COVID & me
par Ghada Gad
1. Opportunities
1.1. Immune system is stronger after recovery. I feel it
1.2. Creative Online learning opportunities
1.3. But once I figure out how the system works, its actually a good opportunity to reorganize my classes and learn the technology.
1.4. No drive time...so we might have some extra time to do team building
1.5. Companies are busy...they still need students....develop a way to provide funding
1.6. Something we always take it granted is no longer true, COVID made me realize how good of a life I have once again! Just like eating out in an open space after 3 months strictly stay at home, I almost wanted to cry. lol.
1.7. Learn something new
1.8. Strengthen relationships
1.9. We should create a geocache/survey of engineering stuff near our home that we can use for teaching
1.10. Use saved driving time to exercise, no more excuses.
1.11. Engage students through breakout rooms for team building
1.12. Offer space for less vocal students get to speak up more
1.13. Connecting with people further away virtually
1.14. Bring in Awesome Guest Speakers for free/cheap
1.15. Work from home = save gas = Christmas Bonus!
1.16. Improve class material, as we need to change it anyway to adapt to virtual
1.17. Virtual instruction can provide quality control for teaching multiple sections of a single course.
1.18. record lectures, easy research collaboration, flexibility bringing speakers, notes into digital format
2. Funny Things
2.1. My son zoomed into meetings and sang with me!
2.2. I don't realize until now that my neighborhood has all kinds of survey monuments until I ran around my neighborhood.
2.3. I am in better shape since I eat better and work out with my kiddos
2.4. Time with my adorable (?) family
2.5. No shaving is needed as I always cover with a face mask
2.6. No need to purchase new dress shoes - No church/parties to attend
2.7. Cultivate hobbies
3. GROUP 1
4. Threats
4.1. Budget cuts and setting priorities
4.1.1. Priorities that are not aligned to students. Such as budget cuts to teaching and learning.
4.1.2. Larger class sizes
4.2. New environment for teaching in Higher Education
4.3. Kens and Karens
4.4. Future...even when we are face to face...university will want us to continue increasing class size beyond room capacity and some can choose to be enrolled via zoom.
5. Challenges
5.1. I got COVID-19 during June
5.2. Virtual instruction is a steep learning curve and with NO time (2 days maybe?!) to set up
5.3. Staying at home was challenging at the beginning
5.3.1. Building Rapport with my summer students
5.4. Mental heath...seeing everyones face.
5.5. Kids home schooling is a big challenge!
5.6. Nightmares about FTES. Waking up 2am and thinking about FTES
5.7. Last time I taught online was 6 yrs ago
5.8. How to design exams for students
5.8.1. Learning new tools!
5.9. Getting groceries in March
5.10. Going from face to face to virtual in less than 48 hours
5.11. Exams online!!
5.12. ONline learning
5.13. Connection with Students
5.14. I do not feel any interaction with students even if I try to connect with students through zoom during class.
5.15. Not having access to all the cool tools of campus (3D Printers, Laser Cutters, Wood Working Equpiment)
5.16. Lab class, just not effective.
5.17. Too many emails and random meetings with students
5.18. My jokes in online do not work well.
5.19. Missing the eye contacts in class
5.20. Maintain student engagements
5.21. Deliver tests effectively
5.22. eyes issues , cant get the 10K steps, get students attending the class or office hours, pre-requisites need to be checked for each students, no field trips possible
6. This academic year
6.1. Will be full of learning opportunities
6.2. No driving at all!!
6.3. Keep students engaged and present. Developing unique ways to teach them
6.4. Protecting persons who thought SARS-2 was less aggressive than Influenza
7. Goals
7.1. Create something Each Month
7.1.1. Design/Build a new Light Fixture
7.1.2. Create a Computer dock for my home laptop/work center.