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Providing spaces for peer interaction in Collaborate

The results for the remote studying survey are in and there’s one student concern in particular that’s been front of mind for me in all of this:

‘Group discussion and group project support’

That students on the Grad Dip are concerned about this is no surprise to me. They’ve come to understand peer interaction and the studio as a vitally important part of their education. So what happens when the physical space (suddenly) becomes digital?

The whole notion of online learning is one that really forces us to rethink what an education space is and does. Teaching and learning has been at the forefront of discussions. However, with no studios, libraries, workshops or canteens, where do those non-timetabled, student-led and peer interactions take place?

Student networks

Students of course have their own networks. There’s a lot of personal communication happening through WhatsApp, WeChat and Instagram. Should we expect students to expand their personal networks and spaces to accommodate all this? No, I don’t think so. We need to provide an institutional space.

Synchronous > Asynchronous

And what about time? 75% of my students are now in a different time zone. They need ways to plan and work together at times that work for them. These need to happen outside of the ‘timetable’ and they will need to happen online.

Experimenting

So we need a digital version of a studio. Essentially an unmoderated virtual space that sits within an institutional platform. In physical space terms, this would be a room that’s always open to anyone with ID or a key. Like any ‘real’ studio.

As I started to think about this I found that, not surprisingly, Blackboard Collaborate works for this (I promise I’m not on commission). You can add a Collaborate session to Moodle and set it up to run for ‘the duration of the course.’ This creates a room that’s always ‘open.’

To follow the room analogy, the key is an institutional login and the door is Moodle. All online meeting software is prone to ‘bombing’ and trolling by uninvited guests. While Collaborate won’t be completely immune to this, putting access to classrooms within in a Course or Unit page and behind an institutional login is very important.

Setting it up

To enable this kind of space, you need to enable guest access. Regular session settings as embedded through Moodle will not automatically give participants presenter rights. In regular classrooms, you have to be ‘upgraded’ by the Moderator.

If you enable Guest Access, you can to set permissions for participants using the room so they can share content and chat without a moderator present. So, in effect, this space can be left ‘open’ so students can arrange to meet there and work.

Managing it

With guest access enabled, each session will have two ‘tabs’ in Moodle. The first is the regularly classroom link. It will have a big green button that says Join Session. That’s the moderated session. The other tab will say ‘Guest Links.’ That’s the unmoderated one. Students can’t see that link so you need to signpost the link as a URL in Moodle.

• Timetabled sessions = first tab, ‘Session,’ green button
• Off-timetable = second tab, ‘Guest Links’

Bandwidth?

I should point out that I have a small cohort. 22 students. So any of the bandwidth generated here is not likely to have a major impact on the overall UAL service. I ran this by the DL Support team just to be sure. If you have a large group, it’s worth checking with DL Support on the best way to set this up.

Better still, consider the communities of practice that exist in the group and set up smaller studios to enable these.

Collaborate put out this best practice advice that’s really useful as both a tutor and a student to consider.

Unmoderated?

There’s also the issue of an unmoderated space. As with anywhere, it’s important to establish what is and is not acceptable behaviour in that space. DL Support recommended this link which is useful for thinking about this.

Blackboard Collaborate also put out this best practice advice that’s really useful as both a tutor and a student to consider.

MVP

This is an experiment. There will be challenges. Particularly for students with internet connection issues. Chances are we will have to troubleshoot these as we go and I will no doubt have to iterate this approach. For now, it’s just ‘a’ way of thinking about this problem and the university-supported platforms that might be available to address it .

Resting cam face and the endless freeze…

So, you’ve survived your first two weeks of online meetings. It’s been fun hasn’t it? Highlights might have included watching people speak silently after forgetting to un-mute their microphones. All those webcams angled directly up peoples noses or accidentally left on to capture things that colleagues really don’t need to see. The relaxing background noise of someone’s partner blending a smoothie or a young child trying to lovingly murder their sibling. Let’s not mention ‘resting-cam-face.’

I joke but these are some of the realties you have to plan for with online teaching. Once or twice I’ve watched back some of the recordings of my online lessons and I have pretty much made every set-up mistake in the book. So again, here’s some lessons learned and shared in case they’re useful.

Internet speed

Before you do any of this, it’s worth testing your Internet connection speed. Working on camera might need more bandwidth than you normally need at home. You’re going to need at least 28.8 Mbps. 100 Mbps should by plenty.

That said, if anyone else in your house is working from home, be aware things can get shaky. I’ve found my connection is patchy if my partner is also on a video call. It’s always worth investigating if you can connect directly to your router using Ethernet.

Browsers

You’ll need the right browser. You can find details of the browser compatibility for Blackboard here. Firefox or Chrome are surefire, Safari is hit and miss. It’s worth mentioning they also recommend at least 20 MB free disk space. With any luck, you have that. If your Mac has been making that wheezing sound when performing basic tasks lately, it’s worth checking your available disk space.

Headsets…?

Built-in computer microphones are not the best for quality, clear audio and they can have feedback issues. If you can bring yourself to embrace call-centre chic then a headset with a microphone is actually the best option for good quality audio.

Being onscreen

An online session with no video is not a particularly engaging experience for anyone. So unless you’re having connection issues or you’ve set some time ‘offscreen’ for the students to work on a task, try to be on camera as much as possible in the session.

