Teaching Online:
Webinar.
Disclaimer Haiku
This is what I’ve done
It won’t work for everyone
The students like it.
We held a webinar!
Simple and Effective Online Teaching with Victoria Feth and James Skidmore
was held on Wednesday April 8, 2020, 11am-12noon EDT
Here’s the slide show from the webinar, and we also have a recording of the webinar:
Teaching online doesn’t have to be much more complicated than teaching in a classroom.
Q&A
180+ people attended the webinar, and they had over 60 questions! We extended the webinar by 30 minutes, but still couldn’t get to all of the questions, so we’re providing written answers to them here. They’re organized by category in case you’re looking for something in particular.
Discussions
Do you set a particular duration, in a particular period, for discussions (e.g. 2 hours on Tuesdays), or is it more open?
Do the discussions have a particular duration (for instance, do they open and close at specific points, e.g. open for 2 hours on a particular day), or are they more open?
The discussions open when the module opens and close when the next module opens a week later. They're asynchronous and are open 24/7. That being said, if you have a reason why you want them open for a particular period of time on a particular day, make clear to the students why that is, but be mindful that it is likely there will be students who are unavailable during the time block you set.
How encouraging students asking questions?
How do you ensure that students are engaging in the class discussion?
Do you think students will engage in a Discussion Forum if no portion of the grade is attached to participation/quality of contribution (i.e. if 100% of the final grade associates with written assignments)?
No, I don't, unfortunately. Perhaps if they're senior or graduate students who welcome the opportunity to discuss with each other and know the value of discussion to improving their understanding of concepts, they wouldn't need grades for motivation. But even then I wonder how long they would be active in the discussion forums as the term wears on.
Do you have any strategies about how to encourage shy and quiet students to participate in the discussion forums?
Not really, other than the motivation that comes from the discussions being part of their grade. What I have noticed is that students respond well to the discussions - the number of students who don't participate is really not that large. I think this is partially because they're just talking to each other about what they've read, and the stakes of the task aren't so high as to be intimidating. They know that engagement in the discussion is more important than getting the right answer.
My experience with in-class discussions and crits (I teach Fine Art Studio courses), is that I often get the same voices, some of whom, make a 'high volume' number of comments, many of which are banal and empty, that are meant to boost their 'Participation' grade. Then there are others I never hear from. How do you encourage 'engaged positive feedback' in online discussions as opposed to to high-volume, often empty feedback from the same, few people? (Just like you might in a classroom...).
The most important thing you can do is to respond to those empty comments with some specific questions or some polite pushback. I don't think you want to embarrass students, but you want to make sure they're aware that they need to give more in terms of quality and depth. If you think a contribution is superficial, point that out by saying something along the lines of "okay, that's an initial reaction, but we need to dig deeper - can you respond more fully to [then add the particular issue you want them to respond to]."
The "Save the Last Word for Me" format works well in this scenario.
This is a good idea. If you know of discussion formats or prompts or strategies that work well, incorporate them into your course. There are about a million and one different strategies you could employ. There's a lot of advice on how to do this on the internet, so look into some of those. These strategies will often contradict each other (e.g. Make participation in discussion forums optional! Make participation in discussion forums mandatory!) and at the end of the day you'll have to figure out what will work best for you and your students.
How would you suggest adjusting these curated discussions for an engineering course that is highly technical, content heavy and learning predominantly happens (and is demonstrated) through solving practice problems?
This approach is more geared towards humanities and social science than STEM, that's for sure. One thing I can suggest, however, might be to require students to post their answer to a practice problem first before they're allowed to see the solutions made by others in their group. As solutions get posted, the students could discuss and compare the various solutions posed, vote on which solution they think is best, or perhaps discuss how the theory learnt in class applies to that particular problem/solution.
Have you ever tried a "discussion forum" for a numerical or similar type of problem the students attempt before it is done by the instructor.
No, I haven't, because my courses don't involve that kind of technical material. But I like the idea and think it could work.
How much/often do you weigh in on the discussion threads?
