In Winter 2020, my large introductory undergrad course went online abruptly for the last three weeks. Luckily as a core course there was already online course material available, and we were able to pivot fairly painlessly. In Spring 2020 I taught two small grad courses, and we did them completely synchronously so not much needed to change. But for the Fall 2020 term, when I was scheduled to teach a mid-size upper-year undergrad course, I needed to think very intentionally about how I was going to design it.
The Math faculty expressed a strong preference for asynchronous course delivery, so I decided to create videos to replace lectures. But I wanted to preserve some of the things I had always done in the course: interactive tutorials, a case study project, reflective writing, and oral exams. I just had to find a way to adapt them to an online environment.
The first thing I did was attend a lot of seminars! They were popping up like mushrooms, and I learned a great deal and got a lot of fabulous ideas from the Centre for Teaching Excellence’s ReCoDe workshop, informal discussions at the Math Faculty Teaching Group, the First Year Math & Stats in Canada group (run by U of T), the UW Collaborates Community, James Skidmore’s talks, and more. I settled on having the tutorials be synchronous, but allow students who couldn’t make the time to submit the activity within 24 hours. The oral exams could stay basically the same as always, and the case study project would be a video assignment. The Engineering faculty had already developed some guidance on effective teamwork, so I planned to make that available as a resource.
The second thing was to reach out to the students to find out their preferences. About a month before the term began, I created a Pre-Course Survey using a Google Form designed by Katie Plaisance and adapted for my own specific course needs. I asked students practical things like their pronouns, time zone, internet connectivity, preferred platforms for video/discussion/collaboration, what other courses they were taking (so I could avoid conflicting schedules of large assignments) and preferred day for the synchronous meetings. This was essential in determining the structure and schedule of the course – Wednesday for the synchronous meetings was the far and away winner, so I put them then!
I also asked some more qualitative questions about what had worked well/poorly in previous online courses, which was a huge source of helpful suggestions. Ideas that came out of these responses included the importance of having subtitles on the videos and providing notes, a regular schedule of releasing course material, and giving students opportunities to interact. The responses from students had an immense impact on my course design, and I think they appreciated being consulted. One student even put a note that they “really appreciate you sending a survey to find out what works best for your students so you can cater to their needs. It makes me enthusiastic and ready to learn.”
If you would like to try this idea for your Winter 2021 courses, you can create a copy of this form here and adapt it as needed. (I also later replicated in Microsoft Forms, since Google Forms don’t work reliably in China.) I'll probably do this for all my courses in the future, whether they are online or in person - it's fabulous to have their input and gives them some agency in their own learning!
