TITLE: Going Online
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: March 27, 2020  2:31 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:

 It's been a long time since I've written here.  In fits and starts over
 a couple of weeks, we went from "Wow, coronavirus is in the news a lot"
 to "all teaching is online through the end of summer, and Eugene has a
 lot of work to do".  The new work included rearranging faculty candidates
 who were not allowed to fly to campus, looking to cover courses for a
 faculty who would be taking leave before the end of the semester, and
 -- of course -- moving my own course online.

 This is new territory for me.  I've never taught online, and I've never
 made videos for my students before.  One bit of good news is that I have
 a lot of textual material online already: detailed lecture notes,
 exercises, homework assignments, every line of code we write or examine
 in class, all my exams, and a surprising amount of bonus material and
 extra reading.  (Few students take advantage of the extra stuff, but
 I can't bring myself not provide links to it for the few who do.)

 Over break, I made my first video, walking through a problem from our
 last homework assignment before break.  I recorded three takes before
 having something I was willing to show students.  It is rough and wordy,
 but not too bad for a first effort (well, v 1.03).

 We now have a week of classes in the books.  This is an unusual week
 in my course even under typical conditions.  It consists a two-day
 in-class exercise on which students worked in groups of two or three
 to write a lexical addresser for a little language.  With students
 segregated in their own apartments and hometowns, the intended group
 collaboration disappeared.  Most of our students are still adjusting to
 the new learning conditions and figuring out how to take all of their
 courses online at home.

 On Tuesday, I made one short video to review briefly the ideas about
 variable declarations and references that we had studied before break.
 After they watched the video, I turned them loose with my usual session
 notes, modified so that hints I would typically offer in class and
 document in a web page for later review hidden away on their own web
 pages.  This way, students could work on the problem and only click on
 a hint when they needed a nudge.  A few students showed up in a Zoom
 room and worked during the assigned class time, so I was able to
 interact with them in real time and answer questions.  On Thursday, we
 re-oriented ourselves to the problem, and I live-coded a solution to
 the problem.  I recorded the session for students to watch later, at
 their leisure.

 I've already learned a bit, only one week in.  The temptation to write
 a long piece of code and talk through the process is great.  The
 students who braved Thursday's session let me know that they tuned out
 after a while, only to bring their attention back later, somewhat out
 of synch with my presentation.  That's not much different from what
 happens in a long lecture, of course, but when I'm standing in a room
 with the students, I'm more likely to notice their boredom or distraction
 and step out of the lecture sooner.  Talking to a few students in Zoom,
 especially when they have their video off, made it too easy to talk and
 talk without a break.  Over many years of teaching face-to-face, I've
 learned how to mix class up a bit and not get into long ruts.  I'll have
 to be more consciously aware of those lessons as I do demos over Zoom.

 I'm still a little nervous about the rest of the semester, but also a
 little excited.  In what ways can going online, even for only a month
 and a half, improve my course and materials?  Putting session notes up
 over the years has already forced me to be more careful in how I write
 explanations and more detailed in the code I post.  Now, with little or
 no face-to-face interaction (most students will come to a session after
 it ends), how will I need to improve my presentation and the materials
 I provide?  How much will my inexperience making videos limit the level
 of quality I can achieve over six weeks?

 For now, I plan to keep things as simple as possible.  I'm not sure
 what technology my students have available to them at home, or the
 conditions under which they must work.  I am still using email and
 my course website (a very simple static site that would feel at home
 in 2000) as my main ways to present material, and have added Zoom as a
 to interact with students in lieu of regular class time.  I will make a
 few short video to demonstrate ideas, to augment the written material
 and give students another sensory input with which to learn.  I don't
 expect the videos to be great, or even good, but I hope they help my
 students.  I also hope that, with practice, I get better at making them.

 Sadly, I won't be in a classroom with this group of students again this
 year.  I'll miss that.  They are good people, and I enjoy working with
 them.  This is a strange way to end a school year, and a reminder of
 how fortunate I am to get to teach.
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