Dartmouth instructors share their tips and reflections for teaching remotely.
One important thing to remember/realize is that teaching online takes more (not less) work than teaching in person: you have to think of it as inventing a new course, rather than teaching an existing one. This means that practicing self-care and being patient with yourself is more important than ever.
Be willing to relax, ease up, and allow the focus to be on learning for learning’s sake in this new environment.
Students are incredibly responsive to positive feedback in this environment. Make a point to verbally recognize their efforts and accomplishments. I’ve seen this result in more and better work from my students.
Be available to students in office hours, but be prepared for huge demand. Don’t be afraid to put limits on your availability to pace yourself and preserve your sanity.
[The] preparation we were given was actually spot on. But this is one thing training-alone will not prepare you for. You have to actually do it and make it work for your course.
“Pandemic Pedagogy” Rachel's blog about teaching in the time of Covid-19.
Let go of perfection with your video recordings, and don’t go back and watch yourself!
Plan to build in a lot more ways to maintain a sense of community and engagement in your class.
Survey your students along the way to check if they’re having any technical issues or challenges with the delivery, and on how the course is going for them overall.
Take frequent breaks during live sessions—every 20-25 minutes works well.
Calling on students to respond rather than waiting for them to raise their hands has been working well. I’ve been pleased with how prepared they are to respond when I’ve tried this.
You have to be much more prepared to teach remotely than you might normally. I recommend providing students with a very clear agenda for each session.
Form groups of students and "force" them to meet. Otherwise, most will not take the initiative.
Using Slack with my students helped reduce the volume of emails by a lot. And students often answer other's questions before me, so that is very great.
Focus on what is most important in your class, and get rid of the rest.
It’s been very heartening to see students taking the class so seriously and submitting high-quality work.
The best aspect of the class is when students can work together in various ways and at times that work for them.
The "Reflections from the Dartmouth Community" page was inspired by our counterparts at Harvard University.