# Notes from _Teaching Online on Short Notice_ by Greg Wilson

2020 03 19

- An [RStudio webinar](https://rstudio.com/resources/webinars/)
- [Wilson's slides for this presentation](https://rstd.io/teach-online-2020)
- [Supporting article by Greg Wilson](https://education.rstudio.com/blog/2020/03/teaching-online-on-short-notice/)

###### tags: `rstudio` `webinar` `wilson` `teaching` `online`

Moving your teaching online with Greg Wilson

1. **Don't change what you don't have to** (Take a long walk in old shoes)

What are the small changes we can make

2. Don't make **assumptions**
- may have bad network
- old computer
- attention spans limited with pandemic induced distractions
- "what kind of device are you on" "how much time do you have"

3. **Don't need polished produced courseware/webinar. Right now**, the best bet it to try and use things interactively. Worry about video editing later. <br> _A pattern language for screencasting_. by Chen and Rabb. https://doi.org/10.1145/1943226.1943234
4. **Mistakes of the pedagogy**
- novice programmer: spend 80% of their time debugging
- profesisonal: 20-40% debugging (that's experience)
- Don't worry about making mistakes on any given live cast
- learn the song, then improvise over it
- don't teach to empty chairs
- It's great to ask your audience if a few people will ask to turn on their video. Focus your attention on those six. This is the "focus your teaching" practice and works in large lecture halls. This also gives people permission to turn on their video and reduces network load.
5. First time you move your class online -- **give your students a tour of the (zoom) tool**. Not everyone knows how Zoom works.
6. **Direct Traffic**: give your students verbal cues. Ask them to put questions in the chat. or, e.g, to share homework in google doc. Or to use the "raise hand" option when they want to speak.
7. **Mute early, mute often. Have people raise hands to speak.** Instinctively hit the "mute all" button (because that way you never forget to do so.). Video is helpful in an online class but not essential. Audio is essential. Keep a written list of the names of the people you are paying attention to. Make tick marks to account for your interactions.
8. **Call on people by name.** This is much better than saying "are there any questions." (Of course you let people "pass".) Calling on people by name helps you level out your classroom.
9. **Don't teach alone** if you can avoid it. "every great surgeon has a great nurse beside her"
10. **Do a dry run (with your copilot)**
- "nobody told me there was a firewall"
11. **keep your notes beside you**
- show slides instead of your face
12. **Add speaker notes to your slides**

- a lot of learners have highly developed compensation strategies for seeing and hearing deficits. Don't make it hard for people who already struggle.
- e.g. make your cursor as large as possible
- Switch to high contrast
- keycaster can give hints to the key commands (there are others.)

13. **Teach from your smallest screen**

- most of your learners are using smaller and older gear than you have
- Difficult to teach from an IDE when you are screen sharing.

14. **your voice matters more than your face**

- use a microphone stand and microphone
- place the mic far enough far enough away from the keyboard and about 30cm away from your mouth

15. **Turn off your notifications**
- you can ask students to do the same. It invites the students to pay more attention
16. Share work in real time
- e.g. a shared google doc (or HackMD)
- gives edit permission to the students
- this adds options
- small response: put it into the chate
- longer response: paste it into the document (lots of people don't like you to see them typing")
- paste the question to direct traffic

17. Keep track of who has spoken (make sure people are not just allowed in the room, but welcome in the room.)

18. Ask - Fill - Call (technique from call in radio)

- gives people time to think. But fill the air so that the silence is not distracting and uncomfortable
- do this to make up for the lack of social cues

19. Ask people for predictions

- Quick formative assessment
- Every time you are about to do something, what's going to happen if you execute a partial command. do this progressively until built.
- A lot of people lie to you or to themselves. They say they understand when they don't .
- Hence: "What's going to happen next."

20. Use Breakout rooms

- this emulates peer instruction
- teacher asks a motivating questions (something more than factual recall)
- breakout into small groups
- teacher calls you back to clear up the misconceptions
- people should be able to opt out (maybe they're in the livingroom, at home, with kids.)

21. **Use the special zoom tools, later**

- use the white board later

22. **basic unit of teaching is the bladder**

- Take a break every hour
- Set your timer for 45 minutes because you will always go over.

23. Don't be afraid to experiment. Don't beat yourself up. Everybody is going through this together. Never been a better time to try new things. Your audience will never be more understanding.

brookfield and preskill: _The discussion book: 50 great ways to get people talking_

[slides for today](https://rstd.io/teach-online-2020)

| Person | URL |
|--|--|
|Jason Bell on remote Carpentry workshops | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzsJyOkxqv8 |
| Elizabeth Wickes’ tips for online teaching | https://elizabethwickes.com/2020/03/12/tips-for-live-teaching-tech-online-deeply-informed-by-the-carpentries/ |
| RStudio community teaching discussion | https://community.rstudio.com/c/teaching/13 |
| Laura Czerniewicz: “What we Learned from Going Online” | https://philonedtech.com/what-we-learnt-from-going-online-during-university-shutdowns-in-south-africa/ |
| Tips from the Carpentries | https://carpentries.org/blog/2020/03/tips-for-teaching-online/ |