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!!!

 

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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.

 

WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT TO HAPPEN? MY DESIRED REALITY.

During a semester, teachers do not always have enough free time available to make radical class improvements.  Consequently, as I have said often in these blog postings over the years, the summer is a fabulous time to work on the upcoming learning process.  Frequently, this advice has focused on the students.  How can you get them especially well motivated for an outstanding class in the fall?  Today, however, I want to address you as the teacher.   I want to make a suggestion for a simple experiment that I hope you will try between now and the first week of class.

Creating a great educational experience is impossible unless you have a clear idea as to what success should look like.  What do you really want to happen?   “By the last day of the fall semester, I want to have a great class but I really do not know what that will look like,” is a ludicrous statement.  However, many teachers really do not know what that great class would look like.  They have just never considered it.  

I believe college teachers should merge their class goals and their basic teaching philosophy to form a mental model of the type of learning environment they hope to create over the course of a semester.  I refer to this as “my desired reality,” what I want to see happen on the final day of class next fall.  In sports, athletes often talk about the importance of mentally visualizing an upcoming competition.  Prior to a tennis match or football game, the athlete will sit quietly and envision exactly what he or she hopes to have occur.  The athlete makes this mental picture as vivid as possible by “walking” sequentially through each desired step of the coming contest.  The athlete wants to have a sense of how the actions will feel when everything goes just perfectly as planned.  In your class, what does designed perfection look like?  Decades ago, a popular book titled Psycho-Cybernetics (by Maxwell Maltz) described the potential benefits of this type of visualization. 

For me, creating an organized structure for my class is difficult without a clear picture of my desired reality.   How do I envision that last day of class each semester?  Everyone has their own dream ending but here is mine.

I see myself walking into the classroom on the last day of the semester.  The students are in their seats, attentive and ready to go to work.   I select a student at random and ask that person to address a particular question about the topic assigned for that day.  There is no hesitation.  The student gives a reasonable, thought-out response to my query.   The student has obviously read the assignment and, moreover, has given the issues being raised serious consideration.  The answer is not superficial.   The student has thought about the topic.  The student is not afraid to be incorrect.  The student is not worried about being the subject of laughter or ridicule.  In that room, a feeling of mutual respect exists between the teacher and the students as a group as well as among the individual students.  This is a team effort.  I ask a second student to comment on the answer presented by the first student.  The second student has listened carefully to the previous response and begins to discuss, question, and elaborate on specific points that were covered.  The student compliments the first student for answers that were well conceived but is also willing to criticize the validity of specific points as long as the first student is not personally degraded.  A third student raises a hand to defend an assertion made by the first student.  A fourth student raises a hand to pose a question in hopes of clarifying an answer that was offered.  A fifth student raises a hand to compare the current issue to ones we have discussed earlier in the semester.  And, so it goes.  Every student in the room is engaged in the conversation and the exploration of the topic.  No one asks "will this be on the test?"   Understanding is the goal and not memorization.

In my desired reality, the classroom experience is a guided conversation in which we, as a group, explore a particular topic.  The students are asked to prepare in advance and they do so.  They are asked to think and they do so.   They are asked to listen and they do so.   They are asked to respond and question and they do so.  They are asked to get involved and they do so. 

The teacher is asked to guide, prod, and encourage and does so.   Both groups are expected to enjoy the give and take process that leads to thinking and learning.  The daily class experience is an intriguing exploration and not dreary torture.  Speaking strictly for me, this is an educational experience worth having (if it can be created).

Of course, this is just what I want.   What you want for your classes can be entirely different and even more valid.  The decision is up to you.  However, no one reaches the goal if it has not been envisioned in advance.

Can any desired reality come true?   Two things are absolutely necessary.   First, I have to know what I want to accomplish.  Any teacher who does not have a firm grip on what that last class session is supposed to look like will never get there.  Second, from the time I start communicating with my students, everything I do has to help achieve this reality.   Students will never conform to the reality you seek without clear guidance.   This vision is just a daydream if you are not willing to “guide, prod, and encourage” your students in that direction.

It all starts with a clear understanding of your desired reality.

So, here is your (obvious) assignment.   Take some time and think deeply about the last day of your fall classes.   What reality would you like to see on that day?   When you walk into the last class in November or December, what would be the best outcome that you could possibly want?  Take some time and write it down.   That helps to make the goals more concrete.   

If you can dream it, you can create it.

Once you know the reality you seek, start asking yourself how can you start moving your students to that point by the end of the fall.   Make good use of your summer.