Blog

August 30, 2020:

I decided to use Kaltura as the main method of presenting instruction for my online courses, treating my classes as if we were in a regular classroom and “talking” to the students through my videos. Students seemed to do well with this approach and I was always in the background to answer questions.  There were some issues with Kaltura: long loading times; difficult editing; broken links in imports. Would I use Kaltura again?  Absolutely!  I feel it is a good way for students to work at their own pace but under the supervision of an instructor.  I, and my students, feel that the videos help nurture a personal relationship and make it easier for them to learn.

The Challenge:  I teach Statistics and Quantitative Analysis in the School of Business and going online with quantitative courses was a real challenge for me.  I decided to present my courses as “virtual”, where we would have a scheduled time to meet periodically via MS Teams, but the instruction would be asynchronous.  I would use our Teams meeting to answer questions and give updates and I would use Kaltura as the main method of delivering the content of my courses.  Of course, this didn’t happen in a heartbeat.  I had to learn Kaltura from scratch.  None of my teaching had been online prior to March 2020 and I was a real novice at this.

Once I felt somewhat familiar with Kaltura, my thought was that I would just talk to the students through my videos, even though the students weren’t in front of me, the same way I would have talked to them when I was teaching face-to-face.  I decided that, for my style of teaching and my personality, the best would be to speak casually, just as if I were in front of the class.  This is what I’m doing, right now, with what you’re reading.  Not erudite, you say?  Nope.  I wanted the course to be relatable and the material easily understood by my students. I wasn’t worried about erudition.

The Gooseneck Lamp/ Camera: I don’t teach from PowerPoints – I post them for reference and review.  In my classroom, I normally use the projection screen to show my outlines of the main points of what we’re doing and then the board to work problems and give more detailed notes.  How could I make this work online?  I remembered we had an old external camera that hadn’t been used for years.  I rigged it to a gooseneck lamp so that it would focus on my ersatz blackboard – in other words, I had it focus on my hand as I was writing on paper. I would tell my classes to take notes- just like they would have done in a regular classroom.  I would write on my “board” and talk to the class – just like I would have done in a regular classroom. 

The Learning Plan Solution: The trick was to make sure the students knew what to do.  So I developed a system of Learning Plans for each of the topics that we cover and I post them on D2L.  Each topic consists of a Learning Plan, relevant videos, a Worksheet and Solutions section, a section with the documents (problems, main points, etc.) I referred to in the videos, PowerPoints for review, Solutions to the HW problems, and anything else that may be of interest in that topic.  This would include explanatory videos for particular HW problems, tips on setting up a team’s particular project so they can use the software they’re learning, as well as other things, such as the relationship between the Normal distribution we study and flattening the coronavirus curve.

The Talking Hand: In the Learning Plan, I introduce the topic and walk students through what they’re supposed to do, step by step. This includes working through my instructional videos, doing practice problems, etc.  During the videos, I ask that they pause and work either a small step of a problem, or an entire practice problem, and then come back to the video when they have done so.  Then I work through, on video,

what I asked them to do so they see immediately whether they’re on the right track.  I video and post responses to individual student questions when I feel that the class needs to see and hear the answer.  Actually, they don’t see me, they see my hand.  Of course, for certain explanations, I do voice-overs for the class of what’s on my computer screen. I also print, for example, the output of a software program, so that I can use my external camera as I mark it up and talk about it on video.  But for the most part, it’s my hand and a piece of paper that’s on Kaltura.

Kaltura Positives: I tell students to make sure they have pencil, notebook, calculator and text, before they start any video.  I suggest that they give themselves 25 to 50 percent more time than the length indicated on the video to accommodate the time it will take them to take notes and work problems.  The upside of the videos is that students can play, pause, take notes, resume, take a break and come back, replay, and play again as many times as needed.  Since the videos are “me”, they feel like I’m there with them.  I’m always hovering in the background.

