On Dreaming about Online Teaching

"Last night I dreamt that angels were helping me give feedback to the students in my online classes. The students became hooked on the angel comments, craving their input. I told the angels that their feedback was clearly a "gateway" drug. In my dream I found this so funny and laughed so hard that I woke myself up."

The above passage was my Facebook status update this morning, and the dream made such an impression on me that I'm still thinking about it nearly three hours after waking up. I'm not much of one for dream interpretation, but this dream raises a few things for me to consider:

1. I've been a bit obsessed by my online classes these first couple of weeks, and now that obsession has spilled over to my unconscious hours.
2. I'm really enjoying giving my students feedback and interacting with them online this semester, and I do wonder if they find it half as satisfying as I do. While I doubt they find it addicting, I do hope they notice my response and value what I have to say--and what they are saying to each other. 
3. Why angels? Is it an ex-Catholic flashback or does my work have divine approval? 

Okay, so the third point isn't something for true contemplation, but those of you who know me will know that religious overtones aren't really my thing--making the dream even more striking. Still, I see this all as a good omen of sorts. I've been frightened out of dreams or have woken up crying in the past, but I can't ever recall waking up due to laughter. I must be having fun.

On Maintaining a Physical Work Space for an Online Class

One of the most common comments that I heard after telling people I'd be teaching only online this semester was something along the lines of, "Oh, so you'll never have to go to campus at all." There are a lot of things packed into this comment--the belief that all college instructors do is teach classes, the assumption that "online" is synonymous with "passive," etc. Strangely enough, it look me by surprise the first time someone informed me of my new, work-from-home-all-the-time opportunity. It wasn't as if I hadn't realized that I'd have greater schedule flexibility as an online teacher--indeed, the professional travel that consumes a lot of my time during fall semester won't influence my students' schedules at all, as there are no classes to cancel--but it had never occurred to me that I might simply opt to work from home on a regular basis. And, quite frankly, I have no plans to do so.

There are a number of reasons that working from home a majority of the time is not for me. First off is the fact that I have a number of other things that demand my time on campus. I serve as the Director of the Redwood Writing Project, which requires that I maintain a presence in our office and attend related meetings. I serve on campus committees, attend program meetings, and consult regularly with the course development person who is helping me with my online class. While not specifically related to my job, I also have walking dates two days of the week with friends in the department.

Beyond these job requirements, though, are the less tangible benefits of spending time on campus. One of the reasons, after all, that I became a college instructor is because I LIKE being at college. Surrounding myself with people who are engaged in the process of learning--about new academic subjects, new ideas, and the new people they will become--is energizing. I learn new things from my students all the time, and just walking across campus teaches me about the lives of young people today in a way I can't access from my home computer. 

The most important reason for my coming to campus four days a week, however, is a simple desire to keep my home and work somewhat separate. Those who know me well know that I am rigorous in maintaining and active social life. I maintain separate email accounts for work and personal use, and I have general rules about taking work home--and even how often/late I will check my work email. I come to campus by 7:00 most mornings so that I can leave by late afternoon; after a break, I will do additional school work for an hour or two before calling it a day--and then check my email one more time before heading to bed with a book at night--but it is rare for me to stay up late or spend a weekend on school work. I need structure and boundaries to work efficiently, and the best way for me to maintain these is to come to campus for work and head home for play.

Of course, this morning, having woken up for the fourth straight day at 4:45 a.m. for no apparent reason, I couldn't help but think that the only specific thing on my schedule today is Virtual Office hours--something I can do from anywhere--and it occurred to me that I needn't get dressed and go to work. I ran through the possibilities in my mind, but I finally decided that I wanted to come to campus. While I like the flexibility allowed by online teaching, I don't want to turn my home into my workplace. I already work from home on Fridays--something I've done for years, after the introduction of my Virtual Friday classes--and I don't want to expand on that and upset my work/home balance. So, here I am in my office on the second floor of Founders Hall, preparing to put in a day online. I imagine that I may come to feel differently about my workplace in the coming years, especially if I continue down this road with online teaching, but for now I'm maintaining my physical work space.

