Education: Online Instruction
As the coronavirus outbreak forces more and more educational institutions and libraries into an all-inclusive virtual environment, how do health sciences librarians adapt, especially when transitioning services and classes to a virtual platform? Thankfully, many libraries have technological services that include a chat feature in addition, of course, to online books and journals. Though far from ideal, chat applications allow the librarian to make contact outside physical library spaces. Chatting can, however, be an impediment when assisting patrons who are less than savvy technologically.
As with all technology, chat systems come with certain strengths and certain weaknesses, certain ups and certain downs―like online audio/video hosting services that often include screen-sharing capabilities. Such innovations can be a boon to librarians who are working remotely and serve as a means of projecting image and voice into digital spaces for true real-time experiences. But what about curriculum development? How does one transition classroom instruction to the online realm and do so rapidly? Some things to consider going in:
- How can instruction best be tailored for online delivery? Are textbooks enough? Can the core course information be covered in an online format via slide shows, videos, and assigned readings?
- Who are the instructors, and how can they provide essential support to online pupils?
- How can students easily turn in course work and access important course information? Is a virtual teaching platform available? If no teaching platform currently exists, can a LibGuide or a web page be dedicated to the course and serve as a repository for course materials and/or documents?
- Is a sample group of pseudo-students available to test the platform and the corresponding curriculum? Can the platform handle the student load? More importantly, can the platform be shared outside the enrollment group and thus translate into an unfair advantage to a segment of future participants? Under the aforementioned circumstances, can the playing field somehow be made level and just?
To help jump-start the transition from traditional to Internet-based instruction, Duke Learning Innovation: Great Online Course Design Resources offers a cornucopia of texts to direct and to inspire online course development. Meanwhile, Mesa Community College Center for Teaching and Learning: Designing an Online Course offers up a host of helpful information in the form of a web guide that tenders this sage advice: Refrain from forcefully molding existing traditional teaching curricula into online content. Among the challenges and tenets highlighted by the Mesa Community College guide is “active learning.” The guide stresses quality exchanges between instructors and students as well as the importance of engaging and immersing students vitally into the learning process.
Another possible avenue of interest concerning online course delivery and options is the availability and applicability of open educational resources (OERs). EDUCAUSE: Open Educational Resources (OERs) provides background on OERs as well as some OER resources. Then there is the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (DO-IT) Center: 20 Tips for Teaching an Accessible Online Course, which offers advice on making online courses as user-friendly as possible to a wide range of students.
In conclusion, don’t let remote instruction get you down. Check out these and other online resources. Teaching outside the norm can be challenging―not to mention sometimes humbling―but it can also be a lot of fun to take the classroom to the Internet. Opportunities abound to inform and to serve students outside traditional teaching structures.