What I've learned ... the first Summer of Online teaching.

For those that do not directly know me, nor regularly follow me on LinkedIn, a brief intro. I am a finance professional/executive turned University instructor. I teach a wide range of finance courses across the MBA and undergraduate programs at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. This summer, I had the opportunity to once again teach the finance component of our flagship undergraduate program known locally as I-core. It is intense and in may ways it remains a right of passage for Kelley business school students. I, myself, "survived" the program (as we fondly say) as an undergrad at Indiana some 30 years ago. The education served me well and lead to a professional career in the field of finance within the tech industry for more than 25 years. In 2015, I launched career 2.0 with a return to the class room...or so I thought.

With the spread of Novel Corona Virus, COVID-19, classroom activity was shut down after spring break for most students. The impact to students - the last several weeks of class "online" instead of in the familiar lecture hall, lab, or classroom. Disruption to instructors not seen in the field of education for many decades. Upheaval by parents, irritated not only that junior boomeranged back to the "nest" but also that online and in-person class tuition was billed at the same rate.

The result - the dust is still settling on that spring experience - early returns proved to be mixed; For many instructors - huge struggles to rapidly adopt online technology including Zoom and other unfamiliar online resources. For many students choosing to "punt" the remainder of the semester by missing out on labs and in-person instruction not to mention the social aspects of learning that happen in a live classroom setting. For Universities, a fast toggle to simple "pass/fail"grades and challenges to avoid furloughs and financial catastrophe.

Enter the Summer Semester. A typical 12-week academic sprint endured by instructor and student alike - all during the summer months, a time when all but a select few are typically working a summer job, completing an internship, or just taking down time to recharge to the sounds of summer. Meanwhile, the select few students and instructors are busy cranking away to catch up..or get ahead..using this precious 12 week term; Though the rest of the academic world seems to go into suspended animation, the summer term is full speed ahead.

This summer would be totally different from the past - a few days after the end of the spring term and graduation, the rules of the game had changed - courses would be entirely taught online. Content delivery would be mostly synchronous (a fancy University created name for "live by Zoom" lecture sessions) but some class work would be asynchronous (another fancy University name for "pre-recorded in Zoom" lecture sessions). Pass-fail was a thing of the past...real letter grades were back! Add to this the infamous office-hours sessions, now brought to you again...by...Zoom... religiously held at the same bat-time, same bat-channel each week to discuss homework problems/solutions, review ancillary materials, prep for an exam, or discuss student-specific matters.

I have had, over the past 5 years, the fortune of teaching executive MBA and other graduate level finance coursework online. I myself even hold a masters degree with some coursework completed online (yes, from Kelley). Yet this summer I would be teaching two sections of the famed I-core undergraduate introduction to financial management course F370. The courses, designed to be taught in-person, were now headed online. The toggle to fully online pedagogy came fast and furious. Good news: I survived. Despite my daily battle with Comcast, wondering if my bandwidth would behave, I survived ! Better news: the students survived too. In fact, they did remarkably well despite many challenges. The best news: not only did we survive but we all learned many things along the way. And for that, I can applaud ! Not applaud me, the instructor, but applaud my students who leaned into learning during a difficult environment, got on board with the new format, adapted, overcame, and succeeded.

Which brings me to this article....we are in the last week of the 12 week summer session. I'm staring at a mountain of case studies to grade, but want to give pause to share. Yes, Lectures have been given synchronously. Lectures have been recorded asynchronously. Homework questions have been moved online as have mid-term and final exams. Even course case studies (another right of passage for upper level undergraduate courses and every MBA course since the beginning of time) have shifted entirely to online group collaboration.

Through the experiences of this summer teaching undergraduates online , I share with you my top 10 list of what I've learned. Perhaps a bit trite, as we can remember that first essay in late August that Mrs. Crabapple assigned to kick off the fall academic year titled "How I spent my Summer".

To forewarn you - these nuggets of knowledge may not necessarily be best practice; I'm still learning and this is career 2.0 for me so I don't profess to decades and decades of online pedagogical expertise. Certainly not with undergraduates and not with courses that I designed initially for in-person delivery and toggled on a dime to online format. But then... to be honest..who CAN claim such extensive pedagogical expertise? Likely no one.

