GREENSBORO – When it became clear in early March that the UNC System and colleges across the country would shift classes online in response to the coronavirus, Roy Schwartzman knew his fellow professors might need help.

So Schwartzman – a professor of Communication Studies at UNC Greensboro and veteran online instructor – created a Facebook group for faculty to share tips and ideas.

“People are going to need help in this transition – I think we could help each other,” he thought at the time.

And what a viral response: Pandemic Pedagogy exploded so that it now has almost 30,000 members, not just from UNCG, but around the planet. They include university and community-college instructors, K-12 teachers, IT professionals, parents now teaching their children at home and even students.

“Now I know what Dr. Frankenstein felt like,” Schwartzman said. “I never imagined…. It grew exponentially.”

Members have shared more than 633,000 comments so far, ranging from how to keep students engaged to emotional reassurance for both students and faculty to dark humor and whether to brush your teeth and apply lipstick or perfume before teaching a Zoom class.

Far from the notion that it’s easy to answer all capacity questions by simply plugging students in online, Schwartzman said instructors are discovering some students don’t have ready Internet access. They see students’ home environment – and distractions – for the first time. Some don’t have proper devices, or must share a home desktop with three or four siblings. And surprisingly, some don’t have the skills to navigate an online class.

“People are finding out this is what online and remote education are all about,” he said.

PANDEMIC PEDAGOGY definitely serves as a sounding board for instructors shifting to online classes.

When Heidi Maria Williams, a professor at Tennessee State University, asked for ideas to prompt her English composition students to write reflective essays related to the pandemic, she got 94 responses.

“Write a letter to future generations (or future grandchildren) about your experience of this AND what paradigm shift you hope comes of this. ?,” came one from Minot, ND.

Some of the most vigorous debates are about how lenient to be with grades during an unprecedented disruption.

“Does anyone else find themselves grading a bit easier online? I feel like my standards for their writing are slipping as much as my standards for getting dressed everyday,” wrote an instructor in Cookeville, TN.

“My own writing is suffering so I’m not judging students too harshly ??‍♀‍,” replied a professor at Averett University. ‍

Others insist on upholding academic standards.

When Emily J. Beard-Bohn, a professor at Saginaw Valley State University asked whether she should relax a requirement for students to write an 8-10 page paper, some replied that she should shorten the paper in sympathy with students’ stresses.

But Andrew Wright responded: 

“While we are in a deep crisis, we also have to believe that there’s a world on the other side of this crisis, and that world will need educated people. It will need people who know how to gather information and assess the validity and usefulness of that information. It will need people who can use that information to build a cogent argument, to find a meaning in it. And it will need people who can express those cogent arguments to other people who will be persuaded by sourced information, and develop those arguments. It will need people who can develop thesis statements of deeper meaning than a tweet, which requires more words and pages than a tweet.”

IN OTHER COMMENTS, professors show how human they are as they and their students attempt to cope.

“A student cried in a class I guest-lectured via Zoom yesterday. She said she was worried that her grandmother might die of Coronavirus,” wrote a professor at the American University in Cairo.

“The class became quiet and then many students cried. I could not hold my tears. Everyone is fragile and hurt these days. This was the most difficult class I’ve ever had in my life and it is not even my class. Too much!”

In the midst of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, Pandemic Pedagogy is a window on how the people who teach our children continue to reach out, share their fears and anxieties, adapt to the new “classroom” even if it’s their kitchen, seek mutual support and, above all, strive to help their students.

“I think it’s expanded the sense of community and collegiality,” said Schwartzman. “There is this sense that here is a place where you can improve your ability to educate or be educated in these circumstances.”