by phanstedt | Mar 26, 2020 | newsletter
Hello, all:
I hope this finds you well, and that you’re somehow finding the balance between being safe, and being able to eat well. I’m already at the point where I’m worried that, after this all ends, my family and I will never have pasta ever again, because it’ll always remind us of quarantine. (That said, if you have some easy pasta recipes–the kind you can make with the standard ingredients we all have at home–please do share!)
Today I’d like to feature some of the work of your colleagues, particularly examples of early e-mails or films that faculty have sent or posted to re-establish contact with students. Everyone included here has given me permission to share; feel free to contact them individually if you have questions.
I want to thank these faculty for their willingness to share their work. We’re all in first-draft mode right now. This can feel particularly risky for those of us in the academic tribe, where we pride ourselves on knowing our stuff and where there’s often a tendency to keep our work in the classroom private. But the conversation has to start somewhere. Sharing our work with each other at this time by opening our “classrooms” up to each other is essential for the good of our students. So thank you, all of you.
The first video comes from Erica Swindle, in Mathematics. I include it here because one of the things Dr. Swindle is doing is having a pre-semester check-in with students. This method has also been recommended to me by Chris Lee, my colleague at Roanoke College whom many of you met in December when he was here to discuss a mastery-based approached to testing.
A bonus of Erica’s video is that she explains to students how to use Canvas to sign-in for appointments, a technique that, of course, might be useful for all of us to learn!
Next is a video by Jim Casey in Economics, for both his intro and advanced classes. Dr. Casey’s video is an excellent example of how you don’t have to go high-tech to have a real impact–and to show real connection to the students:
The next video is from Michael Anderson, also an economist. Dr. Anderson’s video uses Yuja, and is set in a classroom filled, he notes, with desks that he wishes were full. Among other things, Michael does a nice job of conveying both the structure of the course and flexible options. As with almost all of the videos I’ve seen, it also conveys to students that the most important thing is that they stay healthy:
Next, I’m including a powerpoint put together by Christopher Jenney, in CBSC. Dr. Jenney’s plan is to use this powerpoint during an initial synchronous meeting, using Zoom, to lay out initial course structures for the rest of the term. Among other things, this powerpoint (attached above, with the title “C Jenney Welcome Back”), this powerpoint incorporates some of the ideas from Jeanine Stewart’s talks about Zoom etiquette and creating effective synchronous communication channels.
Finally, I’ve included several e-mail versions of student reach-outs, under the title “First-Contact, E-mail Versions.” I’ve presented three different versions, from Dr. Cristina Pinto-Bailey, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Dr. Neil Cunningham, Director of PE, and Professor Dave Eggert of the Law School. Each takes a slightly different approach, but all strike that nice balance between getting business done and conveying an awareness of the difficulty of our current circumstances.
Again, thanks to all the folks who were willing to share their work! Please, as the rest of you develop videos and explore technologies, continue to share ideas and examples that you think might be helpful for the rest of us.
Finally, a little levity: I never cease to be amazed by the speed with which the internet adapts to our changing circumstance. So, closing this e-mail–you guessed it–Zoom Meeting Bingo.
Thanks, all. Please take care.
Paul
by phanstedt | Mar 24, 2020 | newsletter
Hello, all:
I hope this finds you well, and that: a) you feel like you’re making progress on getting your courses up to speed, and b) you’ve found some time to exercise, bake, tinker around on the piano, practice a little yoga–in short, take care of yourself, take a deep breath, and get some time to clear your head.
First, a request:
As you get things up and running, creating (re)introductory outreach videos or e-mails to students, can you please share them with me so that I can share them with others? As a colleague pointed out to me earlier today, often in situations like this where we have to experiment in new ways, seeing examples of what others have done provides us with a sense of permission to move forward in ways that match our sense of who we are and want to be in the virtual classroom.