During last semester, many students told me how much they liked the videos, how much easier it was for them to study the material, and how much more they think they retained.  Unfortunately, I can’t say this applies to all students.  Some don’t follow the instructions, don’t go through the material in the prescribed manner, and don’t get as much out of the course.  But this happens no matter which way a course is taught.

Kaltura Issues: From a faculty perspective, what problems did I encounter?  Kaltura takes a long time to load videos- instant gratification is not the term I would use.  Editing is not easy on Kaltura.  I quickly learned to make short videos, where the material was presented in complete thoughts, but not in complete topics.  In case I made a mistake, it was more palatable to redo a 15 minute video than to have to redo one that was 45 minutes long. 

I found that I could delete from the beginning or the end of the video, I could even cut and splice from the middle, but unless I had paused at the point I wanted to cut, I might not be able to determine if a word was left in or taken out of the remaining video.  I would zoom the video to get as much space as possible between words but it was, more likely than not, almost impossible to tell.  I figured out that, if I knew immediately that I had made a mistake or left something out, I could pause for a few seconds before resuming which would make it easier to cut the “end” side of what I wanted to delete.  If I could remember where I might have paused before the mistake, then I could resume and start talking again at the point of the pause, repeat what I had said before, correct the mistake, and go on from there. The only thing is that material can’t be added in to Kaltura videos so if I didn’t catch the problem until I had gone too far along, then I had to do the video again from the beginning.  I always saved my revised video as a copy of the original in case my edit didn’t work out and I needed to do the edit again. 

There were plenty of times, when I was trying to find where to cut, that I would move the “scissors” back and forth and Kaltura would stop working and start turning.  When that happened, I would have to back up and start the process of locating my proposed edit all over again.  Patience is key!

The other issue is that if I try to import videos from one course into another course, each Kaltura video comes across as a Broken Link.  I found I had to upload them all again in the second course.  I quickly learned to make sure that the name on the video in My Media is the same as the name on the video in the course.  Finding particular videos, especially if you’ve made a good many of them, becomes an issue.

The End Result:  All in all, I must admit I did nothing fancy or earth-shattering.  What I did was make the situation one that fit my style of teaching and one that was navigable by the students. Would I have done my online classes differently? Despite some of the aggravation with Kaltura, my answer is NO. I think the videos are a good way for students to learn at their own pace, but under my supervision. I think that with my videos, students found it easier to relate to me in an online context and therefore found it easier to learn the material.

I’d like to thank Jim Weisel, Christine Robinson, and David Robinson for always being willing to answer my many questions, always with a smile and always without even a hint of exasperation.

August 24, 2020:

Operating under the philosophy that the medium of delivery has changed but the method of delivery should not, assuming the method was working before of course, here are more specifics about how I created my videos.

Keep it simple.  There are many wonderful features in Kaltura that allow you to edit your video after you record it.  I didn’t use any of them.  I planned my videos before I sat down to record them, and then I recorded them in one continuous take.  I understand the desire to have a perfect video, but I felt like editing out the “ums”, stutters, or pauses broke up the natural flow of delivery.  Live delivery is unedited, so I didn’t want to create an unnatural, artificial delivery with a lot of editing.  Now, there were more than a few times that after a couple of minutes of recording, I discarded the video and started over.  However, the final video that got uploaded to my course was one continuous, unedited take.

Doesn’t have to be fancy.  In my videos, I worked out practice problems on a small white board.  This aligned with what I would do in class.  Further, I would ask the students to “open page 10 in the e-book” or “look at slide 2 on the Chapter 4 Power Point” while I was working out the problem.  This engaged them by having them do a physical action rather than just passively watching me.  Of course Kaltura has the ability to screen capture your slides if you wish to show your resources in the video.

