If you’re anything like me, you probably already have dropped a course, failing two, somehow still may have more final assessments in the upcoming weeks than you enrolled yourself in but you can’t give them because you killed yourself last week. While the last part may be an exaggeration but the teachers really have been hard this fall semester. I’ve compiled a list what an instructor should or shouldn’t do to have an online semester that doesn’t generally stink.
Online Semester Assignments
Assignments are nice. They are good. I will even go far enough to say that you might learn something from them. But when instructors assign more tasks which take at least 4-6 hours each week to complete, that’s not a home-assignment but a part-time job. An unpaid part-time job. Considering you generally take 5 courses a semester, that makes 5 unpaid part-time jobs. It only encourages intellectual dishonesty and doesn’t achieve any academic goals aside from task completion.
Quizzes & Exams
When you think about it, in a virtual setting it’s difficult to distinguish between quizzes and assignments. The only notable difference is quizzes might have a quicker submission time. Otherwise, any online assessment also only achieves completion. Again, taking more doesn’t help. If you’re a teacher and you’re worried about cheating, there are things you can do to test students the right way.
If you teach a course that allows you to test through subjectivity with critical analysis, get students to respond on those questions in healthy chunks through the semester. Not only will this help detect plagiarism but the change in pace might boost class interest.
But if you teach a course like math or programming, hope isn’t lost. In a limited time-frame, simply quiz all students on subject matter. But that doesn’t mean you willy-nilly throw surprises at their faces on a regular basis. What’s ideal is that you discuss everything beforehand, decide the rules, set the time and then do it.
Class Participation & Attendance
You see when mandatory attendance was abolished , it was done because some students simply couldn’t attend classes. They could have infrastructural issues, sick relatives, they could be sick themselves, etc. Teachers found loopholes for mandatory attendance.
If you think you’re smart when you raised CP marks to 25%, 30%, 100%, 500%, no you’re not. In fact, I have many colorful words to describe that behavior in all 3 languages I can speak. This system is simply unfair. You don’t need to show strictness to force students to come to class. Those who want to come will attend classes and when you think about it, wouldn’t you want people who actually are trying to listen to you instead of those just logging in and not being there mentally?
Conclusion
It really should be more about how much the students actually learned something. How you were able to impart knowledge in the best consumable way. It’s not about task completion. Completing a certain amount of the syllabus under a certain amount of sessions with a certain number of quizzes and assignments doesn’t achieve anything.
One thought on “Dear Teachers – How to Teach in an Online Semester”
Amazingly put!