Online Learning Chat - 2020-03-11

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4:19 PM

Welcome! I imagine that most of the people who find this room will be facing many of the same challenges. As people solve them, a quick post here might enable us to spread it, maybe through a community wiki or something.

I suppose you should try to include info about what LMS you have access to, as well as conferencing software for synchronous meetings and facility for distributing vids. For me, this is Blackboard, Zoom, and Panopto, respectively.

4:54 PM

TIP: I find during Zoom meetings, I lose my ability to just scratch stuff out extemporaneously. The whiteboard sucks if you're using it with a mouse.

I solve this by hosting the meeting from my desktop, and also logging on from my tablet. This way, I can share the tablet screen when I need to, and write in the whiteboard on my tablet using a stylus.

@ScottSeidman That's funny, I independently arrived at this solution myself this morning :)

I also just ordered a cheap stylus on Amazon, hope that helps with using the whiteboard on tablet

One thing I found frustrating is switching between people sharing screens? If a student is presenting, I have to ask them to stop sharing their screen in order to show something quick on the whiteboard

@ff524 It took me a while to get there -- I first tried buying an extra touch screen, but this is better. I took coursework from our School of Education on designing online course work, and the instructors had never thought of this.

@ff524 That is rough. Screen management is very difficult, and I find myself thinking that the students can see things that they cant. I explain this to the students, and warn them to speak right up if it happens. I have an Elgato Stream Deck to try to help with this, but haven't put the time into learning how to use it yet.

@ff524 You should get in the habit of constantly saving the white board.

Massimo Ortolano

5:19 PM

I ended up buying a graphic tablet, a Wacom Intuos pro, medium size, which I use with the software OpenBoard. The lectures are broadcasted through my university LMS, embedding Big-Blue Button. To avoid server overloading I record the lectures autonomously with OBS studio. The students interact via the public chat of BBB.

So I have two screens: in one there is the whiteboard software, on the other the chat. When a student asks a question, I repeat the question and answer.

@ScottSeidman Are you using the paid version of Zoom or the free one? The problem of the free version is that it's limited to 40 min with a maximum of 100 participants.

We have zoom integrated into our LMS, which is nice

OBS Studio is pretty much what the Stream Deck is designed to control.

@MassimoOrtolano We have zoom integrated into the LMS, with faculty having pro accounts.

@MassimoOrtolano I like Google meet for large meetings, if you don't have pro zoom. I'm not sure what the limit is on google meet

meet.google.com

Massimo Ortolano

I'll have a look, thanks. Someone around here also tried to use WebEx, but it seems that it didn't withstand the load.

Yeah, I've seen a bunch of concern over what happens when all of academia shifts to these methods all at once! Here's hoping the providers can figure out how to scale up real fast.

I was certainly considering a graphics tablet. If this solution didn't pop up, I was ready to go that way.

The OBS Studio is super stuff, but if faculty approach me completely lost, I'll be sending them to Panopto before any other options, if they have that accessible to them. They'll have a shot in hell of getting local support that way. "Functional" before "nice".

For my own lectures that I can prerecord, some of them use four video sources! I started by using VSDC to manage things, but then I started using TentacleSync and an audio recorder that supports time codes. Then, I switched to Avid Media Composer, which lets my sync all the audio and video tracks using the Time Codes. No way in hell can I walk faculty through that.

Massimo Ortolano

5:36 PM

I can imagine :-) For the moment, I use just basic stuff. Let's in the future. I'm not yet ready to become a youtuber! :-) Students also asked me to create a Telegram group for the course, to have a faster communication way, when the system hangs. If I have to recreate the class, they would receive a link to the class by email, but the email arrives 10 min later. So, I created the chat.

6:10 PM

Well, our shoe has dropped at the U of R. We'll be online for the rest of the semester. My engineering design course will be a rough go.

@ScottSeidman I am teaching the senior capstone project in computer engineering online, that's been fun ;)

@ff524 Our class is largely team-based with the goal of designing, constructing, and testing proof of concept prototypes. Needs some thinking.

@ff524 I might have a project for your class next year!

@ScottSeidman similar type of course, but luckily mine is a two-course sequence and they did most of the hardware design in the fall. The spring semester is mostly software.

I had them take their prototype home last week instead of leaving it in the lab, in case we closed, so one member of each team has the physical prototype.