Keep it short.  Most of my videos are around 10 minutes in length.  There is some variation depending on the topic or problem, but I do not recommend exceeding 15 minutes.  I know there may be that one topic or problem that you just need a couple extra minutes to get through, but try not to do that on a regular basis for two reasons.  First and most importantly, students may not want to or be able to watch a video longer than 10 minutes.  I know my mind starts to wander after about 10 minutes of a YouTube vlogger video that I am watching for fun, so I can’t expect a student to focus much longer than that on a video they probably don’t consider to be as much fun as a YouTube vlog.  Additionally, students may have a chaotic home life, so finding the time and space to watch a long video may not be possible.  For example, there may be children that need to be cared for, noisy family members, no dedicated workspace, and/or poor internet that leads to buffering of long videos.  Second, buffering can be an issue for you too.  It has been my experience that Kaltura will lock up or dump long videos when trying to upload them.  If your video goes into that purgatory when you upload it, you lose the video, and I can assure you that is a depressing defeat.

Keep it accessible.  I used the auto-captioning feature in Kaltura.  However, I didn’t just rely on auto-captioning; I went back and hand captioned the videos line by line.  Kaltura does an okay job of captioning what you are saying, but it is not perfect.  In the caption editor, I watched the video and read the captions; then I would pause the video and correct caption errors; then I would back up the video and re-watch to be sure the corrected caption appeared correctly on screen in terms of appearing on the screen at the same time as the audio and appearing on screen long enough to be read.  Make sure to plan enough time for your captioning.  I found that thorough captioning takes about twice the time of the video, so 20 minutes for a 10 minute video.  Remember captioning benefits those needing a caption accommodation, but it can benefit other students as well.  Of course captions appear on the video as the video is playing.  This can help anyone who is seeking clarity on what they hear in the audio.  However, students that may not be able to watch a video with the volume on or may not be able to watch a video due to poor internet speed can read your video transcript without watching the video.  The transcript link will appear at the bottom of your video once loaded in D2L.

A free webinar from Harvard Business Publishing (Education): Diversity and Inclusion: Building Connection and Community in Physical, Online, and Hybrid Classrooms Thursday, August 27, 2020 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET

It is vital that educators create a classroom environment in which all students feel that they belong and their contributions are valued. Harvard Business Review Editor, Amy Bernstein, will lead a conversation with Alexandra Sedlovskaya, Assistant Director of the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard Business School. Alexandra will share her experience and expertise in building a classroom community that supports and encourages difficult conversations about issues of diversity and inclusion. The conversation’s topics will include: * Facilitating an inclusive learning environment * Community building, especially in the online and hybrid context * Framing and leading discussions involving sensitive topics * Handling challenging moments in the classroom If you are interested but cannot attend, please register as we will provide all registrants with access to the webinar recording. Register Here

Coming up on Aug 11 @ 11:00 a.m. EDT:

Learning Leaders Live: How to Successfully Flip the Classroom in Higher Education

I’m pleased and excited to invite you to Join us on Tuesday, August 11^th @ 11 am EDT, 8am PDT, 4pm BST and 5pm CEST for our first “Learning Leaders Live” event, an interactive webcast via LinkedIn Live on How to Successfully Flip the Classroom in Higher Education.

In our first LinkedIn Live webcast, we’ll chat with Jim Gilkeson, about UCF’s Integrated Business Program, which features exclusively flipped classrooms.
After launching in 2016, the Integrated Business Program has proven both popular and effective — it’s now the most popular business major at UCF, thanks to its strong placement rate.

In this interactive session, Gilkeson will talk through how he flipped the classroom and gained the success that they did. We’ll also speak to a student in the program as well, William Pavlovich, to gain his perspective.

Join us to hear what’s happening at UCF and actionable tactics you can take back to your institution – and take advantage of our Q-and-A section to get your own questions answered.

