The third panel included short presentations from the following contributors:
Stephanie Luke (Politics); Experiences and reflections on whether Covid restrictions had an impact on the benefits of in-person teaching.
Mary Stewart-David (TFTI): Teaching and Collaborating in WebBased Virtual Reality - and why it's better than Zoom!
Taryn Bell and Caitlin Kitchener (Archaeology): Why do students seem to dislike online breakout rooms so much? We'll discuss our own experiences teaching first- and second-year undergraduates, as well as the results of some small-scale surveys which asked students about their preferred learning methods. We'll talk about the potential wider issues behind the use of breakout rooms, and how we've tried to mitigate these, for example through the use of simple online collaborative tools. [Presentation]
Thomas Ron (Politics): Re-Imagining Office Hours.
Emily Patterson (TFTI): The delivery of online content, specifically about the VLE and pre-recorded lectures (recorded contribution - Emily is an UG student from TFTI who summarises her experiences. She emphasises the importance of VLE consistency and 'showing ones face' in recordings amongst other things)
The recording is provided below followed by longer recorded presentations or supporting materials from each of the contributors providing a more in-depth reflection on their practices. The comments and reflections on each panel from session participants have also been included below.
You can view the session recording on this page (make sure you are logged in to Panopto first) or by following the link to view the session in the Panopto viewer (34mins 27secs)
Stephanie provided an insight into her experiences of teaching under socially-distancing restrictions, supported by research into the experiences and preferences of her students. [View in new window or play the video below (16 mins 58secs)].
Mary provided a summary of her experiences with WebVR and pointed to some of the advantages over web conferencing for synchronous learning and teaching activities. She noted in particular opportunities for more fluid groupings in a single immersive space compared to breakout rooms and the potential for rendering 3D spaces to simulate practical activities and lab work. She also suggested some introductory resources for those looking to explore further. Please see 8:00 to 16:47 of the video above for Mary's summary.
Taryn and Caitlin provides some reflection on the use of breakout rooms with first and second year students in discussion-based online seminars within the Archaeology Department, supported by data from surveys of their students' experiences and preferences. They recommended the use of straightforward collaborative tools to support breakout room activities. [View in new window or play the video below (16mins 28secs)].
Thomas outlined his experiences of reframing his office hours as a group rather than an individual activity pointing to benefits in terms of attendance and engagement [View in new window or play the video below (12 mins 17secs)].
Emily summarises her experiences as an undergraduate student in the Department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media, emphasising the importance of VLE consistency and 'showing ones face' in recordings. [View in new window or play the video below (4mins 28secs)].
A 'live document' was used to record comment, reflection and discussion during the session. The contributions from this panel are included below for reference (click to view these contributions):
Taryn and Caitlin - Do you think that doing collaborative work or debate prep or PBL would make a difference as that becomes collaborative
TB: Yes, absolutely! We found collaborative tasks to be incredibly helpful (and these were also part of the overall module we both taught which helped). Jamboard in particular was a tool that we both found invaluable for aiding collaboration (our Dept is very very keen on students shaping their own learning so we’re always keen on anything that encourages student-led learning)
CK: I did collaborative based activities/prep prior to some MA seminars and activities I ran and it seemed to help engagement, especially with some complicated ideas. With the Theory module both me and Taryn did, I think collaboration was very useful in helping digest or mull over some tough ideas. We could also build debate into the seminars too, so using Jamboards to see what arguments breakout groups were able to make. Also perhaps helps build community too (big thing in archaeology as their practical work is a big teambuilding/friendship making aspect and COVID prevented that).
MH: How do these opinions on breakout rooms compare to student opinion on F2F small group discussions? Do the same students dislike both?
CK: Our survey was directed at first years new to the uni learning environment so perhaps my answer will be quite anecdotal (although the survey did have a written comment that a student was excited to learn what face to face teaching is like). I taught 2nd year undergraduates too and they enjoyed having the opportunity to engage with small group discussions in both online and offline teaching, although I think online teaching was more challenging with second years as the modules were harder to convert/translate because of presentations
MH: Thanks
TB: As these were 1st years, many of them had had extremely limited experience of F2F learning. One of the recurring themes with online breakout rooms was that it really depends on who’s in them!
Helping students to become familiar and confident with tools is so important. A good baseline to get people comfortable in the online space.
Mary - what provision would you make to provide the material accessibly? we have been exploring some VR and AR possibilities but there are a lot of accessibility issues from what we have seen
Forget using a VR Headset for accessibility. WebVR can be accessed with or without an HMD. WebVR has spatial sound, zoom-in video, 3D object manipulation, and at entry-level it’s simple to use (although it does take some assimilation).
With web VR my concerns are more around access with screen reader, as well as navigation - plus the potential issues around migraine and seizure triggers
I experience WebVR via my laptop. For me, it is similar to viewing a video on a laptop. I assume the accessibility issues are similar.
LS has a small store of links dealing with 360 and VR accessibility: Augmented Reality and Accessibility and describing and subtitling 360° content
Our Communications team have been really good at ensuring our online 360° spaces are accessible. So proud of them! Example 360 uni tour
For anyone into 360 images, we will be able to make accessible and interactive 360 images soon when we upgrade our Xerte installation.(example of 360 interaction in Xerte) #
Can I make a shameless plug for a WebVR Hackathon I’m running after Easter please? Details here: 'Uni-Mersity Challenge' Hackathon | Digital Creativity Labs Good way in to WebVR if you’re interested in performance and would like to try it out.
Very interested to know more detail about the initial stages of setting up those office hours groups ("onboarding"), e.g. how the initial conversation happened (email, live session, ...) and how students self-organised and expressed the commitment to attend (and e.g. whether that was recorded or was left as an informal "expression of interest").
TR: I usually hold one-to-one meetings with my students at the start of term where I ask people to come up with 100 words about what they want to get from the seminars. I recruited at those meetings. Next term because I don’t do those one-to-ones then I am going to announce it at the end of the seminar and ask if people want to be on the list to inform by putting their names in the chat
SS- an overall reflection on the in person vs online debate is that we all live our lives (well most of us) in a blended way, so why would degree programmes be any different? Covid has taken choice away, but that may be a good thing in prompting us to re-think. What is clear is that in person has a place, and that we have to consider that carefully. I would not wish to lose every in person lecture for example, there is something about that learning community that is important, but, can we really justify 3 hour lectures now we can consider the overall learning process as an interactive experience that could begin online, extend into the lecture, head back online and then re-emerge in a seminar/labs? What I think cannot be the driver is cost - but worryingly, the idea of dropping lectures appears to be attached to this motivation in most cases it has emerged so far.