Exploring Darby and Lang’s “Small Teaching Online”
By Tomeka Wilcher
Teaching online is no easy task. It takes constant strategic planning and reflection to create a course that presents and breaks down the information similarly to how it would be taught in a traditional classroom. Not only must we think of how to structure the information and provide feedback, but we must also consider how we build and sustain relationships with our students and how we help students build relationships with their classmates. Instructors feel immense pressure to ensure a learning experience that is interactive and multimodal, culturally responsive, visually appealing, logically sequenced, and supports the learning modalities and styles of each student. This can be overwhelming, but it can be accomplished over time.
COVID-19 rapidly pushed many instructors into unchartered territory as they transitioned from the traditional classroom to the online learning experience. As instructors continue to go through this change, many of them ask, "How does this lesson or activity translate within the online classroom?" and "What changes do I need to make to ensure clarity and reduce confusion?" In the book Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes, instructional designer Flower Darby and Professor of English James M. Lang provide practical yet powerful pedagogical strategies that can be embedded within an online course and gradually transform the online environment into a genuine learning space.
Darby and Lang (2019) begin with how to design the online classroom using the backward-design approach. They provide best practices, strategies, and resources on the essential components needed to ensure an engaging online classroom. If instructors want guidance on how to incorporate media and technology tools; build community; give meaningful feedback; foster an inclusive and culturally responsive environment; and produce students who are motivated, resilient, and persistent, Small Teaching Online is the blueprint. It can help in developing the course, the student, and the instructor.
Although many instructors are experiencing online teaching for the first time and at times may feel defeated, it is an opportunity to grow as well as restructure and reflect. Transitioning from the traditional classroom to the online classroom is a gradual process, but this practice will equip instructors with the necessary tools as education evolves. Darby and Lang (2019) state, "Embrace the unique opportunity we have not only to improve this new modality but to improve equity and access for a newly diverse population of learners" (p. 219).
To enhance your online instruction, on May 11 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. the Center for Faculty Development will offer a Zoom workshop, Small Teaching Online, with Drs. Annette Finley-Croswhite, Tomeka Wilcher, and Kevin DePew, associate professor of English. They'll discuss key strategies, including backward design. Connect using the information below.
Join Zoom Meeting: https://odu.zoom.us/j/96913957501
Meeting ID: 969 1395 7501
Password: 274604
