Moving From Emergency Remote Teaching to Best Practices in Online Courses in a College of Education
Abstract: With the advent of COVID-19 in March of 2020, universities across the U.S. were abruptly closed and faculties were given approximately a week to convert their courses to an online format. This paper describes the approach used by the College of Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia to ensure that all faculty had the minimal level of technology competence necessary to quickly convert their courses to an online delivery format and begin teaching online on March 23, 2020. An online faculty training course, COE Online Learning, was created to provide technology training that addressed 3 experience levels when using WebEx and Canvas. The course was made available on March 15th and was augmented with weekly WebEx meetings and email support. At semester’s end, the faculty was surveyed on their online experiences, technology challenges, and their satisfaction with the support they received. Technology challenges and lessons learned are discussed.