Now available on demand:

Leading with Learning: How to foster a strong culture of learning in the new normal

Tuesday, July 28th @ 9 am PT, 12 pm ET, 5 pm BST, and 6 pm CEST

Speakers: Naphtali Bryant from Netflix and Richard Flood from Liverpool Football Club

Join us on Tuesday, July 28th @ 9 am PT, 12 pm ET, 5 pm BST, and 6 pm CEST for an interactive webcast to find out how to foster a strong culture of learning in the new normal. 

Deanna Grady will lead the conversation and explore how to:

• Embrace virtual learning to engage a remote workforce
• Help managers identify social trends that signal a learning moment
• Engage executives to bring learning into the center of company culture
• Align learning programs to meet budget requirements

We’ll also answer questions directly from you; please submit topics you would like us to cover.  Not able to join the live webcast? Register and we’ll send a recording to your inbox.

July 25, 2020:

In my English 1102 courses, which build on various examples of dystopian works or concepts towards a research project, I use Discussions as a forum for a pass/fail assignment (attached). Students contribute short entries on course material fifteen or seventeen times throughout the semester to the Discussion forum.

Problems: The contributions are not unsolicited expressions of engagement, if that would be a preference. The grading is a bit tedious as it requires me to enter the “pass” for each student into the gradebook seventeen times or as they submit. Students pass simply by submitting. Occasionally, a student has plagiarized another’s entry. Students who wish to avoid reading can “pass” this portion of the class with a little bit of clever editing.

A few observations: If necessary, I will offer edits privately (via the gradebook). All of the student submissions to Discussions are available to all students to review: I try to choose one or two to recommend or to “edit” punctuation or citation errors or problems as we go along.

As a side note, I used to try to publicly edit ALL of the early submissions, but students either did not read or attend to the edits or, worse, the remarks stymied their willingness to take chances.

The assignment is highly structured in the sense that students can simply copy much of the required information to complete the assignment: I supplement the provided models with discussions of the logic behind MLA and academic conventions and quoting, but I am assuming that students will also learn by modeling their entries on the ones I provide. They need to vary the content, that is, the phrasing and quotes in the provided models. Before each is due, we will have discussed the readings or videos. I will have identified several quotes in the course of the discussion which they can consider applying here.

The assignment is designed to develop student confidence with academic conventions and specifically MLA guidelines for recognizing genres of material, generating works cited entries, citing sources, properly introducing and punctuating quotations, making use of annotated bibliographies in preparation for writing essays and for the final research project. In terms of content, it emphasizes the importance of identifying and fairly summarizing another’s argument.

“A” students have no difficulty with the assignment and post in the forum early. “B” students tend to review, and learn from, other’s posts most often and make progress with each entry. Some students struggle with the concept and deadlines. Many students thus delay posting their entries until they begin to see the benefit when we turn to the essays. I allow them to post them after the supposed deadlines, even until the final weeks, though I do not tell them that in advance.

Benefits: This assignment allows me to avoid quizzing students on readings. It allows me to begin teaching basic research skills using low stakes writing from the first week of the semester. It aims to help students keep up with the readings and the material they will need to write their essays. The entries will be repurposed in the assigned essays, which ask them to analyze and/or apply a specific reading or video and are graded. This assignment familiarizes students with MLA / academic conventions and the need to edit, making it easier (that is a relative term) to focus my teaching of the research paper on argument or materials. The quality of the entries do vary and could be graded if one wished.

Results: I have found that students can master summarizing through this exercise and its brevity helps me identify early issues in reading and writing, quoting or citation, as well as basic grammar and punctuation confusions. Progress or reinforcement rather than perfection is the goal in this low stakes assignment.

Limitations: I have not been able to get students to interact with each other on the forum. Very few actually read each other’s posts, which would actually be pretty helpful to them; only some ask to resubmit them. Although “Part Two” of the assignment allows them to revise, not all students do.