That depends on a number of things, e.g. how well the discussion is going, or whether some really big factual errors need correcting, things like that. I try not to be always there – I don’t want students feel they have to be looking over their shoulder at me, and I don’t want them to become dependent on me to provide the “right” answer (even though I try to use discussion prompts that encourage open-ended kinds of answers).
Facilitating discussion instead of statements is very difficult. I already encounter this trying to facilitate a Journal Club. Any tips or examples for how to foster discussion instead of statements would be highly appreciated.
I know what you mean, and it is a problem. Here are some things I try to do, with varying degrees of success: insist that after the first student has posted an answer to the discussion prompt, the other students respond to the points being made in the first post (they can still start their own thread if they want to say something else on a different point, but not without also responding to their peer); insist that students have to post twice in any discussion, and that one of those posts has to be a response (and that the response has to be more than "good answer Anastasia!"). Another idea, which I haven't tried yet, but am thinking about, is limiting the discussion to five days (still insisting on the things above), and then have them take the last two days of that week to summarize the main points made in the discussion that week, with their own comments on them. This isn't strictly speaking a discussion, but it encourages students to consider and respond to the views of their peers.
And Victoria Feth has this suggestion: You could also assign students different roles in different weeks. In particular weeks, they have to be the first poster (start the thread), and everyone else has to comment/discuss. You could have a summarizer who’s job it is to summarize the most salient points of the discussion. That way, week-to-week, everyone is focused on something else and less likely to copy. You could take this a step farther, too. If you have discussion groups, each group could be assigned a different topic, and then the summary sheets could be shared back to everyone as study resource—so no one is ever working on the same aspect of the course, but everyone benefits. This works well asynchronously too – you would just need due dates that are the same – i.e. the thread started by Monday midnight, comments by Thursday midnight, summary by Friday midnight. You could also make it clear that if students who are in the commenter role post at the last minute, and then an actual discussion doesn’t take place, they will lose marks. It sounds like a lot of organizing up front, but it could be worth it. It almost means you don’t need to lecture, you just need presence in the discussions, and to perhaps fill in the blanks that don’t get covered in the discussions.
Seems this framework would work better for upper years, not so much first years. Any comments on this?
I think you're right - students who are more versed in the subject matter and who have gained more confidence may find it easier to discuss and engage. But if you're teaching courses of a more general education nature, which is what I've been doing, you calibrate the readings and discussion prompts with that in mind in order to get students of any level engaged in the material. That requires more thought going into the content and the discussion prompts than you might need in a graduate seminar, for example, where the students tend to be much readier to jump in and start discussing.
What is the best way of testing students in mathematical questions where they will have to solve and show their work? How can we minimize cheating in the tests especially for mathematical questions that require solutions by students.
I'm not sure, but the STEM specialists at remoteteaching@uwaterloo.ca would be happy to help you out with this.
What size groups do you recommend for the curated discussions? How often do you change up the groups?
I've aimed at having groups of 8-10 people. That tends to work well - it isn't unusual that during a given week one or two students won't participate for whatever reason, but you still have enough people to contribute to a good discussion. In my courses there are usually eight modules that require discussions, so I change the groups twice during the term (meaning that the groups will do two or three modules together before being remixed).
Do you provide guidelines on how to give effective feedback to peers' comments?
I do, but I've been thinking I need to give them a few more ideas on this. To me, the key elements should be: treat each other with respect; if you can connect what your peer has said to another idea (either in the article that is the basis for the discussion, or another source from the course or elsewhere), do that; if you're not sure you understand what point your peer is making, ask them to clarify (but explain what it is exactly that you're not understanding); if you think what your peer has written is good or engaging, explain why that is. The key idea here is that you want to prolong the discussion, not just to make it long, but to keep it moving forward because doing so will teach you more.
Victoria Feth has this to add, a mnemonic she picked up in a previous life as a high school teacher: Text to self (lived experience), text to text (of any medium), text to world (news stories etc.)
Do you ever assign TA's to monitor/guide the discussion forums?
