Create a welcoming and inclusive environment for students. Run icebreaker activities at the start of sessions that enable students to get to know each other.
Discuss the code of conduct and expected behaviours developed during the induction session.
Design activities that encourage active engagement and remind students how to participate actively and constructively in the virtual classrooom. This includes:
Raise-hand and wait to be called upon to speak.
Mute microphone when not speaking.
Use non-verbal feedback to communicate with the lecturer or speaker.
Tackle any poor behaviour immediately and consistently.
Follow up on poor behaviour in more detail with the individual student after the session, invite them to a private online meeting.
Encourage student questions via the chat.
If you are finding group chat off topic and disruptive to the virtual classroom, you can change a setting in Zoom so that students can only communicate with the lecturer.
Facilitate your session
Try to reduce distractions for you and your students.
If you are sharing your workspace, pop a note on your door to say that you are teaching.
Activate a virtual background (available in Teams and Zoom) so that students aren’t distracted by what’s happening behind you. If students are using a camera, ask them to do the same.
Arrive early for your online sessions, to check your audio and camera are working and to admit students from the waiting room/lobby (where this feature is being used).
Provide links or put up a slide with information on how students can connect their audio and video.
Greet your students as they arrive in the meeting. When teaching large groups of students run ice-breaker polls at the start of sessions to get to know your students. Norman (2017) suggests "pre-loading a slide that features a current event, cartoon, or trivia question to spark conversation in the minutes before class begins."
Try to start on time. If you or your students are having technical difficulties, provide students with an update, via chat if necessary, of when the session will start.
Remember to press record to create a consolidation and revision resource for students.
Considering running a poll to test students knowledge of the preparation material. You can do this using inbuilt polling tools in the virtual classroom via Microsoft Forms or by using Poll Everywhere.
Present your content.
It can be harder to check engagement levels online. Encourage students to make use of the non-verbal feedback icons to indicate if they have a question or don’t understand something.
Call on students to ask their questions which they will indicate via the hand-raise icon.
If you don’t have a co-facilitator set up a designated question time. Ask students to pop their messages into the chat. Allocate some work for the students to complete on Moodle, to give you time to review the chat questions. Bring the students back for answers to their questions.
Build in regular checkpoint questions (every 10-15 mins) to check understanding and address areas of difficulty.
You can do this using inbuilt polling tools in the virtual classroom or by using Poll Everywhere.
Follow up on the responses to the polls.
Use the breakout rooms to encourage small group interactions. Ensure that an output is shared back to the main meeting room. You can do this by asking students to share a collaborative document or by responding to a poll.
Provide a summary/wrap up activity. Open ended polls can be run using Poll Everywhere or the Feedback activity in Moodle
A quick and effective wrap up activity is the one minute paper. If you are running this online synchronously, you will need to provide at least three minutes for students to type their responses. A more effective way to facilitate this would be to ask students to complete a Feedback activity on Moodle after the session.
Fulbright (2018) suggests the following prompts for a one minute paper activity. You don’t need to use every prompt, we’d recommend no more than three.
The clearest point of today’s class was.
The muddiest point of today’s class (or something that confused me or I want clarified) was.
How I prepared for class today.
What I liked best that helped me learn.
What I wish had been discussed during today’s class.
After your session
If required, download an attendance list after the event.
Provide a link to the recording and any follow up resources in the relevant Moodle module after the session.
Address any concerns raised in the wrap up/summary activity on Moodle.
Workshop recording: Facilitate live online teaching
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