Welcome to Asynchronicity!

The Art of Teaching Online

Welcome!

I am Jennifer Helton, a professor of history in the nation’s largest (and in my opinion, most awesome) higher ed system, the California Community Colleges. I have been blessed to spend my entire career teaching in this system. Its values are my values - the CCCs are open access, low cost, engines of opportunity. Education is the foundation of democracy, and our mission of providing affordable, quality instruction to anyone who walks in the door (or, nowadays, logs in to our system) is necessary. And perhaps even radical.

What is Asynchronicity about?

I am passionate about quality online instruction. I taught my first online class WAY back in the year 2000, when Learning Management Systems were not a thing. I had to learn Dreamweaver and figure out cascading style sheets and all kinds of crazy stuff which I am grateful to have now forgotten. Thank you for existing, Instructure!

Since the pandemic, online instruction has exploded. Instructors who had never even thought about teaching online had to become experts overnight. Teachers were suddenly trying to bend apps to do things they were never intended to do. I love Zoom, but I’m pretty sure its creators never meant for elementary school kids to spend six hours a day on it.

A lot of new stuff was tried. Some of it worked. A lot didn’t.

But there’s no doubt that the pandemic changed education forever. A lot of students like learning online. And for many people - working adults, folks in rural areas, high school students who want to get a head start on college - online education is more accessible than in-person instruction.

So online instruction is here to stay. The question is how to do it well. What does GOOD online teaching look like?

The Art of Teaching Online? What’s that?

Teaching is about human connection. In the case of my field, history, we are delving into the deepest questions about what it means to be human, to live in a society, and how to treat our fellow human beings. In the tremendously diverse classrooms in which higher ed professionals operate, our students’ perspectives and values around those issues can vary widely. I want my students to learn to think critically, engage deeply with diverse perspectives, and challenge their own and other’s values.

This is an art, not a science.

So this newsletter is not primarily about the latest research on best practices (though there will be some of that). It is not about building a class to comply with institutional rubrics (though that is often mandatory, and sometimes useful). Nor is it about the shiniest new tech (though I love shiny new tech). It is about how instructors can develop online communities in which students feel safe to explore the deepest mysteries of human knowledge and experience.

Because at the end of the day, that’s what teaching is.

I hope you will join me on this journey. I am hoping to post every week, but this is my first Substack, so honestly, let’s see how it goes!

Though I am a humanities instructor in higher ed, I hope this can be useful for teachers in any setting (K-12 welcome!), or teaching any subject. If there’s a topic you would like to see me cover, or a teaching challenge you would like to see discussed, drop a line in the comments!