Yes, I have done that, but it hasn't always been successful. For one thing, TAs often feel their task is to correct the work of the students, and that doesn't help move the discussions forward. So a fair amount of training of the TAs is necessary. Another thing to remember is that by participating in the discussions, you can get to know your students (which can be difficult in online courses) and start seeing how they think, what parts of the content they're not comprehending, what material interests them, etc. This can make teaching an online course much more interesting than just marking essays and tests.
UW CTE Tip Sheet: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/being-ta-online-courses
Discussions in STEM Courses
All good but what fundamental engineering or math courses? Where students will have lots of difficulty understanding on their own instead of an instructor teaching them. These are newspaper readings that anyone I suppose can do with some degree of literacy.
Just to be clear - the readings in this course are not all newspaper readings, and even if some of the readings are fairly straightforward, that does not mean that the concepts being discussed are easily assimilated. That's where the discussion and the writing come in - to assist students in learning how to communicate their understanding of what they're reading.
For STEM courses this approach may not work as well. One idea might be to have the "content" consist of the instructor teaching, and the resulting discussion being focussed questions aimed at assessing the level of the students' comprehension of the concepts that have been taught.
The university also has access to Piazza, a discussion forum that is popular in STEM courses because it supports LaTEX and configuring equations.
Grading Discussions
How do you get student participation in the discussion forum? Is it worth marks? Do you direct students to use the discussion forum before emailing instructor/TAs?
There's a Q&A forum for housekeeping questions - students are expected to post questions like "where do I find assignment X" there first before emailing the instructor. Participation in the content discussion forums is graded (see below).
For the discussion forum you indicate that the emphasis is on engagement. How do you define engagement for students so they know what your expectations are?
Here's the full text of the expectations I communicate to the students - use any part of it you wish:
Description
If this were an on-campus face-to-face course, you would be expected to attend regularly, join in class discussions, and participate in group tasks. The same holds true for this course, except we do it all online.
Each module in this course contains a number of content items - readings and recordings about that module's topic. Each content item is embedded in its own discussion forum. For each item there will be a discussion prompt: a question that you are to answer, a statement you are asked to comment on, an activity you are to engage in. You can also use each item's discussion forum to ask questions about that item and discuss the material with others in the course. By participating in and contributing to these discussions, you'll be engaging in and facilitating your own learning.
During the term you will be belong to three discussion groups; one for Modules 1-3, one for Modules 4-5, and one for Modules 5-8. You will be randomly assigned to your discussion group. At the end of each module, the discussion forums will be opened up so that you can read the posts of the other groups.
Expectations
In order to encourage you to participate regularly in the discussions that are spread throughout the modules, you will be assessed on your engagement in these discussion topics. Here is what is expected:
you are to be a regular presence in the discussion forums - reading the posts of others, commenting on them, making your own points known;
a good rule of thumb is to aim for making at least two posts to every discussion in every module;
sometimes it will be appropriate for you to add just a sentence or two to the discussion, whereas at other times more substantive contributions (normally a paragraph or two will suffice) are required.
Unlike other aspects of this course, where expectations are quantified by explicit graded tasks, this portion of the course requires a little more intuition on your part. That's okay; that's the way it is in life - sometimes you're told what to do, and sometimes you've got to figure out on your own how to participate. But this shouldn't be a source of anxiety for you. All we're asking of you is to contribute to the online discussions because we know that expressing and discussing ideas is an excellent way to learn. If it helps, you can think of it like this: just as you're expected to attend classes held on campus, you are also expected to attend the discussions that take place in online courses. You demonstrate that "attendance" by engaging in the course work of discussions.
How will your engagement be marked? While you will want to be striving for accuracy in your posts, participation in the discussions and a willingness to work with others to understand the material in the course are the more important goals. You are not graded on individual posts, but on the quality of your posting activity in each module as a whole. The instructor will evaluate your contributions against the following criteria as applicable to the discussion at hand:
relevance to the discussion prompt and/or question for that particular discussion
responsiveness to other posts in the discussion: are you engaging with your colleagues in a meaningful way? Are your posts just repeating other ideas already stated, or are you adding something that furthers the conversation?
content of your posts: does it demonstrate engagement with course materials (e.g. readings, ProfMoments, other discussions) or topics as appropriate?
intelligibility of your posts: are they well written, well structured, clear, and appropriate in length? Do language and style aid or hinder the communication of ideas?
timeliness and frequency of your posts: are they tossed off in short bursts or distributed throughout the period that the discussion topic is open? Are your interventions so few that people in your discussion don't really know what you think, or so many that others feel you're trying to dominate the discussion (either in the hopes of getting a better mark, or just out of thoughtlessness)?
