Posts by: rjhowe
One of our course advocate students on Events Management has kindly collated some reflections on the student’s experiences of online learning.
“I know you are all trying to make our learning experience the best you possibly can in this situation and we are very thankful for that. So to support this, I am reaching out to communicate feedback that I received from my course mates. We will all be stuck with online lectures, probably until we graduate, so I think it is in all our interest to make this the best we possibly can, rather sooner than later.”
Group work
The questions asked were: where are the problems? what would you like to be changed? & are you happy with everything?
There were two different opinions about group work and break out rooms:
- Students feel a lot more confident and comfortable contributing when they know the other person, or at least recognise the name of people in the group.
This leads to group work where no one is speaking with each other at all and work isn’t being done so it’s ultimately a waste of time.
—> so the goal here would be to be able to choose your partners yourself, as you would in F2F lectures. - On the other hand there are students raising their concerns about this as it can be super isolating for new and anxious students, who may not know anyone personally, and don’t want to be “pushed away”.
One of the suggestions around group work is to set up groups being named as “Camera & Mic”, “Mic”, & “Chat”, so that students can choose the way of group work they feel most comfortable with. Another idea would be to integrate more verbal engagements.
Some of the above suggestions echo those covered in in other guidance on groupwork from Inside Higher Education
Interactive sessions
“Students have more than one lecture where they are physically just spoken to for two hours straight and are watching a PowerPoint. Often not even referenced, this feels pointless.”
Lectures could do with being more interactive, if possible. Many students have mentioned the way other tutors incorporates polls in their lectures to find out about our opinions, then afterwards he asks about the reasons for the answers. This engages students! They are then able to have verbal and written discussions on the chat.
There is currently a discussion underway about whether cameras should be left on or turned off in online sessions. Some students and tutors are valuing the social interaction which is encouraged when they are able to see other participants in the room. Others emphasise with articles such as “Reasons Why You Should Reconsider Requiring Students to Turn on Their Zoom Cameras During Class” and suggest that this should be optional.
For more information on strategies see previous blog postings from Learntech, Mark Allenby’s suggestions on group work and suggestions from Kaltura
During 2020 Mark decided to make a radical change in his teaching through removal of PowerPoint in his synchronous teaching. He still use some pre-recorded presentations, but his ‘live’ teaching, both face-to-face and online, have now used NILE(Blackboard Learn), not PowerPoint.
In this guest Learntech posting, Mark shares some of his hints and tips on ‘life without PowerPoint’.
One of our students in FHES (Faculty of Health Education and Society) has reflected on the first few weeks of term and their opinion on pre-lecture coffee and Hyflex:
“For me the first two weeks have gone well, I have quite quickly adjusted to the way things are working. Did have a minor hissing fit last week when I arrived on campus at 8h30 for a 9 am lecture to find no coffee would be available till 9 when I had to be in class. Pleased to say that by this week the matter was resolved, and pre-lecture coffee was available.
I have decided that under the present conditions I prefer the synchronous online lectures to in class as despite the limitations around having discussions I can at least breath and focus. In class, I have found wearing a mask very distracting and I spend more time suppressing my claustrophobia then concentrating on the lecture, also I find the lecturers talking from behind a visor is quite muffling and I can’t always make out what is being said. That said clearly some lecturers are way better at delivering online than others but I have been very impressed with how Collaborates breakout function works. This has been my tech revelation of the year so far.”
The University is continuing to refine hyflex models and share experiences on when this works well, how it can be refined and when other methods of delivery may be more appropriate.
For more information on socially distanced delivery then please see the Learntech blog
If you have other experiences to share then please email rob.howe@northampton.ac.uk
“The situation was that the room was not big enough to accommodate all the students, so they chose to sit nearby, whilst there were others who could not come to the face to face session and were online.
I am a bit of a wanderer when I am teaching and so I do not know if the students could always hear me when I move around. There is also the issue of not being able to hear the student’s contribution because of the masks and so I needed to ask on a couple of occasions for them to repeat themselves.
…there is a need to multi-task in terms of ensuring there is participation and accessibility of resources and activities for this delivery method.
On reflection, I will ensure that I have a hard copy of the presentation, in case IT issues occur and to keep checking in with the students who are online or sitting nearby more often. The 2 hours flew by.”
The University is continuing to refine hyflex models and share experiences on when this works well, how it can be refined and when other methods of delivery may be more appropriate.
