NAVIGATING TOOLS/TECHNIQUES FOR STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
By Maya El Kortbawi With the abrupt shift from in-person to online teaching, we, teaching assistants (TAs), found ourselves in an unprecedented situation for which we were not prepared, not only because classes moved online but also because teaching in a pandemic has a completely different dynamic! While most of us wished we had received some sort of training (e.g. how to use online platforms and tools, how to deal with the psychological effects of a pandemic on students’ learning, etc…), we all had to cope with the current situation overnight. TAs recurred to a trial-and-error process where tools and techniques were sought for engaging students in the online environment. Despite the barriers brought by the online environment (e.g. distractions at home, technology failure, lack of direct communication between TA and students, absence of hands-on activities in lab/demo classes, etc…), the goal was to minimize its disruption of our students’ education and focus on its advantages (e.g.