Ask An Expert About Teaching Online

All questions received and answers from our experts are categorized and posted here. Click a category to see all questions and answers or enter a keyword or keyword(s) to find all matching questions.

Accessibility

Where can I find materials that I can use in my course which are not going to get me in trouble for copyright infringement?

There are a variety of what is known as “open education resources” (OER) available which are licensed for common use – you can use them. You can find materials here:

Open Textbook Repositories in Canada

Open Textbook Repositories outside of Canada

Copyright and intellectual property laws are different in different countries. You should check with the policies in place at your own institution.

Assessing Learning Online

Are they new ways of doing assessment now that we’re all online?

To start with, I should clarify that the issue is not that there are or are not NEW ways of doing assessment online – it’s that online assessment SHOULD be different from traditional f2f assessment.

However, it matters what level you are working with. So what I say here can’t be applied across the board. If you like, you can follow up with more specific information, e.g. how old are your students.

In general, however, online assessment offers you (as teacher/instructor) to be more creative and “authentic” in your assessment processes. Authentic means to access learners’ own experiences rather than have them respond to generic questions or tasks. Create an assessment tool that calls for the learner to input something of themselves. With younger learners, that will add up to personalizing a question or a task at their level. For older, more mature learners, it can open the doors to all sorts of project-based assignments that require creativity rather than rote response.

That’s the whole idea, creativity. That’s also one way to avoid academic dishonesty online, since you as teacher cannot watch over them as they complete their assignment tasks.

Another online strategy is to have the learners work in pairs or small groups so there is discussion and cognitive movement within the group, thus stimulating interest and community within the group. At a more general level, community is necessary to keep the class “alive” and functioning. Have them connect together through any medium that works (or is available – Facebook, for example, even email, Googledocs, Microsoft teams) and then direct their final assignment answer, however you have constructed it, to you. While they are doing this, you are of course available for consultation and guidance.

Hint: when constructing online assignments, make sure that your instructions are very clear and detailed so that you are not inundated with a LOT of questions seeking direction. Each step/task has to be well thought-out in advance. More so than F2F when you can just respond to a question in a second.

You will also probably need to adjust your weighting scheme. In online, we usually/always give participation marks. As much as 15%, which is a norm. This serves as a motivating force. We grade participation on quality, not quantity. Participation criteria should also be made clear.

All this works really well for subjects in the arts and sciences. Grade 4 math would be a different story.

One of the key differences in online everything is that the teacher has to release more power to the learner. Again, it works well for the mature learner because they appreciate the autonomy and run with it. Poor or unmotivated learners – not so much. When pairing learners up, take their performance potential into account.

As you do all this, you as instructor are never far away from them. Be present and accessible. Instructor/teacher presence is one – if not THE – most important factors in online success.

I hope this helps and feel free to respond with more questions if you need to. Also, online educator around the world have put up a lot of resources for your assistance.

Discussion Forums

In my normal class I have a lot of “to and fro” with students – challenges, questions, dialogue. I can’t see how I can do that in an LMS. HELP!

All LMS systems create dialogue opportunities, both between you as an instructor and between students in small groups. Often known as “discussion boards”, instructors often ask students to comment on a specific reading. Some systems permit you to prevent students from seeing the comments of other students until after they have posted their own observations. A sound practice is to ask students to post their comments by Tuesday or Wednesday of that week so that there is then time for all students (and you) to comment on their post – if you do not do this, it is likely that most students will post on the last working day of the week, giving no time for “dialogue”.

A key driver for participation is the weight attached to participation. In some courses this can be as high as 30% - the higher it is, the more participation is clearly expected. In some courses, higher participation marks go to those who “advance the conversation”.

Colleagues who make extensive use of dialogue suggest you might ask students to:

Make a comment / observation on a question, reading or topic
Compliment another student on their observations
Connect one comment made by one student to their own and at least one other.
Pose their own question, triggered by their reading of the conversation thread.

This is a framework intended to get away from “Good point!” and “I agree!”

You may find this article helpful: https://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-development/discussion-forums-in-online-learning

Engaging Online Learners

Do you have any suggestions on how I would start to use the Zoom class time as efficiently as possible?

Yes, I think you are on the right track in thinking of different ways to use Zoom, including one-on-one meetings with students. You want to avoid "talking heads" where the class is dominated by the instructor. You may be interested in participating in one of the upcoming webinars on teaching effectively with Zoom. See https://teachonline.ca/webinars. In the webinar, our host Dr. Ron Owston talks about 4 models that you can use to actively engage students. For example, in your class you might consider Model 1 and have students go into breakout groups to practice skills and then report back to the class. Or Model 4 where you show and discuss videos on topics of relevance.

How do you engage adult literacy students with low literacy and technical skills online?

I really appreciate the question and I fully understand the challenge. As someone who tried to learn Welsh (don’t ask!) in a class, I was reluctant to speak in case I either got the words wrong (and changed their meaning) and looked like a complete chump or I embarrassed my instructor who tried so hard.

There are a number of mobile device tools which won the X-Prize for literacy – easy to use, really work (measurable impact) and were highly engaging – which you may want to deploy to build confidence and capability. These were:

People for Words (US)
Cell-Ed (US / Canada)
AmritaCREATE (India)
AutoCognita (Hong Kong)

Of these, my own preference is Cell-Ed which was developed for the audience you are describing.

1:1 coaching in which you get a learner to work with you which you capture on a recording (easy with lots of conferencing system) can be helpful. Then, with permission, you can share 1:1 videos with 1 peer and get them to use 1:1 or 1:2 peer coaching may be a better approach than “a classroom”.

Kritik is a peer coaching platform which may be helpful but may not be right for this group of learners. I suggest you connect with them ([email protected] – tell them I sent you) and explore how they think they can be supportive.

I also think that you might find helpful suggestions here:https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2020/03/ten_strategies_for_teaching_english_language_learners_online.html

And here https://www.edutopia.org/article/helpful-online-resources-teaching-ells

Some of my students are just not getting online. If they don’t do so soon, they will fail. What can I do?

This is not a new problem. Some of those in lecture halls don’t engage either, but it becomes glaringly obvious that they are disengaged in the online environment.

Four things:

Make online participation authentic, engaging and purposeful. You can do this by creating online activities and experiences, by requiring participation (a post and comment by Tuesday) worth X% of the grades for the course, and by responding to posts and giving feedback. If there are no grades for participation they will soon work out that it does not matter.
Intervene – for those not engaging, call them, email them and simply tell them what is expected.
Feedback makes a difference – your teaching is in part the presentation of ideas but is equally about feedback on the ideas and materials students create. We know from a variety of studies that your feedback encourages higher levels of participation and your feedback is not just replying to email, but is quality teaching activity. See it that way.
Encourage collaboration between students and enlist students in the task of co-creating new materials. For example, there is no reason why small groups of students in a class could not complete a group challenge, assignment or task. You could ask them to curate a library of resources or design a new challenge for the next group of students taking this course. Send them on a scavenger hunt for the best research for and against a specific idea. See students as partners, researchers and producers – not just recipients (see here ).

Hope these observations help.

How do you teach that online?

I teach statistics. It’s tough doing so online. What have others done that works?

There are some really challenging issues in teaching statistics full stop! Doing so online required some expertise. Here is a study which looks at how to do this successfully – it lays out the practical things you need to think about.

There are also some helpful resources:

Multi-media interactive courseware

The Statistical Lab an online tutorial.

Medical Statisics is a complete online stats course.

Online Statistics Education: An Interactive Multimedia Course of Study

Online texts

The Little Handbook of Statistical Practice
HyperStat Online Textbook
Statistics at Square One
StatPrimer
SticiGui - Statistics text and tools for internet and classroom instruction with a graphical user interface (including sample tests)
Engineering Statistics Textbook - engineering oriented, but good stats coverage

Web sites with general resources

The Chance web site contains all sorts of useful resources
Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics
Exploring Data - secondary school oriented, but with some varied and useful resources, including good data sets

I teach driver education courses by using Power Point in an in- classroom medium. The Ministry of Transportation has recently allowed approved schools to do e-learning training. As mentioned I have a Power Point training module and looking for advice (su

Fortunately, you are well on your way to set up an online course because you have a PowerPoint presentation. I have two suggestions for you.

First, if you would like your students to log in at any time to view your presentation, you could create a free account on a learning management system. Two suggestions are Canvas at https://www.instructure.com/canvas/login/free-for-teacher or Edmodo at https://new.edmodo.com/. Both sites have good help guides and suggestions for putting a course online. Once you have created your account you can upload your PPT to the system. You may or may not wish to add voice narration to your PPT. After that you could create a discussion room where students can post questions and you can answer them.

Second, if you would like to have live classes with students just like a classroom, you could create a free video conference account at Zoom.us. Again, there is lots of help available at the site to learn how to use the tool. When your students sign in to your Zoom meeting, you could share your PowerPoint presentation and ask students questions and/or have them reply to yours live. Here is a link to get you started with Zoom.

Both of these solutions should put you on your way to getting your course online. Good luck!

We offer many community engagement/civic engagement courses. With COVID, we are not able to have students connect in person with organizations or industry. What advice, models, principles can apply to virtual community engaged learning.

That's a tough challenge. Although online learning can do much more than many people realise, there are still some areas where face-to-face connections are really important, particularly building trust and developing personal relationships.

Nevertheless, there are ways to build social learning into online courses. At Ryerson University, the Chang School of Continuing Studies developed a blended learning model for training recent law graduates in the practice of law in collaboration with the Ontario Bar Association. This involved law firms providing volunteer online mentors for students, and virtual 'cases' that students worked through in terms of the office protocols and practices.

For more details, see:

https://www.tonybates.ca/2016/01/29/an-example-of-online-experiential-learning-ryerson-universitys-law-practice-program/

https://www.icwe-secretariat.com/icwe_webprojects_cms/uploadsgraphics/OEB-15/1446835989_lawpracticeprogram_berlinconferenceresource_final2015.pdf

Another strategy is to build an online community of practice, perhaps through developing a connectivist-type MOOC, although there are other ways to do this. With a c-MOOC, you would need an organiser who would initially contact a broad network of people with similar interests around a specific topic. The more diverse the group, the better (e.g. for a topic on Covid-19, you might want to invite public health experts, primary care support staff, people who have recovered, family care-givers, etc.). The organiser's main task is to ensure that 'rules of behaviour' are followed (people would need a password to participate), that discussions do not get too unwieldy, to break the discussion into appropriate sub-topics, etc., but all the content come from the participants themselves. This could be built around a wiki. For an example see:

https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/chapter/7-7-references-on-moocs/

Alternatively, the teaching could be more structured but the principle is the same, of drawing on the knowledge and interests of people from different disciplines or different types of stakeholder. See for example:

https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/chapter/scenario-g/ (Incidentally this was written in 2015!)

You can find more about communities of practice at:

https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/chapter/6-7-experiential-learning/

I am wondering what are some of the best ways to increase collaboration and interaction between students in a Humanities course (Philosophy)?

There are a few examples of interesting communities of inquiry posted on teachonline.ca which may be of interest – e.g. this from a number of collaborating Dutch universities: https://teachonline.ca/pockets-innovation/international/unique-television-series-becomes-three-online-learning-experiences-erasmus-university-rotterdam

I would also draw your attention to this contribution from a colleague who teaches philosophy: https://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Teac/TeacKeme.htm

The key is to pose challenging questions or provide provocation which challenges the students to demonstrate their use of philosophic methods of inquiry. The Open University (UK) has a free philosophy course on the Nature of Persons – you can find it here:https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/philosophy/philosophy-the-nature-persons/content-section-0?intro=1

There are a variety of activities / dialogues embedded in this course. Here is one:

Click to open Peter Strawson's article 'Freedom and Resentment'. Read I and II and answer the following questions.

How do Strawson's labels of ‘optimist’ and ‘pessimist’ correspond to the labels introduced in the final two paragraphs of the last section?
What is the impasse into which, Strawson implies, the optimist and pessimist have argued themselves?
What can you deduce about where Strawson's sympathies lie?

Students work in small groups to explore these questions, with the instructor providing coaching and challenging their work.

Another approach is to offer the opportunity to explore some unfolding real world stories which carry significant philosophic issues, such as:

If a government introduces a guaranteed income for all of its citizens, what impact does this have on our understanding of constructs like “work”, “community”, “capital” or “citizenship”?
What philosophic challenges can you identify associated with the use of traceability “apps” in relation to COVID-19 ? These apps require is to give access to our exact movements every minute of the day which can be connected to the movements of others so as to establish contact-tracing. Is the trade-off between privacy and the protection of others too great?
As artificial intelligence (AI) develops to the point at which it is more reliable than medical doctors in diagnosing disease, who is liable when the diagnosis offered by AI is wrong?

Many will have opinions, but these kind of questions (and others) can be used to explore rigour and discipline of philosophic method.

What can be the strategies to deliver undergraduate level curriculum in COVID-19 environment?

This has been answered many times by Tony Bates and many others. I suggest you look at Tony’s blog posts here or at the resources you will find at Arizona State University’s tool-kit for the design of online learning.

What can be the strategies to deliver undergraduate level (Engineering) curriculum in COVID-19 environment?

Engineering and all science subjects have to begin to be creative in how they teach when practical subjects require lab or field work. Texas A&M describe how they have approached this challenge, making a lot of use of capture technologies. Others are using simulations and immersive technologiesto give students laboratory or fieldwork experiences in a virtual environment. Others have found ways of creating challenging projects which students can do at home or in their community.

No one is suggesting that this transition for STEM subjects is easy. It requires imagination, knowledge and skill to make courses that meet the curriculum requirements work. Some of the responses are basic – here’s what you would have done by video and then a data-set for analysis from past versions of the experiment or task – and others are more elaborate, like 3D animated simulations. What is needed is the open sharing of these resources so that all can benefit.

How the heck am I supposed to teach music online? I teach piano.

A growing number of music students are studying through online platforms – even renowned teachers like Pinchas Zukerman (violin) have done so. It is different from an in-person experience – you cannot place your hand over that of the student or sit next to them to observe, but there are real advantages: the student can see you and receive guidance from you as they play, you can demonstrate from your piano what it is you expect of them and you can create a community of students who share ideas and best practice.

Colleagues at Humber College created the “piano cam” (see here) for their online teaching of piano. There is a helpful video of how to set up your piano area for online teaching (here) and a longer article from one of your peers who decided to make teaching piano online work (here).

Online Course Design

What impact would the growth of short on-line courses (such as those found in Coursera) have on the university and college sector?

There are now 50 degree programs available from MOOC providers like FutureLearn, Coursera and EdX and they each intend to grow this component of their activities - it is a significant source of revenue for these organizations. Others have moved into the assessment only qualifications space - offering competency based assessments leading to qualifications, including professional degrees. The University of Wisconsin and Western Governors University are amongst the six or seven making this offer as "flex" degrees. This is part of broader movement, which you allude to, of offering micro-credentials for upskilling and reskilling. A number of Canadian colleges and universities are offering such credentials. e-Campus Ontario lists some of the projects they have been enabling here. As we outlined in a paper share recently on teachonline.ca (https://teachonline.ca/sites/default/files/tools-trends/downloads/preparing_for_a_different_future_-_learning_in_an_age_of_disruption4.pdf) the development of MOOC based credentials and micro-credentials are disruptive elements of the future of higher education, but there are others. As higher education policy makers and administrators begin to look at the post-COVID-19 world, they will be exploring new ways of working and new opportunities in the market, especially if (as anticipated) the number of international students registering in Canadian institutions falls dramatically. We can expect to see a number of innovations - new approaches to apprenticeship and trades education, the growth of modular and stackable credentials, assessment only credentials and 365 admission for certain high demand short courses.

I am worried about completion rates in online learning – I gather that they are really low. What do we know about completion rates?

The basic answer is that as long as the content is properly designed for the selected media and the intended audience, there is not much difference in outcomes (engagement, application, retention). Some have noted that different learners may have a preference for a specific medium; however, there is not consistent research to support that notion. The most methodologically robust studies have fond no significant differences in performance between students who took an online or hybrid course and those who took a face-to-face version of the same course.

In 2019, a study looked at what factors really impact excellent design – you can find it here . The five key observations suggest that these five practices make for great online teaching: (a) authentic and relevant course materials that connect to practice, (b) the use of multimedia resources – variety helps, (c) student creation of digital content individually and collaboratively, (d) students’ reflection on learning, and (e) the instructor’s explanation of the purpose of activities, technologies, and assessments in the online course. If you do these things, then completion rates should follow.

Supporting Online Learners

I set up a Zoom session on the same schedule as normal class schedule. Not all students show up (we do record the session so that those who miss class can see it later). Should I insist on everyone attending?

This is about your institutional policies for attendance and how these have been modified to take account of COVID-19 pandemic. Follow the guidance issued by the college or university you work for.

Our response is more about what the experience of being present is like for the learner. If you are simply offering content (e.g. a lecture) then whether they “hear” it live or see it later does not really matter. If you are engaging in learning activities, watching others do so later means that they have missed something. If being present would make a real difference to their experience and understanding, then connect with those who “missed” the class and encourage them to be present by explaining what they are missing.

Recognize in doing so that your students world has suddenly changed. Many will have children at home out of school, some will be caring for unwell partners or children, many will be struggling with the sudden loss of work / income.

