How a Teacher Overcame Fears and Challenges of Emergency Remote Teaching

Reiko Takeda

Aoyama Gakuin University / Seijo University / Research Fellow, Institute for Educational Research and Service, International Christian University

The spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent launch of online classes have been unsettling for educators of all levels. In this pre-recorded video presentation, I will introduce how the shift to emergency remote teaching, which once made me feel insecure, transformed me into an instructor rising to the occasion, with the help of my students.

Having planned my English writing course almost entirely on pre-recorded video sessions, my biggest fear was whether I would be able to walk my first-year university students through three major challenges: providing them feedback entirely on Word files, guiding them in the writing process, and having them peer edit each other’s work. Once the classes started in May, however, the students’ writing revealed how they motivated themselves during these times of uncertainty and how much they matured as English writers. In turn, I was inspired by my students.

Although my direct contact with my students was limited to one live online session, seeing their growth and development throughout the spring term outweighs my emotion labor (Benesch, 2017), which mainly came from the time I spent on giving feedback. Consequently, I have decided to include more real-time classes in the fall term, as I have learned from my students to take more risks in my online teaching.