02ap20 24mar2020
Don’t convert entire lecture to video;
Don’t rely on live video;
Pay attention to engagement and feedback;
Check in with students often;
Identify struggling students and support them
Don’t convert your entire lecture to video.
“Strategically reduce your goals” . Instructors need to identify a few specific things that they want their students to learn, and focus on those.
Don’t rely on live video.
Invite student engagement and feedback.
The best online instructors, Reich and Lee agree, set up their courses so that students can pursue self-paced enquiry — exploring the topic under their own initiative. For example, you can give students a range of links for further reading.
Asking students what they hope to get out of the online course, and
how you can best serve them,
offers instructors ideas for teaching and gives students ownership of the process, he says.
Check in with students often.
Consider interactive elements such as short quizzes.
Students might also miss on-campus social interaction, so it helps to engage them with opportunities to talk to one another during a live session, says Lee. She groups students into teams of five so that they can support one another. If students have a question about content, they ask their group first, and come to her only if they still can’t get a satisfactory answer. “Make sure students support each other. Don’t try to do everything yourself,” she says.
Identify and support struggling students.
Reich says that the most successful virtual teachers conduct frequent assessments, and check in by phone, text or e-mail with each student — most often with those who are struggling.
To identify those students, instructors can ask whether class members have adequate Wi-Fi and access to devices, and how concerned they are about the transition to online learning.
Each day, using a program called Voice-Thread,
he records several short videos of himself explaining maths concepts,
adding up to 15–30 minutes collectively.
During their day, the students
watch the videos on a website and, in turn,
insert videos they make of their assigned theorem proofs, for example, or
a question,
a comment or
a critique of a classmate’s proof.
Together, Rolla and his students produce an interactive, if asynchronous,
class recording.
Working together
Rolla has one crucial tip:
seek constant feedback from students.
“I am the director of this movie,” he says, “but we are all in this together.”
He asks his students precise questions to demonstrate
what they have just learnt and
how each concept builds on their existing base of knowledge.
He also asks for feedback to improve the course.
When students asked for more concrete examples of complex, abstract theorems to make sure they understood the concepts, he obliged.
“The biggest risk is that you become a talking head
explaining things that students are not following,” he says,
“and they give up and
just pretend.”
His video-based approach has earned high praise from students and colleagues.
“The hardest part is that it takes a lot of time,” says Rolla, “at least three times as much work as a traditional lecture, and that’s once you’re familiar with the tools.” He estimates that since February, he’s been spending 35 hours weekly preparing his online teaching content.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00896-7
