My journey into online learning began when most of my colleagues’ did — the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was not only immediately responsible for the education of 200 students in a new format; I was in a graduate course for my masters degree as well, meaning I was entering online learning as both a teacher and a student. More and more opportunities for online teaching and learning have arisen since then, and today, I am responsible for teaching a few students online (while taking online courses myself through PLS).

My personal experiences as a teacher and a student have really inspired me to be as engaging as possible. When my college course turned into an online course part way through the semester, I found myself dragging and disengaged with the material. I don’t really attribute this to the professor, as the sudden switch in learning modes was extraordinarily difficult for everyone, but it did confirm that I would need to work hard to engage in my own classroom — a goal I am still working towards today.

Currently, I engage my online students through discussion forums (I start every week with a random Question of the Week — not about music — to help them learn from one another). I’ve also used tools such as FlipGrid. The ability to see students’ faces makes all the difference for my asynchronous courses!

Finally, the most challenging aspect of online teaching, from my point of view, is student burnout. My students typically start the semester strong, as my course is a novelty and new to them. However, about halfway through, assignments begin to be submitted late and answers are less thought-out. This goes hand in hand with my engagement goals, and I am constantly looking for new ways to get my students to think out of the box and learn in more interactive ways. Luckily, technology is stepping up to the plate, and the list of available resources grows exponentially each year. Next on my list to try is NearPod — I’ll let you know how it goes!