The whole of academia is metamorphosing into a virtual classroom in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Many educators plan to use Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate. I am worried that the increased traffic on those platforms will be a problem. With that in mind, I plan to use YouTube, WordPress, and my already existent D2L site (DesireToLearn). I use the blog because it’s more readable than D2L. I have more control over the layout and formatting.

I’ll use YouTube for lecture videos. D2L remains the hub for workshopping papers, handing in papers, returning feedback, and emailing.

The ways in which I teach online will vary based on whether the course is a composition course or literature course. For the latter, the lectures will be more involved, and discussion board assignments, organized around prompts, will follow the lectures. These assignments will close soon after the videos are posted, thus keeping students on schedule.

I guess I’ve had a variety of experiences creating presentations or performing with tech. I played in bands years ago, which required me to understand stage and sound. I also helped a professional videographer film a wedding and an opera. I have a sense of how a camera can be used–and lighting and position are everything. This Nikon D5300 will work well for video. This isn’t photography, so I went with a basic lens. I have some natural lighting, but there are ceiling lights, too. Film by day or night.

For teaching videos, I realized that I’m less interested in post-production editing than in trying to create an authentic classroom-like experience. Today, after buying groceries in preparation for holing up, I picked up a dry-erase board.

I figured that, if I set the camera up right, I can illustrate points in the old-school tradition. I also can use my iPad, showing it before the camera, to provide basic instructions about how to use my blog. I have a century-old office chair to wheel around in as I shift from lecturing to other activities.

This is all about illusion, not to create some glossy, polished video, but to create the feeling of an organic classroom. To my mind, it is much like typing on a typewriter. Making little mistakes along the way will, I hope, poke a hole through the experience of passive digital consumption. Since I’m new to this, there will be plenty of typos. I am sure my approach will evolve over time, but I like a digital experience that simulates what is best in the analog world.