Tips on Instructional Strategy for Teaching Online

Lesson Delivery, Digital Learning

In this section, we would like to feature our very own SMU faculty members, who have tried out various online instructional strategies and successfully made their classes more interactive and engaging for students. Let’s find out what they have to say.

Conducting a synchronous online class

Maartje DE VISSER  Associate Professor of Law, YPHSL

Manage expectations and keep the experience ‘fresh’. Have a clearly structured lesson plan with multiple segments to avoid screen fatigue (mini-lectures, Kahoot quizzes or Wooclap brainstorm sessions, etc.) and share this in advance so students know what to look forward to.  Just like in a F2F environment, have a short social chat with students as they are entering the classroom or at the start of the seminar to check how they are coping with the recent changes.

Abhijeet K. VADERA Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources, LKCSB

For a synchronous online class, I followed CTE’s recommendations ... I gave very clear and detailed instructions. These instructions helped me to design and conduct the class and it also helped students understand what to expect in class. It is also important to express the same level of enthusiasm for the online class as it is for a face-to-face class. I shared the same stories and jokes online as I would have done in a face-to-face class.  It is my belief that students can easily figure out if a faculty member is not enthusiastic or not prepared for a class.

 Additional tips from other faculty members:

• “Enter the room early so that any teething technical issues can be resolved before the proper start of class (and these do happen!). I prepare slides that cover elaborations/explanations that I would normally speak in class – this will ensure that students who have technical difficulties because of low internet bandwidth will not miss out on the important message. If I use visuals to explain/elaborate, they will be embedded in the slides that are shared with students prior to class so that students are able to follow the presentation closely.”
• “When sharing screen, turn off notifications and the email pop-up box, otherwise everyone can see who is emailing you and what the email content subject is.”
• “Create a systematic way of  getting students to ask questions through Chat.”
• “Ensure technical hiccups do not break the momentum of teaching, be well prepared and start 10 mins before.”
• “Seek feedback at the beginning to make sure that the pace is Ok and that students can hear you clearly.”
• “Always pose questions; make sure to have everybody's videos on, otherwise they simply leave the session; always use mute on entry and mute the entrance and exit beep sound, which is rather distracting."

Designing and preparing for online learning

LIN Mei Assistant Professor of Information Systems, SCIS

Prepare the board work in advance using PowerPoint and use animations to illustrate the board work step-by-step during online lectures. Always adjust window size to show board work and another application side by side. For example, in my class I would show the Python code on the left side and the board work that illustrates the logic on the right.    Always use a second monitor to display the WebEx window, so that it is quick and easy to refer to students’ questions by chat at any time without having to switch windows. Always repeat the questions asked via chat to class before answering the questions.

 Additional tips from other faculty members:

• “I usually have an outline or help-guide that runs concurrent to the online lesson.”
• “Plan for 'pre-class' work instructions, break 3-hour teaching sessions into small blocks.”
• “Assign roles to students so that they can be involved in my lesson... e.g. someone to take notes for the rest; others to pose questions as we discuss/debrief our activities.”
• “Use Google Drive for shared content and peer review.”
• “Online classes must be segmented. You need to have a detailed lesson plan. Plan for breaks every 30 mins. Make a special effort to enhance student motivation. Use tools to engage students. Consider giving more written work/assignments to assess learning.”

Student Interaction and Engagement

Aidan WONG Assistant Professor of Humanities (Education), SOSS; Deputy Director, Wee Kim Wee Centre

I encourage students to turn on their microphones when they have great ideas to share. Most of the time, students will type their responses into the chat box, and I would read the responses aloud to the class (in case some students miss the message) before proceeding to respond to the question.    Also, if I have read the message and think that the student has made an important contribution, I would invite them to unmute themselves and share a little more about their thoughts, and explain further the reasons for their perspectives. I try my best to ensure that all contributions are engaged with, but when this is not possible, I ask my TA to add these questions to the eLearn discussion forum, and we continue our discussions there, so that the regular class may continue.

 Additional tips from other faculty members:

• “Where possible, ask students how the topic on the agenda connects to (preferably recent) real-life events so that the relevance becomes clear - and they hopefully become more interesting in sitting through the next three hours! Entice students to respond to open/opinion questions by providing sufficient time to think of an answer and counting down ("I’ll give you 1 more minute”). Then ask several students to explain their stance and respond to what their peers have said to encourage a peer-to-peer discussion before weighing in yourself.”
• “The benefit of the chat function is two-fold:
  • You do not need to respond to comments and questions right away. You can finish a thought, an idea, or a slide before responding.
  • Those who do not usually speak up in class also use the chat function. So you get much more participation. You just need to be patient and give folks time to respond."
• “Complement the use of WebEx with online collaborative and teaching tools such as Wooclap, Google docs, Mentimeter, Kahoot, Padlet wall to engage students.”
• “Use interactive media such as videos, newspaper articles to lead to the discussions of topics for online interactions.”
• “Increase the number of times students to make presentations for peer learning.”
• “Allow students to ask questions at various junctures of the session.”
• “Acknowledge all comments, read them out loud, and respond to them.”

