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Quick & dirty online teaching: a list of tools

March 16, 2020

barralopolis STEM education online education, online teaching Leave a comment

Tools and more tools. Image by HOerwin56 from Pixabay

Over the past few days, after a large number of colleges and universities moved their courses online, the avalanche of information has been overwhelming. Organizations, professional societies, and different groups have started sharing documents or published lists of resources related to online teaching. Moreover, many providers of online resources (publishers, companies making lab simulations etc) are offering their resources for free. So right now it seems like we are facing this tantalizingly rich buffet of options. Personally, I tend to freeze in the face of too many options, and I suspect that many instructors new to online teaching may feel the same. This blog post is to offer a list of tools/resources I have personally used in the past that worked for me.

Disclaimer: my online experience is predominantly Blackboard and previously eCollege. I have dabbled a bit in Moodle, but not with Canvas (which is very widespread these days) or Desire2Learn.

General online teaching resources

I got my online teaching chops through the @One Online Network of Educators, a California organization providing online training (and more) to community college educators. If you are a CC faculty in CA, this is an amazing resource.
If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed me often re-tweeting Michelle Pacansky-Brock, who was one of my instructors at @One. She is an amazing person and an expert in how to build community online and broadly how to humanize online learning.
For science education, the CIRTL Network is a great resource. It is associated to specific institutions but they have a broad online training scope, from basic evidence-based science teaching to online teaching. They do webinars and courses. The system I currently use to record my lectures was adopted from one of their trainings.
In my previous post I recommended taking an online course to experience it from the receiving end. There are plenty of online courses through Coursera and EdX and others, but they are MOOCs, so there is no direct interaction with instructors. Examples of online courses (both taken and taught, apologies for the shameless promotion here) are Open Networked Learning and ASBMB’s Art of Science Communication course.

Lecture recording

This is, for me, one of the most technically demanding parts of online teaching. Basic guidelines include short length (less than 15 minutes, ideally) and captions or transcripts (ADA compliance). Also, decent video and audio quality.

My to-go system to record lectures is this:
- Prepare powerpoints for a topic (max 20 slides)
- Prepare the transcript for the powerpoint. Note: there are ways to get automatic captions (youtube will do that), however that has not worked for me as 1) science words are often misunderstood, 2) I have an accent. Also, in the beginning I would go talking about my slides spontaneously, resulting in lots of um and hm. When on the receiving end, that is quite annoying.
- Years ago I got hooked on Camtasia video editing software. It costs $ but I really like it, and I am used to it. So I record my screen and do the voiceover there.
- In Camtasia, then I add titles, callouts, and even pictures on top of the slides.
- Export as mp4, and upload to a shareable place.
Your institution may have embedded recording options available. We have a connection with Kaltura, which allows direct recording and uploading, with options to edit.
Youtube have lots of good options also.
There are a number of free screencasting programs/applications. My major beef with those is that free applies only to short videos/limited space.

Live interactions

There are a number of video conferencing tools available. Seems like a lot of people are using Zoom. Learning Management Systems (LMS) have often such a tool embedded, for example Blackboard has Bb Collaborate. Other options are good old Skype, or Google Hangouts (or whatever it is called these days). Whatever system you use, it is important to check available time (free versions of zoom, for example, may be limited in time) and number of users allowed.

Some tips & tricks

Setting: good lighting, no distractions in the background or foreground (messy room behind, closet door left open, wine glass on the desk-yes seen that too!). Seems like a lot of people are using virtual backgrounds (that is cool, but be sure that your real background is not too messy in case it does not work). I have a folding screen room divider placed behind me when doing official business.
Internet: when doing video conferencing, it is really critical to have good internet. I recommend to check the wifi speed when doing video conferencing ahead of time. If it gets slow, turn off the webcam (have a nice profile pic saved).
Practice screen sharing and use of whiteboard.
Online meetings require a bit more planning then onsite, especially with students. To get them involved, one can use anonymous means such as polling, use of whiteboard for them to type answers, or divide them in breakout rooms and then ask for the group to report back.
Record the session so students who couldn’t attend can still benefit from it.

