Teaching Strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic: What goes behind the screen? Part III

I was invited to deliver a talk today on my teaching strategies during the pandemic. The invitation came from Prof. apt. Muchtaridi, who is currently at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Padjadjaran (UNPAD). He was my former student in USM. His invitation came out of the blue – after watching my chemistry teaching videos on Youtube channel.

A few years ago, I wrote about being an introvert educator embarking on online teaching and serving as a head judge for USM’s T&L event. This Part III is a continuation of ‘What goes behind the screen?’ blog posts.

In Malaysia, since mid October, most sectors are opening up including the education sector where teaching delivery resumed in hybrid and online distance learning (ODL) modes.

However, as the fourth wave has already hit some countries, and more may follow, the likelihood of returning to the normal face-to-face teaching looks bleak in some regions. Meanwhile, these modes of teaching delivery are here to stay – perhaps until we enter the endemic phase.

Teaching at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic

The pandemic is a game-changer. What one thinks is “sufficient” for face-to-face settings can become inadequate and irrelevant when it comes to teaching online #ODL.

Teaching during the pandemic require additional skillsets and strategies different from teaching face-to-face. Lively on-screen persona, online facilitation and technical skills (video-making and video editing) are perhaps a part of “new teaching skills” acquired, or to be acquired during the pandemic.

Using narrated videos of PowerPoint slides may have worked during the emergency remote teaching (ERT) phase in 2020. But as the pandemic continues, and students may have grown tired and bored of watching hundreds of teaching videos during ODL… well, that calls for changes in one’s online teaching strategies.

Teaching strategies during the pandemic

In this new academic session, I have planned to make sessions with my students more active and collaborative. And in teaching chemistry, it means more writing, drawing and sketches for synchronous and asynchronous sessions. It also means more work to create an environment conducive for students to work together.

For instance, during a recent stereochemistry practical session with my first year students, no PowerPoint was used.

The higher education and some workplaces seem inundated with PPT slides… I’ve written a few posts on tips for academic presentations, and delivered workshops using PowerPoint. I bet there is (better teaching) Life beyond PowerPoint slides.

So, moving away from PPT and exploring other ways to create content is one of my teaching strategies 😉

Behind the screens: Active and collaborative online chemistry practicals with pharmacy students

Instead, I created bite-sized Instagram posts (check out my Canva for Educators course on Skillshare) and hosted the session on a collaborative platform using Cisco Webex. Behind the screens (yes, I managed four screens), my setup for the recent stereochemistry practical is as follows:

Behind the screens: My setup for the recent synchronous stereochemistry practical

An update The stereochemistry practical mentioned above is now published in the ACS Journal of Chemical Education titled “Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Escape a Remote Virtual Stereochemistry Lab Together” https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00050

Looking at the setup, in age of the 4IR, I’m afraid we can’t continue to be in denial about multi-tasking in conducting synchronous sessions with students. And teaching online during the pandemic, in my opinion, is about creating a conducive environment that stimulates thinking, fosters students’ interactions and teamwork. Can we design such environment online for our students?

During the online talk at the Faculty of Pharmacy UNPAD, I shared some #ODL teaching strategies taken during the pandemic. The following is my presentation at the talk:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAEyw6JDYQc/lIxBkzlH-Uzw_R5N1Inuhw/view?website#2:teaching-strategies-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-what-goes-behind-the-screen

Hope you’d find this sharing helpful. And do let me know your thoughts or experiences teaching online. Anything memorable or interesting that you’ve discovered teaching students during the pandemic?…