Good practice

"The slides were always coherent, which made it easy to understand the content we were learning"

“The reading materials were always incredibly interesting in and of themselves, but also served to cultivate my own scholarship. ”

“The course assignments were given based on the goal of achieving “the ability to see familiar things as if they were foreign”and “a critical approach towards discourse on culture”.”

“I was able to learn about the opinions of other students because the professor responded to the comment sheets at the beginning of each lecture. I was also able to discover new points of view on a single issue.”

“The videos were at most 30 minutes long which was good. I was able to maintain my concentration.”

“Providing visuals and video for examples was helpful, as it was difficult to comprehend just by reading.”

“Though the entire course was on demand, as the content was organized I could maintain my motivation and take the course with fun.”

"Not only anthropology, but I learned whole different topics such as postmodernism, and feminism which I think it is a good introduction class. The professor also connects the topic to anthropology."

“To view the obvious as “foreign”.To find points of similarity in the “foreign”. I was able to develop this kind of mentality.”

“I learned that anything can become a subject of anthropological studies.”

Pursued ways in which the students would not lose interest.

1. Incorporated fun into the slides. Frequent use of “design idea”(appears on the right-hand side of the screen). Frequent use of “Icons””Shapes””Online Images””SmartArt”.

2. Keep things concise. Split topics and recording into 20 minute intervals.Astonished at the amount of unnecessary talking after rewatching recording, included re-recording (consumed stamina).

3. Introduced student comments at the beginning. Split into opposing groups with as diverse opinions as possible then gave directions.

“As long as I prepared for the lecture, I could participate in the discussions even without a background in Law. It felt more as if an outside viewpoint was wanted over just knowledge of Law.”

“Each unit was simple and a length that made it easy to read and understand. Also, since the relevant documents were uploaded onto Moodle it made self-studying easier.”

“The vote feature was used effectively which was nice.”

“Was the course which used Zoom most effectively out of the ones I took.”

“Actively educed students opinions, and never invalidated them regardless of whatever kind opinion it was. The topics of discussions were further deepened thereeon.”

“Opinions were exchanged every class through breakout rooms, because of which I was able to update my opinions, and organize class content.”

“Every discussion question was always labyrinthine and felt meaningful to engage in.”

“I believe this is outstanding success example of anan exmple of an outstandingly successful online course.”

The course proceeded as follows.

1. Before each Zoom lecture, had the students input their answers to the preparation assignment using Moodle’s Forum Discussion function.

2. 10 minutes before beginning of lecture, used the vote function and had the students come up with problems related to the course content.

3. Using the first 15 minutes of class to review/supplement the previous lecture and respond to questions, while keeping track of the voting results.

4. Have a group presentation lasting roughly 20-25 minutes, then propose a discussion question. Used the voting function here as well.

5. Using the breakout room function, have discussions with groups of around 5 students for roughly 15 minutes.

6. Hold a question and answer sessions with everyone for the remainder of the lecture.

7. After the lecture,maintained two-way communication by using Moodle’s Forum Discussion function and having students input their questions/comments, which then the professor will respond to.

• By using the chat function, it made two-way communication far more efficient as I could move on to the next question while others were talking. I also received comments about how the professor felt closer compared to a large classroom.

• I felt it to be far better to use Zoom and Moodle over a classroom for courses with over 100 students, as there is no need to worry about distractions such as whispering or sleeping and other background noises, as well not having to pass a mic around. Furthermore, another important point to consider is that students who find difficulty learning in a physical classroom setting found it easier to participate in the class online.

• The students who took the course this semester were incredibly proactive, the quality of the presentations and discussions were the highest ever and I felt the potential of a new age of online courses. Voluntary study sessions・reading sessions are also being held during the summer recess as they have every year. I am grateful to the students for participating so actively.

“Since the slides were always uploaded after each lecture, it was easy to organize my notes.”

“The professor would ask whether we had any questions 4 to 5 times per lecture.They also would answer each question in chat one by one thoroughly. Though it was online there was no hindrance to my learning.”

“Because the professors would give detailed feedbacks to the comment sheets, I could deepen my understanding of the course content. I also gained new perspectives from hearing the comments from other students.”

