4 Challenges While Switching to Online Teaching

As some of you might already know, I am doing a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering at the University of British Columbia. For this semester, my plan was to reduce the TA workload and focus more on my research. However, about a month ago, my Ph.D. supervisor asked me to help him in transforming a very traditional Mechanical and Civil Engineering course, Solid Mechanics, to be more suitable for online delivery. From experience, I found implementing active teaching and learning methods in Solid Mechanics an extremely challenging task and now working on the course syllabus and assignments for online delivery was a stimulating project for me. Thus, I accepted it, while knowing that the workload and number of decisions would overwhelm me during the semester.

We built the syllabus based on the contents and the delivery method that has been experimented with and practiced for many years by my supervisor. I focused more on the assignments and quizzes. Later, I will write another post about our method for assignments and quizzes. Here, I would like to talk more generally about the points that we considered while building the syllabus and drop some resources.

You will face four challenges while adjusting your course for online delivery:

Course Structure

• You want to build a weekly routine for students, composed of both synchronous and asynchronous activities, and publish it in the course syllabus.
• Take some time to organize the course website. Carefully naming and organizing the files helps the students to find their way around and reduces questions later during the course.
• A Graphic syllabus, even a simple spreadsheet, is a great idea to show the timeline and order of events.
• Prevent uploading files with old timestamps or duplicate files as it creates ambiguity and easily increases the level of frustration in the students.
• In an online course, especially offered by a leading Canadian university, students might attend from various locations around the world. That is why a mix of synchronous and asynchronous activities will make the course more accessible while still maintaining the formal structure and providing opportunities for student-instructor and student-student interaction.
• Student survey conducted during the COVID-19 shutdown at UBC indicates that students prefer to have real-time lectures. My experience shows that offering just asynchronous materials reduces the engagement of students in the tutorial and group activity sessions.
• Getting ready for the week video and learning materials should ideally be accompanied by Getting ready for the week mini-quiz.
• Use a course-specific website instead of emails or online messaging apps to gather all resources.
• All these efforts should be focused on simplifying and clarifying the course’s objective and deliverables for students. Michael Wesch published a great video on Youtube on that topic.

Course Syllabus

• The syllabus should clearly explain course logistics, assignments, and expectations using simple and straightforward language. Provide descriptions for different types of teaching activities and keep a recurring pattern for out of class assignments.
• Provide a good description of supporting technologies. Explain the technology requirements. Give instructions on how to access and use the tools and highlight how they can get help and troubleshoot their problems. Have a plan B for students who have difficulties with the technology.
• Provide greater details for assignments and describe the marking and examination process. Let the students know which tools they need for assignments and exams and what other tasks they need to be prepared for, such as taking pictures of handwritten work.
• Describe the importance of academic integrity. Describe how and why you are using new tools to enforce academic integrity and convey the technical requirements for their systems to be ready to use those tools. Also, prepare a plan B and a method for identifying accessibility issues.
• Be aware of the students’ well-being during online course arrangements. Some supportive arguments in the syllabus can greatly help students to discuss those challenges with you.
• Put a guideline on the proper ways of engaging in the class and asking questions from the teaching team and other peers.

Assessment Planning

• Consider frequent and lower stakes assessment. Grade weights for single events should be reduced since in many instances it creates difficulty with ensuring academic integrity. Also, many small frequent assessments can become overwhelming for students. There is a balance we need to try to achieve.
• Make assessment instructions more clear and present all necessary instructions in one place.
• Think about authentic, real-world opportunities during the course to have students create smaller authentic deliverables.
• Academic misconduct has three pillars. It happens more often when students feel pressure to perform (i.e. I am going to fail if I don’t, so what is to lose); opportunity presents itself for cheating to go undetected; and they have the ability to rationalize their behaviour (everybody is doing it – why not me?). More information about that is available here and here. The most effective approaches not only reduce the opportunity for students to engage in misconduct but also reduce pressure on students and build a culture where integrity is the expectation and the norm. Remote proctoring enforces academic integrity by reducing the influence of misconduct rationalization and opportunity and supports students in making the right choices. Be aware of the privacy laws when using remote proctoring tools.
• Students might find being watched online more disconcerting than in-person invigilation and practice assessments should be planned to address this issue. Technology issues and personal and data privacy including the collection of video images and computer content should be explained for students. You should not ask students to share more data that is needed with you. Also, make sure that students understand that the role of automatic proctoring systems is limited to collecting and processing information and the final decision is always made by instructors.
• UBC suggest minimizing the use of handwritten exams and using other alternatives to traditional exams, which are also less prone to academic misconduct here. Take a look at this article to find ways for promoting academic integrity in the classroom.
• Designing good alternative exams might be tricky and time-consuming in many engineering courses. The following two articles suggest a number of alternatives: Alternative to traditional testing by Berkeley and alternative to paper exams by Indiana University.
• Auto grading is possible in online assessments and we can use the immediate feedback on students’ works as part of the instruction process. Rubrics are great tools that both boost students’ grades and expedite the grading process. More information on designing rubrics provided here.

Course Delivery

• Use the announcements and the online sessions to connect with students and make it a more human and personal experience. Maybe, you can start each session by reviewing the current events highlighting course, school, and world news. Pre-class announcement and post-class announcements are also powerful tools to let students know about the objectives of the class and the upcoming assignments.
• Online office hours can help students transfer to the online environment.
• Use a TA to monitor the chat window or periodically review questions entered there. Students can also raise their hands to ask their questions.
• You can make simple multiple-choice questions with the Zoom polling function. Useful for prior knowledge probe, getting feedback, or as a starting point for a discussion.
• Google forms and Google docs are robust tools for student collaboration during and after the class.
• For student collaboration, during my experience as a TA for project-based courses, I found that students prefer to use simple messaging apps for facilitating collaboration in their small groups instead of more sophisticated tools such as Slack.
• Keeping file sizes small is important because many students who have returned home may have limited access to technology and the internet and downloading large files could take hours or be completely impossible. Recording shorter lectures makes it easier for students to grasp the content and keep their focus and make it faster and easier to record and edit for instructors. Attention span is shorter in online video classes.
• Play some music before the start of the class, put some stretch breaks and do not assume students are free at their home so they can take a break anytime they want. Commit to ending class on time.
• Use breakout sessions to facilitate activities. Explain deliverables and pre-breakout tasking before sending students into breakout rooms. Also, prepare clear instructions on how the activity will be debriefed, when students are brought back into the main room.
• For active teaching and learning purposes, use scalable student to student interactions, such as think-pair-share or peer-review.
• For your online lectures, research shows that videos that include visuals of the instructor are a source of distraction and can actually impair learning. When it comes to the essential lecture materials for the course, it is typically preferable for students to focus on the content rather than on the presenter. Looking good and sounding good on Zoom sessions also increases student energy, more about that here.