The instructor will read all contributions, and you will receive an overall mark for your contributions to each module. Since life sometimes gets in the way, preventing you from participating as actively as you might like, this portion of the grade will be based on the average of your seven best modules.
Is there a mark given to discussion posts? Does everyone in the group have to post?
Is discussion forum participation mandatory for all students? Do you track everyone's contribution?
Contributing to the discussions makes up about a third of the students' grade. I track all contributions; students who aren't posting the minimum number of times or aren't meeting the engagement criteria lose marks as a result. Students who make no contributions or very rudimentary contributions get zero.
Can you talk about UW LEARN's tools for grading discussion forums? ie can you export a spreadsheet or similar showing each student and their contributions to each topic?
LEARN offers a variety of different views of discussion forum contributions. Since I'm looking at overall contributions of a student, and since I'm keeping the grading simple using a three-point-scale, I try to read the students' contributions in context first (ie as part of the forum), and there I make note of contributions that don't seem to be as fulsome as they could be. Then when the discussion forum is concluded I look at each students' contributions as a whole in order to asses how well they meet the overall grading criteria. If you're more interested in grading individual posts, you have the option of configuring LEARN to make that easier.
Lectures
What are your thoughts about how best to adapt existing lectures into something more online friendly (eg into discussion forum)?
A couple of ideas spring to mind:
divide lectures into chunks, and make each of those chunks the focus of a discussion forum.
if you want to record those chunks, either as a lecture or a narrated powerpoint, keep those recording shorter than 10 minutes.
think of giving some of the lecture material in written format. It's easier for someone to read and comprehend than to listen and comprehend. Written text is also easier for students to revise.
Building on the previous question, is creating narrated powerpoints a good use of our time? Or would you say that curating content well with good discussion topics and varied material is a better priority?
Having done both, I now prefer the latter, mainly because I think it's more engaging for the student. It's also a bit easier for the instructor to prepare.
Assignments
What are students expected to do to create their own module and how do they post it on Learn? Do other students respond to each other's modules?
Have you ever had students respond to/participate in each other's modules as part of a course requirement?
The problem is that the MyModule is handed in during the exam period, which doesn't give a lot of time for students to engage with each other's module. But I'm thinking of figuring out how I could do that because I want students to see what their peers can accomplish. One issue is that some students are quite sensitive about their work being seen by others, so I'd need to prepare a good rationale as to why they would nevertheless have to make their work public.
Where do students upload their Module?
They upload them to the dropbox - either as a document (if they've selected the PDF option) or as a link to the site they've created.
I’m exploring having the students use some other sites for displaying their modules. I think that Wakelet would work very well; Padlet and Milanote are other possibilities. They all have free versions that the students could use.
Quizzes and Exams
How to avoid cheating during quizzes and exams?
I do that by avoiding quizzes and exams! I require a lot of writing in my courses - I want students to learn how to use writing to analyze, to interpret, and to put forward arguments. The bigger problem for me is plagiarism - students copying material off the internet with attributing the sources.
UW Resource on this: https://uwaterloo.ca/keep-learning/academic-integrity
With exams and quizzes, you can randomize questions, have students receive different questions, limit the times to answer questions, etc. There's no foolproof way of preventing that completely.
If my class is small enough and I feel a need to do a final overall assessment, I use a short oral exam (10-15 minutes in length). Very hard to cheat on an oral exam, even online, and it's quick to grade - five minutes at the end.
Are we heading into a storm of emails challenging deadlines with our coronavirus storm? Is there a policy about deadlines regarding this?
