#AcademicTwitter This summer, I taught a 3-week long online Intro Geology course to ~30 students. Here are 10 things that I learned:

1. Many of my students assumed that online course would be less of a time commitment than an in-person class. Their time was overcommitted to other online courses and jobs, more so than when it's an in-person 3-week summer course. Some students really struggled managing time.

2. Don't assume that your students are technologically savvy. Sure, they can make memes and Tik Toks, but may not be familiar with basic Word.

3. My students greatly valued feedback provided, both in my narrated Powerpoints that reviewed assignments, as well as in comments to individual students in emails.

4. Online office hours were lonely. Students preferred to email me questions.

5. I gave open-book tests and 24 hr period to take and submit tests. I thought tests would be too easy and grades would be high because all questions and answers were in the lectures students had. Grades tracked closely with exams given closed-book, in-class. No obvious cheating.

6. Open-book tests still seemed as if they were a good learning tool, as well as assessment of effort.

7. I assigned each student a U.S. city and asked them to do some research and write a 2-page paper about the geol. hazards and env. concerns of that city. Students liked the assignment.

8. Teaching this way felt very one-sided to me. I felt distant from students.

9. Students greatly appreciated flexibility from me with deadlines. They also liked that I allowed various formats for submitted materials, including cell phone photos of computer screens or hand-written notes, filled-in Word files, pdfs, etc.

10. I needed to be more organized than normal to make sure I confirmed by email student submissions, to stay on time table for sending lectures and assignments, etc.

Overall, I felt as if students learned and the course was valuable to them. Student evaluations were positive..... I'd rather be in the classroom and lab with my students, but online instruction can work well.