Changes in Teacher-student relationship

I have realized that some students who were shy during in-person sessions, thrived in the online space. However, this is true only for those student groups that I have taught before Covid and I already know them. The most difficult thing was when I had to do an online course with a new group of students with whom I have never met previously in person.

I tried to reframe this period as an opportunity to explore, to experiment with new methods, platforms, teaching-learning processes, therefore I did not experience that teaching in an online setting was that difficult, or emotionally exhausting for me. My students are mostly young adults – I tried to save some time during our synchronous online sessions for ventilation, I paid more attention to those, who were late with their assignments, or did not “show up” at the sessions.

During online education I relied more on student feedback – I systematically collected their feedback, usually in writing.

Even before the intensive period of online education I thought of myself more as a facilitator than a teacher – this has just got stronger during this period