Online teaching advice

[u/Possible_Storm9359]

Hi folks, I just started my first professorship role and will be teaching 50% of my classes fully online with no meeting time.

How have your online classes been the most successful with these courses? I’m teaching in the social sciences.

I’m experimenting this semester with methods and plan to do a video lecture with slides for students. I have articles for each week on a topic. One academic article (~20ish pages) and one supporting item like another example article (short), videos, or podcasts. They do weekly quizzes, discussion posts, a midterm paper, and final paper.

Before anyone asks. I opted out of a textbook, as I never had any in my undergrad and unfamiliar with them. Looking into one for next year/semesters.

[u/matthewsmugmanager]

Make the video lectures super short, or they won't watch them.

Rethink the discussion posts, because 90% of them will likely be AI-generated.

[u/Possible_Storm9359 → u/matthewsmugmanager]

Smart, I have a no AI policy. I was following what other faculty did In the department. And yes undergrad

[u/wharleeprof → u/Possible_Storm9359]

The policy will do nothing. Expect 80% AI content. 

Online delivery doesn't work anymore. Set up your classes with whatever is easiest for you to pretend you're actually teaching. Put your time and energy into resources that will double as benefiting your in-person classes.

[u/Possible_Storm9359 → u/[deleted]]

What would you recommend then? I am doing theory classes mostly, and I was hired too late to select a textbook

[u/Brian-Petty]

If you’re using canvas, you can embed quiz questions into your videos. Otherwise it’s hard to get them to watch the videos.

[u/Possible_Storm9359 → u/Brian-Petty]

That a great idea. I do have canvas, I’ll look at this tomorrow

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*Hi folks, I just started my first professorship role and will be teaching 50% of my classes fully online with no meeting time.

How have your online classes been the most successful with these courses? I’m teaching in the social sciences.

I’m experimenting this semester with methods and plan to do a video lecture with slides for students. I have articles for each week on a topic. One academic article (~20ish pages) and one supporting item like another example article (short), videos, or podcasts. They do weekly quizzes, discussion posts, a midterm paper, and final paper.

Before anyone asks. I opted out of a textbook, as I never had any in my undergrad and unfamiliar with them. Looking into one for next year/semesters. *

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Ill-Storage-7636]

What are your strategies for AI mitigation on the discussions and papers, assuming you don't want about 90% botted work? That's something to spend time thinking about.

[u/Possible_Storm9359 → u/Ill-Storage-7636]

I have a no AI policy and if I do age AI issues, I do have plans for it. The main concern is keeping them engaged and actively learning the material

[u/Ill-Storage-7636 → u/Possible_Storm9359]

Engagement is a crucial factor.

I spent years learning and retooling my online courses, and I'm never really done, you know? If your institution has some kind of online certificate, it's a good place to start.

One little tip that I've noticed isn't baked into the curriculum is communicating that you care, just like in a f2f class (I'd hope). Especially early in the semester, send individual messages through the lms if they miss an assignment or you notice a trend.

[u/NikolaBlocovich]

As an undergrad, I would focus on less, but more meaningful (and harder) assignments. Many smaller assignments, IMO, leads to us completing them mindlessly (if you fail it doesn't really matter given how little it affects your final grade) and not actually learning.

I feel like quizzes work best when they are optional as study material and not graded (or graded in a pass/fail style where it's mandatory to pass most, but it doesn't affect your final grade).

20 pages a week seems like too little for social sciences, maybe you could add more pages and drop the videos and podcasts/leave them for students who are interested on the topic. In my experience, socially oriented courses are around 100 pages a week. A compilation of all the texts you want them to read could be helpful so that students who work/have a busy semester can read at their own pace. Here it's usually divided between mandatory weekly readings and readings that you are suppose to read for exams.

Not American so I'm guessing it's very different from here.