A student wrote me via e-mail this week asking for help with an assignment, and he confided to me that not only has this shift from f2f to online been very stressful for him, another prof has been angry and impatient with him because of my student's confusion. Not cool.
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This has been stressful for everyone--even among my colleagues adept at teaching online (of whom I am not one). My dept. had a meeting via Zoom last week, and I was taken aback when one, who is very skilled at online instruction, said she quickly realized she couldn't . . .
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. . . just plop her f2f students into a pre-existing Canvas shell and call it good. She'd have to teach them differently.
(Just so we're clear, I was taken aback b/c I'd figured if any of us would know how to handle this shift, it'd be her. It's a mark of her skill . . .
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. . . as a prof and her concern for her students that she recognized what was required of her.)
So anyway. The last thing I want to do at a time like this is rag on colleagues; but man: look in the mirror and remind yourself . . .
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. . . that if this shift is hard for you, it's going to be hard for students as well (who also have things like gainful employment to worry about that us full-timers have some protection from (at least for this academic year . . . )).
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This thread brought to you by my need to vent on behalf of my student. Few if any of you reading this need to hear this, I feel certain.
Okay: back to work for me.
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