Curious logic for large online classes

[Bonnie]

You do realize that we are the only people who care whether the students learn anything.  (Well, there are a few students who care, and I suppose somewhat more students if you sufficiently dilute the meaning of 'anything'.)

I guess I'm incredibly lucky that a helluva lot of my students quite clearly care about learning.

[Baldwinschild]

Personally, I haven't been a fan of in-class lectures for a long time. They can be good (and I actually really enjoy using the Great Courses for my own edification) but I've long felt that I might just as well record something and play it to the students. The idea of doing 75 minute Zoom meetings wasn't attractive to me last semester and it still isn't.

I think I might record some mini-lectures, assign some useful youtube videos, and then do 30 minute Zoom class discussions. Maybe breakout disussion sections could work too. I guess I won't be using the Discussion Board for weekly assignment, thought I will use it for some assignments.

Regarding the research on syncrhonous teaching online, I haven't looked at it at all. To be honest, it's not worth my time. I have taken some training sessions in online teaching though, so presumably the teachers have implemented the lessons of that research.

Here's a practical question. Due to a rather unusual circumstance, I can choose whether to use Blackboard or Canvas to teach. I've not used Canvas before. My impression is that it is a bit better than Blackboard. But is the difference between the two enough to make it worth switching to Canvas?

Blackboard is more robust, Canvas is more student-friendly and lightweight.  Canvas is more actively developed.  I've used it since the early days, and I default to it for lower-level courses because the students can learn to use it quickly.  The apps for canvas are also well-developed; my students actually use and like the apps. 
If I had to choose, I'd go with canvas for your first go-around and maybe play around with Blackboard on your own for a semester to see if you want to invest the time and energy in it. 
I hope that helps. 

[Hegemony]

Yes, learn Canvas. It's better than Blackboard.

As for large classes, I have to laugh. Forty is our normal size of class, and I've taught 40 online many times. Works fine. 200 is what we call a "large class" around here.

[downer]

Fair point about large classes. Though with 200 in an online class, presumably just about everything is automated. Generally, the more students, the less attention each gets.

[polly_mer]

Your administration is probably assuming that live video of a professor lecturing is all that's needed to accomplish this objective.

Yeah, it sounds like they expect you to just record your regular synchronous class and post the recording. (Whether that's consistent with local privacy laws is another matter. I'm pretty sure it's not consistent with ours, but it looks like nobody knowledgeable here has looked into it.)

Interthreaduality - how can you achieve "regular and effective contact" with a class that has recorded lectures and robo-graded quizzes? Now we are talking financial aid and accreditation issues.

Parasaurolophus is not in the US, so US laws don't apply.

Administrators will get to answer some interesting questions in the fall regarding the quality of their distance education courses as currently suspended rules go back into effect.

[polly_mer]

I haven't seen anyone recently mention the ability for Zoom to do on-the-spot quizzes like clickers.

I attended a conference in May where audience feedback was requested and those quizzes were a nifty touch.  That would be one way to be more interactive with value-added for synchronous yet should scale acceptably well (we had 150 participants at the conference).

[Parasaurolophus]

I haven't seen anyone recently mention the ability for Zoom to do on-the-spot quizzes like clickers.

I attended a conference in May where audience feedback was requested and those quizzes were a nifty touch.  That would be one way to be more interactive with value-added for synchronous yet should scale acceptably well (we had 150 participants at the conference).

That's really good to know. Our admin hasn't approved Zoom, but it may yet do so. And if not, perhaps Teams and WebEx (the crappy approved versions) have something similar. I'll have to investigate!

[OneMoreYear]

I haven't seen anyone recently mention the ability for Zoom to do on-the-spot quizzes like clickers.

I attended a conference in May where audience feedback was requested and those quizzes were a nifty touch.  That would be one way to be more interactive with value-added for synchronous yet should scale acceptably well (we had 150 participants at the conference).

That's really good to know. Our admin hasn't approved Zoom, but it may yet do so. And if not, perhaps Teams and WebEx (the crappy approved versions) have something similar. I'll have to investigate!

I can sort of do this in Blackboard in the polling feature, except the quizzes/polls could not be set up ahead of time, so I create slides with the questions & MC answers on them, then share my screen with the slide on it, then start the poll and had students choose their response.  But perhaps other systems allow you to set up quizzes/polls ahead of time, so you don't have to use this hack.  I did get specific comments from students that they liked this interactive part, so even my scaled down version was appreciated.

[Hegemony]

Polly, where does one find that on Zoom?  I thought I was up to speed on the latest version of Zoom, but I am clueless about the quizzes thing.  Can you tell us more?

[polly_mer]

Polly, where does one find that on Zoom?  I thought I was up to speed on the latest version of Zoom, but I am clueless about the quizzes thing.  Can you tell us more?

I was an attendee, so all I can tell you on logistics is that a quiz question popped up and we could click an answer of the 3 or 4 presented.

A quick web search brings up:   https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/213756303-Polling-for-meetings

[mythbuster]

You need for Polling to be enabled. Go into the settings and see if you can turn it on.
   This is my plan for Fall. We will have asynchronous material available and then weekly Zoom activities related to that material. I will use the Zoom polling function for attendance and quizzing. I haven't really tried it out be according to both Zoom and our Instructional Tech folks it should work for these functions.

[Hegemony]

And how are the results of the poll presented?  Do you have to record them somehow before the Zoom session ends?

[jimbogumbo]

You need for Polling to be enabled. Go into the settings and see if you can turn it on.
   This is my plan for Fall. We will have asynchronous material available and then weekly Zoom activities related to that material. I will use the Zoom polling function for attendance and quizzing. I haven't really tried it out be according to both Zoom and our Instructional Tech folks it should work for these functions.

Curious if there is a similar polling feature in WebEx?

[mythbuster]

Here is the info on using Polling in Zoom. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/213756303-Polling-for-meetings

[reverist]

Your administration is probably assuming that live video of a professor lecturing is all that's needed to accomplish this objective.

Yeah, it sounds like they expect you to just record your regular synchronous class and post the recording. (Whether that's consistent with local privacy laws is another matter. I'm pretty sure it's not consistent with ours, but it looks like nobody knowledgeable here has looked into it.)

Interthreaduality - how can you achieve "regular and effective contact" with a class that has recorded lectures and robo-graded quizzes? Now we are talking financial aid and accreditation issues.

There are a few ways that could help: 1. Discussions. These fora can be student-led, divided into smaller groups, etc., but can be commented on by the prof. In the cases of small groups, each group receiving a comment that keeps them on track, adds an insight, highlights good content, etc. would suffice. 2. When the prof notices a failing grade on a quiz (or if she has analytic tools, notices a particular question was missed by a majority of the class), the prof can comment on that quiz for that student, or 3. Record a 2-3 minute announcement video, highlighting a key performance in the class as an exemplar, explain what's coming, explain why an assignment is there, etc.