The Teaching and Learning Innovation Digest - May 2023

TEACHING ONLINE...
A REFLECTION
Yasmin Johaadien
Faculty, Baking and Pastry Arts,
School Of Hospitality, Tourism, and Culinary Arts (SHTCA)
I’ve been thinking a lot over the last few months about how far we have come in the past three years
as educators and how different my job looks today than it was. In March 2020, the world as we knew
it changed overnight due to COVID-19. COVID-19 came with many immediate changes; including
a complete shift in the way we teach. We went from teaching in person, face-to-face, to suddenly
having to pivot to completely online.
I had never taught this way before. I didn’t know how to. It was terrifying, exhausting, and even
frustrating at times—like anything new that you have to learn from scratch. As bakers, we had always
relied on our experience (teaching physical skills), knowledge, and personality to get the information
across to students, and to give them the tools they needed to succeed. How was I now going to
transfer all of this to an online setting?
How was I going to make this a great
experience for my students…and myself?
I love teaching, and a huge part of that was
engaging with the students.
During the first few weeks, we were trying to
figure out how to get the students through the
final few weeks of the semester successfully
by ensuring they were still achieving the
learning outcomes of the program. We spent
countless hours sourcing articles, accurate
videos, etc., to upload for the LMS as rich
content. We even pre-recorded/performed live
online demos. We conducted regular checkins
to answer any questions students had and
provide clarification on concepts that were
being learned. It was not ideal, but we were
trying to help students finish the semester in
the best way possible until we could return to
classes physically “in the next few weeks”.
Well…it then became evident fairly quickly that
returning to class might not happen as fast as
we thought and we would have to continue
teaching online. Courses had to be developed
to be fully online, cooking and baking demo
videos had to be created. Everyone worked
incredibly hard to make this happen, all the
while managing life at home with family and/
or kids—who were being homeschooled at the
same time—and dealing with the repercussions
of COVID. This was quite the experience.
Once online courses were developed, we
had to learn to teach the material in this new
setting. Could I make online teaching work?
Could I make it fun? I had to try. This was also
an opportunity for me to learn how to teach
in a new way, and regardless of whether I
was teaching in-person or online, the goals
remained the same—to provide students with
the best learning experience, and all the tools
necessary to be successful.
It took some time, but I got to a point where
I started to feel more comfortable teaching
online. In the first semester, I was mainly
focused on ensuring students achieved the
learning outcomes. The following semester,
I spent more time exploring and learning
available tools on our LMS, something I still
continue to do, to make the course(s) more
user friendly and engaging online. I then shifted
my focus to the online sessions I held for the
students every week on ZOOM. This was
the only “real” time I got to spend with
them. I wanted to make these sessions
valuable, so I asked myself, what were some of
the things I did in person that worked really well
that would transfer well online?
I made a “chef’s” list to implement:
• Be animated when speaking
• Show excitement and passion for topics
being discussed
• Learn every student’s name and greet
them as they entered the online session
• Show ingredients that might be new
to them but are commonplace in
the industry
• Introduce alternative ingredients that
can be used to prepare the recipes of
the week
• Share universal examples to explain
difficult concepts like comparing “dough
conditioner” to “hair conditioner”
• Share videos/pictures of alternative or
innovative ways chefs are producing
items we are learning about
I also started offering alternative options
for assessments, keeping in mind UDL
opportunities for varied learners. Instead of
students submitting a quiz or written evaluation,
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