The University of Waterloo has provided some guidance for students and instructors regarding converting Winter Term course grades to Credit/No Credit. As far as granting extensions goes, given the unique and unsettling disruption of the Winter Term, I would try to be as lenient as possible and offer all students an extension to the latest day possible. Yes, it will cause us instructors an intense few days of marking in the latter part of April, but erring in favour of giving the students the most leeway possible will go a long way to helping them cope with anxiety we’re all feeling.
Group Work
I would just say that I'm not sure it's a matter of students not liking group work vs. not liking GOOD group work experiences. (I've done some research on this, actually. Anyone is welcome to contact me if they are interested in hearing more.)
Good point.
How does this approach develop team skills - working together - as opposed to individual skills -working alone?
This approach is more focused on individual skills - reading for understanding, and writing to communicate that understanding.
Beyond forming groups for discussion, do you have any strategies for setting up online collaborative assignments/projects?
This is not something I've done a lot of, but there's lots of advice out there. Check out UW’s CTE Tip Sheet: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/alternatives-lecturing/discussions/collaborative-online-learning
I teach smaller classes so dyads or triads are teamed from the beginning of the semester has worked well. Is this approach effective for remote learning?
Yes, I think you could easily adapt this approach. You'd have smaller groups that work together throughout the term. You may want to give them more specific discussion activities or instructions, such as the Save the Last Word for Me activity discussed above.
Synchronicity
Please comment on teaching live online versus an online course.
Would it make sense to use a blended approach mixing synchronous and asynchronous teaching/learning?
Have you/would you ever integrate live chats into fully online courses?
Is it / will it be possible to have some live classroom experiences where students can join if they want and ask questions (which would then be recorded and shared with everyone) - kind of like what we're doing now?
I think this last question outlines the best approach if you want to include some syncrhonous teaching/learning into your course. If you do think that you want to teach part of the course in a synchronous fashion, remember that not all students will be able to attend at that time (nor are they required to, since UW made all Spring Term courses online and asynchronous). Therefore recording those sessions so that others have access to them would be essential. Remember, too, that since the courses are largely asynchronous, students may not be that keen on having to attend synchronous events.
For discussion forums do you suggest Cisco WebEx, Learn, or Zoom? Or a combination?
If I wanted to conduct a live discussion, I would use the service that had the clearest user interface and was the easiest for both the host and the attendees to use. At the moment that would be Zoom. Don't worry about Zoombombing; if you follow best practices for setting up the forum, that isn't a problem. This New York Times article shows you how to do that.
Through UW LEARN you have access to Bongo, another video chat service. The advantage is that it's right in LEARN and therefore supported by the university. I haven't used it so I can't comment on it, but people who do use it say it's fine.
Housekeeping
I use google forms for extension requests - cuts back a lot of email.
Good idea!
For the coming spring term, the approach is being referred to as "remote teaching and learning" as opposed to online courses. Recognizing that we are on tight timelines for spring courses, what would you say are the most important principles to consider?
Keep it simple.
Don't teach (i.e prepare lectures). Instead, facilitate - discussions, learning, engagement.
Flatten the email curve, the bane on online courses, by making sure your course is clearly organized so that students can find everything they need on their own.
Do you communicate the No Excuses Necessary extension policy upfront in the syllabus, or just upon request?
Yes, absolutely. They know about this on Day One, and the first week of the course - Module 0 - informs them of policies like this and the rationale informing them.
Have you experience in teaching summer courses with half the length of term? Would you ever teach two modules in one week?
I don't have experience teaching Blockseminare (as they're known in German) online, but I think it would be doable. I think you'd have to cut down on the number of content items and discussions, however.
There is a difference between designing an online course in a regular semester and designing one when ALL courses are online. How do you take this into account when designing a course?
That's a good point. If your department or faculty is well organized, it would be good to have an overview of all online courses so that you as a group could decide if there are certain principles you'd like to adhere to - for example, first year courses might have fewer discussions and more lecture-like content, and upper year courses might reverse that model. In the absence of that kind of overall organization, I think you simply have to set up your course according to the learning objectives you're setting for your students, and in the way that makes the most sense to you.
