Teaching in the time of COVID-19

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That title is really overstating what I'm going to write about, but obviously that is what everyone, everywhere is thinking about a lot of the time! I'm lucky that my university has decided to keep classes remote the first five weeks (at least). We started classes this week (August 17th), which was a week earlier than originally planned. Initially they wanted us to start in-person so the logic was that the early start would allow us to finish before Thanksgiving, do remote exams, and reduce some COVID spread by not having students travel and then return after that holiday. We kept the early start date, but for now are also remote. I'm hoping that we stay remote, because the idea of returning to in-person classes- even with masks and social distancing- is just not going to work. We've just had (at least) two schools switch back to online classes after just one week of face-to-face classes. It seems much more disruptive to have students move back here (or here for the first time) then have to leave again a week or so later. So we'll see what happens there.

For now, I am getting used to teaching my three fall classes online. One will stay online all semester. The other two might switch the in-person depending what my U decides. In the meantime, I am using a lot of discussion boards to give participation opportunities. This works, but means I have extra grading that I wouldn't usually have. I'm also not doing any "live" Zoom (or other) classes because I don't feel it's the best way to "deliver" my classes. For lectures, I have posted slides like I always do, but am trying to add extra comments in the "speaker notes" section. All the advice and training recommend against posting whole lectures online anyway- only shorter videos as seems appropriate. 

I made informal intro videos for all three classes to welcome the students, but otherwise only plan to record walk-through videos for my technology focused class. I know others are planning live classes and more videos, but I'm trying to keep things simple. If we stay online all semester, I might plan some live sessions for one class, but we'll see. I survived the first week (so far) and the team activity in my big class went pretty well, so I'm happy about that. Hope everyone is staying well!

Sky, grass, trees. 
View from my kitchen. What I've seen all summer. 


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