“It was incredibly helpful having the Zoom URL, where to submit the comment sheets, and the lecture slides all posted on Moodle.”

“There were multiple opportunities to participate in the class, such as the surveys and group discussions.”

“Because each of the 3 professors gave lectures on their specific subject of study, I experienced the range and depth of the field known as Psychology”

“Because the professors were incredibly thorough, and the atmosphere of the class was very cheerful, finishing the course felt very unfortunate.”

Decided on the synchronous class using Zoom, despite the large number of students to make two-way communication as possible as it could. Meanwhile, as it was a 100-level course with a large number of 1st year students with uncertainties regarding fundamental IT skills, took some time to explain how to use Zoom/Moodle and made time for practice when necessary.

To create as many opportunities as possible for students to participate during class, used the vote function in Zoom for experiment demonstrations and to answer questions. The vote function was well-received by the students, as they could see the responses of fellow students through the feature that allows for the sharing of the voting results.Also made time to answer questions during the lecture using the chat function in Zoom. In the case of large-scale classes, unmuting oneself and speaking requires some courage and so there were many questions through chat.Also created spaces for students to discuss amongst each other using the breakout room feature.It seems many of the sempai students would take lead and carried out the discussions and including the 1st year students as there were many comments of gratitude from them. Also strived for further interaction with students by giving feedback on the students comment sheets.

To create as many opportunities as possible for students to participate during class, used the vote function in Zoom for experiment demonstrations and to answer questions. The vote function was well-received by the students, as they could see the responses of fellow students through the feature that allows for the sharing of the voting results.Also made time to answer questions during the lecture using the chat function in Zoom. In the case of large-scale classes, unmuting oneself and speaking requires some courage and so there were many questions through chat.Also created spaces for students to discuss amongst each other using the breakout room feature.It seems many of the sempai students would take lead and carried out the discussions and including the 1st year students as there were many comments of gratitude from them. Also strived for further interaction with students by giving feedback on the students comment sheets.

As the online courses during the Spring semester were held under abnormal circumstances, made efforts to not place unnecessary stress on the students.More specifically, made sure that not being able to join the class on-time did not negatively affect grades, and that class participation would be counted by either joining the Zoom lecture or watching the recording (as a result, those who joined the Zoom lecture was about 140-150 students). Also delayed the comment sheet submission to on the same day.

“Since the slides used during the lecture were handed out, it made it easier to review and reassess the content.”

“Would always respond to questions, and even questions they couldn’t answer immediately would respond through Gmail.”

“Was able to extend my field of view from listening to lectures with various points of view from different professors regarding the environment.”

“Felt satisfied even though the course was online, because there were many opportunities to present and hold discussions.”

“I enjoyed having different guest speakers each time. It was interesting to see environmental studies from many perspectives.”

“Sufficient support from the professors such as through emails or in regards to difficulties with Zoom.”

“By making use of the courses online nature, gave the opportunity to hear from a variety of different guest speakers and despite being online managed to achieve a two-way interactional course.”

Based on ICU’s mission, liberal arts education, and diploma policy, this class aims to collectively think about the actions students can take to create a healthy natural environment and sustainable world as responsible global citizens of the 21st century. Therefore the goals of this course are 1)to gain multiple perspectives about environmental issues, 2) then, to find your own point of view and research and explore independently, 3) to grasp the collected information critically, think, and build your own thoughts, 4) to share them in a group, further explore and talk with each other, consider the problem as one’s own, and propose actions that can be taken on campus to solve the problem, 5) through presentations, deepen one’s understanding and reconstruct new awareness and learning through dialogue. 6) the learning goal is to connect those learnings to daily action, work, and activiites. Therefore, for course goals 1-3, lectures on “environment” viewed from each specialized field by teachers in charge of environmental majors, and lectures by guests who are involved in environment-related fields in the real world, and for goals 4-6, active learning types lessons consisting of group projects are conducted. After 10 years of trial and error, there are a number of students groups that have made suggestion to the university to take in consideration the environment and have even started activities based on what they have learned in this class.