Set Up: See screenshots at the end of the document. I create a preliminary Forum and “topic” prior to assigning this task to introduce students to the forum (Screenshot 1). In this Discussions forum and topic called “Introductions,” I ask them to introduce themselves in one or two sentences (with a specific prompt about dystopias) to allow them to get familiar with the technology and the location of the link on the course web site. I then create a separate Forum for the annotations and create “topics” for each of the 17 entries (See screenshot 2). I give the students the assignment on the second day of class. I begin with short video commercials or clips since they are easier for them to view and summarize before asking them to process increasingly more complex texts. (See Screen Captures below)

Description:

Students are asked to generate fairly formulaic two sentences for specific course readings and videos throughout the first eight weeks of the semester.

Requirements: Part One. Two-Sentence individual annotations (“entries) to be submitted to Discussions; all will be graded pass/fail (full credit granted for submissions).

Part Two. In Week Twelve, all of the submissions will be collected, rearranged and put in alphabetical order, and submitted as a single document called “Course Readings Annotated Bibliography” to Assignments Dropbox. This will be graded with a letter grade.

Due: Part ONE. Week One (Annotation Entries 1-4, due by Sunday, Aug. 13); Week Two (Entries 5-6, due by Sunday, Aug. 23), Week Four (Entries 7-9, due by Friday, Sep. 4); Week Five (Entries 10-15, due by Friday, Sep. 11); Week Seven (Entry 16, due by Wednesday, Sep. 23); Week Eight (Entry 17, due by Wednesday, Sep. 30).

Part TWO. Week Twelve (all 17 entries reformatted in a single document called “Course Annotated Bibliography” and submitted to the Assignments Dropbox.

Instructions:

1) As you go along, create and update a WORD document called “Course Readings Annotated Bibliography.”

2) Begin with a Works Cited entry for EACH OF the 17 designated course readings. You may create your own or COPY it from the list below. (*See the list of works cited entries and ‘SAMPLE’ Annotated Bibliography BELOW and Rules for Writers, pp. 470-71).

3) Then, provide a two-sentence description of the source.

4) In the first sentence of the “annotation” or note, introduce the source, identifying the genre (speech, essay, blog, book chapter, etc.) and author and summing up or describing the subject or topic of the selection and the thesis argument (use the author’s full name on the first mention; use only the last name thereafter).

5) In a separate sentence, add an interesting or useful quote; use a signal phrase (speaker plus a verb) and page citation (in parentheses) if available; if not, use (n.p.) to indicate “no page numbers in this source.”

6) Go to the course website. Find and click on the “Discussions” tab in the horizontal menu. Go to the Forum called Course Readings Annotations. Copy and submit the entry you created to the proper Discussions “Topic” as a separate “thread.” Title your thread by your name.

*Each annotation should be at least two sentences. They will look like this example:

TouchGamePlay. “Chipotle Scarecrow-Universal-HD (Sneak Peak) Gameplay Trailer.” YouTube, 11 Sep. 2013, https://youtu.be/Dl-6C1elTl8. Accessed 24 July 2020.
The Chipotle advertisement packaged as an animated short film argues that ultra-processed food is unnatural, industrialized, and deceiving. Chipotle differentiates their own brand from other chains and encourages the viewer or consumer to “Cultivate a better world” by choosing their fresh, non-processed food (n.p.).

This is what the page and response rate looks like:

USG OFD – Summer Webinar Series:

• Connecting in the Time of Corona: Techniques to Listen and be Heard (Jun 10)
• Small Teaching Online: Minor Changes, Big Impact (Jun 12)
• Online Course Design and Course Planning (Jun 18)
• TILTing Your Online Assignments (Jun 23)
• Supporting Students During Uncertain Times (Jun 30)
• Online APPQMR (Applying the Quality Matters Rubric) (Jul 07 – 20)
• Supporting Adjunct/Part-time Instructors (Jul 09)
• Facilitating Online Discussions in Both Synchronous and Asynchronous Environments (Jul 15)
• Humanizing Your Online Course (Jul 23)

More information and registration

Pre-register for this free virtual event to prepare for the challenge of teaching in what promises to be a complex and messy Fall semester.