Asynchronous interactions

Not all students can be present in synchronous sessions, but there are other ways to have them involved.

Discussion boards are useful. I try to post questions that are open-ended and result in diverse perspectives. If students need to work on a specific research topic they will post about it and explain why are they interested in it. Sometimes to gather different opinions about the same issue, it may be useful to hide others’ postings before the student post their own. For DBs to be fair, word limits and content requirements are necessary.

There are many other tools to get diverse opinions asynchronously, in different formats. Some that I have tried and liked are: Voicethread, Padlet, and Flipgrid. In this page, to the right, there is a list of collaborative tools.

Assignments

One of the basic tenets of scientific teaching is to combine low and high stakes assignments, as well as formative and summative assessments. These categories tend to overlap- a homework graded for completion and/or of low value versus a high value exam. In Covid19 times, considering the massive disruptions in everybody’s lives, it may be kind to offer more low stakes assessments, relax the deadlines, and offer more than one take at online exams. If students are new to the online environment, it is a good idea to offer practice assessments.
How to makes exams and quizzes online is a posting by itself, but basically it can be made from scratch or imported/reused.
Written assignments can be usually graded within the LMS environment or downloaded, reviewed, and uploaded back when grading.

Well this is all for today. Our university decided to go fully online couple of days ago. The courses I am responsible for have plenty of online material, but it is still a bit stressful for faculty and students alike. Stay safe and healthy!

Online teaching quick & dirty: COVID-19 edition

March 11, 2020

barralopolis STEM education online education, online teaching Leave a comment

Academic Twitter and email lists are full of both angst and advice regarding moving to online teaching in a very short time due to the coronavirus epidemic. I sympathize. As somebody who teaches both onsite and online, I can attest that the first online courses are hard, even with enough time and support. It takes a lot of work to set up a decent online course, and it is an ongoing process to keep it engaging, interactive, attractive, up to date with technology etc. So my blog post here is dedicated to those colleagues who are new to online teaching and have to switch in a very short time, based on my experience of more than 10 years in the online realm. This is focused on undergraduate biology courses.

First of all, “keep calm.” Chances are, students will be quite comfortable with the online environment. But, also be aware that this will not be an optimal course.

Stand on the shoulders of giants (including textbook providers). There is no need to reinvent the wheel, and no shame in taking something that is already developed (especially if the time is short). Most textbooks (at least in my field, biology) will have some kind of online support website. Many will have short videos, embedded quizzes, and other activities that can be used as low stakes assignments and homework.

Structure, organization, guidance. Decide on the structure of the course. Weeks? Topics? It is simple to create content folders/modules based on the major structure. Make them repetitive (each module/folder containing the same type of materials/assignments). Routine and predictability is good. Students need guidance about what to do and where to find it. It is not a bad idea to have a Task list somewhere with all assignments and due dates.

Lectures. Recording lectures is a major task. There are courses and workshops dedicated to how to do it. There are tech requirements. They take time and effort to make them right. In a summary, it may be worthy to decide if such effort is necessary if time is short. There are plenty of great video collections (and that includes Youtube) already available. The more is outsourced, the more time and effort can be dedicated to the really important stuff.

Exams etc. Some people make exams from scratch. Others use testbanks or software such as Testgen. The latter usually allow exporting as a file that can be imported into the LMS. In the case of Blackboard, it is a zip file. Again, if time is short, it may be worthy to use a testbank and edit the questions later. Note: plagiarism is obviously much easier online. Check that the question prompts are not “googlable.”

Labs. Well, that’s a complex issue and a lot depends on the kind of lab. I have no problem using fully virtual labs or take-home kits for non-majors’ lab classes. Some schools are ok with virtual science labs for almost everything. In any case, there are all kinds of simulations and virtual labs online (check out HHMI Interactive). And there are specialized companies who make them, some quite good. Another option is to have students buy a kit that they use at home. Or use labs using household supplies (deshelled eggs for diffusion! catalase activity using diced potato and peroxide at different pH!) Again, it depends on the lab and the audience.

