Reflections on Remote Teaching

Joseph Harris, Gitner Award Winner for Distinguished Teaching (2017) and Hub Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow

Dabbling to Increase Student Engagement in Remote and Hybrid Teaching

Dabble. As we navigate this new reality of remote teaching, “dabble” is my new mantra. I use the word to refer to active efforts to play with new ideas related to remote teaching. For me, this means being open to new technologies and methods for increasing interactivity and student engagement online, of revising tried and true ways of teaching that have worked well in person to accommodate the realities of remote teaching. We know already that classes via Zoom tax even the best students’ (and professors’) ability to stay interested and engaged. Human attention spans just aren’t configured for three and a half hour summer lecture courses that take place completely online. Even forty-five minute or one hour and fifteen minute lectures can be tough. At the heart of dabbling, however, is a recognition of this and a desire to find ways to do things differently to make learning meaningful in this new context.

The way we learn new teaching innovations to incorporate into our classes can come through various channels, our own experience, shared stories and ideas on Twitter and Facebook, online learning communities through CTL, blog posts like this. The means by which we get our good ideas really doesn’t matter. I recently discovered a platform called Flipgrid which allows students to post one and a half minute videos they record on the site in response to assignments. The platform then allows students and faculty to respond with videos of their own. While BU doesn’t offer this technology to faculty, Damon Carlson in Educational Technology did suggest Voicethread* to me, so now I’m looking into that. Where did I learn about Flipgrid originally? My son’s four year old kindergarten class!

Seeing his (and my) love for the video responses his teacher offered is what really turned me on to the promise of this technology for working with college students. And this just underscores an important idea that I think people don’t always realize: increasing interactivity doesn’t always mean face-to-face real-time interactivity. It can mean doing so through really neat mediated forms that students and faculty both find meaningful. Flipgrid or Voicethread may ultimately not be for you, but the promise and exciting potential for increasing interactivity and engagement of both platforms just show what happens when we dabble.

*For faculty review of Voicethread, see Professor Shively T. J. Smith’s presentation in Lightning Talk Speaker Series event on Fostering Classroom Community

Sophie Godley, Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Public Health

A love letter to my students during a global pandemic.

Dear Students of PH510 Spring 2020:

A few weeks have passed since our last Zoom class, ending the weirdest semester on record of my career at BU. I am relieved the semester is over but I miss you.

When we first met in January I thought you were a typical bunch of BU undergraduates – diverse, interesting, worried, funny, stressed, committed, and so very smart. On the first day of class we talked about the new virus in China, and how we might want to pay attention to it during the semester. We had no idea.

Then, March, when it became clear from news of cruise ships and Washington State and Italy that things were going terribly wrong. Many of you reached out to me – what should I do? Should I stay in Boston for break? Take my planned trip to Europe? What is going to happen?

I had so few answers for you.

Suddenly we heard that you would not be on campus and we would be online for at least a month (later to become for the rest of the semester). I logged in for our first day of online class absolutely dreading what was to come – what if none of you showed up? What if I screwed up the technology? How could I be “me” over a screen? Then slowly, steadily, your names all started to pop up on my screen. And there you were – almost all of you – in your bedrooms, your kitchens, on the porch, hidden behind a blank screen, but on – online and in class. You were literally scattered across the country and the world, but you were with me.

What you proceeded to do over the next couple of months was remarkable. You were engaged, you were tenacious, you were resilient, and you were present. I got to meet you dogs, your cats, one pet iguana, and your mom. I got to see you walk around your house, eat lunch, yell at your sister. I got to see your worried faces, your happy faces, your boredom, your fear, all of it. You had thoughtful, reflective questions, you were engaged in the material, you wanted to learn, and you wanted to share what you knew and what you were thinking. You wrote amazing assignments – you went beyond the (revised) expectations for assignments and submitted thoughtful, smart, elegant work.

Instead of dreading teaching online I started to look forward to it – a time for us to learn together about the virus, and about public health. A time to make sense of what was and is happening to all of us at once. We stayed connected both in and out of class– you emailed and texted me, you posted in the chat, you participated during class.

I’m proud of you for not giving up – for continuing to learn, and staying engaged in the work of our class. I’m proud of you for your resilience and your strength. I’m proud of you for getting through the semester – imperfect, annoying, gratifying as it was.

As I said on our last day of class, I have long believed that students only learn through love: when teachers love their students. Yes, it’s a little weird, a little out there, a little risky to admit. But I love you, I loved being your teacher, and I’m so grateful to have gone through this time with each and every one of you.

With love and gratitude,

Sophie