On Space to f2f in Online Classes

Yesterday I realized a unique benefit of teaching an online class at a brick-and-mortar institution: my students and I share the same physical space and can, should we choose, interact in person. I knew this, of course, and my class acknowledges this by allowing students to complete their essay conferences via Google Docs, Blackboard Collaborate (Skype-ish platform), or in my office. When I was setting up my office hours, I vacillated back and forth between offering f2f or virtual hours--or a combination of the two. Ultimately, I decided that, because students can see me in my office for their conferences if they choose to do so, I would offer f2f Office hours by appointment only, and do the regularly-scheduled hours via Collaborate.

As a last-minute thought, I decided to add something to my schedule that I call "out-of-office hours."  Mainly this was a way to justify my weekly hour on the campus track walking with a friend in my department office. (It isn't really recreation time if it's on my syllabus, right?) So, in addition to my f2f and Virtual office hours schedule, I listed Tuesday from 12-1 as an out-of-office hour, identifying the location as Redwood Bowl track.

Truthfully, I had no expectation that students would "drop in" to this scheduled time--especially during the first week of classes when no one comes to office hours. Imagine my surprise, then, when Teri and I were passing the stands after our first lap around the track and a young man called to us, "I'm looking for my English teacher. Is this the right place?" Since I had not mentioned my out-of-office hour to Teri, she was bewildered, but I stepped over, introduced myself, and asked him to join us. Jordan told me that he was the "type of guy who likes to see people face to face so I know who I'm really talking to when I'm online."

In the course of 2-3 laps, I first found out where Jordan is from and that he is a freshman living in the residence halls. He then switched the topic of conversation to course content, asking about some assignments and telling me what he had already done thus far. He talked enthusiastically about the article he had found to add to our collaborative research collection, explaining what it was about and how he thought it was important. (Remember, this is the second day of the semester!) Once I had finished addressing his course questions, we continued to walk and talk (a benefit of the fact that we had to complete the current lap in order for him to leave). During this time, I learned more personal information about Jordan, including his family situation at home, his goals as a student, his decision to come to HSU, and more. During this part of the conversation, I realized that talking while walking allowed for personal contact, but was like conversations held in cars--some safety is involved because eye contact is limited by the circumstance.

After Jordan took off, I rejoined Teri and we resumed our walk. I had to stay later than usual to get my four miles in, since Jordan and I had strolled at a more leisurely pace than usual, but it was well worth the time. Indeed, the experience elated and invigorated me. In a semester with only three online and no f2f classes, it was my first real interaction with a student, and one initiated by the student himself. Of course, I can't tell if this is typical, but I'm thankful to Jordan for stopping by, and I'm adding my Wednesday afternoon walk with another colleague to the list of my available times. This won't be an option in the Spring class I teach for CalState Online, as those students won't be on campus, but as long as I'm teaching online (and even f2f) classes at HSU, I think I'll keep up the practice of out-of-office hours.

On the Joys of Technology

From my 8/26 Facebook status update:
"I had to postpone today's Virtual Office hours because I need IT to update my OS in order to run the University's (Skype-like) Collaborate program. Lesson learned: I'm requesting Admin rights to update my own software going forward. — feeling irritated."

On Creating Student Groups

From my 8/26 Facebook status update:
"To allow for both small and large groups for activities and discussion, I'm having students join static teams with color labels--which I can then mix together to form larger groups. Thus far, in order of popularity: green, purple, yellow, red, blue/orange (tie)"

In response to a comment by a colleague, asking for more details:
"On Moodle, we have a Choices module, which allows me to set up a radio-button choice resource. I simply created six color teams and limited them to 10 students each (my Moodle site combines three online sections). In larger discussions (analysis/discussion of readings, etc.), I'll combine two color teams, for a total of 20 participants. For smaller activities (response groups, etc.), I'll divide each color team in half, for five-person groups. When posting the discussion forums, I'll simply label them by colors (or in the case of split colors, the color and first names of the participants in that group). Will it work? Who knows? But, that's pretty much the way everything will operate this semester."

On Making the Class Available to Students

From my 8/22 Facebook status:
"Interesting fact about teaching online: rather than classes starting on Monday, mine have already begun. Since I made the class available, I've had students post their first assignments, ask questions in the Q & A forum, email me for help, etc. I'll have to keep this in mind next semester!"