This year has been long. Longer due to do the fact that we miss our students, classrooms, colleagues, and campus in person rather than through screens. While we’re waiting to hear the particulars of fall, we’re holding out hope that we’ll be able to return to in person collaboration soon. Our final discussion centered on Darby’s reflection of online and our own reflections of what we bring back with us when we return to campus.
The things that we want to keep are being selective about student work and giving them less work. We also want to keep the videos we’ve made and think about how to carefully use them out of the classroom and then include more active learning, workshops, and group work when we meet synchronously. We also discussed how online allows for more accessibility in the classroom and keeping detailed instructions as well as having audio or using text to speech helps students find other ways to access material. The online environment also allows for more people to participate and finding ways to include that when we return to classrooms so more voices can be heard.
Even though this year has been challenging, the FLC has been a bright spot and a place for colleagues to still collaborate. We’re planning for next year and starting to think about what will be the most helpful as we return.