GUIDING OUR STUDENTS IN THE TIME OF COVID

As I write this, it is Saturday.  Monday is a holiday.  We have had two weeks of college with a lot of restrictions and the students are getting restless.  Are my students being safe this weekend?  Are they taking care to avoid engaging in unnecessary risks?

As anyone who has ever lived in a dormitory knows, bad influences are constantly present.  There is always someone on a college campus who has a bright idea that probably is not a smart idea.

What is our role as teachers?  Should student guidance be left solely to college administrators?  Have we abdicated our responsibilities to be positive influences for our students? 

This morning, I wrote the email below to the faculty at my school.  Will they take me up on my suggestion?  Yes, I think some will although I am not sure how many.  Will those messages influence our students to be careful?  I certainly hope so.  College students are young adults and they are always looking for guidance.  If they don’t get it from you, they will find it somewhere else.  We need to tell our students what we believe they should be doing.  We need to encourage them to be safe and stay well.  We don't need to hold their hands but we do need to tell them what we believe is the truth.

An email takes about 90 seconds to send to your students.  The cost approximates zero but the benefits can be huge. 

You can let someone else do it or you can do it.  I want my students to know what I think.  I believe in transparency and I believe students and the faculty both have a lot of responsibility for the well being of the university.

**

To the faculty at my school:

Our students have been here a couple of weeks.  It is a weekend.  It is a holiday.  I suspect they are all ready to break loose.  And, we know what happens next.  Just ask some of the schools like UNC and JMU that have had to send their students home.

The students are probably getting a lot of bad advice within the dorms.  They need as much positive support as they can get.  We are their teachers.  We are their guides.  

A few people know that I send my students a lot of emails.  It is just my operating style.  I sent them a special one this morning.   You might consider doing something similar.  The wording can be short and sweet, but they need to hear this message from their teachers not just from the administration.

Here's the email I sent to my students (after I had told them about how wonderful learning accounting really is):

 

"And, finally, stay safe over the weekend.  We are all depending on YOU to keep us old folks healthy.  I absolutely and positively understand how difficult it is not to run wild.  Despite being elderly, I well remember my four years living in a college dorm with 99 other students.  As I remember, none of us were saints.   Nevertheless, these are critical times, and we are very much dependent on each other to make this learning experience (and the ability to stay alive and well) work.  It kind of breaks my heart to say this but:  Please, follow the rules.  The university is counting on you."  

WE NEED ROLE MODELS

Many of us are having to navigate our teaching this fall into wild new lands.  Almost from the beginning of the pandemic, one of my concerns has been that most of us do not have experience with truly excellent quality distance /blended learning.  For that reason, everyone seems to be having to reinvent the wheel which is fine but not very cost and time effective. 

It would be excellent for someone to set up a website outlining the structure of various courses around the country that seemed to have worked well so we can all gain practical ideas.  I have heard plenty of theoretical ideas about teaching during a pandemic.  However, I want to hear from people in the trenches who have been in the battle and shown some level of success. 

 

Last week, I received an email from Dick Minot at Loyola Marymount.  He was kind enough to describe a class of his from over this summer that seemed to be quite successful.  He agreed to let me share this description just to provide you with some practical thoughts.  I do not mean that every teacher and every class should replicate his approach but there are many great ideas here that you might want to try for your own classes.

 

Thanks Dick!!!

 

**

This is Dick Minot. I am a clinical assistant professor at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles. I teach Advanced Accounting and Managerial Accounting.

 

Needless to say, the rapid transition to online/remote learning was a shock to the system for most of us. I had done some online teaching for the University of California at Irvine (UCI) sometime ago in summer sessions so the shock to me was not as great as it probably could have been. I volunteered to teach a summer session online in managerial Accounting as I was sure – sometimes I am a bit off – that we would be back in the class in the fall and I wanted the University to see that we could offer online classes as part of what we do for the students. Well here we are all online for the Fall semester.

