[A new semester
is upon us, and with it comes a new Spring Preview series. Leading up to a
special weekend post on book updates, plans, and hopes!]
On the newest
twist in my evolving work teaching online.
I’ve written a
lot over the last couple years about the unique challenges
and possibilities of teaching all-online classes, and they all remain true
and central to that inescapable but fraught part of 21st century
education. In previewing my next (fourth) online class, a second section
of The Short Story, I won’t repeat those thoughts here, and will just say
that I continue to think about them and as ever will keep you all posted as I
do!
However, this
fourth online class is different from my prior three in a key way: it will be
part of our new Online Accelerated Program, and so will run for only seven
weeks between March and May (about half of the overall spring semester). That
shift will certainly be easier with the Short Story class than it would be for example
with the other course I’ve taught online so far, American Literature II: a
survey class like that latter one depends on units and time periods and a
chronological structure, whereas the Short Story class (as I teach it at least)
is a collection of paired readings that introduce different literary elements,
and so it’s been relatively easy to shorten that syllabus and still keep the
core structure and goals in place. But nonetheless, cutting a class from 14-15
weeks to 7 is a significant change, and has affected not only the readings, but
also the papers and other individual work like weekly Blackboard posts and
honestly how I approach every aspect of the course.
Online teaching
is a matter of constant adjustments from in-person teaching, both big and
small, and that’s what we sign up for when we do it and I’m not complaining. I
also understand the appeal of and demand for accelerated online programs, since
the whole goal of online education is to facilitate student completion of
degrees in ways that work best for their schedules, situations, and lives. But
at the same time, I would also argue that online teaching is already a set of
compromises, shifts away from what we all recognize as the best practices in
teaching (at least in a discipline like English) to accommodate those realities
and demands. I’m willing to consider each such compromise on its own terms, and
to see what I can do to respond to them in these particular classes (if I were
ever asked to teach only online, I would leave the profession); I’ll do the
same with this accelerated course and semester. But I wonder if it will be a
bridge too far, and promise to report back on how the shortened class goes in
my semester reflection series in May (!).
Last preview
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Spring
previews of your own to share? I’d love to hear them!
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