Interaction. Well, while online classes don’t have the face to face aspect, instructors may be pleasantly surprised that they will get the voices of shy students if using tools such as Discussion Boards. Have one for each week or topic, and ask an open-ended question with no right/wrong answer. Or ask students to share something from the class or from science websites. Note: for DBs to be worthy, requirements such as minimum word number should be clearly stated. Oh and have students comment on each others’ postings.

Live interactions. Zoom and other videoconferencing tools can be used for a one per week meeting. Many things can be done with practice and technology (drawing on a whiteboard, polling, asking for feedback, place students in breakout rooms), but for starters it can be fine just to lecture on a powerpoint and have the floor open for questions via chat for example.

The personal touch. Online teaching requires being responsive and proactive. Reach out to students regularly via announcements or email. Respond quickly when students have questions. Be aware that some students may not have steady internet access or computers with software we take for granted. Be flexible. Be kind.

So these are my thoughts for instructors who are not familiar with online teaching and need to set up online courses in a short time. Hopefully there will be plenty of tech support for this transition. Personally, even in onsite courses I tend to do as much “flipping” as possible, to give students flexibility and time. Lectures are recorded, low stakes quizzes are online, practice quizzes are available before exams, and written assignments are also submitted online. One last thought- if you are new to online teaching, take an online course to experience how it is. Being on the receiving end is a great eye opener to the good and the bad of online teaching.

ps. I left out on purpose pointing to specific vendors or websites. Needless to say, the more sophisticated the tool, it tends to cost. On the other hand, shinier is not always better- in fact a tech tool requiring fast internet to work just brings problems and is discriminating. Less is more!

We shall not cease from exploration…

May 12, 2019

barralopolis general general, musings, ONL191, online education, online teaching Leave a comment

A lovely card I got from a friend on my birthday- she knows I love hummingbirds

…and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” I do not recall when I discovered this quote by T. S. Eliot, but it was long time ago. And it still speaks to me, both in scientific or life explorations. Particularly, it applies to the ONL191 journey.

I came to the course with curiosity about Problem Based Learning, which was for me the least known territory. After being many years in the digital space teaching and collaborating, as well as taking and designing online courses myself, I did not expect to get major aha moments in that area. Indeed, while I noticed and appreciated the care taken with the course design, most of the elements were familiar.

The FISH process intrigued me. Focus-Investigate-Share based on an online document. Wondered how could it be done without confusion and overlapping research. But then, again, it worked. We met synchronously, and amazingly, each of us saw something different when looking at the scenario. I realized how narrow my vision was when looking at it…or maybe not narrow, just looking at it from my perspective based on my experiences, culture, background, personality, you name it. Each of us, each individual, brought in the richness of their lives when looking at the same scenario.

The group process also concerned me a bit in the beginning. Yes we had a connecting week, but besides exchanging a couple of slides about ourselves, we still did not know much about each other, and in the beginning the meetings were a bit steely. But, after a few weeks, we started to get the hang of it. As in any team, we have different personalities and as such bring in different contributions, all valuable. If everybody was a cheerleader, we would not get quality control. If everybody was detail oriented and meticulous, we would miss the big picture. And so on. But, just as in a flavorful meal, the different flavors of our personalities meld together into our very colorful FISH documents and final products.

And being responsible for a topic and struggling with technical issues made us humble and empathetic. If things did not work, that was ok. And most of us had things coming up…family emergencies, travels, delays, conferences…we communicated it and we tried to solve it. And if you think about it…IRL (=in real life) getting a group dynamics work may take quite a time. And we did it online! By seeing each other on video for 1-2 hours per week (or less)!

