Today, on March 16, two days after pi-day, I taught my first online class. The whole chain of command, from students to TAs to instructors, to co-ordinators, saw this coming, and yet it still came as a surprise. I had two days to prepare, and until yesterday, did not know the platform I would even be using.
Nonetheless, I prepared my lecture in the usual way. I read the text, I read the co-ordinator's notes, and I started playing around with the class software. I made interactive questions, and planned times for discussion. I knew that this class would have to be shorter. I planned for 30 minutes instead of the usual 50. I knew that students would struggle to connect, so I slashed my participation marks to 0. Today, I was a strong believer in Muphy's law.
Almost anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. I disconnected twice, my computer froze, the online voting system broke down, and my students sent me frantic e-mails because they could not connect to the stream. Audio cut out, and for every piece of technology I used, there was a student who could not access it. The only saving grace was that the whole thing was recorded, and that the class-hosting site did not go down.
And yet, the class happened. I presented my slides, and talked over them. I gave my students time to think, time to respond, and chances to ask questions. I read the chat, and addressed misconceptions, and got through my content in 40 minutes. The surprise came when I realized that my students really understood the struggle, and were more forgiving than I expected. They laughed in the chat, they responded actively, and they stuck around after class just to hang out some more.
There were times I was overwhelmed. I made dumb mistakes, both mathematical and pedagogical. I'm still too terrified to look at the recording. Yet the entire time, I felt in co-operation with my students. They were the tolerant ones. Today, they brought me up when I was down. They supported themselves, and their peers. I split the chat into groups for small group discussions, and every group I spied on worked together on solving the problem (albeit after a bit of excitement about the technology), and really put effort into the content. I asked questions. They answered.
Today, a student had an "a-ha!" moment through text.
The students were all faceless. Just names on a keyboard. Some had never met. This year, I tried very hard to learn as many names as I could. Today it payed off. A student typed, and I knew their face. I can say, with confidence, that some groups of students were total strangers. But they still behaved as friends.
Today I taught my first online class. Objectively, it went poorly. There's still a lot of work I need to do. But I'm feeling good, and I think that with some practice, and a healthy dose of patience, I, with a lot of help from the students, can make this work.