Arlene Rios (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
arlenerios) wrote2020-03-22 02:02 pm
arlenerios) wrote2020-03-22 02:02 pm
Random thoughts of an adjunct professor
Since I participated in that Zoom Boot Camp Session, I was also added as a student to the Remote Ready Boot Camp for Instructors in Canvas. It has been, err, interesting... because I realized that even though you may be a F2F professor, and you get your course online for backup, that doesn't mean that other professors will do the same things you have been doing for the last 8 years.
When I was teaching F2F, I also used my online platform to have it as a backup for extra exercises and quizzes (And I was secretly starting to think how I could do testing online without the department being the wisest, LOL). In UIW they wanted us to use Blackboard to keep the syllabus there and use it for any reference material, and when I mention using it for quizzes, my dept chair kind of frown at me at the possibility (I still did it though); in SAC, basically you could do whatever you wanted with your online course, but at that time I was busy getting certified to teach online to really use Canvas for anything. Once I started to teach online, from the get-go, I put my exams on Canvas, even with the mandate that I had to see my students F2F for testing, and then it was only for the final exam that I needed to see them (and all this time I had students complaining about why they needed to come to SAC for tests or the final, but that was the mandate). And 8 years later, I FINALLY don't have to ever see my students F2F. EVERYTHING is 100% online. It took 8 years but yay!
So back to the Remote Ready Boot Camp for Instructors. OMG. When you see an announcement saying: "you MUST publish your Canvas course for your students to have access to it," that's when you realize that 1) most F2F teachers couldn't, wouldn't, bother to learn Canvas, and 2) is the college, any college really, ready to go 100% online with so little time to prepare???
I have the advantage of having taught online for 8 years, but I cannot imagine being thrown into this environment when you don't even know you have to publish your course so students can see it.
Good thing I am finishing this week (one week later than originally intended).
When I was teaching F2F, I also used my online platform to have it as a backup for extra exercises and quizzes (And I was secretly starting to think how I could do testing online without the department being the wisest, LOL). In UIW they wanted us to use Blackboard to keep the syllabus there and use it for any reference material, and when I mention using it for quizzes, my dept chair kind of frown at me at the possibility (I still did it though); in SAC, basically you could do whatever you wanted with your online course, but at that time I was busy getting certified to teach online to really use Canvas for anything. Once I started to teach online, from the get-go, I put my exams on Canvas, even with the mandate that I had to see my students F2F for testing, and then it was only for the final exam that I needed to see them (and all this time I had students complaining about why they needed to come to SAC for tests or the final, but that was the mandate). And 8 years later, I FINALLY don't have to ever see my students F2F. EVERYTHING is 100% online. It took 8 years but yay!
So back to the Remote Ready Boot Camp for Instructors. OMG. When you see an announcement saying: "you MUST publish your Canvas course for your students to have access to it," that's when you realize that 1) most F2F teachers couldn't, wouldn't, bother to learn Canvas, and 2) is the college, any college really, ready to go 100% online with so little time to prepare???
I have the advantage of having taught online for 8 years, but I cannot imagine being thrown into this environment when you don't even know you have to publish your course so students can see it.
Good thing I am finishing this week (one week later than originally intended).
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They say there is an increase of pet adoptions since so many people are home and they now have time for a pet. I guess that is a silver lining. So I'll bet your kittens will find a home easily.
Stay safe and healthy! This virus is nasty stuff.
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No. No, they're not, at least not the ones that have a huge majority of classes that are face-to-face. My boss' wife has been trying to figure out her class and all of the tech needed all last week, and she's scary-smart and super tech-savvy. I don't even know what this is going to be like for the professors who aren't as tech-smart as she is.
A&M is giving the students the option to change all of their grades from letter grades to the S/U system for this semester if they want, since they know 99.999% of those kids aren't prepared for online classes. Luke is actively dreading it, although he says he's glad that all of his professors are going asynchronous so he doesn't actually have to be up and ready to function at 8:00am for his 8:00am class anymore--he can get the lecture whenever he wants it. But then he misses out on any interaction with the prof and the chance to ask questions, so he's not happy about that, either. I think it's going to be a huge mess, at least at first.