Teaching by Example and Learning by Doing

Abstract

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the world entered lockdown and schools shifted to emergency remote teaching. Despite educational researchers having long identified online teaching skills as necessary for teacher training, teachers were largely untrained and generally ill-equipped to teach online. Teacher-preparation programs are still lacking an emphasis in developing digital competencies, instead of focusing on the in-person, face-to-face teaching experience. This chapter is a case study of an undergraduate class specifically designed to help teachers learn skills and competencies related to online teaching and learning. The course addresses the online-teaching digital-skills gap with a two-pronged approach: (1) First, the design of the class follows proven, evidence-based practices for online instruction; and (2) second, each assignment of the course provides opportunities for students to develop technical skills through hands-on work, culminating in a digital storytelling project that puts all the skills to use.