Teaching Virtually: Reflections on Quadmester 1

Being a newer teacher, I still have a lot of things to learn. So when I found myself teaching virtual school in September, I took it in stride. It was yet another unknown added to the pile of questions I already had about learning the art of teaching, so I decided to embrace it. Here are some of my reflections and lessons learned from Quadmester 1. (As I write this, we’re already halfway through Quadmester 2, but anyway…)

I never actually thought I’d be teaching online. Like most teachers, I prefer the physical classroom, but if this year has re-inforced anything it’s that with teaching you have to adapt as you go along. Still, I didn’t feel totally unprepared for online teaching. I’m privileged to have all of the tech I need to do my job, and also know how to use it. I had also finished taking a PD course in Teaching and Learning Through E-Learning back in the summer, so I had some ideas about how to build community in an online setting, and also some ideas about how assessment could work. I’d strongly encourage taking a course or some kind of workshop that focuses on community building and assessment in an online setting. There are some things that stay the same compared to a bricks & mortar (B&M) school, but there are some important differences too.

What Stayed the Same?

I learned early on that just like in B&M school, even if you make a mistake, teach something wrong, or some other hit some other snafu, you can always correct it the next day. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate how to learn and own your mistakes.

Frequent assessment is still extremely important, if not even more important due to the virtual setting. Knowing when to give students more time to consolidate their learning, finish a project, or revisit a topic has to be balanced. I’ve found that asking students where they’re at via polling has been a useful strategy. It also gives me an instant idea of how strong the class is in a specific topic.

Giving students time to interact with one another is a form of building community. I’ve done this through group projects, and watched as some students became friends through completing the project. But I’ve also tried to build in some down time where students can talk to each other about other topics outside of the course. Making use of the Discussion forums that let students introduce themselves to each other helped break the ice.

What Changed?

I found that teaching virtually forced me to be more creative, particularly in terms of assessment. In a virtual setting, the triangulation of data can be difficult to balance. Products, conversations, and observations are all still possible, but not as easy as walking over to a student’s desk or pulling them out for a hallway chat.

One of the biggest issues is that plagiarism is rampant in virtual school. Yes, students should be held accountable for academic dishonesty and should resist the temptation to cheat. But I’ve personally used this as an opportunity to forgo traditional tests and quizzes in favour of assessment tasks that promote student choice & voice, critical thinking, and creativity. The students are already using the Internet, and they will be for the rest of their lives - this is an opportunity to indirectly teach some of the skills needed to use it correctly and effectively. We already know that the Internet is a vast source of information and contains the answers to just about any question, but it isn’t always obvious how to find those answers. Part of my goal is to give students practice with doing just that. The assessments I give usually revolve around expecting students to use the Internet to search for some information, and asking them how to apply it to a different context. These tasks are difficult for some students, especially those who are used to just flipping to a textbook page to find an answer, or memorizing facts to regurgitate on a test.

Onward!

Overall, I’m enjoying my time teaching in the virtual school. In a lot of ways, this experience has encouraged me to think more deeply about my practice and I have learned the importance of being intentional with everything from community building to assessment. When I’m back in a physical classroom, my experiences teaching virtually will transition back with me.