Teaching and Learning disruptions and opportunities

Me, sitting at my computer in the basement. This is where I'll be to teach for the rest of the semester.

Coe made the decision to go to online teaching for the rest of the semester rather late in the game.

It was after 5pm on March 18 that we were informed via email that students would not come back to campus, and that we needed to prepare for online teaching.

It seemed to me that the administration (at least the senior staff, who made the decision) really did not want this to happen. In his email to the campus when we were first told we'd just have a "extended Spring Break," and then come back to classes on March 30, our president said

"Coe will do everything possible to preserve our educational program—as well as the many activities scheduled for the remainder of the term—as long as the situation enables us to do so safely according to health officials."

By March 18, it was clear that it would not be safe to bring together 1300 students, most of whom traveled somewhere during break. So Coe shifted to online instruction for the rest of the term. You can find out more about the timeline of that move on my colleague Lisa's blog here , here, and here.

Luckily, we had an extra week of "extended spring break" to prepare. That's been this week for me, and I'm needing every second of the time!

Today, I worked on my 100-level writing class, trying to figure out what they'd be doing for the next 4 1/2 weeks.

Before the pandemic, we had a big service-learning project scheduled in the community for the last 5 weeks. We were going to spend time with some African immigrants who are learning ESL in a church a block from Coe, and write profiles of them. The plan was to create a book with profile essays and photographs, kind of like this one!

However, that's obviously not possible anymore. The ESL classes have been suspended.

So instead, I have decided that the students are going to write about life during a national crisis!

In fact, the project is called "Journal of a Plague Year." Yes, kind of like this blog.

We'll prepare by reading other narrative nonfiction pieces about life during crises: one about the 1918 Influenza pandemic, a few pieces about the Dust Bowl (including a chapter or two from The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan), and a memoir essay about the Tulsa Race Riots.

We'll discuss what makes these pieces different than straight history (strong sense of "story," focus on ordinary people's experiences, dramatization of events, etc.), and all the while, I'll be having the students write journal entries about their experiences during this pandemic.

At the end, each student will create 2 "blog posts" --with photos, links, etc. based on 2 or more of their journal entries.

But how will we be able to maintain that personal educational touch, that active learning experience--so valued at a small liberal arts college--while teaching online?

Once we get started (that class meets Tuesday, March 31), I'll let you know how I interact with the students (via email, discussion board, and Zoom) and whether I'm able to create a satisfying and inspiring learning environment in an online class.