I have an online lab course in Interfacing w/ Microcontrollers

We are using single board computers, raspberry pi and BBB

In the fall they designed a circuit on a perfboard to sit on top of the SBC, that implements their project idea, and now they're writing the software for it

Actually the reason I designed this course to frontload the hardware part into the fall, was because the first time I taught it I was pregnant and was going to be out for a while in the spring. So it's already kind of set up for me to teach the spring part remotely. that worked out well!

It would have been a huge mess to move online if they were still designing, debugging, and testing circuits right now

@ScottSeidman What's your project idea?

6:28 PM

Might not be such a good fit after hearing your description. It's mostly web based databasing, maybe bordering on big data.

probably not then

Do the students use the microcontroller core on the BBB?

@ScottSeidman The reason I show them the BBB, and not just the Pi, is precisely so that they can use the microcontroller if they want to. But so far they haven't been interested

@ScottSeidman It's already a very busy class with a lot of them learning basic embedded systems stuff for the first time, and refreshing their circuits/electronics knowledge that they may not have learned so well the first time... so I guess I can understand them not wanting to complicate things much

I'm hosting a rapid orientation tomorrow for our (department) faculty who don't have any experience in this. topics areTopics will include:
• Enabling Panopto and Zoom in a course Blackboard site
• Creating links to video lectures in Blackboard
• Holding Zoom conferences
• Recording Zoom conferences
• Sending Zoom conference recordings to Panopto
• Making videos of lectures using Panopto
• Suggestions for recording demos of lab setups and similar things
• Tips and tricks
• Blackboard basics to support online learning

this is bare-bones, "get me up and running" stuff. Anything I'm missing?

Exams and quizzes online - big issue

Make sure to show them how to find the call-in phone number for a Zoom meeting that they're in, it's not so obvious.

6:37 PM

Absolutely. I'll show them Blackboard exams (mediocre as they are), and stress that they need to think hard about their exam approach.

@ff524 Another good point. Thanks

I like to put the call-in number on the title page of the slides I'm using, if presenting slides, so that students can see it when they join.

You can also address best practices for courses that are usually very interactive, not just straight lecture

For example, when students are supposed to present to the class

6:52 PM

@ff524 Great tip.

Massimo Ortolano

@ScottSeidman I don't know how you are organized for this and what are their duties, but another point I'd address is the organization of the remote work of the teaching assistants (for instance, in which way they can support remotely the students).

Delagated grading and such?? Discussion forums?

Massimo Ortolano

Another point to address, similar to what ff524 has said, is how to handle questions in interactive classes.

@ScottSeidman It depends on the duties of your TAs. For instance, in my country TAs do not grade, they just assist students during lab sessions or in-class exercise sessions.

So, I'm rethinking a bit in which way they can support the students.

@MassimoOrtolano I'll have to put some thought into this.

Show them a basic setup for organizing the various Zoom windows on the screen. For example, I like to put the main window on one side, then the participant window and chat window next to it. That way, while I am presenting, I can easily mute participants who accidentally unmute (from participant window), and can also keep an eye on the chat window where students post questions.

Massimo Ortolano

6:58 PM

@ScottSeidman Even though you may not come up with a definitive idea, I think that it would be good to mention the issue in your orientation, to anticipate possible questions about it, and to make people aware of the problem.

Maybe recruit a few students to participate and host a short 3-minute demo lecture, and show how you would handles common problems that come up when students are involved. Like what you do when a student posts in chat "I can't hear anything" and what you do when a student un-mutes, things like that

what to do when this happens ;) -

twitter.com/crackheadmaggie/status/1237453673208459265

Massimo Ortolano

And recall your colleagues to mute both mic and camera when they have a break ;-)

@MassimoOrtolano and un-share screen!

Massimo Ortolano

@ff524 It could have been a tweet of mine from today and yesterday's lectures! :-)

Yesterday, at some point, it seemed that the only thing I could do with the pen was erasing. So, I restarted OpenBoard. Then I reconnected the tablet. But nothing changed. Only after 10 min I realized that I was holding the pen upside-down, triggering the eraser.

@MassimoOrtolano At least you didn't experience this tweet - twitter.com/flo_tong/status/1237574687003049985 - I hope!

Massimo Ortolano

7:11 PM

Gee, no, that one no ;-)

8:02 PM

@MassimoOrtolano and to wear pants, no matter how tight they think the video shot is.

I could also warn them that video focus might shift to whoever is making noises, so they won't be able to blame certain noises on other people!

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Mar '2011

Online Learning Chat

To support faculty suddenly floating online cousework

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