UNT Biology Professor Creates YouTube Series "Teaching in the Time of Coronavirus" | College of Science
April 7, 2020

UNT Biology Professor Creates YouTube Series "Teaching in the Time of Coronavirus"

Knowing educators everywhere have been working to adapt to completely new teaching environments in the midst of the COVID-19 changes, Dr. Lee Hughes of the UNT Biological Sciences Department developed a quick, helpful series on his YouTube channel devoted specifically to Teaching in the Time of Coronavirus. This 17-episode series highlights tips and helpful mindsets that can help emotionally prepare teachers for both the expected and unanticipated aspects of online teaching during this time.

"Everyone knows this is not normal," said Dr. Hughes in one of the TTCV videos. "You're going to be teaching from your living room, or your bedroom, or wherever you happen to be." He emphasizes the importance of humor and taking breaks as needed, and encourages teachers to keep it light to help everyone get through this difficult time. Everyone does this in their own way, he says. For him, it means occasionally using a Star Wars Zoom background and teaching a lesson as Darth Vader.

Dr. Hughes is the program director of the UNT PHAGES, which recently received recognition for implementing exceptional undergraduate research going on ten years. As a microbiologist with a focus on science education, Dr. Hughes is no stranger to empowering his fellow educators. He is an organizer of UNT's annual Mobile Summer Institute on Scientific Teaching, a workshop designed to equip educators to create inclusive, student-centered classrooms that engage learning through active problem solving. His new video series includes adapting hands-on labs via the internet as well.

The series touches on everything from accessibility issues to combatting nerves. "I had some thoughts that I believed would be helpful to faculty making this quick transition and hoped this would be a useful way of sharing those ideas," said Dr. Hughes. "There has been a lot of information put out there to everyone from many sources, so I thought some short videos would be a good, quick way to get this type of information out to those who needed it." The videos can be accessed through these links or can be viewed on Dr. Hughes' TTCV channel.

Teaching in the Time of Coronavirus #001
TTCV #002: Perfection is the Enemy of Done
TTCV #003: Backward Design
TTCV #004: Keep it Simple
TTCV #005: Be Flexible
TTCV #006: Blast from the Past
TTCV #007: Take a Break
TTCV #008: Labs?
TTCV #009: Getting Help
TTCV #010: Getting Past Nervousness
TTCV #011: Synchronous or Asynchronous
TTCV #012: Accessibility
TTCV #013: Stay Healthy
TTCV #014: Making Videos
TTCV #015: Importance of Kindness
TTCV #016: Assessments
TTCV #017: Lighten the Mood

You can learn more about UNT's response to COVID-19 at https://healthalerts.unt.edu. Many have asked how they can help us support UNT students during these challenging times, so the university created a fund to help students who have immediate and pressing needs related to COVID-19. You can make a gift to the fund at http://one.unt.edu/untcares.

If you're a UNT student who needs financial support, apply here: https://www.unt.edu/staygreen