So, just as we've done in the business world, we must not be afraid to pivot. We pivot quickly when markets move. We pivot when opportunities emerge and when old opportunities disperse. We must evolve, and that's just what we did!

Shhhh... Don't tell...but there were times I even "winged it" a little bit. Went off-plan. I remember one of my professors, decades ago, suggested we all "fake it till we make it". I certainly did not fake it -- my class is challenging and it's the real deal --the same content that I deliver when in person. I also applied a good dose of managerial and situational leadership, along with heaps of business creativity, natural curiosity, and my passion for technology - leveraging many skills picked during my first 25 year career as a finance leader/exec/CFO. Pulling those into my new online classroom, some of it not fully vetted or scripted in advance.

I'm humbly not an expert to every aspect of online instruction nor hold all the answers to achieving high student engagement. So, I welcome your comments and suggestions to continue evolving the online educational experience for everyone reading this. By sharing information for my fellow professors/instructors, for students, and for parents alike we can, to quote Demming and Drucker, continuously improve. Kaizen if you will.

As of the time of starting this article, we were slated to go hybrid this fall -- and I'm not talking a Toyota Prius hybrid -- I'm taking a combo of online and in-person instruction. Well..that WAS the plan but no sooner am I typing this than the plan has changed yet again. F370 Financial Management, one of the 4 core I-core courses at Kelley, which was slated to be in person / hybrid was halted by the city health department before we even began due to a 100-person limit on gatherings. This, despite best practices being proposed on social distancing, mask wearing, contact tracing, building ventilation upgrades, and other public health measures. I was looking forward to a bit of class room action. Not so fast. And I bet the plan will change multiple times. Lesson 1: be flexible and adapt.

In the back of my mind, I welcome the opportunity to be fully online again in the fall. No, it's probably not where I do my best work, at least not yet. But I have a new goal: put to use what I've learned this summer, to improve the learning experience and to fully prove that online education DOES work even for undergraduates and to illustrate that regardless the situation, just as I faced during my 25 year business career, the show DOES go on and we lead by finding solutions, not just pointing to problems.

I'll borrow the format from another Hoosier, who definitely mainstreamed the Top Ten10 list concept (his was on late night TV and certainly loads more entertaining than mine):

Things I've learned from that last 3 months of teaching exclusively online:

1. Synchronous and all Cameras on.  Not physically coming to class impacts engagement. I witnessed students joining online classes from the comfort of their bed - yes no kidding. It doesn’t work well.   Getting students into the psychological and physical mode of attending class / learning mode requires getting up out of bed and perhaps sitting at a desk or table or other “studious” environment. Camera's on keep everyone honest and engaged. Start off the course, and perhaps even every lecture with your expectation of how students are to “attend” an online class. 

2. Instructors : even online, dress for success. While I swore off neck-ties a long time ago, and appreciated that in my career in technology, I try to come to online class in professional (KELLEY) attire - for me, it's a polo style collar shirt for summer. Button down collar shirt and maybe even a tie for winter. Setting the professional tone even online matters.  We are here to learn, and we respect all that goes with the learning environment.

3. Technology and Equipment. Invest in high quality online equipment. For example an outboard camera is often better than the tiny built in low resolution camera on your PC. Lighting needs to be exceptional. A ring light is usually under $100 and helps to be seen with that fancy camera.  An external USB microphone is helpful too. All this gear can be had for $200 or less typically. When you present material, do it in a quiet environment.  Make sure you don't have background noise. Dog barking, kids yelling, a spouse on the phone next to you. Be aware of your surroundings when online. Ask students if they can hear you (audio check) Also, know that internet bandwidth matters - if you have slow internet from home, go to your on-campus office to teach online. Never be the weakest link for technology.   Record the session.  Annotate slides. Annotation is especially important for me as my usual lectures are animated with body language and I, honestly, jump all over the classroom when I teach. Since I can’t use body language online, I have to compensate my style using other mechanisms. 

4. Office hours. Fixed time. Weekly. Online. Do not record the session so as to encourage students to show up AND to ask even the seemingly small questions. Hold more hours than typical - either more frequently or longer sessions to offset the less interaction that comes with some of the asynchronous lessons.  

