Technology/Software Questions for Online Teaching

[downer]

I've taught online for many years. I like to keep it simple, and tend to rely on existing resources that are available to everyone rather than creating my own resources.

However, in moving regular classes online, I find that there are some new challenges in doing that, particularly in helping students who are not used to online teaching. I am thinking of making short recordings to add to slide shows and maybe some short videos.

I have in the past made sound recordings and videos of myself, but it has been a while. Things have moved on. These days presumably it makes sense to use a phone to do a lot of work of recording, since it will have the best mic and camera I have available -- better than on a laptop. Also, presumably everything is best done through an app or a browser rather than trying to download "free" software to my computer.

I tend to prefer using Google for most slide shows now. I have a horror of anything that stems from Microsoft and especially Office365, given that using it always takes 5 times as long as using Google equivalents.

Right now I'm wondering about the best way to record a short voice mp3 file that I will attach to my Google Slides.

I'm wondering what the experience of other people is.

[dr_codex]

Bookmarking.

I'm migrating online in a hurry. While I've done my share of online teaching, I'm looking for was to get traditional content up fast. I have lots of PowerPoints, but only discussion outlines for most of my course materials. I'm going to try using Screencastomatic later today. I'll let you know how it goes. If anybody has a better software system, I'm all ears.

[KiUlv]

We use Canvas and have Panopto and I have been doing some classes like that if they are asynchronous (we use Zoom for online classes that take place in real time). I tried a lot of different ways to do classes with powerpoint otherwise and always ran into issues of time or quality.

I'm curious what others will say. My student recently did a final project that had several students adding mp3 files to powerpoint, and I've used the feature to record within powerpoint, but that's using Microsoft tech and what you're hoping to avoid.

[Liquidambar]

What's the right approach to having students communicate amongst themselves--keep everything in one location on the CMS or use other technologies if they're better?  I told my students we could use the CMS discussion board if they want to talk about logistics of switching to online.  Now they want a Slack channel because it's more user friendly.

And how much of this should I plan to monitor?  I only want to keep track of one thing, Slack or our CMS discussion board.  I don't mind if they want to talk in Slack by themselves, as long as they don't expect me to read and respond to it, and as long as they're being nice to their classmates.

Pedagogical goals:  Currently the discussion board is to help the students feel less abandoned while my school spends a week transitioning to online instruction.  Later it'll be a place they can ask me questions about the material and possibly homework.  I don't plan to require they read it or post to it.  Any mandatory content will be presented by other means.  However, if they want to interact more with each other, I don't want to discourage that.

[dr_codex]

What's the right approach to having students communicate amongst themselves--keep everything in one location on the CMS or use other technologies if they're better?  I told my students we could use the CMS discussion board if they want to talk about logistics of switching to online.  Now they want a Slack channel because it's more user friendly.

And how much of this should I plan to monitor?  I only want to keep track of one thing, Slack or our CMS discussion board.  I don't mind if they want to talk in Slack by themselves, as long as they don't expect me to read and respond to it, and as long as they're being nice to their classmates.

Pedagogical goals:  Currently the discussion board is to help the students feel less abandoned while my school spends a week transitioning to online instruction.  Later it'll be a place they can ask me questions about the material and possibly homework.  I don't plan to require they read it or post to it.  Any mandatory content will be presented by other means.  However, if they want to interact more with each other, I don't want to discourage that.

I would not, under ordinary circumstances, be allowed to use Slack for official business in an online course. These are, of course, anything but normal, and I'd guess that any kind of communication would be encouraged. I've given out my office phone, cell phone, and alternate email address, in addition to everything running through the CMS. I have ZOOM sessions scheduled for next week.

Nevertheless, about 50% of my students have not communicated with me in any fashion, including logging on to the CMS. I'm starting to wonder if I need something like the Facebook "I'm alive" message that people post during disasters. I'm worried that the ones who aren't even logging on to the system are going to be off the grid for a while.

[mamselle]

Audacity is free downloadable software that can be saved in several formats, including, I think, mp3.

I use it regularly, transcribe from It often, have no problems with it.

M.

[spork]

What's the right approach to having students communicate amongst themselves--keep everything in one location on the CMS or use other technologies if they're better?  I told my students we could use the CMS discussion board if they want to talk about logistics of switching to online.  Now they want a Slack channel because it's more user friendly.

And how much of this should I plan to monitor?  I only want to keep track of one thing, Slack or our CMS discussion board.  I don't mind if they want to talk in Slack by themselves, as long as they don't expect me to read and respond to it, and as long as they're being nice to their classmates.

Pedagogical goals:  Currently the discussion board is to help the students feel less abandoned while my school spends a week transitioning to online instruction.  Later it'll be a place they can ask me questions about the material and possibly homework.  I don't plan to require they read it or post to it.  Any mandatory content will be presented by other means.  However, if they want to interact more with each other, I don't want to discourage that.

I would not, under ordinary circumstances, be allowed to use Slack for official business in an online course.

[. . .]

Use ONLY those platforms that are officially supported by your university to communicate with students about or within an online course. For the vast majority of us, that means university email accounts and the CMS/LMS.

About a month ago I informed all the students in my face-to-face classes that Canvas would be the primary means of communications in the event of an emergency. Did this verbally, and in writing via Canvas announcement. Now I don't have to deal with some person claiming to be a student sending email from "ponycutie4life2000@gmail.com" who says "I sent the test on Instagram, didn't U get it?"

We have some faculty who think the solution to all their woes is Zoom, which our IT department does not support. Faculty using Zoom are therefore entirely on their own when they try to teach classes of 25-40 students, none of whom have used Zoom before.

[downer]

I agree that it is normally a good idea to use only those platforms that are approved by the school. Certainly submission of work needs to be done by the official channels.

On the other hand, I'd be more willing to bend the rules for discussions. Slack is quite attractive. Blackboard discussion is horrendous. I would be tempted to use a platform that is more user-friendly.

[FishProf]

For those of you converting ppt slides into voice-over lectures who also have an iPad, take a look at Explain Everything Edu.

It is very easy to use, allows slide by slide recording and editing, and exports to Google drive (et al.) as an MP4 suitable for streaming.

[downer]

For those of you converting ppt slides into voice-over lectures who also have an iPad, take a look at Explain Everything Edu.

It is very easy to use, allows slide by slide recording and editing, and exports to Google drive (et al.) as an MP4 suitable for streaming.

Looks like it also works with Android -- my Chromebook seems to be fine with it. But it is very liimited in functionality unless you pay the $70 subscription.

[mamselle]

I mentioned WordThread on another thread; one school I've taught at has it available and has a trained online assistant who can help set it up and show you how to use it; yours may, too.

It, too, let's you import PPt slides and then record voice-overs for each one. I used it for French.

M.

[FishProf]

For those of you converting ppt slides into voice-over lectures who also have an iPad, take a look at Explain Everything Edu.

It is very easy to use, allows slide by slide recording and editing, and exports to Google drive (et al.) as an MP4 suitable for streaming.

Looks like it also works with Android -- my Chromebook seems to be fine with it. But it is very liimited in functionality unless you pay the $70 subscription.

The EDU full access is $24/year but only $13 if you want the Asynchronous app.  Caveat Emptor for all the options out there.

[downer]

There are plenty of free apps for voice recording, and it is easy to upload a sound file on Google Slides and make it automatically play the file when opened.

I remember trying to do voice recording on MS Powerpoint. It was complicated and very prone to errors. I'm hoping that using Google slides will be simpler.