Part 1 of 5: Trends from SITT 2021: Going Forward: Online Teaching Strategies Applied to In-Person Classes

 

Trends from SITT 2021: A Five-Part Blog Series 

By Lillian Jones

 

Part 1 of 5: Trends from SITT 2021: Going Forward: Online Teaching Strategies Applied to In-Person Classes

In March of 2020, higher education faculty suddenly pivoted to emergency online teaching. At first, some felt overwhelmed and distressed, but as the months continued on, instructors discovered helpful tools and developed efficient ways of delivering information, communicating with their students, and fostering a sense of community online. 

Forever in a forward mindset, attendees from the 2021 Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology drew on their experience, teaching theory and philosophies, and pedagogical practices, and they shared what approaches they tried in their remotely-taught classes, which varied greatly by department and size. This blog post explores remote teaching strategies that will continue to apply to our in-person teaching and learning experiences.
 

1. Building classroom community: tools & approaches
   Educators often prioritize building classroom community. This is true across disciplines, different class sizes, and in-person or remotely taught classes. In many ways, online teaching and learning disrupted traditional classroom community building. However, as Michelle Rossi from the Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE) says, “disruptions imply transformations and all things falling away, new things emerging.” Consider these few tech tools and approaches which UC Davis educators will keep using to build community:
    

• Google Forms
  Google Forms (free and part of the Google Workspace) are a quick and accessible way to create surveys and questionnaires that allow faculty to check in with students about course content and how they are doing personally. Students can also use Google Forms to reach out to the instructor to discuss concerns with which they may not want to be identified.
  
  *Pro tip - if you use a Google Form for students to reach out to you, make sure you have a recurring reminder set to check for responses.
   
• Mentimeter
  Mentimeter is a quick and user-friendly way to engage with your students while live in the classroom. The free version allows faculty to create anonymous live polling, word clouds, quizzes, and Q&A.
  
  Teaching Assistant Consultant (TAC) with the CEE Alicia Garcia notes the helpfulness of using Mentimeter for icebreakers, quick and informal check-ins, or check-ins centered around course content. Garcia suggests faculty could continue to use Mentimeter in person by presenting the Mentimeter webpage on the main projector screen, posing questions, and requesting that students respond using their digital devices (phones, laptops, iPads, tablets, etc.). This approach allows everyone to see all responses, which can also lead to a meaningful in-person conversation afterwards.
   
• Canvas Quizzes
  Canvas quizzes also allow faculty to check in with students, specifically about course content. For example, at the end of an existing content quiz, Professor in the Department of Political Science Mark Verbitsky, adds a bonus question inviting queries about content clarification or about “anything else you would like to learn about.”

 

To augment formative assessments and supplement connection-building activities, Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology Mona Monfared utilizes Graded Surveys (part of Canvas Quizzes) to create weekly participation surveys. She comments that this approach easily and automatically allows her students to earn credit and to provide her with lots of feedback. Survey content included content questions, sample exam questions, multiple choice, short answer, and more open-ended questions, such as about muddiest or clearest points from the weeks’ videos. She also asked students about office hour attendance, about study habits (such as “how did you prepare for the exam?” and “what will you do differently to prepare next time?”), and the relevant resources they had discovered. 

Monfared added a touch of fun to the quizzes too, by including questions such as “what’s your favorite food?” or “what movie have you watched multiple times?” She also offered students an open space to share any joys or concerns, or to ask anything of her.

She notes that this final question was often the most provocative of all the questions. For example, students’ helpful suggestions about the course allowed her to make real-time changes, and she appreciated her students’ shared personal reflections and their personal questions, such as about her own professional journey. They also used the space to explain their personal circumstances, to ask about how to best navigate the Canvas site or how the exam was going to be formatted, as well as what resources they should use, such as Monfared’s provided old practice exams.

“I love this, because students were engaging in metacognition, like thinking about their learning.” Mona Monfared

 

2. Getting more out of Canvas: tools & approaches
   Across UC Davis campus, instructors and students use the learning management system UC Davis Canvas to communicate, share course materials and resources, and complete course activities and assessments. Faculty at SITT 2021 shared ways that they leveraged Canvas in their remotely-taught courses, which they plan to continue utilizing in their in-person classes. Below are a few of these methods.
    

• Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Communication Jeanette Ruiz shared feedback directly from her students specifically about Canvas Announcements. Her students reported that they prefer all important class announcements to live on Canvas and that they would feel more supported if professors consistently utilized Canvas Announcements. Ruiz stated that implementing these student suggestions helped streamline communication between faculty and students.
   

• Ruiz optimizes her and her students’ time by reviewing only high-level points in the syllabus on the first day of class, rather than reading the entire document out loud. This approach also allows Ruiz to emphasize engagement right from the first class meeting. She hosts the syllabus on Canvas, which allows students to access the information on their own time (and as a bonus, save some trees!).
   

*Pro tip - consider creating short videos of yourself reviewing main syllabus points and utilizing Canvas Quizzes to create a syllabus quiz, which requires students to read the syllabus, answer specific questions about it, and check a box confirming they have read it. 

 

*Schedule a Canvas consultation with campus Academic Technology Services staff by emailing canvashelp@ucdavis.edu.
 

3. Assessing learning and providing feedback with UC Davis Canvas & video
   Video was a top theme at this year’s SITT. As video becomes more popular, accessible, and capable of supporting an array of teaching and learning objectives, faculty are increasingly using it for instruction and content delivery, while students increasingly utilize video for presentations. Read below for ideas from UC Davis faculty on how they are continuing to use video in their in-person classes.
    

• Lecture recording
  Students reported that they enjoyed having access to lecture recordings (Ruiz, SITT 2021). When faculty continue to use recordings in a face-to-face setting, students can revisit the material after class and also pause the recording to take notes. That said, Ruiz cautions students not to rely solely on the recordings because that may inadvertently dissuade student engagement as they take notes, reflect, and ask questions in the moment.
  
  While remote-teaching, Plant Sciences Professor Heiner Leith converted his 400+ enrollment conventional lecture into an online course with asynchronous format. The success and acceptability from his students of this approach prompted him to continue recording lectures in his face-to-face curriculum. His motivation for converting to virtual is to automate in such a way that delivery is really possible at any time for students and to save his time. In his SITT 2021 talk, Leith discusses how he used Lecture Capture and Aggie Video to repurpose video content from the previous year’s courses. His presentation includes details about finding rooms on campus which have Lecture Capture installed and how to request these rooms. He also shares specific details about using AggieVideo, such as editing video and adding closed captions. Lieth reminds us that we can use recorded lectures as reiteration, augmentation, or, in some cases, even substitution for our face-to-face lectures.

* Pro tip - Learn about a variety of ways to record your class while teaching in person with Lecture Capture.
 

• Instructional Video 

Distinguished Professor of Entomology James Carey discusses the production strategy, equipment, and software used for, and costs associated with, creating video content to complement his newly published textbook Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods, co-authored by Deborah Roach. 

“Having available both textbook and video creates a synergy and complementarity of content since neither alone can provide everything.”- James Carey

Learn about the specifics of the pre-, during, and post-production of this video project here.

 

• Pre-recorded student presentations
  Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics Maria Trnkova will continue having students submit pre-recorded videos for their presentations because students can easily record them on Zoom and then later submit them to Canvas.
  
  Trnkova says that this approach reduces stress and anxiety about giving live speeches and presentations. She reports that her students really liked this approach, in part because the asynchronous approach lessened their anxiety about public speaking. Trnkova’s students often went above and beyond what was asked of them, such as by making extra elaborate slides and including additional information related to the content. 

 

4. Canvas and video as assessment and feedback tools
   Assessment is essential to understanding what learning is taking place and how the learners are engaging with the content. When in-person closed-book exams and the opportunity to physically monitor students engaging with the content are no longer an option, faculty consider alternate modes of assessment. Below are a few examples.
    