 

My whole thrust in teaching online – and I did it for this summer session – was to treat the experience just as if we were still in the classroom. Sounds a bit crazy but if I was to be “down in the mouth” about online as an instructor so would the students. I believed and still do that the students will follow our lead and strive to be what we expect, for the most part, if we still challenge them. One of my recent summer online students offered this comment,

“I can easily speak for the rest of the class when I say that you really made this class worthwhile for us, and just as you say we would make your day, you would always make ours. …Again, I wouldn't have succeeded in this class without your motivation and help and I truly thank you for making me work hard and prepare for every class.”

 

While another student offered this comment,

 

“Just wanted to say thank you for calling on me a lot in class. It made me feel comfortable knowing that you cared about my learning.”

 

Sometime ago another professor and I were talking about what is most important to me as a professor and I said obviously getting the students to learn and understand the material but also to care about the students as people that will enter the accounting profession that I still participate in through my small accounting practice. I think that this is or can be pretty easy to do in person while face to face with the students but can be an issue when with long distance, remote/zoom classes. CAN BE! But it clearly does not have to be.

 

I have made it a part of my teaching to send numerous e mails to my students well before class actually starts. This allows me to introduce myself to the students well before the start date and I let them know what they might expect. Generally, for semester sessions I will send an e mail at 60 days, 45 days, 30 days, 15 days and then the day before class starts. Along the way in these messages I will let them know about assignments that I will want them to have done prior to the actual start of class so we can just move ahead. I have no way of knowing who actually reads the e mails way ahead but they certainly do just prior to the class start by the work that is turned in.

 

In keeping with my practice, I did the same with my Summer Session 2020 class in Managerial Accounting. I sent the class various messages at 45 days, 35 days, 30 days, 25 days, 20 days, 10 days and the day before class actually started. In doing this by the time class actually started they pretty much knew me and how I think about accounting, this class as well as life itself. Included in the 35-day message was the following assignment for them to do:

 

ASSIGNMENT: Please reflect on your last semester online classes and then do the following: · send me an e mail and list 3 (only 3 max) suggestions for the class considering the following issues:

 

o appearance for class - in bed; in pajamas etc.

o how should we relate to one another?

o should we all be muted when not speaking

o or left unmuted as we would be in class

o how and what you might expect from me as the leader of this class.

 

Thank you for your time in this matter and it will be helpful in making this class a great time for us all.

__

 

 

I remember you saying on one of your blog postings that “learning is like dancing and I can lead but if you do not follow neither of us will have any fun.”

 

I think more than ever this learning is very cooperative now between professor and students. We are all learning.

 

So, I am looking at a computer screen as my students “arrive” in class. The student that is always a couple of minutes late for class is still a couple of minutes late. So how does all of this work? It’s really pretty easy:

 

I greet students in person and I continued to do it with the online class. This may seem odd and I was asked by another professor how I handled the “noise” of everyone showing up 1-2 minutes before class with some of them being shy. And that is a great question as that is the reality of how they appear for class. I had students from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai, Nepal, Indonesia, New Orleans and up and down California in this class and only a couple of the students knew each other. My greeting them by name in those first couple of minutes allows them to leave the “real” world behind and hopefully become part of the internet family of students in the class where they cannot “see” other but know that they are there. After a few classes, the students actually would greet each other especially if I brought up something from the last class. They actually did become a class and not just a group of faces on the computer screen.

 

Most of my classes start with a quiz. In the beginning of the course I would simply prepare a quiz in Word and I would share the screen with the class via zoom. They would then send me an e mail with the answers only. We actually did the quiz in class so they had the answers as soon as we were done. I understand that you do not want a bunch of e mails but the quizzes were not that involved so the answers were a computation or a sentence. And it allowed me to know who was there.

 

After a few classes I would actually send an e mail just before class with questions for the day and the quiz. By doing this I could use the breakout rooms for group quizzes that were more involved and I would receive only a few emails. Then I would have groups volunteer to answer the quiz questions. This got everyone involved and it was just like being face to face.

 

In going over the quiz I would be able to talk generally about the chapter material and relate how and what we were covering meant in their career major. They quickly realized that in going over the quiz arriving at an answer that they felt confident in was only part of the process. When they had answered the question the inevitable question from me was always there, WHY is that the case. My favorite line here is from the movie The Paper Chase when Professor Kingsfield explains the Socratic method of education to his class. That is me in person or online. Get them engaged. And they become a class.

