How we teach in the new normal class in the higher education

It was last year March 2020, that face-to-face classes had started to be suspended because of the novel coronavirus. The higher education and the department of education in the Philippines started the new normal class between August to October 2020.

Being in the higher education, we are mandated to have a flexible teaching strategy in which we could cater students who have access to online classes and to those who do not have. So we need to prepare for both by having online engagements and preparing and printing modules.

I am a faculty in a higher education which is located in a province where there is an unstable internet connection and not all students have laptops or smartphones, these are really challenging for us. So what we usually do in our classes? I'm going to share the actual activities that we usually do, it's not necessary that its sequentially done, sometimes we do those in parallel.

1.Connect/Communicate with the students. The very first task that we do after we received the class list for the semester is to find ways on how to connect with our students. We create Facebook groups, and messenger groups and invite students to be in and advise them to invite others as well. This time, we appreciate the use of social media apps because most of the students are active in using those.

2.Make orientation and announcements. Once students are IN in the social media groups, we make announcements on what are the next steps they are going to undertake for our classes. We make orientations through Facebook live though our private group. We orient them with our syllabus, the lessons that we will have, grading system, policies on submission, resources and also the tools that we will be using for the class.

3.Enroll students in the Learning Management System(LMS). LMS is a platform that allows interaction between students and teachers. We upload our lessons, quizzes, assignments in the LMS and students can be able to see them and they can also submit their answers. For the students to have access to the LMS, they need to be enrolled, so we give them the class codes for self enrolment and check if all are enrolled in the class. I am using Canvas free for Teachers LMS because its free and easy to use and follow through.

4.Upload Resources in the LMS. The resources and instructional materials that we have will be uploaded to the LMS for the students to download. Materials includes books, PowerPoint presentations, videos and other relevant files.

5.Print and Distribute Modules. For those students who do not have access to the internet and request for modules, we print modules for them and distribute it to them through pick up points like our school guard house.

6.Conduct Online Classes. For the conduct of online classes, we make announcements/schedules first before the class so that students can prepare for the meeting. I used Google Meet and Zoom for my online class. I am only scheduling an online class once a week for a specific class. What we usually do in online class are delivering important points of the uploaded lessons, making follow-ups of the student submissions and this is the time that students can ask questions about the lesson.

7.Record videos for Lessons. We also do video recording for lessons and upload it to the LMS. The advantages of having video lessons is that students can download it and they can watch it in their own pacing and they can play it back when necessary.

8.Give Assessments to Students. To assess the learning of the students we give assessments to them. It could be in the form of quiz, assignments and performance tasks. I love to do performance tasks through video for my students because I can see the authenticity and efforts in their answers. The assessment responses are submitted through the LMS or by email or through the pick-up-points for those who chose modules.

9.Check and Give Feedback to assessments. This is one of the most important activity, the checking and giving of feedback because this is the part where you know if they really understand your lessons and they will know as well if they're doing things right. We give badges to those who perform well and for those who did not follow instructions, - we ask them for resubmission and for those, who did not do well, we give them encouragement to do better next time.

10.Entertain Consultations and Queries. For students who have personal inquiries about the lessons, we have consultation hours. But sometimes or most of the times, the consultation hours are not followed because everytime questions came in through LMS or our personal accounts, we see to it that we can answer them.

So those are the usual things that we do. It sounds perfect and smooth sailing... but, in the process, we have difficulties and challenges too. Now, what are the difficulties that we encountered along the way?

• Slow and unstable internet connection. I cannot even recall how many times have I tried an online class that I am disconnected with my students and when I came back, I can still hear them say "Asa na si Ma'am?" - Where's Ma'am? There are times that I ask a student to recite but I cannot understand him/her because of choppy connection.

• Unable to connect to students. There are really students that we cannot easily reach out. Some of their classmates would say, the student has no connection, not active in social media. Worst thing is they will be connecting in the time that you have already submitted a grade and they have a mark of INC or incomplete. I don't know if this is teacher factor or student factor.

• Students cannot attend to online class. Eventhough online classes are announced ahead, there are still students who do not attend online classes. Some reasons are no internet connection, or they are not able to read the announcement. What we usually do in this kind of situations is have a record of the online class and upload it for reference.

• Students not submitting requirements on time. There are deadlines for assignments so that proper feedback will also be given, but there students who are not submitting on time. Reasons are: they don't have stable connection, they don't have a resources and more. It is our desire that we can check their requirements regularly so that we an also submit grades on time.

Those are just few of the difficulties that I can name this time. But whatever it may be, I know Filipinos are resilient and can find ways to solve problems. In this time which #welearnasone hashtag is always use, it's not the students who are the only ones who are learning, it's also us faculty. We learn new things everyday like what are the tools for online learning and how to use them. One thing I can assure of, I will always be committed to my call and passion of teaching.

Let me know your thoughts about this article. I would really love read your comments too.

@MizLhaine

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