Thread by @Katja_Thieme

When this podcast was recorded, earlier this year, I didn't have much online teaching experience. I speculated that I would miss being able to scan the room to assess where students were at with a particular task. 1/

#publicpedagogy #OnlineClasses #cdnwrds #AcademicTwitter

And I do miss that. I miss seeing whether they're with me, or preoccupied with something else (e.g., a big assignment in another course, their snack time, or that time of the year when a class coincides with the opening of their registration window for summer courses), . . . 2/

. . . or overwhelmed by the complexity of what I'm asking them to do, or in need of a nudge to actually dig in their bag to find a pen or open the right window to work in the app we're using or move seats so they can in fact see or hear what their teammates are doing. 3/

I miss those face-to-face clues. In my synchronous sessions, I've learned to look for the slimmer clues that are there. I love using shared editing apps so I can see what text they're producing together--if any ;)--when I'm not in the breakout group with them. 4/

I can leave comments. Like, "this is good, keep going," or "remember, I asked X, so maybe...," or "I really want you to write something down here, you have 2 more minutes!" 5/

Last session, I could see from the mic icon in the breakout room display that all the groups were talking. I could see from the questions they posted to me in the chat window that they were thinking about the task. But there was no writing in the shared document. None. 6/

Since it was a synchronous session, I had the power to stop what looked like slight agony. I gave them a countdown, I closed the groups, I told the class that I noticed that none of the groups got to the writing part, told them not to worry, and sent them off for the day. 7/

In the next session, I linked back to that experience, and showed them what I had in mind by doing the task myself in front of them. I modeled it for them. Something I should have done beforehand, it turns out, but I didn't know they needed it for that particular task. 8/

A power that we as instructors have in synchronous sessions, whether face-to-face or online, is to control time and task complexity in a live way. "OK, scrap it, I can see that's too much, let's do just step 1." Or, "I notice you didn't get to X, it's not important for now." 9/

In the coming weeks, I will likely make my course even less synchronous than it is now because of the students' time zones. I wonder, though. I think it will increase the times that a task overwhelms them and I'm not there to notice that, reassure them, & do live adjustments. 10/