Do you still do office hours? Or some kind of one-on-one meetings? How do you schedule/handle those?
I don't hold office hours, but I do make sure that students are aware that I'm available for one-on-one consultation by phone or video chat.
Technical Questions
How do we get started with technical construction once we have prepared our course? First technical steps, in other words.
My advice would be figure out an outline of the course ahead of time. Then build your shell - create empty modules as placeholders for the content. Then start adding your content to those modules.
Is the discussion forum you used in your courses hosted by university LMS or external?
I used the university LMS - D2L Brightspace (which we call UW LEARN). The university also has access to Piazza, a discussion forum that is popular in STEM courses because it supports LaTEX and configuring equations.
How do you pin reading materials to discussion forums? How do you pin content at top of modules?
In each discussion forum there is a "description" section that is editable only by the instructor, and which is always at the top of each discussion forum or topic. This is where you "pin" the content that is the focus of the discussion.
LEARN modules have the same functionality.
How can video be embedded in the discussion forum? Can students upload audio instead of typing into discussions? (Being mindful of any accommodations)? Can discussion forums also have images or other uploaded documents?
When the students are contributing to the discussion forum, they have an editor dashboard that lets them add other kinds of content (images, videos, audio, files).
Is there an equivalent to a whiteboard function in the LMS? (UW LEARN)
If I understand the question correctly, you’re looking for a collaborative space (to draw things, like on a whiteboard). LEARN doesn’t have that, but the integrated video app Bongo does have a whiteboard in its Virtual Classroom. It can be recorded and shared back to students who can't attend the recording in real time.
For collaborating on documents, a lot of students use Google Docs which allow for multiple editors working simultaneously.
Does LEARN have a functionality like Piazza where students can ask questions, vote on questions they also want answered, and there is a way for other students to answer the questions in addition to the teaching team answering the question "officially"?
Yes, LEARN has the functionality; you can sort posts by stars/votes and therefore see the most popular post at the top of the forum. You’ll find that on the LEARN Discussion properties tab when setting up a topic. Piazza does this very well, of course. For the last point - answering the question officially - you could do that by posting an "OFFICIAL ANSWER" in the forum.
Work/Time Involved
With at least two responses per student in a class of 60, is this not potentially overwhelming?
It is a lot to read and to comment on, no doubt about it, and it can feel overwhelming. But remember you're not also lecturing at the same time. And you do gain a lot of information from your students about what they're understanding and what they're struggling with, and you can intervene to help them with that.
How does your time management differ when you are teaching an online course? Do you engage daily - during specific times? Do you limit your time on a course to specific days? I can easily see it swallowing up a lot of time if I'm not disciplined.
I do try to set aside two hours a day during the week to be in the course - reviewing discussions mostly, adding some bit as necessary, that sort of thing). That usually suffices.
Motivation
What can you do to mitigate students' forum fatigue?
It's difficult. Giving them grades is one motivational tool, but even though those grades are low stakes, it still adds stress. I try to be present in the forums: cheerful, friendly, encouraging. I try to post funny memes or videos related to the content from time to time and encourage others to do the same.
Another thing you can do is give students a break by counting only their six best weeks of contributions (out of eight weeks or modules). This lets students hang back certain weeks if they’re really busy. The downside of this approach is that in particularly busy weeks (e.g. during midterms), a lot students might not engage in the discussions, leaving some discussion groups underpopulated.
Follow up on building community: some instructors are setting up forums of discussion to share "how we're surviving Covid-19" -- highlighting what they do to stay sane ;-) One instructor is having the students create memes using plants (her content area).
Good idea.
How to you ramp up your "lecturing energy and enthusiasm" when the students are not right in front of you?
I try to post to the discussion in an honest and engaging manner, and try to be as upbeat as possible knowing that if I set a positive tone, it will help others to do so.
How do you build a community within the students in the course?
It's not easy. I demonstrate my interest in the content in the hope that it will encourage their interest. My hope is that common interest will build community. But that might be idealistic.