Join thousands of faculty, thought and practice leaders across global universities and colleges to discover immediate ways to improve online class delivery and to obtain navigation assistance around blended delivery. Build your network of peers and experts. Learn from their responses to COVID-19 to help you build a better back to school for this fall and beyond.

WHY JOIN?

• Learn best practices by discipline. We will showcase master practitioners across Gen Ed, and you can see how they lead their classes online.
• Increase student engagement. Sessions on how to engage students virtually, ensure diversity and inclusion in the online classroom, improve the effectiveness of mixed mode teaching, among other topics.
• Build a network of support. Meet and engage with peers and experts, as in any in-person event! Participate in one-on-ones, one-to-many, and virtual lounges to allow serendipity and connections to blossom.
• Gain access to curated free resources to use in your courseware. Recorded sessions from the event itself will be available for six months up until the end of 2020.
• Understand policy issues from the industry shift in Higher Education. Ideal for deans, provosts, and administrators.

WHEN

The event will run between July 13th-14th, 2020. Each day will consist of three hours with multiple simultaneous learning tracks – providing you access to over 20 hours of valuable content.

WHO WILL ATTEND?

Remote is FREE of charge for those involved in learning delivery (faculty and learning practitioners) as well as Administration worldwide.

Connect, Share, Innovate!

The Fast Track to Success Project invites you to the fourth annual conference on innovation in higher education. This conference will provide a forum for sharing lessons-learned, strategies, outlooks, data, pedagogy, and design elements of competency-based education and other innovative models at all levels of instruction and learning in higher education.

Conference Features

• Interactive sessions and workshops facilitated by experts in the field
• Keynote address featuring Dr. Harrison Keller, Commissioner of Higher Education for the State of Texas
• Excellent presentations and panels
• Sponsors demonstrating ed-tech tools and platforms

Description

For the past three years, the Fast Track to Success Conference has provided a valuable forum for discussing best practices in CBE and related innovation in higher education. We are excited to host the fourth annual conference in a new, online format. Keeping in mind how overcommitted we are to online time in these COVID days, the conference will provide rich, in-depth sessions for only a few hours per day over three days. The full conference schedule will be available shortly after you register.

We have over thirty exciting, inciteful presentations from Texas, around the US, from Canada, and Mexico. Along with the presentations, the program includes an inspiring opening plenary.

Many thanks to the Perkins State Leadership grant and our stalwart sponsors, the conference will be free for participants, but registration is required. D2L is providing the hosting platform along with all the technical support required to run the conference. This conference, once again, promises to be a valuable forum for all those interested in CBE.

Conference Website

A useful compilation of digital tools from EDUCAUSE: “The Typology of Free Web-based Learning Technologies (2020) provides educators with a list of 226 technologies arranged into 40 types and 15 clusters that can be used via a browser to promote more productive and interactive learning. “

The last few months have been full of uncertainty. Are you feeling drained and fatigued? Are you feeling like you don’t have enough energy for the summer semester? Are you stressed just thinking about the fall semester?

Join the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) on May 11 – 13 for the 2020 Summer Institute. Faculty and staff can explore strategies to maximize the usage of GGC’s technology tools, communicate effectively with co-workers and students, and make the best use of the existing resources to help maintain energy and well-being during these stressful times.

As with previous Summer Institutes, participants may mix and match sessions to fit their interests and needs to:

• Level up on new teaching ideas.
• Level up and reinvigorate your teaching.
• Level up on professional/personal development (there are sessions for staff).
• Have an opportunity to step back and think about your classes with fresh eyes.

Facilitators will conduct all sessions through Microsoft Teams, Blackboard Collaborate or Zoom. Information on which platform to be used and relevant materials for each session will be sent via an Outlook calendar invite by May 10. Schedule and register for sessions today!