Jenn, Mathew, and Ruth, was in zoom meetings with various psych department groups this meeting about delivering remote instruction. In addition to your great points, we have several concerns:
1. Equity issues. Students and faculty will need high speed Internet to be able to zoom or use Canvas conferencing, and especially for students who are going home, this may not be a possibility. Even for faculty it depends on where we live, many of us pay for high speed internet but don't get it because of connectivity issues. If you are a renter, other options may have to be vetted by our landlord. So, remote teaching and learning will be a challenge for many, and especially, low-income, first gen students who may not have a computer and access to a library with public use computers.
2. An additional issue about equity is that canvas is not set up for universal learning, so giving extra time on tests to students who have learning differences is not possible--or least faculty who have tried it thus far on Canvas or Zoom following the instructions weren't able to get it to work; our teaching center and Instructional Technology are trying to figure out how to make individual modifications for students with accommodations. The same goes for faculty and students who are parents and must now accommodate to having children are home who need them and still deliver instruction.
3. Even if we have connectivity, the network may crash if everyone is using zoom (or another version) at the same time.
4. In our research university, if undergraduate research assistants go home, then access to data that would normally be restricted to labs and encrypted computers would be compromised. Many laptops or desktops do not have the capability of being encrypted. I am the chair of the IRB so spent most of Sunday figuring compromises out.
These are just a few of the issues that came up, with the broader issue being that our campus (and others) are gearing up for remote instruction very quickly, and most of us faculty and the infrastructure of the systems we have are not in place for such scaling up...and many of us are not very technologically competent.
Margarita Azmitia, UC-Santa Cruz
------------------------------
Margarita Azmitia
Dr.
University of California at Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz CA
831-459-3146
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 03-18-2020 16:56
From: Ruth Church
Subject: Students' concerns about suddenly switching to online
Jennifer and Matthew,
Thank you for starting the ball rolling on this. I will add a few things here. First, students are seriously concerned that their world will change forever! Some think the world is coming to an end. So the more communication we have with our students the better. Hearing nothing right now is seriously disconcerting. So even if you are saying; "working on a new syllabus for remote classroom, will be in touch no later than..."--turns out to be hugely helpful. Students are so worried about being disconnected.
Second, I am asking my classes to tell me what would be helpful for them in terms of online classes. They may suggest things we haven't thought of. For example, my students suggested small group video chats--because large numbers can get unwieldy.
Third, procrastination is something we all do--thanks Matthew for making that clear-- :). I set up weekly tasks that build up to the final project--in my case it is a final research project and paper. But I give them points for turning these tasks in on time--it gives a buffer for grades but also keeps them on task. They get points for the task no matter what (e.g., 10 pts for outline of an introduction section). I grade based on larger assignments.
Finally, I decided for this semester to throw out some requirements--they just seemed too overwhelming for me and students to accomplish in a meaningful way. I gave up a couple of chapters in a text book; my thinking was: "Would I rather my students leave my class with a solid understanding of birth to adolescents or a diluted understanding of birth to death?" Sometimes it's better to intensify a limited focus than to provide a shallow and hurried examination of a lot of topics. I say this because now students are working under cognitive load--a lot emotionally and cognitively to think about outside of school.
In the end, we are their connection to a better world and the steady foundation during a rocky time. E-learning is the way to provide security and consistency, making students feel safe. We are helping to provide the infrastructure for a sane and productive civilization. Let's bring our students along in our mission.
Breckie
R.B. Church
Professor | Psychology
Director | NSF Science of Learning: The role of gesture in mathematics learning: From research to practice
Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research Professor
------------------------------
Ruth Church
Dr.
Northeastern Illinois University
Chicago IL
773-442-5837
Original Message:
Sent: 03-17-2020 23:51
From: Jennifer Dyer-Seymour
Subject: Students' concerns about suddenly switching to online
Right before my campus (California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB)) announced the switch to "alternate modalities" I had sent out a Google form to my students to assess their concerns about possibly moving to an online class. I teach an introductory psychology class to mostly 1st and 2nd year students and I teach two sections of capstone for seniors about to graduate. Below I list some of the concerns that they noted. I am keeping these concerns in mind as I make the switch to online. Here are some of their concerns:
1. I'm worried I'll procrastinate more than I already do.
2. Will all the due dates be the same across my classes?
3. I'm worried I'll forget when assignments are due.
4. I find myself distracted when taking online courses.
5. I hope you'll still have office hours.
6. How will we work with others in the class?
What are your thoughts about how you might address these concerns or others you think your students might have? I'm hoping to on put together another Google form this week to ask students' more questions about their thoughts and feelings about our courses. We start up again on March 23.
------------------------------
Jennifer Dyer-Seymour
California State University, Monterey Bay
Seaside CA
831-582-3533
------------------------------