Second, a link, and a few thoughts on that link:
Last week, I came across a posting on academic social media called “Nobody Signed Up for This.” In it, Brandon Bayne, an instructor at UNC-Chapel Hill, basically reset his entire syllabus with an upfront list of five points about how he and his students would and wouldn’t approach the course for the rest of the semester. When I first saw it, I hesitated about sharing it with my W&L colleagues: I’m relatively new to the institution, after all, and I wasn’t sure how faculty might respond. Might you all feel Bayne wasn’t approaching his students seriously enough, intellectually enough? Might Bayne’s reset be perceived as “touchy-feely”? As someone who, as an instructor, was known for giving very few if any A’s, I was wary of being perceived as soft. As someone in the humanities who’s familiar with Plato’s decision to ban poets from his Republic, I was wary of revealing too much passion when it came to our intellectual work.
That said, I’ve chosen to share this with all of you now because:
- Several of you have already shared it with me, saying that it’s helped you consider how to rethink you courses;
- The Chronicle did a nice article on the piece, providing some useful context. Among other things, Bayne talks about how the current situation provides all of us the opportunity to step back and think about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it that way, and how we’re constructing ourselves in the context of our courses. This kind of reflection is crucial to our continued development as scholars and thinkers, and, yes, as instructors.
That in mind, here’s “Nobody Signed Up for This ,” by Brandon Bayne. Please let me know what you think.
Finally, an announcement:
In light of current circumstances, MLA, APA, and Chicago Manual of Style have all announced that, for the foreseeable future, sentences should now be separated after the period by at least two and as many as six spaces.*
My most sincere apologies. I will see myself out . . .
All the best,
Paul
*I really am sorry about this joke. I found it on Twitter, and couldn’t stop myself!
by phanstedt | Mar 23, 2020 | newsletter
Hello, all:
I hope this finds you well, and that you took some time this weekend to relax and watch an incredibly stupid but wonderfully escapist movie. If you need a list of these, please let me know, as my family and I are very adept at finding this sort of thing–it’s kind of our super power.
Today’s e-mail will be fairly short, relative to Friday’s Opus:
First, the library faculty and staff have developed a “libguide” that outlines library support for faculty, library support for students, how to find ebooks, and how to use free textbook resources: https://libguides.wlu.edu/virtualinstruction.
More particularly, if you’re still searching for ways to make resources available to your students, the library has temporary access to RedShelf & VitalSource (both are on the resource list created by Kaci Resau at https://libguides.wlu.edu/az.php?s=183117). These resources contain academic e-textbooks–Pearson and APA are routing their temporarily free ebooks through both providers, just to give a few examples.
Faculty can create free accounts by going through the library’s links and searching for desired titles. Or, they can contact Emily Cook or another librarian for help searching. Students can also go through the process of creating a free account via the provided links to “checkout” these e-textbooks.
Second, just a reminder that CARPE virtual office hours begin today, from 10-12 noon EST. You can find instructions for how to attend–along with links to all of the resources from the CARPE Daily mailings and links to Academic Technologies resources–on the CARPE website. Please stop in with a question, or just to say hi, or just to reassure me that I’m actually doing it right!
Finally, don’t forget about Dr. Jeanine Stewart’s VIA session, “Liberal Arts Values in the Virtual Classroom” this afternoon at 2:00. In many ways, this may be the session that pulls together all of our hard work over the last few weeks. A description of the session and instructions on how to join via zoom are below.
Thank you, all of you, for your hard hard work these last few days. Please continue to get some rest, to spend some time reading (or watching!) for pleasure, to keep contact (if only virtual) with family and friends. We’re dedicated to our students, yes, but we can only help them if we take care of ourselves as well!
All the best,
Paul
Dr. Jeanine Stewart, Liberal Arts Values in the Virtual Classroom
Monday, 23 March, 2-3:00 pm EST
In a campus-based, liberal arts setting faculty and students alike value community and small group interaction. As courses and interactions move online, we need to find new ways to represent core values of personal connection and inclusive engagement despite the challenges of inter-personal distance and mid-term disruptions. Guest presenter, Jeanine Stewart will share specific suggestions and open a discussion related to techniques professors can use to maintain a sense of community and foster robust engagement in the virtual classroom.
Join using https://wlu.zoom.us/j/324409270
Meeting ID: 324 409 270
by phanstedt | Mar 20, 2020 | newsletter
Hello, dear colleagues!
