General themes
There were a few overarching themes during the last year that are not specific to any one semester. During this time, I recorded a higher percentage of incompletes for learners, especially for the spring 2020 semester. All students ultimately completed the course work in a timely manner. I discovered the possibility of conducting “office hours” via Zoom, as opposed to meeting with learners in my physical office on campus. This opened up the possibility of being much more flexible about my availability to offer help, as I could do it from “anywhere.” This is something I carried forward, even after distancing restrictions were lifted. I have become much more compassionate and considerate of learners’ life circumstances. One example of this is providing flexible due dates for assignments and projects. I also had a higher percentage of learners absent than usual, due to illnesses and their need to quarantine after being in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID. I accommodated them with a more flexible attendance policy. I discovered that Zoom breakout rooms are a reasonable substitute for small group discussions in the classroom, and that they are even better when I use the random room assignment to mix up discussions..
Spring 2020
With Ball State’s pivot to emergency remote learning (due to the pandemic) effective March 16, 2020, I suddenly shifted from teaching four face-to-face, in-person courses, to having all of them online. Although I had previously taught a few sections of CS 110 (Introduction to Computer Science and Web Programming) asynchronously online many years prior, this was a substantial change in course delivery for me.
I decided to meet synchronously with my three sections of CS 120 (Computer Science 1) via WebEx each Monday during the normally scheduled class time to orient the learners and make sure they understood what I expected of them for the week. I quickly learned that—because of my use of a flipped learning environment—this course would transition fairly well to emergency remote learning. The class time previously consisted of learners working in pairs to complete a programming task (with myself and teaching assistants present to answer questions), so they were already used to working somewhat independent of direct instruction from me during class time. I recorded very brief videos introducing each remaining activity (which I made available through Canvas, our learning management system), that replaced what I would have delivered in person at the start of class. I also transitioned the in-class chapter quizzes and exams to quizzes/exams in Canvas. Normally, these would have been closed-book, but since I had no reasonable way to enforce that, I chose to make them open-book, but timed-limited. I’m sure a few learners benefited from the open-book policy, but I did not observe a significant increase in exam grades.
My HONR 296 (Computer Science and Algorithms to Live By) course was a bit more challenging to transition, due to half of the time previously being discussion-based and the other half hands-on activities during class time, usually in small groups. I chose to meet with the learners synchronously via WebEx each week for half of the class time to facilitate discussion and provided detailed written instructions for them to follow on their own to perform what would have normally been the in-class activities. All things considered, this worked fairly well, given the circumstances.
In all courses, there was a very small number of learners who were not able to meet with the class during the scheduled synchronous meetings. I made accommodations, as needed, for these learners. I also made myself very available for online “office hours” via WebEx, meeting with learners whenever they had a need, provided it fit in my schedule, which it generally did. I received comments from many students that my courses had transitioned the best of any of the courses they were taking that semester.
Summer 2020
BSU required all summer courses be taught online during 2020, with the expectation that they would be delivered asynchronously. I requested that I be able to teach CS 222 (Advanced Programming) synchronously online and was granted a waiver to do so. I had concerns about how the course would translate to online delivery and considered the synchronous online delivery to be as close to in-person, on-campus delivery as possible. As it turned out, due to the heavy use of small group activities (which translated into breakout rooms reasonably well) and scheduled team work days, this approach worked better than I expected.
Fall 2020
During the fall semester, I taught two section of CS 222, my immersive learning course (Computer Science for Muncie (and Surrounding) Schools (CS4MS+)), and HONR 296. I taught both sections of CS 222 synchronously online (again, I had to request for a waiver to do so), while the other two courses were taught in-person on-campus. Since I had taught CS 222 synchronously online during the summer, I simply made some minor adjustments to my delivery of the course, based on my summer experiences. Even though CS4MS+ and HONR 296 had social distancing requirements in the classroom, instructional spaces were available for me to use so that the entire class could meet at the same time. I made minor adjustments in delivery of these two courses so that learners could maintain social distancing requirements.
Starting fall semester, the university provided us access to Zoom, as well as WebEx. I chose Zoom moving forward.
The major impact the pandemic had on the courses I taught fall semester was that the CS4MS+ learners were not able to physically meet with the community partner teachers and students. Although not ideal, we managed fairly well utilizing Zoom meetings to meet with the school administration and teachers but did not have any opportunities to interact with the students.
Spring 2021
Similar to the previous semesters, spring 2021 continued to bring changes. I taught two sections of CS 120, two sections of CS 239 (Social and Professional Issues), CS4MS+, HONR 296, and mentored an Honors College learner on their honors thesis. All courses were taught in-person, on-campus, with the exception of the honors thesis and HONR 296, which was delivered asynchronously online at the request of the Honors College administration. Similar to fall semester, instructional spaces were available to accommodate all learners in the course at the same time.
So the room could be utilized at its normal capacity, we installed clear protective barriers between the computer work spaces in the room where CS 120 met. Normally, CS 120 heavily utilizes pair programming, where two learners share one computer to develop solutions to daily in-class activities, but this was not feasible with COVID protocols. I still had the learners work in pairs, but on separate computers. Thus, it was more of a consultant role than pair programming, but still seemed to work acceptably well.
I normally use small group discussions in CS 239 and was pleased to find the learners could still hold discussions even while maintaining the appropriate distance from each other. Once again, the CS4MS+ learners were not able to physically meet with the community partner teachers and students, although they did arrange for a few Zoom presentations with some of the middle schools’ students during their classes.
HONR 296 was the major change for spring semester, as it was the first time I delivered the course asynchronously online. Since I finished HONR 296 online during spring 2020, I had previously reworked a few of the in-class activities. I updated the rest of them so that they could be completed individually, or with roommates or family members, etc. I also shifted what would have been in-class discussions to Canvas discussion boards. Not being able to have the learners present their final projects to the rest of the class is my only major disappointment. In retrospect, I could have had each learner record (audio or video) their presentation and shared the recordings with all other learners. I believe the course is better taught in-person in a classroom, but the asynchronous online delivery worked much better than I expected it would. I am willing to teach it in that modality again, if needed.
In summary…
The last year of teaching has been an interesting, tiring, exciting, and learning experience. I did not experience any failures but did discover a few things I could do better if I were to do them again. Not that I want to experience another year like I just did, but I am thankful to have had the opportunity to learn from it.
Were it not for the fact that I had to do some things differently, I likely would not now know that holding office hours via Zoom is very viable, and perhaps even better than sitting in my office waiting for learners to show up. Nor would I have realized that I can deliver a course online by using breakout rooms to facilitate what would have been small group discussions in the classroom. I was forced to further explore the use of Canvas discussion boards and modules and now understand their use and worth, especially for asynchronous on-line courses, but have thoughts about how I can use them in other modalities as well.
But the most significant impact the pandemic had on me is that I am now a much more compassionate and understand human being, teacher, and mentor, and am willing to try to better understand the life experiences of my learners so I can do what I can to make the learning environment more equitable for them. So, thanks COVID-19 for changing me. But you can leave now. Please!
What was your experience teaching during the last year? Share them in the comment area below.
P.S. The above photo is a picture I took of my office the last day I was on campus in March 2020, before being exiled to my home. I used it for my Zoom virtual background to make it look like I was sitting in my office. It was one small way I could provide a bit or normalcy for those I was meeting with, although it did confuse a few people who know that I should not be in my office at the time. Included in the picture is the container of lemonade mix I mentioned in my Of lemons and lemonade on Friday, the 13th of March, 2020 post.
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