 

We then do a series of problems that looks at the material in a variety of ways to analyze and review and then decide what is taking place and then the WHY again.

The students are expected to have read the chapter, review the power point slides and do a pre-class assignment that has a small overall point value but is important enough to garner their attention. This is no surprise; I refer you to my many messages that I have sent to them.

 

I always give a FINAL QUIZ to the class and ask them a few questions about the semester. This time I asked the students what advice they would give to the incoming students in the FALL 2020 class and one student offered the following:

 

“Every student entering managerial accounting should always

· Study for the materials before class to better understand and ask questions when doing class work and in class quizzes.

· Never procrastinate and leave the work for the last day.

· Mcgrawhillconnect.com gives great studying notes for the book, utilize everything you have.

· Never miss what the professor is saying, he usually gives hints to exam questions.

 

“What worked for this course was my participation. The first couple of classes I was not understanding what the content that was being discussed in the class, due to just reading through the chapters. I realized that I had to study it before class, then restudy it after the class to make sure I haven't missed anything. This is what I did for the remainder of the course. In doing this, I got more chances to answer questions in the class and not be put in the spot and end up saying ‘I don't know’ in the class, and actually have the information needed to put 1 and 2 together.

 

“What I'll take away from this course is

· To not procrastinate

· Always try to answers even if you're wrong

· Never stop asking questions even if it seems silly

· Always participate to break that barrier between you and the classmates/professor.”

__

 

This summer class turned out to be probably one of the best overall experiences in my teaching career. The students knew that this was going to be an online class so no issues about not knowing this. Attendance was virtually 100% for the term. And, that did amaze me. At about week 3, there was a situation in class and one of the students made a comment and I could see almost all of them laughing. They had become a class.

 

This class was run in a synchronous fashion throughout the course, unless I made a supplemental recording as needed.  The class was also set as a 3-hour session, just as it would have been in a face to face course, and the sessions flew by.

 

The students can do this! They will do pretty much what we expect of them.

 

GETTING MY STUDENTS READY FOR THE FALL – STEP THREE – HELPING THE AUDITORY LEARNERS

Over the past several weeks, I have posted blog entries to describe some of the material that I am producing this summer in preparation for the fall.  From what I can read, much of college education is becoming one huge Zoom session.  Zoom has its place and can be quite beneficial, but I believe we can do better than putting all our eggs in a Zoom basket.  To avoid that, though, we need to think deeply about the learning process.  We need to attack the educational challenges in a creative fashion.  All of the material I have discussed recently comes from ideas I have developed based on 49 years of teaching experience.  You can do that as well.  There is a lot more that we can do than just Zoom.  

That observation is especially true as we come to the reality that a considerable amount of our coverage is going to be distance learning for the foreseeable future.  Most of us have never experienced world-class distance learning which makes the fall especially daunting.  Ask yourself an essential question:  What would world class distance learning look like if that was your goal?  Once you can envision it, you can create it.

So far:

--On my July 22 blog posting, I wrote about suggesting the book Make It Stick to my fall students as an optional extra credit assignment to help them become better learners.  How can that not be a good idea?  I have had several students email me in thanks for the advice.

--On July 27, I described the “Guided Readings” I developed to help my students get more from their textbooks.  Why have them pay so much money if they are not able to learn (at least) the basic material in those chapters?  For students, reading the textbook needs to be more than a waste of time. 

--On August 3, I explained my use of “Retrieval Questions and Answers” to help students immediately follow up their textbook readings.  The students are given sequential questions (and their answers) to bring the important topics back up so they can make use of (and strengthen) their knowledge.

Today, I want to talk about auditory learners.  I have often thought that some of my students were held back from achieving their academic potential because they were auditory learners rather than visual learners.  Most learning experiences (books, written exercises, PowerPoint slides, and the like) focus on the information being seen.  In much of our teaching, knowledge enters through the eyes.  As the recent popularity in audiobooks seems to show, a considerable number of people absorb information by hearing.  Consequently, I think at least one learning product for each class should focus on auditory learning.  I want to have a supplement available that will be especially address the needs of those students. 