When it was confirmed in March that classes would be online, we were wondering whether the structure of this class should be changed. However, after learning about the existence of Zoom, we immediately consulted with the CTL and IT center, and with their support, sought a method for providing online lessons while maintaining the structure of this active-learning type course. Basically, we decided to conduct synchronized lectures through Zoom, and group projects through Zoom breakout rooms. In addition, although we used to use Moodle, it played more of a role of a platform.

While conducting the online lessons, we kept the following considerations and ingenuities in mind.

1) Assignments for the first two weeks

Keeping in mind the fact that the students will also have assignments from other classes, we tried to avoid overloading the students, but gave them assignments that were appropriate as an introduction to taking this class.

1. What does environment mean to you?

2. What does abundance/richness mean to you?

3. How does an eggplant (photo) affect the environment from its production to consumption/ disposal?

4. How can you cut out the familiar scenery around your house, such as the scenery seen through the window? How is the landscape connected to the environment of yourdaily life, and to the global environment?

To enquire in such a way that helps those who have never seen the observed landscape understand how their daily life influences the landscape, and how global environmental problems affect the observed landscape.

and so on. These assignments are not the type of assignments that include reading documents and summarizing the content. Rather, we decided to make this an opportunity to look back on one’s values while being conscious of one’s connection with the environment, which is made possible by having to stay home and having. Regarding the feedback on the submitted assignments, we made overall comments on Moodle using text mining for analyzing data, and kept dialogue in mind by posting short videos.

2) Ideas to become familiarized with discussions on Zoom

It was a challenge to engage in dialogue after classes started being conducted through Zoom. In case of questions asked during face-to-face lectures, those students with whom we have eye contact often answer. However, when conducting lectures online, there isn’t the feeling of having eye-contact, and there are times where it is difficult even for students who respond independently to get the timing right to express their opinions.

For group work, we used the Breakout function of Zoom, and first devised a way for students to enjoy having conversations and dialogue. We conducted a survey on environment-related topics and divided the students into groups so that the number of freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior students in each group would be balanced evenly. In the first group work session, we advised the students to decide on roles such student responsible for contact, time-keeping, minute-keeping, and presenter through rock-paper-scissors. After doing self-introductions, we had the students share their views about the environment-related topics that they were interested in. While doing so, the students used an A4 sheet first folded into 4 folds and then spread it out, and showed their image of the topics and what they wanted to explore in depth using four key words, on a count of 3-2-1(se~no in Japanese). In this way, we devised ways to encourage daily communication through Zoom and familiarize students with dialogue. While the students commented on the comment sheet that they were worried whether the discussions would progress smoothly because it was the first time conducting group work through Zoom, they were able to communicate more smoothly than they had expected.

We did group work three times in class, and there was active dialogue among the students as each group shared what they had to do that day. Furthermore, it seems that each group set up Zoom sessions several times outside of class hours and had conducting dialogue and tasks.

3) Challenges possible because of classes being online

We thought that there must be some things that are different from face-to-face classes, and can be done precisely because the classes are online. One of them is relaying from the scene/site. For example, we had requested Professor Hayashi from the Archeology department to give a lecture on the topic “Environmental Adapatation and Cultural Collapse seen in Archeology”. As the professor was doing excavation work on campus, the lecture was relayed while watching the work from the excavation site. Even for the lecture requested to a brewer of Nihon Sakagura sake brewery in Higashimurayama to conduct on “Abundance: through sake brewing”, the professors visited the brewery, were guided through the brewery, and the lecture was relayed live. In addition, an NPO staff engaged in conservation activities at the Nature Conservation Center in Nogawa Park also talked to us on the spot while walking through Nogawa Park. Although it is an online course in which patterns often become fixed, we think that it is the role of teachers to devise ways so that the classes can be enhanced, and the advantages of online teaching can be optimally utilized.

