Profs may not think they need to change
Professors who are writing a research paper and teaching a larger class because budget cuts mean the school offers fewer sections may prioritize these things over attending workshops for online teaching. “Something’s gotta give,” Kanuka said. That might mean not going to the workshops, or taking steps like choosing to make exams multiple choice because it’s far easier to grade than giving feedback on 40 essays.
Students can also take advantage of one-on-one academic support workshops for either in-person or remote learning, Vallianatos said.A key concern with online learning is that not all students have access to a laptop or phone, or strong. With most libraries and coffee shops closed, there aren’t many other places to work.
The university has a central service that supports online learning — it used to be per faculty but some faculties got rid of theirs in budget cuts in the last year — that has been helping other professors adapt, Demmans Epp said. But she also worries that the professors who need the support for online teaching most might not be able to access or connect to webinars about it if they’re not technologically savvy.
Participation in the webinars is optional and all of the resources are available to contract faculty as well as tenured professors, he said. In March, the sudden transition to online learning was made more challenging because of the labs-based computer science courses where students, in normal times, could show TAs their coding and receive instant feedback, she said. One professor just uploaded weekly lectures, and students could only ask questions in one weekly virtual office hour session.Rasleen Gandhi is a computer science student at Dalhousie University.