For more information on socially distanced delivery then please see the Learntech blog
If you have other experiences to share then please email rob.howe@northampton.ac.uk
Sally Sun from Faculty of Business and Law has kindly reflected on her experiences of Hybrid / Flexible Learning on the module BUS1004 (Introduction to Management).
She notes ‘…this is a case study about my practices of teaching students online and F2F at the same time during March 2020. I feel that I have adopted some teaching practices which are very similar to what is suggested in the HyFlex teaching approach, so this is my reflection about my experiences of what went well and what can be improved. This reflection is designed around Gibb’s reflection cycle to help me focus on my experiences.’
4 key points were noted by Sally regarding her experiences:
- The new delivery format has satisfied the needs of a certain kind of students
- Students got excited when they interact with students online
- She felt extremely exhausted after the session
- She felt the teaching quality was not her best level for F2F students in the class
The University is continuing to refine hyflex models and share experiences on when this works well, how it can be refined and when other methods of delivery may be more appropriate.
For more information on socially distanced delivery then please see the Learntech blog
If you have other experiences to share then please email rob.howe@northampton.ac.uk
This blog is a home for some of the links which provide useful ideas for icebreakers for online classes. If you have particular favourites/collections then please email them to rob.howe@northampton.ac.uk.
Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online.
Whilst the Padlet team are aware that they need to make the product more accessible, their progress during 2020 has been slow. The product has been used in many subject areas and usage is still growing.
Those using the product should be aware that some people with accessibility needs may not be able to access all parts of the screen or access all of the content being displayed. This may include people who primarily use screen readers and / or keyboards to access content.
The Padlet blog does indicate the main issues at the current time. It should be noted that those needing higher contrast on their screen should download a web extension such as High Contrast for Chrome to increase this for Padlet pages.
Those making use of Padet will need to review the information provided and consider the appropriateness of the tool for their own situation. The Learntech team are considering alternatives if a need to change is required.
A range of different delivery styles have been used by tutors ranging from face to face, hybrid (mix of face to face and online) and purely online. The return to teaching approaches for Autumn 2020 recognise (in the advent of COVID-19) that there is the possibility of staff working with students who are both physically on campus and also accessing the session remotely. This has been termed a hybrid flexible approach (shortened to Hyflex). The Hyflex approach should assist with socially distanced delivery.
Guidance notes (only accessible to those with internal accounts) have been developed to assist staff who are operating under the Hyflex model. These will be updated as new information becomes available over the academic year. A shorter summary of these notes (which includes an update on session recordings) is also available.
For staff which wish to check their knowledge on online delivery then this is available through the Jisc Discovery Tool (circa. 10 minutes to complete)
A presentation on the delivery model and scenarios (used in the training sessions) is available.
Some strategies for teaching in a Hyflex mode may be found on the Inside Higher Education pages.
The University has licensed the Jisc Discovery tool which allows staff and students to complete a simple set of questions around digital literacy and be directed to useful resources depending on the answers provided.
In addition to the basic option to “Explore your overall digital capabilities” (which is applicable for all staff and students) – a new option has just been released “Effective online teaching”. This allows you to explore your digital capabilities for online teaching.
After completing the report you will be given a quick summary based on your answers along with further links to assist in your development.
In order to access the tool please follow these steps:
1. Log in at https://jisc.potential.ly/ with these details:
2. Put the Organisation as ‘University of Northampton
3. Login with your normal staff or student account.
4. If this is the first time you have logged in then just complete the registration information.
5. From the home page on the left click onto “Effective online teaching”
Your Learning Technologist will be happy to discuss the report in more detail and assist in any technical development using our tools.
In addition to the excellent range of resources which are available for students to help with NILE, a new Organisational resource has just been released on the platform for those who are new to NILE. This 20 minute mini-course will provide a basic introduction to NILE including navigation and useful tools such as the calendar, activity stream and the Blackboard app.
The course will supplement information and resources provided by tutors and provide a springboard into NILE usage.
New students will be able to view the course by clicking onto the Organisations link after logging into NILE and then click onto the link for “Student Introduction to NILE”:
It is then possible to access all the material in the course. A printable / downloadable confirmation page is available for those who complete all materials.
Staff wishing to preview the material for their own use/reference should follow the guidance for enrolling on Organisations (click on “Add Organisation to Workload”) and search for “Stu-Intro-NILE-staffview”
