The global pandemic has caused emergency shifts in how we teach. Online learning is nothing new, but transitioning a once-dynamic in-person class to a screen in a synchronous format poses some challenges for “new to synchronous” teaching faculty. As two department chairs at a mid-size community college in California, we found a number of similar themes emerged through our discussions with faculty on how to make the classroom environment transition effectively. Faculty made many of the decisions about curriculum and behavior expectations and attendance in the emergency shift on the fly. The faculty discussions about issues and strategies created a deep conversation about what needs to be included moving forward when thinking about synchronous teaching and how best to present expectations to students up front.
