The new semester always brings changes, but this one under the cloud of the Covid-19 pandemic is surely the one with the most changes even since I graduated from Graduate School and started teaching full time.
Almost all the universities in Japan have opened the semester now, and they are being run under a variety of methods and combinations of methods.
Some universities are having online only, and no real time classes, while others are having online classes with real time meetings, and some are doing a mixture of both.
This means there has been a scramble to get materials together and make them presentable and usable in an online format.
It also means that there are a lot of different ways the classes are being delivered.
I am sure I’ll be an expert by the end of the semester, and I feel a little sad that all the things I’m learning so enthusiastically now (Yes, I just dove in, took courses, joined groups, sat in my office till all hours learning to use Teams, and Zoom, and extra functions of the standards from Microsoft.)
I am staying ahead – barely, for now, and that’s a pretty good feeling.
It sounds like bragging, but I’m pretty good in front of a class with a whiteboard and an eager group.
It has been a little difficult to turn up, and keep up the energy shooting stand ups for the classes and not meeting in person.
Tags: online classes, teaching in Japan, teaching online, university classes online