A Journey toward Online Teaching: Lessons Learnt

On March 18, 2020, all the universities received a memorandum from higher authorities that all in-person classes had been suspended due to spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, the teaching and learning would continue remotely. This was distressing news for most faculty members and students who had never conducted or attended classes online and were unprepared for remote education. Although experienced, these teachers were used to face-to-facemode of interaction and not necessarily adept at using technology.1 Switching from a face-to-face classroom to online classes requires preparation and adjustment for instructors, staff, and students alike. If the medium is the message, then you cannot replicate the exact same lecture content and teaching method you had planned for a face-toface classroom in an online asynchronous or synchronous session—at least not without dividing them into small chunks, making few amendments and modification to benefit student learning.2 For most of the young generation especially students, the transition was not as difficult. Today’s students are members of Generation Z—digital natives who are accustomed to technology in every facet of their lives and have a real stake in their own education.3 So, they have an ability to get benefit from dynamic, immersive learning experiences and to get engaged and collaboratewith their peers comfortably. On the other hand, teachers were required to modify their teaching strategies and styles to meet the needs and maintain students’ interest and engagement.4 At Institute of Medical Education, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Pakistan, the faculty braved this challenge with full commitment and enthusiasm and we from the very next day of the notification went online and started training and developing faculty for online teaching and assessment. It was not easy and required a lot of effort from our faculty members to acquaint themselves with technology first and then teach the same. Despite that much effort, there were times when we faltered and got not-so-pleasant feedback from students. However, not losing heart the journey was continued. The students, mostly faculty of basic and clinical sciences from public and private medical and dental institutions, patiently andwillingly went along on these unchartered territories to continue learning through online sessions. With the passage of time and hard work, highly appreciative student feedback started motivating us, and we were able to successfully conduct all the courses. During this journey we have learned a lot of lessons and built up our future online courses on that basis to improve the quality of delivery. Placed below are few lessons that we have learnt on this journey in developing expertise for conducting interactive, engaging, and useful online teaching sessions.