This post comes to us from friend-of-the BLPB Nadia B. Ahmad.  Many thanks to her for this contribution.  Her post follows nicely on the spirit of my "Teaching through the Pandemic" posts, which can be found here and here.  My favorite part may be the bit on "Troubleshooting Life and Expectations."

As I begin this post on Sunday, March 29, 2020, there are currently 674,466 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19). Immunology and infectious disease researchers are working round the clock with their heads down for a cure and a vaccine, but we have nothing in the near term for an end to this situation. The markets have been a tumbling since January 2020 and spiraling downward since March 2020. Even Brexit and the deceleration of China's economy could not have expected this downturn in the market.  

On March 12, 2020, I taught my last in person Business Organizations class for the semester. For the first half of the class, I had the students complete a practice essay in Canvas on the business judgment rule. The remainder of the time, I had them join via WebEx on their laptops. In that class, approximately 40 percent of the students were able to login to WebEx via Canvas for a lecture of derivative litigation. The rest could join with a direct link. During that triage session while they were in the room, I learned how to troubleshoot connectivity issues with the help of my students. For the past two weeks of online learning, I have had 100 percent attendance in both my classes and student engagement is up as well.

I wanted to share some insights related to teaching via WebEx as well as online teaching generally.

Learning WebEx’s Virtual Classroom

Spending some time on YouTube helped me with figuring out how the platform works. The university also offered some training sessions, but I found YouTube video easier to help me.

Troubleshooting WebEx

Periodically, WebEx may be down altogether because of the load on its system, you can check WebEx’s global status here.

For troubleshooting WebEx audio issues, visit here.

For WebEx video support, visit here.

Some students may have a weak Wifi connection. To alleviate this issue, I also provide the dial-in number. Only one or two students have this issue, but it is also a reliable backup if students cannot connect via WebEx. To locate the dial-in number for your WebEx meeting, visit here.

Checking Hardware and Connectivity (WiFi and Audio)

Some issues with WebEx meeting will be unrelated to the platform itself. While your computer’s existing audio and video functionalities may work, I have found that using a microphone enhances the audio experience. I used Professor Josh Blackman recommendation of the Blue Snowball USB microphone.

Check your high speed internet connection here. You should be running at around 50 mbps. If your internet connection is slower, consider an upgrade in speed.

Troubleshooting Life and Expectations

As an introvert, I welcome this scaling back on social interactions on some levels. At the same time, I miss my students. I have chosen to do hybrid asynchronous/synchronous sessions. I record part of my lectures, but also have live class sessions as well. I was bit nervous to record the classes until I actually did do it and later read a post by Professor William Fischer (Harvard) on Emergency Online Pedagogy. Recording classes is considerate of not only students, but the server. Fischer writes:

First, the quality of a pre-recorded lecture is likely to be substantially higher than that of lecture delivered live. Pre-recorded lectures can be constructed in segments — which can then either be posted online separately (like this) or stitched together and posted online as a single unit. If you are not happy with one segment, you can discard and replace it. Equally important, it is much easier to integrate graphics and audiovisual material in a pre-recorded lecture. (Some techniques for doing this will be discussed shortly.) Last but not least, pre-recorded lectures can be edited.

Having used both formats, I am now strongly in favor of pre-recorded rather than live lectures. Feedback from my students over several years makes clear that they share this preference. My lectures are significantly tighter and clearer when I record them in advance. You may think that you can produce an elegant lecture in “one take,” and perhaps you are right — but I confess that I thought so as well until I watched a recording of one of my unedited presentations.

The second advantage of a pre-recorded lecture is that it is not vulnerable to a major technological threat posed by the sudden and massive shift to online education prompted by the pandemic. … Betting a class on the availability of Zoom [or WebEx] at a particular time is thus risky. By contrast, a pre-recorded lecture can be uploaded to the Internet at any time. In addition, students need not “stream” it, but instead can download it to their computers and then watch it at their convenience. This delivery method is far less vulnerable to technological overload. In addition, the larger the number of teachers who rely on pre-recorded lectures, the smaller will be the aggregate burden imposed on Zoom [and other platforms] and thus the greater the likelihood that it will be available when we need it.

Part of wanting to record a portion of the lectures is also a practical matter for me. I have three kids (ages 2.5, 6, and 9) and my partner is a health care worker and is still working. At any rate, I look forward to welcoming week #4 of online learning and will share tips on integrating current events into discussion on business organizations, the markets, and derivative litigation.