Are you wondering what your colleagues have learned about remote instruction over the past few months? At the recent joint FYE and Remote Teaching Faculty Learning Community, participants were invited to respond on a Google Jamboard to answer and share what they’d learned about online teaching this semester. 

Some highlights of lessons learned that I hope to keep in mind next semester are these pointers.

• It really forces you to focus on what you want to cover and how.
• The more material you have generated before the term, the better.
• I made a sign by which to inform newcomers to check the chat box.
• Be painfully precise whenever possible about things like the instructions for the activity and how long it will take. It helps to have it typed out and ready to copy and paste into the chat.
• Zoom reactions [once I found them].
• Welcome them to class and see how they are.
• You can still create a sense of community remotely.
• Practice makes perfect.
• Google Slides work great for group work because you can see what they are doing.
• Learn to be more relaxed in class. Have fun with the students.
• It is possible to find connection with students – it just takes some creativity!
• Look for feedback often.
• You need two screens!
• Students in an asynchronous discussion board share much more fully than in “homework” or class discussions.
• Your instructions need to be very detailed.

Some cautions:

• It’s harder to stay up to date with discussion boards than I thought.
• Be flexible! You’ll need a couple of backup plans for nearly every activity.
• I have to wait way longer than I think [I need to] when I ask if they have any questions.
• We are Zoomed out.
• Zoom time can run away on you!
• How confusing audio inputs can be.
• It takes longer to cover the same amount of content.

And we’ve all heard,

• You’re muted!

Finally, one participant said, it’s “always a work in progress.” Agreed.

For more on using Google Jamboards in your classes (and maybe even meetings), see this blog post. And if you want to share some of what you’ve learned either teaching or learning online, please post a comment!