Plus, students love their phones and they love to multi-task.  In thinking about the fall, I wanted to include a learning exercise that took advantage of those personal preferences. 

Therefore, this semester, for every chapter, I am creating approximately 20 minutes of audio questions and answers.  I ask a question.  I pause for three seconds to give the students time to consider their response.  Then, I provide my answer.  I immediately move to what I view as the next logical question.  As I have said often, I like sequential learning.  For 20 minutes, it is just question-answer-question-answer, but it is all auditory learning.  Once again, as mentioned in my previous posting, I am obviously working on having students retrieve and use the information in many different ways.

I post the audio files on our learning management system (we use Blackboard).  The students can listen whenever they want to test their understanding.  Better still, they can download the app to their phones and listen while they do other things:  eat, exercise, take walks, and the like.  Every college student seems to struggle with time management.  Audio questions and answers can be an efficient use of free time – even listening for a few minutes as they walk to class helps them work on information retrieval. 

I needed to explain this to my students so, not surprisingly, I made a video.  I’ve become fond of the screen recording feature on PowerPoint for quick and simple messages to my students.  Below is the one that explains the audio questions and answers that will be available to them this fall. 

As always with these videos for my students, I have more than the goal of introducing them to a learning technique.  I am always trying to help the students become more confident and enthusiastic about the upcoming learning process.  These are scary times.  I cannot help them over every problem created by this pandemic, but I can help them have a wonderful learning experience.  I want to assure them that they will learn a lot in the fall and make a good grade.  There is a plethora of bad news in the world.  I think we as teachers should provide some encouraging news.

I don’t think I can send you the audio questions and answers but I will be glad to share the transcript if you drop me a note at Jhoyle@richmond.edu.

Here is the video explanation that I sent to my students.  Notice, I did not worry too much about being technically perfect.  I just want to get the message out to them.  They are students.  They are not bothered by glitches. 

https://youtu.be/JzJpTrumpn4

GETTING MY STUDENTS READY FOR THE FALL – STEP TWO – RETRIEVAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

I wrote a blog posting last week about a short video that I had made to introduce my students to the first step in my fall classes – Guided Readings.  (By the way, these videos were made with the Screen Recording function in PowerPoint.  That is a simple way to make and distribute short videos to your students.)

The idea behind Guided Readings was that students needed assistance in learning the essentials from their textbook so I developed PowerPoint Flash Cards to help them make the most of their readings. 

But – now what?  Even an excellent reading of the textbook is not a complete education.

In the marvelous book, Make It Stick – The Science of Successful Learning, the authors (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel) stress the importance of retrieval.  The second chapter is even titled, “To Learn, Retrieve.” 

They assert, “Repeated retrieval not only makes memories more durable but produces knowledge that can be retrieved more readily, in more varied settings, and applied to a wider variety of problems.”  Or, as I describe the process, “Bring new knowledge up and make use of it.  Bring it up again and use it creatively.  Bring it up as often as possible and in as many different ways as possible.”  That statement might describe my teaching better than anything else.

So, after Guided Readings, I immediately prescribe a sequenced series of questions designed to see how much of the material I can get the students to retrieve and use in some way.  I write approximately 14 to 20 questions that come directly from the material they have just read.  However, each question requires them to retrieve the new information and make use of it. 

The process is carefully scripted. 

--First, I include all of the retrieval questions for this section of the material. 

--Second, I then repeat those same questions but this time with the answers. 

I refer to this as a, “Wash, Rinse, Repeat” assignment.  I want the students to read the questions and see how many they can answer.  Then, they are directed to scroll down to the answers and immediately check their work.  They are told to note questions that they missed or where they had no answer.

I instruct them to go back to the top of the page and go through the questions again to see how many more they can answer this time.  Hopefully, if they do this entire loop two or three times, they will feel comfortable with all the answers.

--They first used the Guided Readings to pull out the essentials from the textbook. 

--They then use the Retrieval Questions and Answers to help organize, solidify, and expand their knowledge and understanding. 

I like to think that I am developing distance learning for my students using a structure that makes logical sense.