I hope this finds you staying afloat. Today’s e-mail will have a LOT of content–several folks have written to me asking to have information included, which I’m happy to do, so if you have something to share, please let me know.
That said, I thought a Table of Contents might be in order, just to help you find whatever you’re looking for without having to scroll all the way through. Section titles are in caps and bold. I’ve included two sections on wellness, because the news these days does not seem good, and we need to take care of ourselves in order to guide our students.
As with other sources and ideas, I encourage you to share this information with colleagues and friends.
As always, please take care.
Best,
Paul
Table of Contents
- CARPE Office Hours
- Upcoming VIA events with Dr. Jeanine Stewart
- Faculty Wellness
- Student Wellness
- Information about Library Resources
- Information about Spring Term textbooks
1. CARPE DIGITAL OFFICE HOURS
As I mentioned earlier in the week, we’ll be holding digital office hours next week for any faculty still working on the transition to virtual instruction. Please know that there is no issue too small to bring to the table. Over the past week I’ve continuously found that every time faculty come to me with a question, we both end up learning something. So come and use me–and other colleagues–as a sounding board! (I’m also, by the way, available for virtual one-on-one conversations, if you’d prefer).
Office hours (for next week at least), are Monday through Friday from 10 am to 12 noo at https://wlu.zoom.us/j/451041071.
2. UPCOMING VIA EVENTS WITH DR. JEANINE STEWART
Those of you who have been at W&L for a while will remember Jeanine Stewart as a positive force in the then-psychology department and as a successful Dean of the College. She’s since taken her background in psychology and neuroscience and branched out, helping multiple organizations (including Fortune 500 companies) to develop effective and productive organizational cultures even when online. Because so much of her work is on relationships and because she’s stayed true to her roots in the liberal arts, she’s offered to give a pair of talk as part of our Virtual Instruction Academy. As we all gear up to take our classes into the virtual realm, these talks may be crucial in helping us sustain product relationships with our students. Descriptions and times are below, and you can sign up here.
Monday, 23 March, 2-3:00, Elrod Commons 024: Liberal Arts Values in the Virtual Classroom
In a campus-based, liberal arts setting faculty and students alike value community and small group interaction. As courses and interactions move online, we need to find new ways to represent core values of personal connection and inclusive engagement despite the challenges of inter-personal distance and mid-term disruptions. Guest presenter, Jeanine Stewart will share specific suggestions and open a discussion related to techniques professors can use to maintain a sense of community and foster robust engagement in the virtual classroom.
https://wlu.zoom.us/j/324409270
Tuesday, 24 March, 1-2:30, Elrod Commons 024: Putting the Personal in the Virtual
Workplaces are communities that play a larger role in our lives than filling the time from 9-5 and offering a paycheck. This session will focus on providing a common language and framework for identifying and meeting our own social needs as well as supporting community members who are temporarily working remotely. The focus will be on how we might embed small but significant connection points into our daily work. Guest presenter, Jeanine Stewart will share specific suggestions and open a discussion related to how each person can contribute to a sense of community and foster robust engagement while working virtually.
https://wlu.zoom.us/j/964716256
3. FACULTY WELLNESS
Just a gentle reminder: we care deeply about our students and their learning. In moments of crisis like this, however, it’s easy to forget that we won’t be effective teachers if we don’t also attend to our own physical and mental wellness. That in mind, a few simple tips on how to retain some pleasure–and even joy–in your life:
- If, like me, your landing page is a newspaper or news site, change it to something else–the W&L page, the website for your favorite restaurant, the page of your beloved alma mater, the real estate site for that little town in the south of France to which you’ve always dreamed of retiring. The news will always be there, but you don’t need to be hit in the face with it every time you go to check your e-mail.
- Maybe now is the time to finally start that yoga practice? I mean, you’re at home, you’re already wearing sweatpants–why not? All of the routines in YouTube’s 30 Days of Yoga are between 20 and 35 minutes. That’s 20-35 minutes of reduced anxiety, lower heart rate, deeper breathing, and reduced pain from being hunched over your laptop all day.
