September is coming. And it’s going to include at least some portion of online instruction. (Cue scary music.) For so many of us, a dark cloud of doom hovers over our planning to provide this online instruction because we are still feeling bruised and battered from the online teaching experiences of last spring.
How many times between March and June did you finish a live session with your students — likely full of awkward silences while you were waiting for responses that never came, looking at black boxes where faces should be, the word “iPhone” where a students’ name should be — and when you concluded the session you felt some combination of (1) feeling that you just spent far too many minutes speaking into an unproductive void, (2) wondering “what is wrong with them?” or (3) wondering “what is wrong with me??”
In reality, though, it’s not your fault. And it’s not your students’ fault either. You weren’t trained for this. And neither were they! You know how to keep students engaged in class. So many practices have become second nature: walking around the room, approaching the desk of the student who is off task, shifting activities on the fly if the class’s collective attention starts to wane.
But distance learning sessions? We haven’t (yet) exercised our online teaching skills enough to develop those teaching instincts.
The good news is that some (not all) of the in-school experiences that makes your classes magical can be captured in an online setting. And there are some new ways of doing things that can help to build new magic.
I have been part of remarkably unsuccessful online teaching, as both a teacher and student. Lack of student engagement has been the typical culprit preventing success.
First, bring your personality to the class! If the design of your online course (organization, selection of materials, description of tasks) seems like it could have been created by any generic entity, students will not feel connected to it. According to Edutopia’s Keeping Students Engaged in Digital Learning, “Research shows that being your natural authentic self” is key.
In courses I’ve taken through a popular online university, student engagement suffered considerably because of the standardization of all courses throughout the university. The course and it’s materials could have been created by anyone, and the professors’ personalities, perspectives, and experiences played minimal roles. Avoid this!
Second, if you ask students to respond in online discussions, be a part of the conversation. Don’t take over; let the students have their space to interact and work through complex topics. But let them know you’re there and that you’re engaged, which will encourage them to be engaged.
However, don’t make the mistake of one online professor I had, who would post very generic responses to student discussion posts that had little do to with the content written by the students. In fact, most of her responses could easily be found as plagiarized from other websites on the general topics being discussed! Model for your students what you want them to do: read and understand thoroughly, consider deeply, respond thoughtfully. Be yourself.
Third (and really this will include a few sub-points), I think many teachers need some help keeping those Zoom sessions from being the black hole where student engagement goes to die. The key here, again, is keeping the students engaged. And get that started from the very beginning of the session.
Eugene Korsunskiy provides an excellent collection of ice breakers to begin your zoom sessions. One of my favorites he calls Name Tag:
A very quick and simple way for everyone to acknowledge each other at the start of a meeting or class session.
• Everyone needs to have their names visible on the screen (i.e. make sure that you set your name to your actual name in Zoom).
• One person calls out someone else’s name.
• The person whose name was called yells out “hey!” (or something else you decide on). Then, this person calls out somebody else’s name.
• Keep going until everyone has been “tagged.”
It’s simple, it’s low-pressure, any student can complete it easily, and most importantly it forces every student to open their mouths, making future participation during the session more likely.
Once you get students to speak at the beginning, don’t leave it there. During an in-person class it can be easier to get students to respond to questions. In a virtual session you will probably need to be more intentional about it. Edutopia’s suggestions include use the polling option in zoom to ask for feedback on a topic. Pause for brainstorm breaks. Ask guided questions. Make these regular parts of your live sessions so students know what to expect, how to react, and that they won’t get off the hook by staying silent!
All of the above suggestions are important. But in my experience as an online student, the single most important feature you can use during a zoom session is breakout rooms! These are amazing and can single-handedly transform your live online instruction. While this feature does not exist in Google Meet (yet), it does exist in Zoom.
Present students with a big idea or question to consider, then divide them into small groups to discuss. It works just as it would in your classroom, and you can pop into each of the small groups sessions to check on student work.
Where students might be reluctant to speak on camera in front of an entire class, they are more likely to do so willingly in small groups. This will also build a stronger sense of community in your class (something sorely missing from many online courses), and makes students feel as though they are part of something that feels more personal and real.
For more information on breakout sessions and other zoom tips, please check out Zoom’s tips for educators as well as an excellent, concise series of videos by T'hleah Ben-Dan.
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References
Edutopia. (2020, April 8). Keeping Students Engaged in Digital Learning [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LybF2YlWn4&feature=youtu.be
Korsunskiy, E. (2020, June 29). Zoom-Friendly Warmups and Icebreakers - Future of Design in Higher Education. Medium. https://medium.com/future-of-design-in-higher-education/zoom-friendly-warmups-and-icebreakers-3400c8b7263
T’helah Ben-Dan. (2020, April 2). Zoom Tools for Online Classroom Management - Part 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBLJ0LyMmWI
Zoom. (2020, April). Tips & Tricks: Teachers Educating on Zoom. https://zoom.us/docs/doc/Tips%20and%20Tricks%20for%20Teachers%20Educating%20on%20Zoom.pdf