Last week on this blog, I offered to provide a chapter of Guided Readings and many people took me up on that offer. 

This week, if you would like to see an example of Retrieval Questions and Answers, drop me an email at Jhoyle@richmond.edu.  Always glad to share.

Here is the video that I used to explain my Retrieval Questions and Answers to my students.  It is less than 7 minutes.  I hope you will watch it.  

https://youtu.be/vyTOjn0zFVo

 

GETTING MY STUDENTS READY FOR THE FALL – STEP ONE – GUIDED READINGS

Regardless of whether you are teaching live in the fall or a hybrid class or using totally distance learning, it is important to help your students get ready for a new experience.  Most of them are sitting at home bored and scared.  They have no idea what to expect.  Maybe worst of all, they have no reason to believe it is going to work.  That is a problem that I don’t think many schools have yet addressed. 

Therefore, I am in the process of making a series of 3-5 short videos that I will email to my fall students so they will know what to expect and why I am doing this.  I have long argued that the number one factor in becoming a good teacher is creating student faith in you.  If they believe in you, they will do what you ask no matter how complex the assignments might be. 

Ask yourself:  What have you done to convince your students they should have faith in you for the coming semester?  I think that is a very valid question. 

Last week, I sent out my first video (the link is below) to help them see how I am building an outstanding course for them for this fall.

A lot of education begins with, “Read Chapter One in your textbook.”  I think that is a problem.  Students struggle to read the textbook and often wind up feeling frustrated and stupid.  That is a bad way to begin each chapter.  The material is complicated and is often only understandable to someone who has already finished the course.  For each new crop of students, textbooks can destroy self-confidence and kill their interest in the topic.  That’s no way to develop any faith or enthusiasm.

Therefore, for my classes, I created “Guided Reading” assignments to help the students get through each section of the textbook effectively.  I want them to arrive at the first class with a basic understanding of the essential material.  That is why they pay the money to buy the textbooks.  In most cases, that level of understanding will not come from an unaided student reading.  I think it is naïve to assign a complex reading assignment and expect students to gain much from it without some help.

I developed these “Guided Readings” using PowerPoint slides because they are necessarily sequential and anything that is presented to students sequentially has a better chance of success. 

Okay, assume you are a college sophomore and you have signed up for my introductory class this coming fall semester.  I email you this video.  If I have done this well, it should help you:

--Realize that I do have an idea on how to make this semester work.

--Start to see how the course is built (in our school’s Blackboard system).

--Feel a bit of excitement about the upcoming semester.  Maybe stop being quite so scared or uncertain.

Watch the video and see if I have been successful at any of these three.

(If you would like to receive a PowerPoint Reading Guide for a textbook chapter, send me an email at Jhoyle@richmond.edu.)

https://youtu.be/8nfW1sLtkLQ

SUMMER TIME EXTRA CREDIT

I try, now and then, to provide teaching tips for the faculty members in my school.  However, since the pandemic started, we have all faced such unbelievable teaching challenges that traditional advice has come to seem irrelevant.  When some people are teaching in huge rooms with everyone wearing masks and others are teaching part live and part online and many are moving toward distance learning exclusively, advice that applies to more than a few seems hard to find. 

Having said that, I sent my faculty friends the following teaching tip this morning.  It seems to me that no matter how you are going to be teaching this fall this idea is one that can be helpful.  Not for every student.  No idea works for every student, but maybe this one will work for half the students.  In my classes, any idea that works for half the class is worth a bit of my time.

Here’s what I wrote our faculty.

**

For several years now, semester in and semester out, I have given my students an extra credit assignment a month or two before the semester begins.  Some semesters it is about accounting.  Other semesters it is about learning.

Below is the extra credit assignment that I sent out earlier this summer to my fall classes.

Why do I do this?

--I think it sets a strong tone for the semester.  I am serious about the learning and I expect the students to be serious about the learning as well. 

--It opens up a line of communication between the students and me.  I have things I need for them to hear.  They need to be able to ask me questions and get help occasionally.  I want to establish a strong method of communication well before the semester starts.