This is my final official ONL191 posting, and per the rules, I should put some literature references to support what I shared, that is the importance of the “human touch.” Funnily enough, my university just had an online training to improve retention, and a lot of it was about 1) early warnings, and 2) early interventions. For the latter, we had to design empathetic responses. Oh, and positive feedback was suggested for high performers! Our group was very generous with praise and gratefulness overall.

Thank you, ONL191! Hope to join you again, maybe as a co-facilitator?

References

Cuseo, J. (2012). Student Retention: The big picture. Retrieved from https://www.se.edu/dept/native-american-center/files/2012/04/Student-Retention-The-Big-Picture.pdf

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. O. (2013). Motivating and retaining online students: Research-based strategies that work. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Designing for Online and Blended Learning: FLIP

April 28, 2019

barralopolis general flipped classroom, general, ONL191, online education, online teaching Leave a comment

A (digitally) flipped graffiti from Buenos Aires

This week’s scenario was about an instructor who is excited about online learning and wants to get started with a course of her own:

“I am keen to design my own online or blended learning course … I think I must …try to illustrate in a visual way what a good online or blended learning design could look like. I wonder which activity, module or course I should choose? “

My first thought was “Oh, my sweet summer child,” something Old Nan from the Game of Thrones books says to the Stark children. Meaning, you have not known the terrible winter yet. Online learning can do indeed amazing things. It can also be awful if not designed well. And when starting on the path, as in all innovations, there is always a curve of pain. No matter how much we follow the design principles and do our best, it takes some time to “get” online learning well.

Our group came up with lots of great thoughts and ideas about online course design, centered around the community of inquiry framework. My contribution was much more focused, related to a specific subtype of blended learning called flipped learning.

“Flipping” a classroom sounds quite logical: let’s put the repetitive content online and let’s do active learning in person. However, there is a difference between “flipped” classroom and “flipped” learning, per the Flipped Learning Network, a respected community of practice. They define flipped learning as a pedagogical approach where “direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.”

The website is chock full of information, tools, research, and all kinds of ways to learn about FLIP. In this blog posting, however, I would like to share briefly my own experience flipping a general biology course. My colleague and I started with backward design- what did we want students to be able to do at the end of each topic?- and scaffolded the material accordingly. Lectures were recorded in palatable (less than 15 minutes) chunks. Low stakes quizzes were assigned to the recordings to make students watch them. In the classroom, we had short lectures to address particularly challenging topics, and designed a variety of hands-on, inquiry-based activities. Our classrooms became noisy (because students were asking questions and discussing with each other) and dynamic. They chose a research topic of their interest, but had to discuss it with their peers. Liberated from the tyranny of long lectures, the instructors were able to interact more with the students, and go deeper into the material. Online discussions helped interactions between students. And…seems like students learned more also. This study was recently published.

Although the flipped classroom method has been in use for more than 15 years, it still has no unified theoretical framework or methodology (Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Zuber, 2016), and it continues to present widely varied implementations across educational settings and academic disciplines (Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Estes et al., 2014; Lage et al., 2000; Uzunboylu & Karagozlu, 2015; Zuber, 2016). So, I am not surprised that there are still lots of questions around what “flipping” means.

So going back to the original scenario…I would not start fully online. I would start with a flipped section (not the whole course). In fact, no need to record lectures right away- there is plenty of good quality material already available that just needs to be curated. And I would always have surveys and some kind of assessment to compare how students are doing. It is an iterative process, and it will take a few times to make it work right.

References

Barral, A.M., Ardi, V., Simmons, R.E. 2018. Accelerated Introductory Biology Course is Significantly Enhanced by a Flipped Learning Environment. CBE Life Sciences Education, 17(3) https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-07-0129

Bishop, J., & Verleger, M. A. (2013). The Flipped Classroom : A Survey of the Research. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education (p. 23.1200.1-23.1200.18). https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2013.6684807

Estes. M. D., Ingram, R., & Liu, J. C. (2014). A review of flipped classroom research, practice, and technologies. International HETL Review, 4(7).