Wooclap

A Classroom Response System (CRS) is a set of hardware or software that facilitates teaching activities. A typical use of a CRS allows instructors to intersperse questions within their presentations to students who would respond either via a handheld transmitter (a “clicker”) or their mobile and computing devices. The instructor would collect the responses, display them usually in charts, and adjust their instructional choices accordingly. The use of such response systems essentially supports educators to create interactive and effective instruction in classrooms (Caldwell, 2007). Wooclap is a Classroom Response System (CRS) that enables students to actively participate online. It allows students to give opinions and respond to questions (in the form of multiple-choice, open-ended, and even Post-its format for brainstorming activities). 

Use of pre-recorded videos

Kosmas MARINAKIS  Senior Lecturer of Economics, SOE

When I heard that classes will have to be transferred online, my first thought was not how to convert the content for online use, but rather how to transfer the entire classroom experience online, exactly as it used to be before the interruption. Creating video lectures for an economics course is not easy because the lesson contains both narration segments and technical analysis shown in the classroom screen. During this process I learned quite a few useful tips: When the material is asynchronous, the delivery must be faster. It will be easier for students to lose you but they can still go back and re-watch the segment that was too fast for them. The benefit is that they will not get bored in the parts of the material that are easy for them to follow at once. When the delivery is possible to be time-shifted, the instructor must create a mechanism to make the students watch the material in time, or else many will leave it for the last moment and, in the end, will become overwhelmed. It is not easy to convince the students that they have to watch the lecture within the week. Once a video goes online, it… stays there forever. If students understand that you will take it down, they will capture it and save it, creating possible inequality between those who saved it and those who did not. The mechanism I used for this last semester failed to work for some students, so this semester I am designing a new one. I upload my lectures on YouTube for students to watch, where I use the comment section below every video for questions and discussion on the topics. Thus, the video page becomes a one-stop-shop for the lecture and its discussion and students find it convenient.  Try to accompany every lecture with a live-streaming. I will be doing mine on YouTube, taking questions from the class in the chat, and explaining the difficult parts of the homework assignments.

Andree HARTANTO Assistant Professor of Psychology (Education), SOSS

I pre-recorded my lectures for my online teaching and use discussion forums on eLearn for class discussion. It works very well. Pre-recorded lectures ensured that my teaching is smooth without being affected by internet connection issues. Students are also able to revise better since they can review the videos again anytime.  To make the pre-recorded lecture more engaging, instructors can consider including more visuals and narratives on the slides. If instructors are using many videos in the lecture, a pre-recorded lecture would have its advantage since it ensures a smooth transition. A weekly online discussion forum on eLearn increases the quantity and quality of my students' participation. It encourages thoughtful responses and in-depth reflections as students are not constrained by the limited class time.

 Additional tips from other faculty members:

• “For asynchronous videos, chunk the pre-recorded lecture into shorter segments.”
• “Record the seminar for students to hear their own contributions.”
• “Publish recorded videos to recap and retain learning information.”

Facilitating online group discussions: Breakout Rooms

Timothy CHAN Teaching Consultant, CEC

In regular face-to-face classes, I would normally have periods of Self-Directed Learning (SDL) when individual groups (each comprising 4-5 students) would discuss, research, and work on specified tasks. In these physical sessions, I would move around the groups to listen in to the discussions and if necessary, offer ideas or suggestions. For our online sessions, each group leader was tasked to set up a separate group discussion room for their respective groups. This allowed me to “drop-in” on their group discussions. Additionally, each group also put their discussion ideas on a shared Google document which I was able to access anytime during the lesson. Specific questions from the group within the document could also be addressed by responding to the comments within the document. To round up the session, all the students gathered back in my WebEx meeting room. Each group could then share with the rest of the class their findings or ideas. Classmates were encouraged to respond with questions or feedback via the mic or the chat function. Additionally, I would email a general agenda of the lesson, along with the link to my WebEx room prior to the lesson. Students commented that this also helped them mentally prepare for what was expected of them during the lesson.

Additional tips from other faculty members:

• “Include breakout discussion sessions where students divide into groups and discuss certain topics."
• “I only recently found out about breakout rooms. I guess this could be used to facilitate group work so I could go back to a method of teaching that I am more familiar with.”
• “Going forward, I will probably dedicate significant chunks of my instruction time toward breakout sessions with smaller groups to have more interactive discussions.”

Assessing students’ learning

Clarence GOH  Assistant Professor of Accounting (Practice), SOA

Many students find it difficult to contribute meaningfully to class discussions in an online setting. Consider giving students the opportunity to submit written reflections as another avenue to contribute to discussions.   To get an accurate sense of students’ reactions to a synchronous online class, we can conduct regular post-class feedback sessions (perhaps using a simple google form) as a means to obtain feedback on our teaching style, material, etc.

Additional tips from other faculty members:

• “Invite students to answer questions, not just accepting answers from those who volunteer to participate. Allow students to share their screens when interacting to better understand their questions and learning.”
• “Try and do as many exercises as possible in class.”
• “Pause at convenient junctures during online class to ask students to raise questions or to comment.”
• “Ask questions and wait for students to respond.”
• “Since it is hard to get a sense of student reactions, I believe there is a need to provide more opportunities for students to ask questions. Use an interactive whiteboard to allow students to contribute their ideas and answers.”
• “Change the assessment rubrics to be more aligned for online teaching and learning e.g. grades for discussion forum participation, grades for other home-based assignments, etc.”