--I want the students to understand that learning is important.  I am always amazed at how uninterested some students seem in their own learning as if it has no value at all.  I find that heart-breaking.  

--The students are often bored over the break and the summer of 2020 is probably the ultimate example.  If I choose the assignment well, they really can benefit from the work.  I am not offering them points for busy work.  I am bribing them to become better, more engaged students.  

--For better or worse, students love extra credit assignments.  I don't personally like that but you have to meet the students where they are and not where you want them to be.  

--I wanted the upcoming class to have somewhat of a normal feel about it.  “I always do this so we will do it this summer as well.”  Everyone seems to rattled that things have changed.  With my students, I am looking to stress things that are absolutely and totally normal. 

Here's the message that I sent out (several students wrote back immediately, thanking me for giving them something to do that had a value).

Is there an extra credit assignment that you could send out now that would get your students better ready for the fall semester regardless of how that experience is going to be structured.  

To:   Accounting 201 Students

From:  JH

I know some of you have ordered the Accounting 201 textbook.  If so, read Chapter One and come up with a couple of things you did not know before reading.

I do realize that it is easy to waste an entire summer.  Don’t do that.  Life is too short to waste.  Set a goal, “I will spend X hours each day doing something productive.”  X can be 3 or 6 or 9 or whatever you want but it needs to be more than zero.

So, I have a suggestion for making your summer useful and I’ll even give you extra credit if you do it.

About four years ago, I read a book titled Make It Stick – The Science of Successful Learning, by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel.  As you might imagine, I am deeply interested in how to help my students learn more effectively.  I found this book to be very insightful.  One of the things the authors say frequently is that reading material repeatedly is not helpful in getting knowledge into your memory.  According to them, it is the mental retrieval of information that really solidifies learning and that is something we work on every day in 201.  If you want to learn something, pull it out of your memory over and over and your knowledge will get stronger and stronger.  As they say in the book, “One of the best habits a learner can instill in herself is regular self-quizzing to recalibrate her understanding of what she does and does not know.”  

We do that a lot in my classes.   One of my mottoes is, “We do it until you can do it.”  I like that thought.  My online materials are even built on that idea.  (You might want to circle that previous sentence.)

They even have a chapter titled “To Learn, Retrieve.”  

**

The semester after I read Make It Stick, I offered my students bonus points on the first test of the semester if they would read this book over the break.  I have been doing this since then for my upper-level students and I recently began the idea with my introductory students.

The book is available on Amazon and used copies are fairly cheap.  I honestly believe my previous students have gained much more than bonus points just from the ideas and tips provided in this book.  I have always been surprised by how little some very smart students understand about the learning process.  In high school, it is easy to be successful just using memorization without ever learning how to learn.  In college, or at least in my class, you need to be more efficient.

In my initial experiment, it turned out that roughly half of my students read at least half of the book by the first test. 

Here are some of the things that students told me about Make It Stick.

“During high school, often times the material that you study is easy enough to cram in the night before an exam. When I started off at Richmond, I was overwhelmed with the amount of cramming I would have to do in order to make high grades. During my freshman and sophomore year at Richmond I decided to study a couple days in advance. After reading this book and seeing the results of students who study in advance and continue to look over what you learn, by the time of the test I often feel ready to go. This book has definitely had an impact on my semester, as I may be increasing my study times per day but by the day before the test, I don’t feel as stressed out and overwhelmed.”

“I think reading Make is Stick has reminded me of how to best study and learn material. After being abroad last semester, I was craving work but it gave me a sense of mind when it came to the best ways to study. I liked it because it didn't just plainly state how to memorize things efficiently. It provides evident and demonstrates why it works better. For example, sometimes when I don't feel like doing my homework or a practice problem, I think about how the more you actually do a problem the better you will know it. It is reinforcement such as that which gives sometimes seemingly repetitive and exhausting work purpose.”

**

Okay, I could include dozens of quotes like these but I am sure you get the point.