Flipped Learning Network. (2014). What Is Flipped Learning ? The Four Pillars of F-L-I-P. Flipped Learning Network, 501(c), 2.

Lage, M. M. J., Platt, G. G. J., & Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220480009596759

Uzunboylu, H., & Karagozlu, D. (2015). Flipped classroom: A review of recent literature. World Journal on Educational Technology, 7(2), 142. https://doi.org/10.18844/wjet.v7i2.46

Zuber, W. J. (2016). The flipped classroom, a review of the literature. Industrial and Commercial Training, 48(2), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-05-2015-0039

Learning in communities – networked collaborative learning

April 12, 2019

barralopolis general emotion, general, ONL191, online education, online teaching 1 Comment

Topic 3 of the ONL191 course was difficult. For a number of personal circumstances (myself included) only a few could participate in each synchronous lesson. The ones I participated in included interesting and thought provoking discussions. Two major issues came together, the collaborative and the online aspect of learning. How to make them work at the same time is quite a challenge. Another aspects that was touched on, but not deepened during the second meeting I attended was the fact that participants are very different- there can be cultural and/or language barriers. So there is no one list of things to do- there are lists of best practices, and which ones are applied depends quite a bit from the context of the group.

Personally, I struggled to find my niche in the conversation, but Anne saved me when she suggested I could draw from my experience teaching and facilitating online to contribute.

Now the funny thing is, most what I know about facilitation of groups is not something I have learned as a scholar. For more than 10 years I have facilitated conflict resolution workshops inside prisons and in the community as a volunteer, and along the way learned many tricks of bringing people together. Most of them have to do with finding what is shared among participants, listening and communication skills, and practicing empathy. I soon realized that those skills were useful in my teaching, and started to apply them in the classroom.

There are numerous variations of exercises like the one shown in the video, in which participants share aspects of their lives and relate to each other. In real life you would start with less sensitive statements and as group trust grows one introduces more personal topics.

Some of those tools can be applied and even enhanced online! One of my favorite icebreakers for online introductions is asking students to post a picture that is meaningful for them and share why, then ask others to comment. Some students will post pictures of themselves or their families, others will post about favorite places or activities. But it is amazing how much can be learned from one picture and the story that goes with it. People posting kid pictures immediately connect with each other, as those who have similar hobbies or traveled to the same places.

For online social presence I learned a lot from Michelle Pacansky-Brock. She has consistently worked on bringing awareness to the importance of community building online, and the tools to achieve it.

So, I confess, for this topic I worked my contributions a bit backwards- I started with the tools I use and then went looking for scholarly references to support them. Luckily I did not have to search too far- in an excellent review of online course design, which I go back regularly by Jaggars & Xu, there was plenty of discussion about the importance of social presence in online courses. And this blog posting about online collaboration by Terence Brake (thank you Anne for the tips) covers both practical (structure, timing, recording) and more social aspects such as language and inclusiveness.

At the end, I felt again the need to learn more about these emotional/social aspects, which tend to get into the field of psychology and learning. This topic coincided with a busy schedule at a conference and then a few days of unwinding visiting family, so I feel quite accomplished that I could even make it!

References

Terence Brake Nine tips for leading more collaborative conversations (2019) https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/features/nine-tips-leading-more-collaborative-conversations

brocansky.com by Michelle Pacansky-Brock is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. ·
Evans, C. (2013). Making Sense of Assessment Feedback in Higher Education. Review of Educational Research, 83(1), 70–120. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312474350
Jaggars, S.S. & Xu, D. How do online course design features influence student performance?, Computers & Education, Volume 95, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.01.014

Becoming “real” in an online course

January 15, 2015

barralopolis Uncategorized education, Education, online teaching Leave a comment

Screenshot from one of my weekly videos for an online microbiology course, shot during Halloween. It was a hit!

Things have changed quite a bit in the online teaching world, and I am not referring to the teaching side only.