5. Schedule and course cadence. Stick to a very firm schedule. Monday watch the pre-recorded video and complete associated readings. Tuesday begin homework on your own. Wednesday come to synchronous live lecture. Thursday finish homework.  Friday office hours.  Friday 5pm homework is due.  Try not to move assignment deliverable dates.   The cadence is important to help instill discipline that often waxes and wanes when not on campus. Especially important for younger people who rely on peer groups for motivation -0 Remember, without peer group “encouragement” to get up, go to class, study at the library, and so forth this can be a real challenge for some students.  This cadence reinforces the discipline of learning.

Canvas or other course organization tools can keep your course and your students organized but augment that with an announcement slide at the start of every class to keep everyone on track.  A weekly Monday morning email of what lies ahead in the week can help too depending on the course content.  

6. Have several alternative channels for real time contact with you as the instructor AND with peer students. This can help with general course communication.  This generation is not as Email centric as my generation. Email is often ignored or not real time and thus only works so well. Tools such as Canvas group discussion, #Groupme or MS Teams or Google Groups where the entire class can exchange information rapidly can be very helpful.   By design: My students learn some content from each other in an analytical and case based course. They share methods of solving problems and we as instructors need to provide avenues for them to do this sharing since they are not face to face with each other when in an online setting. Use of technology and tools more than just Zoom can help. They are the technologically "native" generation - I strive to be as good or better with that same technology and use it! 

7.  Online exams: Use algorithm question selection ( students get similar yet slightly different questions from a group of question pools). Try to give the exam at a common time slot- this somehow may help to ensure academic integrity in the exam process.  Curves can be helpful. There is also no way to prevent open book and open notes (or open other gadget) exams, so don’t stress over that.  I have explored many online "proctoring" tools and there are ways to defeat those features. Do not be afraid to experiment with new exam formats or content approaches.

8. Be more than usually attentive to the outside environment that students are in. Their home situation, their health situation, their levels of anxiety, fear or stress manifest as heightened mental health risks—especially so in this COVID era. Be alert that those situations can be brought into the classroom (even online) resulting in lower engagement or higher anxiety over assignments and exams.    As an instructor I always try to find the right balance. For me it’s somewhere between “tough” and “rigorous” but not to “overwhelming”. The latter does no one good - not the student nor the instructor.  Keep checking the environment along the way as the environment will keep changing. Check with your students, check with other instructors too. Share information.  

9. Student brains (human brains for that matter) can not concentrate for more than about 1 hour. Online: less than that. Break lessons into 20-25 minute chunks.  Step away from slides to “work some problems” and then back to slides or lecturing.   Discussion groups or collaboration room in Zoom can work ... this can be a great way to re-energize the learning environment online. Cold calling works but can be uncomfortable on all sides when online - in part because not everyone has always-reliable technology...nor can they find the un-mute button fast enough 

10.  There is little chance for before-class chatter or hallway banter and talk in an online format. Find a way to replace that. Students can't follow me into the hallway at the end of class, continuing a discussion or debate. And to be sure, students want to learn. They really want to get to know their professors. Ultimately they want to succeed. They value our coaching and experience and career insights. They want to be able to ask further questions, understand our research or our career "battle stories". So, without the hallway banter, the drop-in office hours chat, we need to find other ways to provide that avenue ! As a career 2.0 instructor, I'm here because I want that dialogue too. I'm very lucky in that regard. I strive to be authentic and to be genuine. You should too! Don’t be afraid to share a few humanizing elements along the way - about your life and career or research etc. About your own methods for success or even your own Kryptonite.  I try to open the Zoom room 10 minutes before to official time. Who ever comes in gets to engage with me. We talk about investing. Careers. Current events. Just small talk but hugely important to show we are all human and accessible and care about every one of our students.  

Clearly my list could go beyond Top 10... but, learning happens in chunks so I'll pause here for now. Whether you're an instructor or a student or a parent worried about your student's progress in "online" courses, I can say that online teaching is unique to each individual student and unique to each topic at hand. For some undergraduate students, the gap in maturity, in world experience, in technology and in comfort with individual learning formats becomes evident and needs to be developed. That presents us all with unique opportunities and challenges to not only be effective, but to be disruptive in a good way.

See you "in class" or "on screen" or "both" or...well..let's all stay healthy and engaged in learning this fall.

Wash your hands. Don't forget your thumbs.