4) After-class questions and comment sheets

Within a 70-minute lecture, we had allocated 60 minutes for lecture and the last 10 minutes for Q&A. However, students not only asked questions orally during class, but also utilized the chat to ask questions, therefore, the Q&A session continued until after the end of class time was announced. For most lectures, although the Q&A section went on for approximately 30 minutes, out of 150 total students, around 60-80 students stayed till the end. In addition, we informed the students that the purpose of the comment sheets were “not only for attendance, but to reflect over what the students learned and what they thought about, to pen down their doubts and questions, to reflect over the lesson, and to put into words what they learned, and restructure their learning”. The submission of comment sheets were set to be uploaded to Moodle by midnight on the day of classes. Surprisingly, there were many enthusiastic students who submitted 1-2 A4-sized comments which were more like reports than comments. It seems that the 30-minute after-class Q&A session was a good opportunity for reflection. If it were a regular face-to-face class, students usually have meetings for extracurricular activities during lunchtime or have another class afterwards, thus making it difficult to take the time to reflect on the class. Perhaps students were better able to focus on the class not being able to go out as a result of the spread of Covid-19.

5) Online group presentation

Every year, for the end-of-semester group project presentation, each group, together with the content of their research and enquiry about their environment-related topics, summarized the actions that can be taken by themselves or on campus to solve the problems on a poster and conducted the presentation across two poster sessions. While conducting the presentation online, each of the 25 groups created Zoom sessions and conducted three 20-minute sessions each during one class hour. In each session, 6 people made 3 pairs and conducted the presentations. By utilizing the time when the students were not presenting to participate in the presentations of other groups, ask questions, and submit peer-evaluations, poster session was reproduced through Zoom. Since the presentation was given twice, each presenter had the opportunity to present two times. To participate in the presentation, students had to make a reservation on Moodle, and we required their cooperation to avoid any bias. Students who participated in the presentation uploaded peer-evaluations for the presentations to Moodle within the same day. The professors organized the evaluations and provided feedback to each group, and the students reflected on the feedback to implement it on the second day of their presentations. In retrospect, we asked the students to reflect on how they would utilize the findings from peer-evaluations to improve their presentations.

The students said that it was a pity they could only listen to 4 presentations although there were 25 groups, so they voiced a request to take videos of the presentations and publish it on Moodle. We asked each group to record their presentations and published them on Moodle.

6) Lastly

Throughout the course, students would access Zoom 10 minutes before class started and attended classes mostly without being late, and attended the lecture attentively. At the beginning of the course, we communicated with the students that,“it is also our first time conducting classes online and it is a challenge for us to create a fulfilling online class and to think about they ways in which we could obtain the same educational experience and results as a face-to-face class. We will try our best to do so, but we would like you to cooperate so that we can create a fulfilling class together.”In spite of issues such as poor connection, audio malfunctions, problems in breakout room settings, among others, we felt that the students were very supportive and actively participated in the lectures. In order to maintain the motivation of students, we try to enhance lessons as we would do during normal times, but it is necessary even more so if we are online, to devise merits of online classes and utilize the merits of online classes. Online classes have various restrictions that differ from face-to-face classes, but it is expected that ways be devised for the classes to be fulfilling even under restricted conditions and ingenuity be practiced so as to not diminish the educational experience. Considering that we are in a special environment where the students have to stay at home and must sit in front of computers all day long to take classes, we think that detailed considerations and ingenuity are expected for students to enjoy classes.

The online survey expects students to comment on both active learning-type course and online course. The former is about the extent to which it is possible to take up the challenge to conduct the same level of classes online as active learning-type classes, and the latter is about wanting to take up the challenge involving doing things that are possible precisely because the classes are online. We appreciate both kinds of comments. However, we think that these comments are the result of the students taking serious initiatives classes in spite of the special situation of classes being online.

“Devised ways in which students would not be inconvenienced, such as making use of Moodle’s Forum function and uploading relevant documents.”

“From the course title "Social History", I had the expectation that I would learn about parts outside of mainstream society. I am satisfied with the course as these expectations were met.”

“Though centered around French writings, brought up relevant examples from Japan and was also able to learn about surrounding regions.”

“Presented the point of view that "The study of History begins with asking a question" in the very beginning. Was able to learn with the mindset that the same event can be interpreted completely differently depending on how it is approached.”

“Was a course where the TA played an active role. Not only did they answer questions, but also provided related information and felt it would connect to my learning during the summer recess as well.”

Was a small-scale course (13 students) where we thoroughly read one piece of literature together, and held presentations along with discussions. For that, Zoom was used for the online lecture, and Moodle was used for handing out documents and presentation outlines as well as comment sheet and assignment submissions.

