Adapting to Online Teaching
Here at Manhattan Prep, we’ve been offering online classes for more than a decade and have a deep bench of experience and ability when it comes to teaching online. Several of our instructors teach solely online and love it.
My problem? I’m not one of them.
Until last month, I taught almost exclusively in-person. That’s partly because there’s a strong market for in-person classes where I live, and partly because I prefer it to teaching online. I like being able to connect with students in-person and see students get to know and work with one another. There’s a rhythm to teaching in-person; a way of reading the room and facilitating a dynamic discussion that can feel like conducting an orchestra when it goes well. And I rely heavily on the ability to walk around the classroom, see a student’s work, and provide quick, individual feedback.
So when the call came to move online, my first reaction was panic. Could I provide my students with the same level of instruction online? How would I manage a virtual classroom and effectively teach at the same time? Did I even want to teach online?
A month into our brave new online teaching world, I can report that the answers to those questions are mostly positive. Here’s my advice to anyone feeling the way I did (and still sometimes do):
- Adjust your expectations. This isn’t to say lower your standards, but realize that teaching online is different from teaching in-person. There are some things (like walking around the classroom and looking over students’ shoulders) that you just won’t be able to do. You can, however, still ask questions. I’m finding that simply asking students what they found challenging can help fill gaps in what I can no longer see.
- Keep it simple. There are several really cool virtual teaching tools, like breakout rooms, that can help instructors up their online teaching game. And I hope to get comfortable using them one day. But for now, I stick to the basics:
- Screen sharing. Nothing fancy, yet. I share a presentation and use Zoom’s annotation tools to write on it when necessary.
- Chat. Students chat in their answers when prompted and use private chat to ask questions they’re not comfortable asking in front of the entire group. Chat is also helpful if students have issues with their microphone.
- Video. I stay on video the entire class and encourage my students to do the same. I’ve also found it helpful to stop screen sharing and just talk with the students using Zoom’s gallery view a few times per class. Gallery view creates a Brady Bunch style screen that allows everyone to see each other at once. (This is easiest to use if the class size is 20 or less.)
- Use books whenever possible. I still ask my students to bring their books to class, and during each class I try to give them at least one exercise in their books rather than on-screen. Watching them hunched over their books for a few minutes is a little reminiscent of class and a nice opportunity for them to take a break from staring at a screen.
- Be open with your students. At first, I felt pressure to appear totally at ease with teaching online. And not only am I pretty sure my students saw right through it, the pressure I put on myself also put pressure on them. The truth is that I’m still not completely comfortable teaching online and many students aren’t completely comfortable working online. And that’s ok.
- Remember you still know how to teach. This might seem obvious, but it’s also something I lost sight of for a bit. I needed to be reminded (by the amazing Ally Bell) that I still had the ability to help my students, even in a virtual format.
At the end of the day, there are strengths you bring to your teaching and your students no matter the format. Remind yourself what they are, keep the technology as simple as possible, and breathe. I’ll be doing the same.
Misti Duvall is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in New York, NY. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School and practiced environmental and human rights law for 10 years prior to joining Manhattan Prep. She teaches and provides one-on-one tutoring for the LSAT, trains new instructors, and has helped write curriculum for Manhattan Prep’s LSAT and TOEFL materials.