SJSU Spring 2020: The One with the Global Pandemic

Main thing to remember

As the Provost wrote in a recent email, “I would encourage you to think really hard about what
requirements are essential to demonstrate competence in your subject areas. This is not to
suggest that you ‘water down’ your material; it is to acknowledge that this is a very unique time
and we have to temper our expectations with what is possible.” Tl;dr: We’re doing the best we
can in the time we have to provide essential support and education. That’s our goal now.

Important things to focus on

1) Maintain connection with students: Uncertainty makes people anxious. You can
mitigate some of the anxiety by being in touch, being reliable, being calm, staying
connected, communicating. Send emails, make videos, share memes. Social distancing
makes people feel distant. Part of your job is to stay emotionally and intellectually close
even though you’re physically distant. One way to do this is to tell students what you’re
doing and why you’re doing it.
2) Dial back expectations: What you teach is important, but it is (obviously) not the MOST
important thing students are dealing with right now. You DO NOT need to make the
online version of your class replicate your face-to-face class. Online teaching can be
wonderful, engaging, and consequential. But it takes time, support, and preparation. We
don’t have enough of any of those at the moment. We’re in crisis mode. Do what you
can, don’t worry about what you can’t.
 3) Shoot for consistency: There are endless options available to you. Choose a couple. I
said, A COUPLE! At most! Use them over and over again. This means technology tools,
but also assignment sequences, activities, and communication strategies. This isn’t the
time to be experimenting wildly. If you’re going to meet synchronously, keep the
schedule. If you’re going to meet asynchronously, keep the pattern. If you want to add
small flourishes to keep people engaged, great, but overall you should try to keep things
as predictable as possible.
4) Take care of yourselves: You’re managing anxieties (yours and other people’s); you’re
managing logistics; you’re being asked to do a lot of stuff, very quickly, for which you
have very little training. Those are the circumstances. It will be easy to get overwhelmed,
but that’s not great for anyone. So make sure you give yourself time to process, deal,
decompress.

Some links with information about migrating online

In the past few weeks, there have been A LOT of resources shared in A LOT of places. You can’t
read them all. You shouldn’t try. Below are a few links that I’ve found helpful for thinking about
moving online quickly in a crisis. Most of them are short, but they have additional links. Take in
what’s useful, ignore everything else. In a separate section, I’ll post more stuff that’s useful for
thinking about best practices in online teaching should you choose to do that in the future
under different (hopefully better) circumstances. But you don’t have to do that now. For now,
we’re keeping expectations low.

● Moving to Online Courses | English SJSU

● Remote Teaching Options | SJSU eCampus
● Assay Journal | Rapid Response Pedagogy Resources: Moving Your Courses Online
● Teaching in the Context of COVID-19
● Chronicle of Higher Education | Going Online in a Hurry: What to Do and Where to Start
● Stanford Academic Technology | Teaching Effectively During Times of Disruption
● Stanford Teaching Commons | Designing Effective Discussion Questions
● Stanford | Teach Anywhere

Some resources other people have found useful

If you’ve got some stuff you’ve found that people might find useful for retooling in a crisis, email
them to me and I’ll add them here.

● Tips for a Successful Virtual Class Meeting (Jess Mejia)

● Hypothes.is Quick Start Guides (Alayna Mills)
 ○ For teachers: https://web.hypothes.is/quick-start-guide/
○ Setting up groups: https://web.hypothes.is/creating-groups/
○ For students: https://web.hypothes.is/quick-start-guide-for-students/
● Global Society of Online Literacy Educators - crisis support for migrating/transitioning
courses online
○ The Just In Time Hub is a gateway to our various resources, including those
below as well as excellent written materials to help you think through course
conversion/migration; we’ll be updating with other materials on the fly:
www.glosole.org/justintime.html
○ Just Ask GSOLE provides a direct link to discussion forums moderated by GSOLE
online writing/literacy instruction experts who can answer your specific
questions: www.glosole.org/justaskgsole.html
○ Walk-In Webinars is a direct link to live Zoom sessions hosted by GSOLE
members; the schedule of facilitators is listed there along with specific topics:
www.glosole.org/walkinwebinars.html
○ If you have questions, please direct them to JustAskGSOLE@glosole.org. You can
also follow GSOLE on twitter @gsoleducators for updates on GSOLE's efforts and
visit our general website at www.glosole.org for other material and information.
● Moving Classes Online on Short Notice: Some Strategies (Karl Stolley, Illinois Institute of
Technology)
● Tips for Moving Online (Pat Gehrke, University of South Carolina)

Some resources for best practices in online teaching

Don’t read these now. Seriously, you have other stuff to do. Go away. Do that other stuff. Come
back here later when you have some time and headspace.

● CCCC Position Statement of Principles and Example Effective Practices for Online Writing
Instruction (OWI) https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/owiprinciples
● Global Society of Online Literacy Educators' "Online Literacy Instruction Principles and
Tenets" https://www.glosole.org/oli-principles.html
● Bedford Bibliography of Research in Online Writing Instruction (Updated 2019)
https://community.macmillan.com/docs/DOC-5039-the-bedford-bibliography-of-researc
h-in-online-writing-instruction-updated-2019
● The OWI Community http://www.owicommunity.org/
● Personal, Accessible, Responsive, Strategic: Resources and Strategies for Online Writing
Instructors
By Jessie Borgman and Casey McArdle
https://wac.colostate.edu/books/practice/pars/
 ● Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction
Edited by Beth L. Hewett and Kevin Eric DePew
https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/owi/

Links to readings, assignments, etc.

● https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/608209/toilet-paper-shortage/
● https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/coronavirus-touching.html
● https://www.youtube.com/user/FitnessBlender/search?query=1000
● https://fstoppers.com/originals/it-okay-not-be-productive-during-covid-19-down-time-4
67451

● Cancelling dorms: 
https://www.housing.sjsu.edu/docs/COVID19Cancellation.pdf
● https://medium.com/@markcmarino/dangerous-pedagogy-preoccupied-prewriting-part
-2-10fe9575a5ca