BONUS | Wendy Tietz - Leading Online Learning

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


Mitch: (00:05)


Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. As we've said in
previous episodes, IMA is here to support the profession through
a variety of resources to keep management accountants connected
during this time and a portion of our profession that has been
significantly impacted by the movement to remote work due to the
Coronavirus is the accounting academics. Yesterday, as of the
release of this episode, I may presented a webinar on tips and
strategies for effective online education. To further meet the
needs of our members and our extended listeners. We would now
like to share this bonus podcast, episode four leading remote
learning and managing online students. Adam spoke with Wendy
Teitz about what can be done to better transition and in-person
curriculum to an online one and facilitate these online classes.
Wendy is an accounting professor at Kent state university and a
veteran to online teaching to help others who may not be. She
shared some very timely advice as she walked Adam through lessons
she's learned along the way. Let's head over to their
conversation now. 


 


Adam: (01:14)


Wendy, thanks so much for coming on today. We really appreciate
you coming onto the podcast. You've been a professor for a while
and you've taught classes in person and online and with the state
of the industry and everything that's happening with the pandemic
right now, a lot of professors are being thrown into, becoming
online professors now. And what advice would you give to somebody
just starting out? 


 


Wendy: (01:35)


Okay. I would tell them to take it slow, do a little bit at a
time. Right now it's a big order to say, oh, convert to online in
the next three days. So take it day by day. You'd know that
you're going to make mistakes. The big thing is to be flexible
with your students. Be flexible with yourself and know it's not
going to be the best experience for everyone. But that's okay. So
the primary concern is that we're all safe and healthy and that
our students education continues. 


 


Adam: (02:10)


I think that's great. So I know each college probably has their,
has different technologies that using. What are some technologies
that you have used that have been successful for you? 


 


Wendy: (02:22)


Well, I have a large class. So before this pandemic hit, I was
teaching classes. I have between four and 600 students a
semester. And my students have the option to attend class in
person so they can in a traditional environment just like you
picture. But then I also have an option for students to attend
live online where they can see the screen, they can hear my
voice, there's a chat room and they can ask questions. So kind of
webinar style. And then the third option is they can view the
recording for the day and then answer the questions on the
recording. So I have done that for several years. So when the
order came to shut down, classes, I was probably impacted less
than anyone else because I have the infrastructure. So I have,
over the years I, I've developed the delivery online and
recording simultaneously. But I also do things like I do record
step by step tutorial videos so students can learn at their own
pace. I've also done, I do a variety with different social media.
so for a couple of years I did Snapchat where I would show
examples in real life of what we were studying in class. I've
done Instagram way back when. It was just beginning. I did
Facebook groups. and most recently I started at group me. And
this was in reaction to the pandemic that we're trying to reach
out to students because now no one has the social system that
they had before. So now I'm trying to reach students and make it
more personal experience because so much during the regular
semester you see students in person, you know that they're seeing
each other. They may be watching the class together in their dorm
lounge, but now everybody's their own little Island. But over the
years I've also used, I also use polling software and I can
continue to do that online. That's not an issue because I want
the students to engage with me. So my class is not simply
broadcasting videos but engaging with me and I'm using all those
resources that I can leverage into the class if there's a valid
reason for it. 


 


Adam: (04:45)


You know, I like the idea you mentioning of finding ways for the
students to connect to each other. Are there any other ways that
you're doing to kind of help create that community that the class
that the class usually creates for people create study groups and
they, they look at things together. What are some other ways that
you're helping that the, the class kind of build that
community? 


 


Wendy: (05:04)


Well, since the pandemic occurred, I did start the group may,
which is a mobile messaging platform. So I've had several
students join our group, me and that way they can ask me
questions faster and then I can reply and then they can find
other people in the class that maybe they want to form their own
electronic groups with. So I'm trying to facilitate that. I'm
also in, normally during the academic year, we have a chat room,
every class day and my graduate assistant monitors the chat room
and she will answer any questions. And during a regular time, non
pandemic, I always say keep the chatter down in the chat room. It
can only be on topic and because things were normal. But now that
everyone's all over, I have students all over the country now and
I feel like everyone's all by themselves. We are making a real
effort to in that chat room start asking students questions like,
how are you doing? Or where are you right now? What's happening
in your classes? So my graduate assistant has instructions to try
to chat with students and we're getting some success there. One
thing that started a conversation, the chat room was Monday, I
was talking about property, plant and equipment and I wanted to
show how land and a house are two different entities. And so I
put up a picture of this old Victorian house that happens to be
in the city of Kent and put it up and started talking. And all of
a sudden in the chat room, one of the students was saying, OMG,
OMG, OMG, that's my house and here, she lives there. So she
hadn't really talked much all semester, but now she's like, Oh
no, that's my health. That's where I live. I'm not there now. But
it was really interesting cause then other students start asking
and there was a conversation going. So we're trying to build the
sense of community even though halfway through the semester
everything changed. And then, another thing that I did is Monday,
Snapchat had a filter where the filter, I took a picture of my
cat cause who doesn't take pictures of cats. I took a picture of
my cat wanting to send a Snapchat to my children. And so the
filter was my work at home coworker and I thought, Oh that's
funny. So I thought, well let me give it a try, put it in my
slides for the day. And I introduced my cat to my students and
said, send me your own pet pictures so I can feature them. And I
got a bunch of pet picture between Monday and today. I just got
some pictures today and I continuing to get pictures. So that
seems to be a way that they're communicating with me. And every
time a student sends me a picture, they sent me a little note
about what's going on. So I'm hoping that's me to them, but I'm
hoping that I can be a little more personal for them. Then I feel
like we really have to work hard to make school feel more
personal than just this is my computer...