Making a Move

After some thought, I decided I wanted to try online teaching. I have been in the process of creating an Online version of my World Literature class. I attended a training for online teachers, and I am waiting to hear if my class has been approved. If so, I will teach one section online in the Fall.

I'm not sure how I feel about online learning, which is one of the reasons I decided to try this out. My university encourages teachers to try online pedagogy, and I don't want to get left behind if that's what I will be expected to do at this job. But I actually love being in the classroom. I am a goofy, passionate teacher that thrives on reading aloud, ad-libbing my lectures, and student discussions. I don't know how I will translate this approach to an online environment where, for now, my lectures are written into prose. I'm trying to figure out how to balance my online ethos (am I sounding too harsh? Should I use more "smileys" to soften my tone?). I'm also wondering if learning literature online is really the best for students. I don't know that reading in isolation and just posting to discussion boards can open up the text for them in the way a synchronous class discussion does.

For now, I'm thinking of this as an experiment that will give me some benefits in the Fall. One of the best incentives, since I teach five classes, is that I won't have to have back-to-back lectures all day. The online world will at least give me some much needed breathing room. From there, I'll just have to see how it goes!