Our Time Has Come: What campus closures taught us about the importance of the online learning community

Abstract

Online learning has never been a hotter topic than it was during the 2020 academic year as thousands of instructors scrambled to move their face-to- face classes to an online format. The online community once looked at as secondary now became the key resource, as many instructors struggled (and unsurprisingly failed) to put together a high quality, engaging course in the week given. Traversing these uncharted waters led us to one obvious conclusion: The importance of the online teaching community and looking to them for the pedagogical basics for online instruction has never been made more obvious than it is now. In this teaching practice session we will discuss lessons learned from the rush to move classes online and briefly list some universal (though traditionally online-focused) teaching techniques that anyone can incorporate into both their classes and their LMS, regardless of the format in which they teach. After an initial presentation, time will be given for a thoughtful discussion on lessons learned from this year, how these changes impacted the participants' own teaching and their school's courses, and how these events have changed how some perceive online teaching and learning. Simple techniques will also be provided that participants can incorporate into their LMS and courses to improve any format of teaching.