- As someone who loves a fine Italian medium roast, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but there’s some research linking caffeine to increased anxiety. Given how much anxiety we’re already living with, maybe it’s time to cut back, just a little–NOT COMPLETELY, MIND YOU, WE’RE NOT ANIMALS! But yeah: just a little. (For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure there’s some sacred text somewhere that says that when weaning ourselves from coffee, we’re allowed to have as much chocolate as we want. Really pretty sure that’s true.)
- Finally, there’s also research showing the positive relationship between gratitude and subjective well-being. That in mind, it might be a good time to reach out to some of the people who’ve made your life powerful and meaningful and let them know how appreciative you are of what they’ve added to your world. Parents, maybe, undergraduate instructors, that college friend you used to chat with after class but haven’t seen in years. If you find yourself unsure where to begin, I’d suggest dropping an e-mail to Julie Knudson, Brandon Bucy, Helen MacDermott, and Dave Pfaff, who’ve worked tirelessly and continuously this week to put together the Virtual Instruction Academy, shifting us all from in-person mode to virtual instruction in just five days. What these four have accomplished in less than a week is nothing short of extraordinary. They deserve all the gratitude we can give them.
4. STUDENT WELLNESS
What follows are two links to recent essays about helping students deal with anxiety in this time of crisis. Feel free to read and share, but remember that no one of us will be able to save the world. Explore the techniques and options, implement a few that seem manageable for who you are as instructor, and just do your best.
5. VALUABLE INFORMATION ABOUT LIBRARY RESOURCES
Below is an e-mail from Emily Cook, Research and Outreach Librarian, about several library resources that can help faculty with their digital transition. Emily and the rest of the library staff are encouraging faculty to reach out with any questions–of if instructors are having trouble solving transition problems.
- Several publishers & databases are making academic resources temporarily free to help the transition to online learning. Librarian Kaci Resau curated a list to help W&L faculty access these ebook, etextbook, journal, & streaming media resources: https://libguides.wlu.edu/az.php?s=183117.
- Chat Reference will be available when classes resume for on-demand, online research support. We have subscribed to LibAnswers/LibChat which, in addition to being embedded on the library’s website, offers CMS integration opportunities: https://ask.springshare.com/libanswers/faq/2505.
- Finally, for those teaching media-rich classes, the library already subscribes to a variety of streaming services, see below. We can also investigate streaming content that is not available via the below vendors.
6. FINALLY, SOME USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT SPRING TERM TEXTBOOKS
Textbook Information for Undergraduate Faculty: UG Spring Term Textbooks and Course Materials: The University Store will collect all required textbook information from Spring Term faculty and post it online. Spring Term faculty should continue to send in their book orders, as before. Required books can be viewed by visiting the Registrar’s Spring Term Course Listings (https://managementtools3.wlu.edu/CourseOfferings/), then clicking on any course, and then clicking the “View Books Now” link. In general, the University Store will NOT provide textbooks for Spring Term courses. Students are encouraged to use the required listings from W&L’s site and purchase books on their own. However, the store’s staff will be researching any particularly hard-to-source textbooks and plans to offer those, along with course packs, for direct sale to students who need them. If you are registered for a course with one of these textbooks, or a course that has a required course pack, the University Store’s textbook staff will reach out to enrollees in your course before April 17th with information about ordering your course materials. If you are concerned about ordering your own textbooks or feel you will be unable to do so, please reach out as soon as possible to us at bookdept@wlu.edu. We will be happy to order books for any student and ship them to your home. In order for our staff to have adequate time to source your books and get them to you for the start of spring term classes, please make this request by Friday, April 3rd.
by phanstedt | Mar 19, 2020 | newsletter
Hello, all:
About a dozen people sent me this video, so I’m going to begin today’s mailing with the humor part: if you haven’t seen this remake of “I Will Survive” yet, click on the link. As someone who loves music and has a foot in both creative writing and instructional development, I must say I’m impressed with how this guy puts it all together.
Beyond that, I’d like to focus today’s mailings on a few fairly easy first steps you can take as you re-establish both your course and your relationship with your students.