In the beginning, dealt with guiding how to acquire the shared text and confirming the internet environment and taking care of things when necessary (used Moodle’s forum function and email for notifications regarding lectures). Used the method where presenters would upload their outlines to the Forum, and the other students were to download the files before the lecture began. Regarding the content of the text, had the students make as much use of online resources as possible to search; however as the library was unavailable, important texts were uploaded to Moodle as PDFs and used to deepen their understanding (also actively uploaded documents which may be related to the main text and the students' interests). In terms of workload, there was no major difference in comparison to a regular class.

Made use of the chat and screen sharing functions when appropriate. In order to get used to speaking through Zoom, it may be effective to start with self-introductions or discussions on research interests. Also placed the responsibility of making comments regarding presentations between the students. During discussions, if it became difficult to know the timing to speak up, designated an order in which to speak. How to make it so that the students can actively speak up will be the challenge going forward.

“Since every lecture began with (the professor) sharing 『what we’ll be doing today』and 『what you’ll gain from doing it』, I knew exactly what I needed to do.”

“The comments in regards to the essays were thorough and relevant. Furthermore, was able to objectively see what I was missing thanks to the professors’ meticulous answers to questions during the tutorial.”

“Would respond to emails immediately.”

“Would present the slides used on the day before the lecture, which helped in preparing for class.”

“Gained the self-awareness to realise how much education I was lacking in through the professors lectures and discussions with fellow students which became my motivation for learning.”

“Through this course, I learned to write in a way that is both rational and can be accepted by anyone.”

“Felt was a course that was only legitimate when the students were proactive, rather than passive.”

“Because essays present information centered around a single assertion, I became mindful of keeping my arguments consistent.”

“I am convinced that my English skill has very improved.”

“Heightened students ambitions through individualized teaching.”

“Was a course that was not only practical and useful, but also fun.”

I tried to create a sense of community in the class by having the students collaborate to create class notes for some of the course readings. This was done by having the students work together in small groups to make a set of notes for the section of the reading that had been given as homework. Although this note-taking activity was started in class, the groups were required to work together outside of class to complete their group notes.

Once each group had finished their notes, they copied them to a document which was shared with all members of the class so that all of the students in the class had access to the notes. I did have some concerns that this activity may have allowed some students to have a free ride. However, it seemed that the students felt they had a responsibility to work together to complete their notes, resulting in more communication between the students outside of class, and a greater understanding of the readings.

In addition, as I was worried that the online environment may make some students reluctant to ask me questions, I wanted to ensure that the students felt that I was approachable and willing to assist them in their learning. One way I tried to do this was by changing the way that I provided feedback on their writing assignments. Usually, I provide feedback in the form of written comments on their work. However, in the Spring Term, in addition to my written comments, I also recorded spoken comments using Loom (an add-on to Google Chrome). I felt that this not only allowed me to provide extra explanation to my comments, but also made the comments more personal.

“Would describe what they wanted us to learn and remember, as well as reconfirm how far into the course content we’ve proceeded at the beginning of each lecture.”

“The handouts contained information suitable for a 70 minute lecture, and I was able to deepen my understanding of “Health”.”

“Took into account the time and included topics such as infectious diseases and was easy to understand.”

“The assignments were designed in a way that I could pick up habits that I wanted by having me practice them for 2 weeks. They felt meaningful in that they incorporated all of the 4 goals of the course.”

“I was able to deepen my understanding as the professor would share their response to the comment sheets every week.”

“Would thoughtfully respond to questions through the chat during the lecture and even minor questions through e-mail.”

“The content was fascinating with experts as guest lecturers.”

“Included the Corona virus as a topic. Made me realise 『the importance of being fearful correctly』”

“Was able to enjoyably participate in the class by using Zoom’s chat and breakout room function to exchange opinions between fellow students.”

Aimed for course content and assignments where students would take these themes as their own problem, find the issues, and connect that to their daily lives.

Made it so that it was possible to respond to the uncertainty held by the students through the cooperation from professors whose expertise lies in “infectious disease”and “the mind.“

Compiled replies to the questions written in the comment sheets, and shared them the following week alongside the opinions of other students.