• Canvas
  Teaching Assistant Consultant in the CEE Nina Fontana calls out some features of SpeedGrader (on Canvas) that allow for equitable and efficient grading. For example, SpeedGrader allows instructors and TAs to put any or all of the following strategies into practice:

• add comments and annotate on student work
• anonymize student names
• sort students by submission status (graded versus not graded)
• grade quizzes and tests by question, which helps with norming responses to understand what the range is
• set a default grade for students who haven’t submitted their assignment
• overwrite scores
• keep grades hidden until grading is finished so that grading rubrics can be adjusted according to what instructors discover about trends in understanding and common mistakes.
   

“Rubrics are also a really good feature in Canvas. And more recently they have built in an
audio and video feedback recorder. And that helps with transparency and clarity.” - Nina Fontana
 

*Pro tip - Students might not know where or how to view instructor comments, so instructors should communicate clearly where the students can find the feedback, in order to understand it and to take action.
 

Feedback is essential to fostering learner self-awareness, correcting errors, and promoting critical thinking. In a remotely-taught setting, instructors creatively offered feedback in a variety of ways, which they will continue when back on campus. Consider this unique strategy using video.
 

• Video emails
  Teaching Assistant Consultant in the CEE Peter Torres started using video emails to optimize for quality and engagement in personalized student feedback. Torres notes that this “live” method for commenting on submissions like essays saves him time rather than going through the student’s essay and typing out all of the comments.
  
  When he hits record, he calls out the student name (i.e. “These are my comments for Monica (pseudonym)”) so later if he needs to reference their feedback, it is easy to find. In his video emails, he shares his screen, goes through the comments he has made on the student submission, and uses his cursor to point out specific parts of the text in order to make it as clear as possible for the student. Additionally, students can watch the video recording of Torres’ comments at a slower pace, pausing and rewinding as needed. When done via Zoom, the recording will also include the transcription of Torres’ comments, adding a layer of accessibility and searchability.
  
  Torres also utilizes Canvas to post videos answering frequently asked questions. When he encounters a repeated question or a common mistake, he addresses the issue with a recorded video hosted on Canvas, which students can watch at their convenience.
  
  Instructors can also use video emails to build personal connections with their students.
   

*Pro tip - Contact Teaching Assistant Consultants from the Center for Educational Effectiveness for one-on-one consultations to discuss teaching and learning.

 

*Remember - AggieVideo is a content management system and repository for UC Davis faculty to upload and store media files. It helps keep track of video and audio files in a safe and secure location. Kaltura Capture offers faculty the option to capture and record both their screen and camera. These recordings are automatically uploaded to AggieVideo and easily integrate into Canvas, for editing, or sharing with students.

*Pro tip - To avoid losing Zoom recordings after 100 days, host them on AggieVideo for unlimited storage duration. Contact aggievideo@ucdavis.edu with questions.
 

5. Optimizing already existing platforms and classroom logistics
    

• Some faculty started using online platforms to allow students to schedule appointments for office hours and will continue to do so during in-person teaching. For example, Mark Verbitsky uses Calendly. He notes how this method of booking automatically provides students with his availability and sends students reminders via email or text.
   
• Google Slides has an option to use live captions, which can make live and pre-recording lectures more accessible. The captions can be turned on and off.

 

*Bonus - When responding to student questions while teaching in-person, make sure to loudly repeat back the questions under your mask. 
 

Of course, UC Davis faculty also have a lot to share about tools and approaches to support collaboration that they will continue with in-person. Look out for these remarks in Part 5 of this blog series, “Collaboration, Teamwork & Team Building.”

 

P.S. Please check out these post-event resources:

1. Keep Teaching Resources for Faculty
2. Keep Teaching Resources for Students
3. Center for Educational Effectiveness
4. Email instructionaldesign@ucdavis.edu for consulting and advice on how to implement instructional technologies in your specific UC Davis course.
5. Find SITT snippets on Twitter by following @ucdaviswheel and @Lily_Jones20, using the hashtag #UCDavisSITT.
    

*Remember that SITT is an annual event, so make sure you put it on your calendar for next year! Subscribe to The Wheel e-newsletter here, or follow @ucdaviswheel to stay up to date on all Academic Technology Services happenings and more.