- This first idea comes from a colleague in journalism, who adapted it from a colleague in philosophy, who adapted it from . . . well, you get the idea. The concept is a simple survey that you can send to your students to: a) establish an online relationship; and b) determine the logistical needs of your student cohort. I’ve attached the survey above (titled “Student Survey”). If you use it, you should, of course, freely adapt to fit your field, your course, and your personality/persona as an instructor.
- Along a similar vein, one of the links I included yesterday has an excellent example of an introductory video you can make for your course, wherein you break the ice by showing students your workspace, talking about the framing of the course, and essentially establishing a digital rapport. If you go to this link and scroll down to right below where it says “Welcome Students,” you’ll see this video, made by Michael Wesch. One notable step Wesch takes: he asks students to make their own introductory videos and share them with the class as a means of establishing/reestablishing community.
- Next, if you’re making videos for your course, I’m including tips passed along to Hugo Blunch in economics. These tips come to Hugo from a co-author who regularly teaches online courses at Seattle University. I’ve included them above in a PDF.
- Finally, simply an observation: many colleagues are familiarizing themselves with Zoom by creating chats with friends, running sample classes with colleagues in their departments, and getting together for a virtual knitting club (that last one is for real!). This is a simple, low-risk way to get used to this software. Take fifteen minutes, set up a time with a friend, and give it a go.
Beyond that, continue to share ideas with your colleagues and with me. If you’re finding things that seem to work, let us all know!
Take care, friends,
Paul
by phanstedt | Mar 18, 2020 | newsletter
Dear Colleagues:
I hope this finds you well, and that you’ve had a chance both to catch your breath and do something nice for yourself and/or to attend some of this week’s Virtual Instruction Academy. These events are ongoing, and very informative, so if you have the time to attend, either virtually, or in person, please do.
In terms of resources for today, I first want to offer this essay from Inside Higher Ed about shifting to remote instruction. While bits and pieces of it are of more or less value, I found the bullet points beginning with and continuing from “Don’t Go It Alone 1” to be valuable, if not a bit provocative.
Next, as you shift to thinking about actually redesigning the remaining weeks of your course, here’s an excellent resource passed along by Alison Bell of Sociology and Anthropology. The power of this approach is that it keeps things focused and simple: what do you want to achieve? What will you use to achieve it? How might you use students as partners? If you find yourself trying to figure out a way to get some traction, here’s an excellent place to begin.
Still along the lines of course (re)design, what follows is a comprehensive, step-by-step, set of resources developed by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). Normally a for-profit educational organization, ACUE has made their resources available to professors across the country during the current crisis.
I will admit that I hesitate putting this information in front of folks; we can only cope with so much information, and at times like this, we’re all already coping with a lot — and there’s a ton of material here.
That said, ACUE draws from some of the best thinkers in the field (Michael Wesch, who’s featured in some of the early videos, was a 2008 US Professor of the year, and consistently manages to walk that line between professionalism and humanism) and their materials can often be very helpful.
So, if you’re up for it, feel free to dive in here, and watch the videos, browse the materials, download what looks useful.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just return to this page and use the links below to approach things as needed. I’ve separated the materials by stages in the revision process, so it’s easy enough to take things one at a time.
Finally, just because a little humor never hurts, here is a link to a post wherein the first lines of famous novels have been rewritten for the age of social distancing. Some of the novels are pretty obscure, even for this English Prof, but some of the rewrites are laugh out loud funny.
Please feel free to share this with other colleagues (my e-mail list is incomplete), and please feel free to let me know if there are topics you’d like to see covered in future mailings. Also, if you have something funny to share, please pass that along as well; lord knows we need all the funny we can get.
And please, dear colleagues, take care of yourselves and your loved ones, both physically and mentally. I feel honored to be a part of this extended family, and I know we’ll get through this in shining form.
Best,
Paul Hanstedt
Director of the Center for Academic Resources and Pedagogical Excellence (CARPE)
ACUE materials
Introducing the course — and yourself as an online entity.
Organizing your course:
Online discussions:
Effective Micro-lectures
Engaging Students in lectures and readings:
