(upbeat music)
- [Audio Clip] In day to
day trenches of adult life,
there is actually no
such thing as atheism,
there is no such thing as not worshiping.
- [Audio Clip] You have to believe things
because you just don't know everything,
so you have to believe
things, they fill in the gaps.
- [Student] Yes Dr. Wesch, yes classmates,
I believe.
- Belief, which we make
such a fuss about today
is only a very recent
religious enthusiasm.
- [Student] Hey, God of the
universe, if you're out there,
whoever you are, I wanna find you,
'cause I don't wanna be wrong about this.
- Hey class, welcome to
introduction to world religions.
Find it a little weird
looking at a camera,
rather than being in the classroom,
but I also think we can
make this kind of amazing.
I think there's a lot of things we can do
that you can't do in the classroom.
And I actually think we're
gonna do this better.
That took longer than I thought it would.
So you're gonna teach online.
And if you're like I was,
you might not want to.
I mean, the joy of teaching
is in the classroom.
You might worry about the
quality of online education
and you hate the idea
of talking via camera.
But on the upside,
you don't have to wear pants.
You only have to keep
half your office clean
and only a small fraction of what you say
has to make any sense at
all, you can cut the rest.
But, in all seriousness,
it can be difficult
to find examples of how to do it,
how to do it really well.
Fortunately, for me,
I've had the help of
experienced colleagues,
like Ryan Klataske, Laura Widenor,
and Trina McCarty to help me out.
But it just seems like we don't
share enough of what we do,
so I wanna share with you
what I've come up with
in hopes that maybe you'll share with me
what you've come up with
and we can all start teaching
online a little bit better.
So let me take you over to a computer
and let's get started.
All right, so let me give
you a tour of my class
and I'll give you 10 tips of building
your best online class ever.
Tip number one, simplify the structure.
One of the most revolutionary
things you can do
is also the simplest,
consider each and every
link your students sees.
This is what my class used to look like.
And when I asked myself,
Do my students need all of these links
"or they just add confusion?"
When they have an assignment,
will they look under
Pages, Assignments, Files?
When they want to discuss something,
will the go to Discussions,
Conferences, Collaborations or Chat?
There's a little bit
too much confusion here
and students might not always
know where to find the things
that they need, so I went
to go with a completely
minimalist menu system.
So here's what my class looks like now.
You can see there's actually
nothing over here in the menu,
other than a simple toggle
between grades and home.
So over here I've built all of the modules
and it creates a clear linear
path through the material.
The big upside of this is that
it becomes mobile friendly,
without a left menu, the mobile experience
matches the desktop experience
and students can quickly
navigate forward and backward
through the material,
confident that they're
not missing anything.
I also built simplicity and
consistency into the modules,
so every week, students know there will be
two to three hours of readings,
followed by a quiz, two
discussions and an activity.
Three things due every Sunday at midnight,
same three things every week.
Every module, every week is the same
in this basic structure.
Most importantly, this
consistency and simplicity
ensures that they spend less time
asking administrative questions like,
"When is this due?" and "Where
do I find this reading?",
and more time dwelling
to the deep questions
relevant to their intellectual growth.
Tip two, first impressions matter.
Get them excited and ready to engage
with these deep questions
right from the beginning.
I like to set the tone
with a course trailer
or a short video, that embodies
the core ideas and questions
that we will be pursuing in the class.
- [Video Clip] There is no
such thing as not worshiping.
Everybody worships.
The only choice we get is what to worship.
Tip three, justify your decisions.
Let them know that you care
by going over the syllabus
and let them know that there are reasons
for the decisions you made
and that you really care about the class.
Be welcoming.
This is my office here, it's open to you
every day at 2:30 we can do a Zoom meeting
or a Skype meeting, whatever you wanna do.
Tell them why you chose this textbook,
"God is Not One", by Stephen Prothero.
This was actually a pretty
tough decision, as you see,
I love books and there're
a lot of books out there.
This was a close second.
And justify your grading system.
These three domains actually represent
the three main goals of the class.
You wanna send the message
that you're on their side
but you also have high standards
and these standards are
important, thoughtful,
intentional, fair and achievable.
Number four, build community
with video introductions.
I thought it'd be cool if we
all just uploaded a video,
to start things off, just a quick video
listing three things about yourself.
It doesn't have to be complex,
you can just grab your phone like this,
click the record button, record yourself
saying something to the phone,
just listing three things
that you love to do
and it's just that simple.
Three things that I love.
And you can keep these video introductions
at the top of your course
for access at any point.
Number five, consider having a
discussion about discussions.
This is where a lot of the
excitement of the class
is gonna happen, this is
where we're actually gonna
get to know each other,hash
out really big ideas.
Use this discussion to give
them a sense of ownership
over the ground rules for the discussions
that happen in class, this
is especially important
for sensitive topics like religion.
Number six, provide a weekly
overview in multiple formats.
I start by listing all
the most important ideas
I want them to know for the week.
I make this into a nice
PDF that they can print out
and take notes on.
Then I'll make a video,
reviewing the ideas.
There's basically 12 big ideas this week,
we're gonna go through each one.
So these were an absolute blast to make.
This is where I really discover
the joy of online teaching,
even if I don't feel totally comfortable
talking into the camera.
I don't know. Sorry, I lost
my train of thought again.
Sometimes it was just me
in front of the camera.
Hey class, welcome to
week five on Hinduism.
Sometimes I make mashups
using free video clips
from sites like Videvo.
How you define consciousness matters here,
but plants are conscious,
they're aware of their
environment, they have senses,
they're not like our senses.
Other weeks it was actually me
out in the world.
Are you excited Henry?
(upbeat music)
It's Ben.
We meet up with Ben Adams,
a former TA for this class
who now lives Vietnam.
We only puked like 30
times on the way here.
- Hey man.
- So maybe a trip to Vietnam
isn't in your itinerary,
but one of my favorite weeks
was just going down the street
to a new church here in town.
Ah you can already hear
the music going in there.
So let's go in and check it out.
I wanted to show my students
that religion is always changing
and that we can build strong friendships
with people who are different from us,
despite our religious differences.
We recognize that we're different.
And I'm sure that you're
about to save me some day.
- Uh, well, there's certain
ways you need to save me too
like getting me off my
rear to run. I mean, so-
If you're just hanging out
with people just like you,
you can't grow and you
can't stretch yourself.
Videos like this provide an overview
of the big ideas, frame
a few big questions
for us to explore, get
them excited to engage
with the material, demonstrate that I'm
learning too.
No no no no.
I have very little battery left
Number 7: Don't waste their time
If you can do something in
one hour, that will save each
of your students one hour, then do it
According to my students, one of the most
important things I do for them
is that I provide a master
MP3 of all materials,
So busy students can just download the MP3
and listen at their convenience.
- [Audio Clip] Everybody
worships. The only choice we get
is what to worship.
They can listen on their commute,
while they're working out,
or while they're working.
- [Audio Clip] In a
compelling reason for maybe
choosing some sort of god or spiritual
type thing to worship.
Be it JC or Allah, be it
Yahweh or the wick and mother goddess,
or the four noble truths,
or some inviolable
set of ethical principals,
is that pretty much
anything else you worship
will eat you alive.
Number 8: read to them
As part of the master
MP3 I read the material
to them. Alright class here we go,
God is not one by Stephen Prothero.
That rhymed. I didn't mean
for it to rhyme, but it did
This allows me to add commentary
and demonstrate how to engage
deeply with the material.
It also allows me to voice my
excitement for the material,
and how it impacts me. I
have had several students
tell me that they have never read
for class before, but now they enjoy
reading when they follow along with me.
Number nine: Respond
freely in unedited videos
Alright, so the first question is
Why are you running around
and doing dishes at the
beginning of the video?
Well, the main reason is I just wanna
show you guys how you can actually
take this class. I wanna
show you that you can
work it into your life. And not only that
but you can work learning into your life.
You don't have to make
amazing videos to connect.
Just turn on the camera, and be yourself.
They love it. That said,
don't waste their time.
Make sure you edit out any dead spots and
leave relevant material and
keep it short and to the point.
Number 10: Give them a space
to get anonymous feedback
and make adjustments as needed.
This is essential. No class is perfect
and all students and
classes are different.
One of the biggest problems was that
the discussions were
just a little too much.
Alright, that's all I
have for now. Quick news,
I will be traveling to
Vietnam, India, and Thailand
coming up here in December. I'll be gone
for about four months. If
any of you are in those
countries, or have friends
who are in those countries,
please connect with me I
would love to collaborate.
I'll actually be making
videos for this class
as well as my other classes.
Thank you for watching to the end.
I hope to see some of your
ideas for teaching online
in the comments below or maybe
you can post your own
video. I really think
We all need to start sharing
more of what we're doing
and we can all get better at this.
Alright, thanks a lot. Go out there and
make a great class.
