What we do in the shadows: Cultivating faculty teaching and learning relationships in online tutorials

Abstract

Many academic faculties found themselves unexpectedly thrown into the online teaching context during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our context, online tutorial attendances ranged from 20 to 150 students per session, necessitating the creation of a virtual teaching team. This article offers a perspective on developing collaborative team-teaching from the lived experiences of three academics who suddenly found themselves team-teaching online. We reflected on our experiences of collaborative online teaching over the year and shared our stories with each other. Our analysis drew from elements of Appreciative Inquiry and collaborative autoethnography. Based on the five principles of Appreciative Inquiry, we constructed positive and supportive conceptions of our experiences and opened positive possibilities for course delivery and our ongoing relationships. Important outcomes from this study included the development of our online teaching skills and strategies necessary for effective collaboration in online team-teaching. Our findings will be of interest to educational staff transitioning to online team-teaching.