family members at an agreed upon safe social distance) sit in the space so you have someone to talk to. If you are talking to a computer/video, you might want to have another person be in conversation with you on zoom, so it becomes a bit more of a dialogue than a monologue. Keep fiddling, innovating and practicing until you find something that works for you.

Seminars

For seminars — which is the closest to what I do — here are a few basic suggestions:

1. Learn your technology platform.

What can it do, and what can it not do? What are its major limitations, and how can you creatively plan around that? Can you break people into small discussion rooms? When does this make sense? How many people can you see on the screen at one time? How will you know when someone is asking a question? If you are new to the platform, do a test run before your first class if at all possible. Practice sharing your screen, recording, shifting to break out rooms, etc.

2. Support your students

There are a few parts to this.

The first part is to ensure your students know how to use the platform and are given clear instructions. Don’t assume that your students are all “tech natives” just because they (often) younger. Many of your students will be just as frustrated and quite possibly highly anxious about this shift. Troubleshoot ahead of time with your school admin as appropriate. Assume there will be challenges especially during the first two lessons as everyone adapts.

The second part is, as possible, to teach your students “online decorum.” Obviously this is easier once you have a sense of what works first yourself. For the foreseeable future, working online will continue to be a major form of professional and personal growth. How can you use this opportunity to help them work well in this format?

The third part is to recognize those moments and those students for whom you can offer serious support.

This moment is not only about online or remote learning. This moment is about a world that seems to be rapidly turning upside down, and people do not know what is happening — including who will become sick and who will die. For some students, you are one of their primary mentors. Take the time to be available to them. It might be that the material, be it writing poetry or solving math problems, will be, for them, an anchor of stability during a time of gross uncertainty.

3) Pay attention to the basics.

Charge your devices. Ensure you have all your tools (pen and paper so you can take notes, power point, etc.) next to you so you are prepared. Be in a quiet place. If you are not in your customary location, put energy into thinking about what space you will be in — and then how can you protect it from, say, your child who is now at home with you. Or, how will you integrate your child into the online space, knowing that many of your students also have (for some, new) childcare issues as well.

I am almost embarrassed to admit how often I or my students have run out of batteries, or have been interrupted, or have had unexpectedly bad wi-fi connections that go out just when I am saying something very important. And for all the mistakes that inevitably happen, it is critical to…..

4) Relax.

Technology is imperfect. Students — regardless of their age and background — are amazingly forgiving of tech and other mistakes when you are relaxed. There are inevitably tech issues, and this will be especially true for those platforms that are not used to the sheer quantity of people now using them.

5) Plan more office hours.

While some of this is influenced on the guidelines issued during your University during this time, your subject matter, and your teaching style, personal outreach absolutely makes a difference. It would be very easy for students to fall through the cracks. Give your students 1–1 time and encourage micro (3–4) small study groups to meet online.

6) Think through your whole curriculum — through an iterative process.

One of my clients, himself a professor, was overwhelmed by having to re-consider significant elements of his curriculum in just a few days having never taught remotely before. I suggested that he keep week one roughly the same, focusing on his own learning on the technology and experimenting with what would work best for his students. Then he could re-callibrate his curriculum based on his tangible experience in that first week.

Each University will be dealing with testing in its own way, which I won’t get into here.

I generally find that time is different online. Some questions to consider: what is now the best use of the synchronistic time and what is the best use of the asynchronistic time? Am I trying to answer questions (in which case submitting questions prior to the class can be especially helpful in online spaces)? How important is discussion time, and how does my facilitation style for online discussions need to shift?

7) Let yourself be totally dynamic.

Just because you are online does not mean that your students cannot have a dynamic, powerful and meaningful experience. To do this well, really focus on them.

Each little face on the computer represents an entire universe, and they are all with you for this precious time.

Of course that is true no matter what form of education you are in. Just don’t think it is any less true in the mysterious, semi disembodied world of cyberspace. This space can be just as powerful, and for some people more so, than in-person.

8) Cultivate great conversations

I always assume the first few minutes will be spent with everyone ‘getting there’ and figuring out various tech issues. I then invite people to do a fast check-in, especially when I have a small group — this helps everyone have their voice heard quickly. With large groups, you can actively use the chat box, which can be very helpful.

And then I aim for a powerful conversation where people can hear themselves and think through the material, just as they would if we were in person. Sometimes I call on people, almost always starting with people whom I know will set a good tone, sometimes the conversation just emerges. Silences are just as awkward online as they are in person — and just as important for the thinking process.

I have a strong preference for supporting small group dynamics, but that is part of my pedagogical style and might not work for your material. In general, I find that online discussions work much better with small groups. I

9) Don’t dismiss embodied practices

This is not relevant for all subject matters, but for everyone working with emotional, embodied, or experiential material, I can’t encourage you enough to embrace the somatic possibilities of online courses. Just because all you can see is a head and shoulders does not mean your pedagogy needs to stop there! Inviting breath, stretching, movement, etc. during and in between classes is helpful!

10. Offline to In person transition

After I was teaching online courses for a while, I started bringing my students together for in-person retreats and related gatherings. Consistently I found that there was a certain amount of repetition needed — people needed to tell some of the stories to others in person that they had already shared online. There is a certain amount of, oh, you know all these things about me/my work, but you’ve never seen my legs or my feet before… do you really know me? The brain seems to need a bit of catch-up time. Certainly the first time I led an in-person class that had been meeting online, I was a bit disorientated for the first half hour or so.

I hope you get a chance to discover if this happens to you this semester! Whatever the next few months may bring, don’t forget that you are not alone in working through this new situation.