[The final
papers are coming in and the blue books have entered the building, so it must be
the end of another semester. This week I’ll recap some inspiring moments from my
Fall 2018 semester, and I’d love to hear some of yours in comments!]
On the
pedagogical challenges and inspirations of teaching online.
Having completed
my third all-online
course, and my second online
section of the American Literature II survey class, I can’t say that my
overall perspective
on online teaching has changed significantly. I still think there are
fundamental elements of teaching, of classroom community and conversation, of
the way our ideas and readings and voices can evolve in relationship to each
other’s, that are quite simply absent from online teaching, and I’m not sure
that there’s anything we can do to bring those elements into an online class.
I’ve said for a long time that if the majority of my classes or my job overall
were to move into an online setting, I would likely leave the profession for a
different one, as a great deal of what I most enjoy and find most meaningful
about the job would be eliminated in that case. That doesn’t seem to be an
imminent possibility, but it’s certainly part of the long-term conversation,
and one I think about every time I teach online.
On the other
hand, I should and do think also and more fully about short-term questions of
how to make these particular classes more successful, and for this third one I
think I did do a somewhat better job sharing my frames and contexts with the
students in ways parallel to how I would do so for an in-person class. I’ve
written elsewhere about treating literature survey classes as an “informed
democracy,” one where I seek through various means to provide the information
and contexts that can help frame conversations that will still be driven as
fully as possible by student voices and perspectives. The negotiation of those
different layers is distinct in an online class from an in-person one to be
sure, but the fundamental questions remain the same, and as I move into my next
online class (a second section of The
Short Story in the Spring) I will continue to think about how to present
such contexts and frames clearly and helpfully (and concisely!) and then
encourage student voices and perspectives as the course’s center.
Not
surprisingly, the most inspiring part of this online course came directly from
such student voices and perspectives. Due to both the nature of online classes
overall and the location of this class within FSU’s
Continuing Education (evening) program, many of the students in the class
were non-traditional: older returning students, folks working full-time jobs,
parents, and so on. These students brought their experiences and identities to
every aspect of the class, from the weekly Discussion Board responses to the
papers and more formal work. One paper particularly exemplifies both the
personal and the analytical power of those student perspectives: a student
wrote about the protagonist of Sui
Sin Far’s story “In the Land of the Free” (1909) through her lens as a
mother, and in so doing helped me see different sides to a text that I have
taught and written about many, many times (as illustrated by that hyperlinked
piece). To be honest, I’m not sure if I would have gotten this paper in an
in-person class, and I know for a fact that this student would not have been
able to take such a class with me. Which is a pretty inspiring reason to keep
teaching online courses, I’d say!
Next recap
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Semester reflections you’d share?
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