A four-step checklist for better preparation

In order to achieve the teaching goals of the course, various methods have been adopted since online teaching began 4 weeks ago. Here are four steps that Prof. Ge suggests faculty to keep in mind when preparing for online teaching:

First, spend time studying and be familiar with the various features and functions of the Rain Classroom platform (try to do this before every class, in case of platform updates or changes);

Upload a recorded video of the class in case of connection problems.

Prepare the slides for live broadcast, with a variety of interactive questions to activate the classroom atmosphere. Objective questionings are mainly used during class for practices and obtain formative feedback, whereas subjective questionings are mainly used as test after class.

Coursewares are used for before-class preview (usually simpler concepts; will only go over the materials briefly and use quiz during class to get feedback) and after-class revision (usually more complicated concepts; will go over them in detail, and ready to take questions from students).

Seven ways to ask better questions when teaching online

Interaction with students in the classroom often helps to shift the focus from teaching to learning. The advantage of traditional classrooms is that teachers and students are face to face, and communication is more straight-forward and simple. However, when teachers ask questions, it is difficult for all students to have the opportunities to participate. Even if the class is small, it is not easy to do so before you ran out of time. Not only you can’t hear clearly when everyone shout out their answers, it is difficult to exercise students' ability to express independently, as it is time-consuming to have everyone speak one after another, and that later students are likely to be affected by earlier responses. Therefore, using the test function of the Rain Classroom can help me to solve this problem: all students can answer at the same time, participate independently and get feedback in real time, etc. Prof. Ge also likes to display students’ respectively participation rate to act as an incentive and encourage everyone to participate more during classes. Besides, students can also interact by using the real time on-screen comment function and the chat function of the platform; for my small classes, Prof. Ge is able to respond to all of them myself, but for my bigger classes, Prof. Ge usually defers to her TAs. 

In order to maximize the learning outcome, and promote students’ continuous thinking, Prof. Ge concluded the following types of questions:

1. Turn narratives or statements into (objective) questions: let the students think and discover the answer, thus cultivate the ability of the student to identify the correct answer. As this often deepens the impression for students, Prof. Ge also used this technique to attach importance to specific knowledge points.

2. “Learning from time to time”: This does not mean learning is achieved by drill-like repetitions, but instead through connecting theories to meaningful and insightful practices. We should be able to design questions to guide students to think more instead of to answer intuitively or by impression or memorization.

3. Turn difficult and important knowledge points into (subjective) questions:here, ask more “why” and “how”.

4. Give students a second chance: sometimes, it is not necessary to give students the correct answers right away; Prof. Ge likes to display the wrong answers (particularly those where most students answered incorrectly) and give time for students to draw their own conclusion, figure out why this is the wrong answer and what should be the correct answer instead.

5. Gradually introduce complex problems with smaller questions: this way you are able to train students on how to approach bigger problems, which can be very useful for solving other engineering problems too.

6. Use real-time on-screen comments for informal questions: particularly items that you may not want to definitively respond right away, but would like to get a quick bird's-eye view from the students. As Rain Classroom records corresponding on-screen comments sent, lecturers can always go back for deeper analysis afterward.

7. Question for evaluating the outcome of preview: class time is very precious, not all content needs to be covered during class. But at the same time, you can’t simply assume all preview tasks are completed and are understood fully by all students. Mastering self-learning requires constant practice.

Last but not least, remember to pause and give enough time to think and respond. This is usually much longer and more awkward than you imagined.

Benefits for online assessment

For theoretical classes, students often think “they fully understand the theories until they start doing the problem sets”. The biggest challenge for year-one students is how to logically and clearly express their ideas in a written format. Subjective questions after classes were a great help. Prof. Ge gives students two after-class tests or assignments per week, and set the same timing for deadline. This way, it helps train the students to develop healthy habits and to become disciplined and organized.

The most common praise about learning online is that everything is online. Once submitted, students will no longer lose or misplace their assignments, and teachers will also have all the assessment records of all the students saved in one place. This way, it is easier for teachers to analyze performance and provide useful feedback to improve learning outcome; and it is also quicker for students to pick out all the wrong answers during the revision. With all these data available, it is now much easier to provide evidence and evaluate for participation grading.

Thoughts about choosing a platform

Try to avoid unexpected or uninstructed pauses. Classes may have different needs, though not necessary the more complicated the better, some need audio live-stream, video live-stream, screen-sharing, whiteboard annotation, etc. Choose a platform that fits your teaching needs best, as well as creates a quality learner experience. In this case, Rain Classroom works well, as it enables a smooth transition between different features and that all learners’ data are in one place.

Try not to switch between different platforms in one class. It is okay to use more than one platform for your course, as some platforms are better at live-streaming classes, and some are better for break-out discussions, etc.