Teaching Large Classes Online

I have a large introductory psych class – over 100 students – how can I possibly teach 100+ people online?

I hear your frustration. But in fact, teaching 100+ effectively online is no more difficult than doing the same in a lecture hall. IF you have a learning technology support centre, go and talk to them. They should be able to help you move your class online. Listen to what they say; they have lots of experience in doing this.

To provide a specific answer, I need to know more about the situation in which you are working. In particular, how do you teach your face-to-face class with over 100+? If it is mainly through lectures, then in principle it should not be difficult to move your lectures online, but again I would need to know more about what technical facilities and technical support you have available.

For instance, does your institution have lecture capture, and if so, can you still access the campus facilities to use the facility? If not, does your institution/IT department/centre for learning technology provide a video-conferencing service such as Zoom, Big Blue Button, or Adobe Connect that you can use from home to record your lectures? If yes to any of these, you can record your lecture, put it on the university or college server, and give the students the URL for each lecture. But first check with the appropriate support unit and see what they recommend and go with that.

If you have none of the above, but have an institutional learning management system, you can record voice over your PowerPoint slides (first go to Slide Show on the top menu, then down to Record Slide Show.) It should take just a few minutes to work out how to synchronise the audio with the change of slides. Once you've worked out how to do that, you can then post your slides to the LMS, then send an email to students telling them where to find the slides on the LMS, assuming the institution has provided you with the student email addresses. Again, it would be worth checking with the appropriate technical support people on how best to do that. In particular, check that students can handle the bandwidth required to download your ppts. For that reason (and also because of cognitive overload), it's best to keep them short (30 minute max).

Once you have provided students with a means of accessing your lectures, you need to send them a schedule of work, preferably through the LMS; if not, by email (see Tannis Morgan's blog post on how to teach entirely by email and phone: https://homonym.ca/published/online-teaching-with-the-most-basic-of-tools-email/ ). Most importantly, students need clear guidelines on what activities they need to do before and after they view the lectures.

And even more importantly, you need to set up a means by which students can communicate with each other to avoid social isolation. Again, one of the best ways of doing this is through the discussion forum within the LMS. This would allow you to set discussion questions for the students. It would be best to organise the students into groups no larger than 20. This will give you five to ten groups to monitor at most. You do not have to respond to every comment, but students need to know you are 'present' through your interventions. If you don't organise this, students will, through their social media, but the advantage of an LMS is that it is secure and private and you can see what's happening. Also providing a forum for student discussion will help cut down the number of emails you might get from individual students about a specific issue.

Indeed, this may be an opportunity to move away from lecturing altogether. Why not provide resources (online articles, open textbooks , free online resources such as MERLOT or MIT Open Courseware - check with your Librarian) and get students to create their own presentations on a topic through group work, which they then post for review with the rest of the class?

The important point here is that it is not the delivery mode that matters, but your teaching methods. Most teaching methods can be done just as well (or badly) online as face-to-face. Some adaptation may be needed (e.g. asynchronous discussion forums rather than live discussion) but the quality can be the same. That will depend though on you - how well you manage the design of the course.

Moving online without warning or help is of course a major challenge and I don't envy you - but it is also a great opportunity to rethink your teaching.

Other resources:

Advice to those about to teach online because of the corona virus

The 10 fundamentals of teaching online .

Technology

I’m wondering how to go smoothly from lecturing to showing a video clip either from a hard drive or an external DVD player without revealing my home screen. Also where is the easiest place to put up pre-existing text related to the lecture?

With most video conference apps, such as Zoom.us, you can share only windows that are open with no need to share your entire desktop. Another option is to upload your video to Youtube and let your students view it from there. You can choose to make the video private and share the URL with only your class. You must be observant of copyright laws when you do this if you don't own the material. You could look at this video for help with uploading to Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtF2AgFSLAw.

As for your second question, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "put up text." If you mean you want to share your document live, then Zoom is also your best bet. Or if you just want to make it accessible to students at any time, you could post it at https://docs.google.com. Zoom also has a whiteboard tool that will allow you to write live just like you would do in person. You could also do the same with Google Docs but it is not as convenient.

I have no clue how to use this Zoom thing. Any suggestions?

Zoom is a widely used videoconference and teaching system across the world.

Contact North | Contact Nord just published an introduction to how to use it: https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/tools-to-teach-online/how-to-use-zoom-videoconferencing-to-teach-online-effectively

There also some useful resources of Zoom on its website: https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/22/how-to-use-zoom-for-online-learning/

Search form