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As tens of millions of students at every level of learning - from kindergarten through graduate and professional education - are getting their education exclusively online nowadays, an obvious question is: "how do we maximize learning (and teaching) without in-person learning in the age of Coronavirus?"
As a teacher who's taught dozens of online classes at undergraduate and graduate levels, and as someone who essentially earned a doctoral degree online, I have some unique perspective on this question. Tens of thousands of teachers are now learning - many on the job - how to rework and deliver their teaching materials online. It's not easy, for the teacher or the student.
As this (https://www.npr.org/2020/03/19/817885991/panic-gogy-teaching-online-classes-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic) and other posts suggest, simplifying things for students during this "panicgogy" is a highly useful guide, if only because we're all worried about bigger things surrounding COVID-19, like staying safe and keeping others safe.
But work still needs to get done. Research papers, theses, dissertations, application essays, test preparation, and everyday assignments still have due dates, are graded, and mean something. And while it's hard enough for many to focus on anything other than the virus and the 24/7 news about it, we still need to get the work done.
To the teacher, the essence of online or any virtual learning is creating as much of a real-time experience for the student, one that creates the in-person class dynamic as much as possible. To help my academic coaching and tutoring students through our transition from live to virtual learning, I'm combining two pieces of technology for our all-virtual sessions: Google Docs (https://www.google.com/docs/about/) and Zoom (https://zoom.us/).
A lot of people have long used the former, and millions have recently discovered the latter for instant, generally reliable videoconferencing for business and personal use. Zoom (among other platforms) allows for screen-sharing, a perfect tool for bringing any document - including a Google Doc already being shared by student and teacher - onto the screen. We have face-to-face contact, as in a regular live session, we can discuss the work on the document (and exchange comments and edits) in real time, and can simulate as much as possible the circumstances and output we have in our pre-COVID-19 sessions. And it allows for more of the interpersonal connection that enhances the teaching-learning relationship. One of my students uses free online tools (https://www.zoomvirtualbackgrounds.com/) to change the background on his Zoom feed, often several times during a typical session - from outer space to the Chicago skyline, etc. - leading to some interesting discussions about "I wish I were in..." and adding fun to our sessions.
It's not exactly high-technology or rocket science; but good teaching - and real learning - shouldn't be complicated. Creating a dynamic environment for student and teacher is important, and worth it
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