Empathy Map – Online is only option for course completion
Empathy Map – Mona Brennan-Coles
My empathy map is about not having a face-to-face option for courses. I chose this topic because this will be the situation for many of the students I teach for at least the fall semester and I suspect the winter semester too.
As I worked through the empathy map, I reflected on my own experience with online classes, what the students have told me in the last few months and watching my friends deal with virtual interactions (professional and personal). I much prefer online so that I can work at my own speed. It probably helps that I work virtually a lot regardless of the situation e.g. if I am writing a report, I’ll write it in my head for days and then put it on paper. Some of my friends are very comfortable with virtual interactions while others are not. I know people who will always choose the face-to-face option given the chance.
And many of my students seem to feel the same way as indicated by this answer to a midterm question about virtual project teams – “Communication: They have only digital options to discuss things, face-to-face communication is lost. As we know how its difficult to attend online classes and spend lot of time with Laptop. We lost our classroom communication which is very comfortable for us.” and from their comments during the online class time.
And I dealt with my own frustrations with technology because I have not used Google docs.
All of this emphasized for me how important empathy is — early in the design process and as you update materials and/or approaches with student feedback.
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