I will make a similar deal with you.  In my online course, we will have a pretty good number of “Comprehension Quizzes” just to make sure you understand what we are covering.  These will be 10-30 minutes in length now and then.  Based on the percentage you get correct on each one, you’ll get a letter grade (A, B, C, etc.)  If you read the book Make It Stick prior to September 15, I will raise your grade on not one but TWO comprehension quizzes by one letter grade.  If you make two B’s, they will become two A’s.  (It does not have to be your first two Comprehension Quizzes – I will add the letter grade to the first two quizzes where you make less than an A). 

This is not a class requirement.  There is no penalty if you choose not to read the book.  I think it is good offer.  I expect you to tell me the truth.  You are my students and I expect you to be truthful with me.  Read the book Make It Stick and get an added letter grade on two Comprehension Quizzes.  If that is not clear enough, let me know and I’ll try again.

Let me know if you have already read Make It Stick and I will provide you with an alternative book to read.   There are a number of good possibilities.

Have a great, great, great summer.  Stay smart and stay well.  Get some rest and relaxation.  However, don’t allow yourself to be unproductive. 

I am looking forward to having the opportunity of working with you.  If we both do our part of the work with enthusiasm and ambition, you will be amazed by how much you will have learned by the end of next semester.  You will understand more about accounting than you could ever have anticipated. 

Tips from an Online Teaching Amateur

A friend of mine is looking toward the fall semester and the possibility of teaching through distance learning.  He knows that I have participated in distance learning since March 13, 2020, (but not one second before that).  Because I have almost two months of experience, he asked me for my advice as if two months made me an expert.  Here are my comments. 

I've been watching some webinars about teaching online and you can certainly pick up hints and tips now and then.  When you watch a webinar, you'll figure out quickly whether it is going to be beneficial for you.  Stay with the ones where you feel that you will benefit.  

I think it is important to start off with the right mindset.  I like the quote, "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution."  I think that type of attitude helps an awful lot.  I know a lot of people who start off with, "I'm just going to hate this."  And, surprise, surprise, they hate it.  In life, attitude is everything.  Never feel that you have grown so old and boring that you are not ready to take on a challenge. 

Main pieces of advice.

--Communicate often with your students but don't be too wordy.  They need to hear from you (a few sentences) virtually every day.  However, they are not looking for a sermon or a lecture.  A little guidance and encouragement will go a long way.

--Be encouraging but make sure they know you are not reducing your standards.  Online education has a bad reputation for being watered down learning.  Starting with the first email on March 13, I wanted my students to know that I was not going to tolerate that kind of thinking.  "Do what I ask you to do and you'll learn just as much as you would sitting in my class" is something I chanted like a mantra.  

--Give them very specific things to do and give them deadlines.  It is easy for them to get confused about what you want or expect and when.  Most of them don’t have other students to give them direction if they need it as in a face-to-face class.  

--In everything you do, give them some way to respond so you keep them engaged.  Anything that lasts for more than a few minutes without a specific response from them is probably going to put them to sleep.  

--I gave a lot of assignments where I established a fairly low benchmark grade simply to measure effort.  "There are 10 questions now available on Blackboard.  If you get six of them right, I'll add a point to your effort grade."  I always felt that if I had good materials and could get a decent effort, then we would be okay.

--This is not about adapting.  It is a different system of education.  Rethink everything. 

--Learn as much as you can about Blackboard or Canvas or whatever Learning Management System your school has.  No one uses all of those tools but you want to figure out what fits into your style.  Think about what you want to do and then see if someone can show you how to do that in the system.  Other professors are willing to provide help.

--Mix things up so the students are seeing different types of learning experiences.  For example, I used a lot of True or False questions for learning purposes.  They are quick and easy to write and they tend to focus on specific factors.  They are like a toggle switch.  One way is false.  The other way is true.  You are focusing the student's entire attention on that one factor and which way the switch is set.  I thought that worked well in distance learning when it would never work in my live class. 

--Set up a series of PowerPoint slides and use them to make a video.  I try to keep them under 8-10 minutes.  Keep the words on each slide down to under about 25.  I always address a problem and give it to the students in advance and ask them to solve it.  Again, you want them to do something.  You want there to be a back and forth between the material and the student.  You don't have to be Steven Spielberg but a video does give you a way to talk directly to the students.