It’s good to get your camera up to eye-level. I generally sit it on a stack of books to do this. You might have a more elegant solution. It’s also good to sit up straight, at a table and look directly into the camera. While it can be tempting to teach from your sofa. I wouldn’t. We don’t all have perfect set ups at home but keeping it as formal as you can is a good idea. There’s definitely such a thing as too laid back.

Lighting

If you can, position a lamp or light on the desk in front of you to light your face. Try not to sit in front of any windows or bright light sources; you’ll just appear as a spooky silhouette. I’ve got windows directly behind me when I’m sat at my desk (also dining/living room table) so I always have to lower the blinds a bit to avoid the silhouette situation.

Background noise

It’s also a good idea to close the door to the room for the duration of the session. This is not always possible but the sounds someone crashing about in the background can really derail a session. Again, not always possible. Just do what you can.

Worst case

Believe it or not, I’ve been in situations where none of the above was possible. I once had to teach an online class with my computer in my lap on a coach on a Belgian motorway while tethering from my iPhone. It was less-than-ideal (and the phone bill was more than I was paid for the session), but amazingly, it worked. In truth, we all had a good giggle about it and I think the students appreciated the effort. These are strange times and nobody reasonable is expecting a perfect performance but hopefully these tips will help you feel prepared with some of the basics.

Anyone?… anyone?

I started to teach online through Blackboard Collaborate a few years ago and it was… interesting. I think what it exposed for me was how much I rely on visual cues to check engagement and understanding in a teaching setting. As these don’t really exist online you have to find workarounds. I would say this is one of the more challenging aspects of moving to an online format. So, in case it’s useful, here’s some suggestions based on the lesson I learned in my long (and fairly bumpy) induction…

Lecture? Or other?

When I first started I ran all sessions like a lecture. It was a good comfort blanket while i figured out the possibilities of the platform but I wouldn’t plan to run all sessions this way. While you certainly can ‘just lecture’ in Collaborate, it gets boring very quickly (for you and the students).

If it is a lecture, it’s worth condsidering whether the students actually need to be there online in real time. If not, you can just record the lecture and make it available on Moodle (Collaborate will do this automatically with recorded sessions).

In non-lecture sessions, presentations are really useful to introduce the session and to structure activities. However, you shouldn’t rely on them too heavily. It’s better to think creatively about the session design and plan different ways for students to engage. Ideally, it is the students who will do most of the work in online formats.

Ground rules

You will probably find, initially at least, students will be even less likely to verbally contribute in an online class as they are in IRL. With no social cues, it can be weird. So before you start, it’s good to set up some rules and make them clear.

I usually have an intro slide in the classroom for 15 minutes before the session starts. It outlines some basic etiquette. Different sessions require different things but generally it includes things like:

• Arrive early and check your video and audio before the session
• Keep your mic on mute unless you’re speaking (you can mute people as a moderator but it gets time consuming)
• If someone is speaking, use the Raise Hand function to ask a question, then wait to be invited to speak.

I put the icons that correspond to each of these on the slide to help the students find them in the interface. I design my own but UAL have a ready-to-go one available.

Discussions

It’s advisable not to be too vague or open ended if you want good quality discussions. Ask direct questions that students can respond to rather than asking them something general like ‘what they think.’

That said, if you want to do a temperature check and see how everyone feels about something, or whether they understand, there is a useful tool for this. Students can change their profile picture to an emoji momentarily. This gives a quick response, visible to everyone without anyone needing to speak. It’s great to use these as check ins, especially after you’ve introduced a concept or an idea that might raise questions.

Polls

Another useful way to start a discussion is with a quick poll. This gives some stats on what people think about a given topic. You can then invite people to share on specifics either verbally or via chat.

Breakout groups

For smaller group discussions you could use the breakout rooms feature.

You can give students a question, an activity or a series of discussion points on the screen (as a slide) with a timeframe to discuss them in groups. You can then set Collaborate to randomly assign groups with one click. This sends people in a virtual breakout room. When the time is up, you can pull everyone back into the main room to feedback.

If you are going to ask students to feedback to the larger group, it’s good to ask them to decide who will do this in advance while in their groups.

If all else fails… emoji

There are some features that can be useful for shyer or less confident students. For example, students don’t need to say anything but they can show appreciation for things that are being said with emojis.

Be specific

With all of this it’s important that you, as the facilitator, communicate the specific expectations of each task to the students. You have to be clear in what you’re asking them to do and why. Activities, even discussions, need to be quite structured to be successful online.

It’s weird…

If it all sounds a bit weird and artificial, that’s because it is. It’s actually worth taking time to all acknowledge this (and laugh about it) when you’re interacting with students online. Things will go wrong and you won’t always feel totally in control of every single moment.

Like the name suggests, this is a collaboration between you and your students. It will generally be as good as the levels of planning, good will and engagement that all participants bring to it. Once you’ve gotten used to the platform, see if you have the headspace for some experimentation with the different features mentioned above. I have found that using some of these, it is possible to create learning environments where the students are active participants in the process.

Useful links:

Pelz, B. (2010). (My) Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14(1), 103–116.

Ruarte, Daniel. (2019). Effective Pedagogies for Online Teaching and Learning