Switching to online teaching

Thanks to the sudden onslaught of Corona and the consequent lockdown running into many weeks, academic systems have been thrown into difficulties. How to manage the syllabus for the exams, the year-transition, regular classes, assignments, internal evaluation, etc – have all been concerns. Though we have been talking about online learning for over two decades now, the response has been poor so far. MOOCs scored some success, but have been far from being an alternative to traditional instruction environments. Suddenly everything changed.

Almost every educational institution from schools to colleges are into running their classes online. It is, of course, welcome rather than let students’ time idle away at home. Meeting their teacher and getting some assignments from them means a lot to students and put some pressure to carry them out. But, what happens when teachers with no prior experience in online teaching take this up overnight?

Those of us working in e-learning has been declaring at the top of our voice about the difficulties in going online. Making online teaching effective is not easy; perhaps the reason, why it did not take off in the years so far. Secondly, going online is not about technology any more. We have a huge selection of video conferencing tools, many offering free service, today. Not much to choose among them (not ignoring occasional serious allegations being thrown against one or other). jit.si, zoom, Google hangout, skype, Microsoft teams, etc are some of the tools which I have personally used.

The challenge is mostly for the teachers, and to some extent the learners. When there is something at stake for the learners, you can expect better cooperation and understanding from you, making it possible to relax a bit on your challenges. Here are some warnings/advices, if you are switching to online overnight or not finding the responses great when going online. Do comment on any additional tips; I will update them in the article in course of time.

1.    An obvious aspect of being online is the lack of peer presence. Though in classes, this can mean chit-chats and games, peer presence is an important grounding factor. When your mind wanders, something happening there brings you back to the classroom. In most online classes, students are advised to put video off to save bandwidth and audio off to reduce clutter and noise. This essentially, makes the students alone, with only the lecturer-face to look at. And often this is also replaced by slides with no movement – and then you are at a deadend!

2.    First tip is to avoid heavy slides (too much text). Put some pictures (not random pictures – which may attract student’s attention at the cost of what you are saying!). Use a pen or a pointer to mark things on the slide, sketch stuff online, highlight points, etc. This helps to focus attention, and create some movement on the screen.

3.    Include alternate screens – demos, simulations, animations, notes, etc. Switching screens makes noticeable change on the view in addition to deepening the learning with better student involvement. A demo is more effective than a verbal explanation for how things work. A simulation is still more effective than a demo. If you can involve the students in operating the simulation, even better. Switch to these devices regularly to prevent slide monotonicity.

4.    Ensure your face, as you lecture, is visible. Sometimes, let this be the primary screen. The expressions on the face are non-verbal cues to tune in. It will be great if you can look into the camera – it almost mimics direct eye contact.

5.    Go slow. As I mentioned this medium can be slow. So don’t rush to completing the syllabus. May be you can skip some details as a compromise. But go easy on the pace. Also note that many have Internet problems when being online. Pieces are often missed. Voice can be broken or blurred. The slower pace can help address these to some extent.

6.    I mentioned earlier about heavy slides. On the other hand, don’t make the slides very light. It is not an ornament. Ensure to put important points, equations, etc on the slides. Even if some bit is missed, this will help to catch up and refocus. Even putting some reference to the pages in the textbook can also help, for them to go later and check up details.

7.    On the same topic, limit the number of slides. Putting 150 slides for a one hour talk is insulting the audience! It can only mean you did not give enough time in preparing. Added to the network delays and disruptions in transmitting video, going too fast on slide transition is very uncomfortable. So choose what should go on the slides, make sure they are used, and keep the number manageable. A thumb rule is 3-4 minutes per slide – this is only a thumb rule, not every slide fits into this. There may be a few slides which you just want to show for a minute or so, and some slides on which you may spend 10 minutes (remember these can bring up the monotony issue mentioned earlier). If you expect to spend less than a minute on a slide, drop it. With video transmission issues, this will serve no purpose!

8.    Like in classroom, you can aim questions to specific students. Like the chalk throwing in class, it is sure to wake up the class, with the ‘fear’ of being the next target. Randomly putting video of some of your students on – where possible – is another option.

9.    Many systems for video conferencing provide support to collect feedback, conduct polls, etc. These are very useful measures which should be explored and used.

10. Asking students to type their questions on chat mode and you looking at the chat log periodically is a good way to efficiently handle doubts. It removes the video switching time and repetitions. If you think the question or point made is relevant and interesting, it is worth asking the person to come on video and explain the point.

11. As MOOCs do, pausing every 10 minutes or so, to recap or asking one of the students to summarise can also improve attention and note taking.

12. Give away the slides to the students, at least at the end of the class, if not before. This will reduce the slide copying tendency. Ensuring that the slides do not contain everything will ensure that they take notes, and prevent you from being a slide-reader.

Have you been on the receiving side or giving side? Any experience you can share? Anything else you can add? Or anything you disagree with in your experience?

-       Sasikumar