"We always have to consider of How we can learn on the fly to become better instructors, working in the online environment"

May 5, 2020

AUCA Professor, co-Chair of General Education department, and Director of Undergraduate Core Curriculum and College Writing Nicholas Walmsley shares his view on remote teaching, based on his expertise.

"I have experienced distance learning while working in Al-Quds Bard, so I’ve been able to transfer some of the skills and practices in teaching online. The main lesson that I’ve learned from distance learning was that classes move more slowly with remote learning. I often have to reduce the amount of material that I hope to cover during the session. Sometimes, it can be impossible to talk to the students or have a reliable video connection because of circumstances such as technical problems or internet provision for students whether they are in Bishkek or back to their home villages and other cities of Kyrgyzstan. So, I use modules on the AUCA e-course platform, entering questions in form function and asking students to write responses there. Then I could read their replies and have a constructive discussion around that. It also helps, since a lot of my course materials are already on the e-course platform from the beginning of the semester. In that sense, it hasn’t been a lot of change in terms of the online foundation of the course.

The real issue now is to create a different kind of connection with students in the synchronous environment during our regular meeting time. It is quite challenging to create a dynamic where you feel students are engaged, and you have a good discussion with good responses.

Overall, the experience in teaching online is not entirely a new one to me, but the circumstances are new, as they are for everyone.

We always have to consider of How we can learn on the fly to become better instructors, working in the online environment, and How students can learn effectively and properly, so they still would feel getting a high-quality education because this is what they want."

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