Socially Distant but Digitally Connected: How One Online Literacy Teacher Educator Responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this perspectives piece, the author, a literacy education teacher educator, discusses his struggles several years earlier to adapt and transfer a conceptually dense face-to-face course to an online format—a struggle with which many of his colleagues who were faced with transferring their courses to an online format in light of the COVID-19 and institutional closings could identify. He describes how he organized his online course, including the design of the modules and assignments along a scaffolded, simple-to-complex structure. The challenges during this pandemic are especially pronounced for teacher educators who have less experience with online teaching. The author envisions the experiences he describes serving as a model for how others can work to transfer their courses online without sacrificing rigor or quality. He also envisions this piece serving as an impetus for those colleagues who already have extensive backgrounds in online teaching and learning to reach out to their less-initiated colleagues to actively support them during these challenging times