Presenters
Dorcas Quek
Assistant Professor
School of Law
Chris Poskitt
Assistant Professor
School of Information Systems
Yasmin Ortiga
Assistant Professor
School of Social Science
Patricia Lui
Lecturer
Lee Kong Chian School of Business
Synopsis
To adhere to social distancing guidelines within classrooms, SMU instructors have been conducting classes in online and face-to-face mode simultaneously. Under these circumstances, instructors are keen to learn more about how to cater to two audiences and create a meaningful learning experience for both. In this webinar, you will get to hear from four SMU instructors who employed different strategies and approaches to make their mixed-mode lessons more effective for their students. This will be a wonderful opportunity for you to ask questions and pick up useful ideas on how to manage your classes effectively.
Due to the pandemic, instructors all around the world have tried various modes of teaching with the purpose of ensuring that learning continues to take place and is not compromised.
In SMU, due to social distancing guidelines, some instructors chose to adopt the mixed-mode teaching approach, managing two groups of students simultaneously – online and face-to-face. Students are rotated every two weeks to ensure that both groups have equal opportunities to interact with instructors in either mode.
CTE invited SMU instructors, Dorcas, Chris, Yasmin and Patricia to share their experiences, instructional strategies and ways of engaging their students meaningfully. Although the presenters admitted that it was tough and more preparation time was required, they made sure that no student, regardless of mode of instruction, would feel like a ‘second-class’ citizen in their own classroom.
Event Summary
Before the Lesson
- Endeavor to see things from the students' perspectives, as a learner at home and how they can work through the 'isolation' to interact with their instructor, their course mates and with the course material
- Set clear expectations with students
- Inform students of logistical arrangements and technological requirements including providing a backchannel for students to receive support
- Articulate expected etiquette and behaviour e.g. watching videos before class, how to participate in discussions or ask questions
- Test and update equipment & tech tools to prevent potential tech issues. Rehearse with your TA before the lesson
- Adapt course materials
- Reduce course content (less is more), allow students to research and learn on their own or in groups; "learning by doing"
- Make use of asynchronous methods to complement seminars e.g. videos, discussions, activities
- Provide additional resources and instructions for online breakout groups
During the Lesson
- Pay equal attention to students who are online; check in with those online periodically, make a conscious effort to involve students both online and in class
- Introduce Active Learning Instructional Strategies
- Apply active questioning techniques to keep students alert
- Vary learning activities to reduce Zoom or Web Conferencing fatigue
- Introduce tech tools to encourage active learning e.g. in-class polls like Wooclap, use of SLACK, discussion forums e.g. PIAZZA
- Try not to switch platforms. Get students to familiarise with the same few platforms throughout the course. e.g. forums, online polls, Google docs
- Reflect and learn from what works and what does not; make adjustments to the subsequent session
Providing Feedback
- Decide the mode of providing feedback e.g. responding via chat, consolidating responses before responding etc.
- Encourage student-led facilitation of online forums
- Use of group presentation videos
- Solicit feedback on group presentations through surveys
- Plan for take-home exams to give more weight to coursework assessment