Because there are many times where the understanding of “health”and its implementation don’t connect, used breakout rooms to create an opportunity to discuss ways to fix that.

“I went in blind for this class, but it turns out that I enjoyed the content presented in the course, such as the adoption of technology into religion.”

“I could learn about religious communities going worldwide in this class. It wasn't every time something mainstream known by everyone, but it was interesting to learn about them.”

“Making a group project online was very difficult, but I could learn a new way of doing a group project. It was a good experience.”

“I was able to learn different points of view on various religious beliefs exactly because of these modern times. “

“The readings and the discussion forum were pretty interesting since that created a somewhat usual "classroom-like" feel to this online class.”

“I enjoyed the guest we had for one of the classes, the author of the article we had to read this week. It was interesting to hear about his point and explaining his article with our professor's questions.”

“This course was one of the most creative and interactive online courses that I took this semester. Even you provided it from the opposite side of the earth. I could know many creative and exciting side of religion in Asia.”

I prepared all asynchronous lectures for students to watch when it is convenient for them. All lectures were made with Kaltura Capture because it has a few advantages: files are much smaller than Zoom, students have a few options to choose on how to watch (picture-in picture, ppt only, lecturer only, etc.), it generates subtitles that are 90% accurate -- many students are happy about this last point.

I also added a Kaltura Quiz in each video. Questions were very simple, but students can't answer them without watching the video. This also allowed me to take attendance: only those who watched and answered questions within 48 hours counted as present. You can watch any of the videos on the ANT214 Moodle site to get an example.

I opened a Discussion Forum and posted simple questions on current events related to the class. For example: How do Muslims celebrate Ramadan in the times of coronavirus? Students shared interesting news stories from around the world and commented why they found the article relevant. Some students also posted their own questions and others replied. Although the class had more than 60 students, participation was very good. However, it was a lot of work for me to read and answer these postings almost everyday! But it worked well in the sense that it made the class interactive.

Given that I used several readings authored by scholars I know personally, I asked for their help. I interviewed one of them on Zoom and then uploaded the video as a Kaltura Video/quiz. I think it worked very well. I will try to do as many as possible next term. It worked like having a guest lecturer and it only required a 15 minute 'interview' with a colleague of mine. It looked like this: https://moodle3.icu.ac.jp/mod/lti/view.php?id=64609

For 5 readings I also added Moodle Quizzes. These had more serious questions than the weekly Moodle quizzes about concepts discussed in class.

Students were assigned a group project in both of my courses that was titled "Virtual Field Trip". In the GE course, they had to choose a city in the developing world, 'travel' there and prepare a presentation answering questions about housing, crime, employment, poverty, etc. For ANT214, they had to visit a religious congregation and find out what they were doing to adopt digital technologies in the present coronavirus situation. They participated in online prayer groups, Za-zen and Bible study groups in Singapore. I allowed them to choose how to make their final presentation. Some of them really enjoyed being able to design their projects creatively and with flexibility, some final presentations were excellent. Most of them uploaded narrated pdfs, some did videos with conversations between them. My favorite for the GE course was a group that did it on Instagram.

The group projects were really good. If you are interested, I can send you the links to some of them or perhaps you can see them on the Moodle site. Some student groups enjoyed designing blogs like these:

GE projects:

https://bigdurianjakarta.blogspot.com

https://sites.google.com/icu.ac.jp/groupl-vft-to-bangkok-/home?authuser=1

https://sites.google.com/view/society-and-culture-2020/%E3%83%9B%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0?authuser=3

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12-t5NTnrH75-4hOD4HG5n8xbaA17cYH7

ANT214:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13DAiN6k3LIh0175XoFqWtxrqQeWUf1yJ/view

One more thing: my videos were around 30 minutes long and I felt they were too long and boring, but students told me some of their professors were uploading 90 minutes videos that were just too much. What I tried to do in my videos was only to introduce some concepts, and later give students several different assignments that they had to work on their own or in groups: group project, discussion forum, Kaltura quiz, final essay. Overall, I asked students to submit a lot of small pieces of work, but I think it gave them a good sense of how they were doing in the class and made it feel more interactive.