As we have seen in the previous module, we know that online teaching can be synchronous, asynchronous or a blend of both modalities. But in practice, how do these online teaching methods compare to face-to-face instruction, and how can students be engaged?

There are various ways to engage students online in the asynchronous environment using different tools. In the following section, we focus on two types of engagement:

Engagement with the content through pre-recorded videos and sharing of course materials, and;
Engagement between students and with the instructor. You can use various UBC-supported tools to help you engage students in meaningful ways.

Student Engagement during Synchronous Lectures

Planning your lectures

Teaching in real-time is not the same as teaching in the classroom, the pace is slower and everything takes more time (e.g. to get an answer from a student in the chat or through the microphone, or to display a poll question, etc.).

There's a correlation between effective pacing and student engagement, so it's crucial to consider the speed at which you move through a lesson and the rate of delivery for different parts of the lesson. When pacing is too slow, students often become bored and disengaged. When it's too fast, some may not grasp what's being taught and get lost—or discouraged." (Simmons, 2020)

Below are strategies that can help you plan and manage your virtual classes effectively.

Alignment. Make sure your teaching strategies, learning activities and assessment strategies are aligned with learning objectives.
Lesson planning. Plan your lesson activities for each lecture (a detailed agenda), where you determine the time you will have (e.g. for lecturing, conduct activities), and the time students will spend answering questions in the chat, or in group discussions (breakout rooms). Script the questions you will pose.
Practice in advance (at least once). Familiarize yourself with the web-conferencing tool (Zoom or Collaborate Ultra), using the screen share and switching between different presentation modes (e.g. gallery view, speaker view), and explore the tools that will be needed to conduct various activities, especially the annotations, poll and breakout rooms.
Allocate time between activities. Allow sufficient time between the activities and make the transitions clear (e.g. between screen sharing, chat, breakout rooms). Use the Gallery View on Zoom to keep your students in front of you; you can display up to 49 video thumbnails on one screen, and can move from screen to screen to see more students.
Observe and Adjust.Watch your pace and observe student engagement. Some students may not be able to process the information at the same rate as in person, adjust your pace with short pauses between activities.

Techniques for Engaging Students

You can use different techniques to engage students during a synchronous session. We describe the following techniques below.

Chat (click to expand)

Raising Hands (click to expand)

Microphone (click to expand)

Question polls (click to expand)

Breakout rooms (click to expand)

Annotation tools (click to expand)

Other strategies (click to expand)

Setting up Norms and Expectations

- Set classroom norms. Clarify your expectations for student participation in the virtual classes, a code of conduct to support academic integrity and inclusivity. You may want to add this statement in your syllabus as well. Your department or Faculty may have also developed guidelines to help you define a code of conduct for your course.

Accessibility

When teaching remotely, it is important to take into consideration a variety of factors that may alleviate student abilities to succeed in the course.

- Use text. Add descriptive text for images and provide video transcripts to accommodate visually-impaired students who are using assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers). During a Zoom session, you can assign someone to create a transcript or closed captioning throughout the session. If you are recording your lectures, you can upload the video file through Kaltura and add captions.

- Select accessible resources. Some video providers like YouTube provide closed captions and timed transcriptions. Zoom has keyboard shortcuts that allow students to navigate without a mouse and closed captioning that can be created by a meeting member.

Student Engagement Before or After Synchronous Lectures

Creating pre-recorded videos

"Prerecorded material and live content can complement each other powerfully" (Harvard, 2020). Recording a lecture video will give your students the option to review the session at their own pace while helping to mitigate technology challenges and conflicting schedules. One approach consists of recording a synchronous session and making the video available for students to review the content at their own pace. Another approach would be to create pre-recorded course videos of a lecture or components of a lecture (e.g. a demonstration, guest speaker, etc.), in order to free up some space during a synchronous session to engage students.

Below are some strategies to create effective pre-recorded videos:

Consider using different types of videos to establish a teaching presence in your course (e.g. Welcome video, Course orientation video, Module overview or summary videos, etc.)
Identify certain parts or segments of your lectures that can be summarized in short video clips (approx. 6 minutes as the optimal length), such as key concepts or terms that students can learn by themselves.
Design for accessibility. Provide video transcripts to make your videos accessible for all learners.
Design for sustainability. Design your videos so that they can be reused in other courses or in the same course in the future. Make sure to use the same videos from term to term without having to redo them.
Keep it simple. Post-processing can be extremely time-consuming, do not overdue your videos on production.

Techniques for Engaging Students

Discussions and Student Collaboration (click to expand)

Announcements and Emails (click to expand)

Immediate Feedback through Assessment (click to expand)

Sources

Best Practices: Online Pedagogy, Teach remotely, Harvard University (2020). Available at: https://teachremotely.harvard.edu/best-practices
Levy, D. (2020). The Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Balancing Act: When and How Pre-Work Can Make Your Live Sessions Stronger. Harvard Business Publishing Education, Digital Learning. Available at: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/the-synchronous-vs-asynchronous-balancing-act
ASCD Educational Leadership: Time Well-Managed, 77,9, June 2020. Available at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/jun20/vol77/num09/toc.aspx