Students have changed too. They are expecting much more than before in terms of online content and interactions. And not only young students- even adult learners are much more tech savvy. If they are used to multiple media and devices, and abundant online interactions, they expect the same in online courses. And while quality of content is essential in any course, online included, student engagement and interest (which increases motivation) is greatly helped by increasing interactions.

A very important aspect of getting students engaged is instructor presence. Years ago, instructors were expected to post a weekly announcement and be active on the discussion boards. More recently, the norm is that instructors maintain steady communication with students, including reminders and email discussions. While not responding emails at night is a mental sanity policy for the overwhelmed instructor, truth is, online students are online for a reason, and most often it is at night when they have the time to study. Responding quickly to emails or communications in general usually provides high marks for the instructor. Which, in these days of instructor evaluations being scrutinized, is important.

But what I have noticed lately is that students are starting to ask for “real life” presence, and praising if the instructor shares pictures, posts videos, or holds synchronous video sessions. One of the online adjuncts I mentor, a prolific email writer and communicator, received a comment of “it would have been nice to see what she looks like.” The comment was in the context of her being perceived as distant, holding students at arms’ length. I just started a course my usual way, posting a picture of myself as part of the introduction, and uploading a short video welcoming them to the course. For the first time, most of the students uploaded pictures of themselves in the Introductions, and I received praise from a student specifically for being present and building community.

I have taken a few MOOCs at Coursera, and I understand where students are coming from. Most lectures have the professor talking into camera, either in a studio or recorded in the room. There are always video presentations in the beginning, and more and more, real-time Q&A sessions. Well-done online courses, with plenty of room for community building and an instructor who is perceived as “present” are becoming the desired norm, not the exception.

In any case, there are many articles and pages dedicated to the different tools and resources to use for livening up your online course. Here comes a short list of what I do, and how I do it.

A couple of years ago I invested in a professional picture of myself, which goes to my official intro or syllabus pages. Nothing new there, but I really support the professional picture part. It is worth the cost.
I also have a few personal pictures that are deemed appropriate to share in the course. Good choices include pictures reflecting pets or hobbies, as they invite connection with most students. They will also show the instructor’s “human” side.
Welcome videos are highly recommended. I use a very simple Logitech webcam, and have learned how to place a floor lamp by my side so I am not talking from a dark blur. How to record it is much depending on your computer and expertise. I make it easy on myself- on my Mac I use Photobooth to record the video, and then upload it to Youtube. One can record directly to Youtube, and there are many other programs, but Photobooth has been quick and easy.
While many students shrug at live chat sessions, others expect it. Many students do not take the time to clarify questions via email, but wait for the opportunity to ask in person. I have gone a long way from dreading the ClassLivePro (now Bb Elluminate/Collaborate- I lost track of the name) sessions to making them an opportunity to interact with students and hopefully engage them. There is an amazing range of options of what can be done in those sessions, and I am still learning. For now, it is mainly uploaded powerpoint slides with quiz questions in-between, and webtour of internet pages. But I have my webcam on. It has taken me a few years to become comfortable with seeing my face onscreen, but it is doable. If the course does not include Live chat opportunities, there are other options: Google hangouts, Skype chats, Zoom, and many others.
One last detail- being yourself is fine on video, within certain limits of course. One is time- 2 minutes and change is a great length, more than 5 is a no-no. I have to write down what I want to say otherwise I ramble on. Occasional humor is ok (see the Halloween picture), and also to be attuned to the time of the year, such as wishing happy holidays at the end of December. I record my videos fresh every time, so I can refer to specifics from the course, making it real time feedback.

Dear Reader, please share your experience with making yourself more real through online courses. As mentioned, this is my little list of what I do, but there are many different ways to make it happen. Thank you!

barralopolis

Quick & dirty online teaching: a list of tools

Online teaching quick & dirty: COVID-19 edition

We shall not cease from exploration…

Designing for Online and Blended Learning: FLIP

Learning in communities – networked collaborative learning

Becoming “real” in an online course

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