Snapshot

Name and Title: Allie Thomas, MS, CTRS – Senior Lecturer and Graduate Recreation Therapy Internship Coordinator
Class that will be showcased: REC 1370 – Introduction to Therapeutic Recreation
Is this an undergraduate or graduate class? Undergraduate
What is the size of the class? 62 students
Is there anything else we should know before we keep reading? This course is a hybrid course that meets once a week on Tuesday from 8:00-9:20am using an A/B schedule due to enrollment size and classroom capacity for COVID. Thursday is used for asynchronous instruction, the model was meant to be a high enrollment hybrid flipped classroom pedagogical approach.

My Class

I have significantly changed the style of teaching and instructional techniques to meet the needs and limitations of the new classroom environment. The course is an introductory survey course that new majors, minors, and other students interested can take to learn about the major. Due to the limitation of the classroom capacity and number of students, I had to place students (randomly) in an A/B schedule and allow for students receiving accommodations to remain on Zoom consistently. In easy terminology, I teach half of my class on Zoom and the other half in person at the same time on the F2F day.

Once I had considered all components and strategies for the class, the semester rapidly began. I chose to teach remotely using Zoom the first two class days so that I could trouble shoot, explain classroom engagement and procedures (i.e. who comes when, video on preferably), and orient the students to the new environment/classroom.

My intricate and big idea did not work as well as planned and has had to morph many times across the semester. I realized quickly that everything is new, and the styles I have utilized over the past decade had to change if I was truly attempting to teach, understand, and listen to my students and their needs. As Catherine Denial (2019) described, I began to attempt to teach using a pedagogy of kindness.

How to make the most of a multimodal classroom – An Example

• I slowed down my instruction and reconsidered what was most important to my students, both in their lives and in the course. I found that there is a threshold on the number of videos, so I started to mix transcripts with videos to provide options, as well as course readings.
• I decided that my syllabus — even more than usual — should be incredibly detailed and must align with my Canvas site and the Hybrid A/B scheduled course. The figure below is a visual of my course schedule with the Canvas module and page that aligns with the F2F A/B rotation (white columns) and the asynchronous classes (gray columns). Describing course navigation for my course was important; all faculty set up their courses differently and use different functions in the LMS.

• In my experience, too much information and the use of constant pages under one module confuses the students and myself. I have all information per day on one page in one module (this can be seen above in the figure).
• On the days that are gray in the figure above (asynchronous days), I begin the module with an overview and a notes page. This was done intentionally to allow students to focus on content and provide a template for filling in gaps and writing down potential questions to ask when we discuss material the following Tuesday. Each Tuesday I provide time for students to reflect, digest, apply, and ask questions for clarification about content from the asynchronous day. We often use breakout rooms and the chat function to clarify material.

You’re probably wondering…

How do I handle academic integrity in my class?

Grades for assignments and tests (3 online tests) are similar to other semesters that have been taught F2F. Using Canvas tools for timing of tests and due dates, plus the Turnitin function in the assignments, have allowed for integrity and honesty. Placing the content in separate modules, making the student continuously move to multiple locations for content, makes it difficult for the students to attempt to find the answers during their tests because of the time limit.

How do I keep students engaged with me, with each other, and with the course?

• I believe in interaction and discussion in the course, but it has been difficult to gain the same quality of conversation we had prior to COVID. What I have found effective while using PowerPoint and lecturing simultaneously, to students in the classroom and on ZOOM, is that it is helpful to keep the Zoom chat function up for all to see. I pull the chat up on the screen so that F2F students can also see the chat.
• Making people discuss has never been an effective tool for me, but allowing them to discuss through many forms (i.e. chat function, using their voice, breakout rooms, and open Canvas discussions that are not graded) has been helpful. Interestingly, students this semester are more than willing to talk if you are asking the right questions and providing the right platform.
• The questions I ask are more about reflection of thought that is more relatable (affective) rather than “testing for knowledge.” Some examples are How does this make you feel?, What are your thoughts?, and Who else is feeling this way?.
• To keep the discussion approachable for students, I have found that praising students and allowing them to encourage each other (via chat) has been a welcome addition to the class. This began as daily check-ins for progress and feelings with thumbs up, down, or sideways. Adding in the physical motion, though seemingly elementary, has worked. The other piece to this is making sure that when people write a chat it is important to engage (i.e. “Thank you Allie for expressing your feeling of [state the response] it is appreciated”, or “That is a great suggestion Allie, can you tell me a little more about it?”).
• The other area I have noticed is that kindness and support has been a needed addition for all. I acknowledge that we are doing this together and all of us are trying our best, with sentiments like “Let’s do this together” or “Let’s reflect as a team.”
• Remembering that we are all humans and have life going on (or attempting to go on) around us has been invaluable to my understanding of students and my teaching practice.
• As others in their posts have reflected, I do ask students to have their cameras on, with their faces seen. I state at the beginning of each class that it is time to begin so let us get ready to be seen, or something similar. The approach that I use is that I want to get to know them on or off camera, and it is difficult for me to accomplish that without placing a name to a face. At the beginning of class as I am setting up, I make sure to have conversations with students F2F and on Zoom, providing the engagement to show that I do see them and to back up my statements.

In Conclusion…

I realize that we are all trying to find our new teaching style and method of delivery and it has not been easy, at least for me. In a previous section I identified teaching using a pedagogy of kindness, we also need to remember to be kind to ourselves and know everything we try is not going to work, but please remember that you at least tried.