“Please do a bad job of putting your course online.”

Wise words from Arkansas State sociology professor Rebecca Barrett-Fox. At my college, we have been encouraged to prepare for a closure by putting our courses online, but our dean also sent this link to temper fears that we are being asked to transform our face-to-face classes to be online ones. I have the basic stuff on Moodle, and that will have to do if we are shut down before the semester ends. I’ve made all my students (except my literacy level students) well aware from the beginning of the semester that they need to be on Moodle and need to know how to access it, but I also know not all of them have a computer at home, or access to the internet.

Please do a bad job of putting your course online.

I’m absolutely serious.

For my colleagues who are now being instructed to put some or all of the remainder of their semester online, now is a time to do a poor job of it. You are NOT building an online class. You are NOT teaching students who can be expected to be ready to learn online. And, most importantly, your class is NOT the highest priority of their OR your life right now. Release yourself from high expectations right now, because that’s the best way to help your students learn.

If you are getting sucked into the pedagogy of online learning or just now discovering that there are some pretty awesome tools out there to support student online, stop. Stop now. Ask yourself: Do I really care about this? (Probably not, or else you would have explored it earlier.) Or am I trying to prove that I’m a team player? (You are, and don’t let your university exploit that.) Or I am trying to soothe myself in the face of a pandemic by doing something that makes life feel normal? (If you are, stop and instead put your energy to better use, like by protesting in favor of eviction freezes or packing up sacks of groceries for kids who won’t get meals because public schools are closing.)

Rebecca Barrett-Fox (Any Good Thing)