--Whenever you give them an assignment, tell them how long the assignment should take.  They never seem to know whether something is a 5-minute effort or a 60-minute effort.  They'll likely give you 70 percent of what you ask for in terms of time so keep that in mind.

--Don't get obsessed by whether they are cheating.  I know that is always a risk in distance learning.  Do what you can to prevent it but it is easy to spend too much of your time worrying about that.  

--Ask the students now and then, "What is working?  What is not working?"  They are actually getting a lot of experience in online education and can give you some interesting pointers.

--Whether it is Zoom office hours or just use of email, give them an easy way to contact you so they know they can get help when they need it.

Twelve Questions to Address About Distance Learning

One of my favorite comments to myself about education and working with students is from James Thurber (if you don’t know Thurber, you are likely under 70), “It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” 

In that regard, in this blog post, I am seeking to identify the questions I should ponder as I assess this past semester’s experience and look forward to other possible distance learning adventures in the future. 

I left home for Spring Break on March 6 as a face-to-face teacher.  I returned on March 10 as a distance learning teacher.  Like most teachers in this position, I had no time to plan or develop ideas.  I had two courses to prep and 64 students to manage.  For the following weeks, all I could do was react, encourage, and experiment.  My normal motto of, “Do no harm,” was even more in my mind.  Some things worked better than I expected.  Other things flopped or just were not effective or efficient.  My students, though, seemed to work hard and had a great deal of patience for what I was trying to accomplish. 

Now, though, the semester is winding down.  I want to learn.  I want to do better.  I want to consider how I should adapt.  I want to open my eyes to new possibilities. 

So, I made up of a list of questions that I wanted to address with myself and with other folks that I know, especially those people who know more about distance learning than I do.  My list of questions is evolving but here is what I have so far. 

1 - How would you describe your classes (a) historically and (b) going forward – totally live, blended (a mix of online and live), all online/distance learning or something else?

2 - How many students do you normally have in a class?  Given your traditional style of teaching, what’s a maximum number that you could teach reasonably well?  How many could you teach well using distance learning?

3 - In a live class, teachers traditionally convey information through a textbook, other assignments, and classroom sessions.  What are the ways that you can convey information in a distance learning environment?

4 - In a live class, students are “encouraged” to actually prepare for class through graded assignments, pop tests, calling on people in class, participation grades, etc.  How do you get students in a distance learning class to do the assigned work and do it at the appropriate time?

5 - In a live class, scheduled class sessions form a structure.  If you plan to talk about Chapter 16 at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, then all of the students need to be ready for Chapter 16 by 9 a.m. on Wednesday.  In a distance learning class, how do you create a structure that keeps students reasonably well together?  Or, are you more inclined toward self-paced and don’t care whether students stay together or not?

6 - Colleges talk a lot about the development of critical thinking skills.  In a live class, that process is often initiated by using probing questions or assignments designed to help students begin to “connect the dots” for themselves.  In distance learning classes, how do you help students develop their critical thinking skills?

7 – In live classes, the assessment of critical thinking skills can be extremely difficult.  How can that be accomplished in distance learning?

8 - In a live class, if students start to get lost or confused, they can pose questions in class, they can come to office hours, or they can send emails.  Or, as the teacher, I can recognize that they are struggling through their answers or body language and ask them to come see me.  How do students pose questions to you in distance learning classes?  How can you encourage those questions?

9 - In a live class, the professor can give students tests 2 or 3 times per semester (or as needed) to assess grades but also to help students get feedback as to how they are doing.  In distance learning classes, how do you assist students in determining how they are doing and how often do you do this?

10 - In a live class, the teacher can watch the students and have a reasonable feeling that they are not cheating on tests.  In distance learning, how do you prevent students from cheating? 

11 - In a live class, grades are normally determined using some combination of papers, tests, and other factors.  How do you assess grades in a distance learning class? 

12 - Do you know anyone who teaches blended or online classes (anywhere) who really seems to have the knack for creating great courses?  I am sure there are people out there who really do a great job.  I’d like to talk with them but first I have to find them.  How do I find those people and how can I best learn from them? 

There are probably a gazillion other questions that I should be asking but this dozen provides a foundation for my exploration.  Wish me luck!