*** THIS IS AN AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT. NOTE TIMINGS ARE OFF FOR FINAL, EDITED MP4  ***

13:01:10 Welcome everyone, we will start in just a minute as we let a few more people, log in right at one o'clock.
13:01:40 All right, I like to get started on time. So, given that I have a few introductory words to make I will get us going so that we can turn to the main content and if people join a few minutes late.
13:01:53 They won't miss too much.
13:01:57 As I just do these general introduction. So first welcome everyone to this teaching workshop, this is one in a series that we've been doing for the past 14 months or so as we try to adjust to continually new teaching modalities and things so I'm Liz Stewart
13:02:15 Vice Dean for education and a professor in the Department of Mental Health, and I'm really excited about today's session, in part because it was a real team effort to put it together and I think we're going to get some really great lessons learned.
13:02:29 The idea for this session, overall, is just to provide sort of a set of. As you can see on the title slide lessons learned from the past year so during the past academic year as you all know we had a mostly virtual experience but then a handful a smattering
13:02:47 of hybrid courses in the spring. And we have a group of people who have been doing a lot of thinking and information gathering to think about lessons learned and kind of recommendations that we might have for students and for faculty as we move into the
13:03:04 next academic year.
13:03:06 So I'll briefly introduce the participants today and we're going to have a slightly different structure that from some of the other sessions that we've had.
13:03:16 But just briefly and you'll hear more from most of these people as we go along.
13:03:21 We will have a brief presentation from Jennifer, Jennifer Applegate who's an assistant scientist and international health and Patrick creature who is a PhD candidate in molecular microbiology and immunology, they all sort of give an overview of some of
13:03:36 the lessons learned, and then we'll have a little conversation between crystal lead research associate and health behavior in society, and Kate Atkins PhD candidate in international health, about a course that crystal and Tyler Doris taught together,
13:03:54 which seemed to be particularly effective at engaging students. And so we'll hear a little bit about that and we also have Audrey Buckland's picture up because she was a great team member she couldn't make this particular session.
13:04:08 But she was another PhD student who contributed quite a lot to the learning.
13:04:14 And I'm sorry we have a fighter jet going overhead I don't know if anyone hurt that.
13:04:18 Next slide please. Jennifer.
13:04:21 So, again, Those of you who've attended other of these teaching workshops know we're going to sort of in some ways have a similar structure in that one of the I think real values in these is the exchange that happens in the chat or with questions that
13:04:36 come up at the end so we will have again sort of a brief presentation and then this moderated discussion, and then time for sort of open q amp a and conversation so as with these other workshops, we do it as a normal zoom meeting so that we can have engagement
13:04:52 and I really encourage all of you to post questions or ideas or whatever in the chat and to raise your hand to ask questions at the end.
13:05:01 Next slide please.
13:05:05 I wanted to take a minute to kind of introduce the give some context for the people who are participating today.
13:05:14 For the past year we have been lucky to have a what we call the pure faculty teaching mentors and senior ta program, and hopefully all of you have interacted with your representatives from your own department.
13:05:27 They've been a great resource, as we've transitioned to these different modes of teaching, and that group is sort of morphing into what we're now calling the teaching Council.
13:05:39 But the idea is to have this group continue to serve as a resource for faculty and ta is from across the school to really nurture this culture of teaching excellence, so they can be a resource for one on one conversations, as well as workshops like this,
13:05:54 and we had a nice sort of office hour yesterday for just general open questions, so stay tuned for more activities from the teaching Council, and more opportunities to engage with them the link here and which Celine just put in the chat Thank you Celine
13:06:11 gives a link to the members of the teaching council so you can know some of the people that you could reach out to.
13:06:18 And so one of as part of that today's discussion. Thank you, Jennifer is sort of an outgrowth of that group we formed some small subgroups from that broader group and the people you're hearing from today.
13:06:31 of trying to coalesce some of these lessons learned, and the part of the audience for this our students and so one introduction I wanted to make that today this session is really targeted for faculty and I think we have mostly faculty joining.
13:06:52 But some of what we're going to be talking about our lessons that are going to be given to students as well so in some of the orientation materials, and other ways we're going to try to communicate to students.
13:07:03 Here are some tips for how to make the most of this experience from what was learned last year. And so what we're doing today is in part is sort of bringing the faculty, up to date on the that as well so that you all can help best work with students as
13:07:18 partners in their learning and sort of help them make the most of the coming here.
13:07:25 So I believe that is the end of my little blurb and so I will turn it now to Jennifer Applegate, who will turn to the presentation. Oh sorry I that's where I.
13:07:36 There we go. No, you can you'll pick it up from here so this is perfect. Thank you so much. Sounds good. Thanks, Liz.
13:07:42 So as long as Liz mentioned, we in fourth term of last year, the peer faculty mentors and the senior ta is split into working groups to call it learnings from the past year, and are working group who are all panelists today focused on lessons learned,
13:07:58 around the shift from in person to virtual learning.
13:08:01 And we included representation across departments as well as CTO, we thought that it would be best to collect information from faculty teachers and students to inform these lessons learned.
13:08:13 So we prepared to Google Forms, to ask faculty and students and ta is about, what were the biggest challenges you face or virtual learning. What were some of the biggest successes and what we're key takeaways.
13:08:33 There we go. sorry about that.
13:08:35 projecting and presenting at the same time is still a skill in mastering. And so our questionnaires, were shared with faculty and students through academic coordinators as well as faculty and student communication channels.
13:08:48 So that included email as well as Ms teams channels, and we received a total of 126 responses which we were really happy with. And these all came in the last four weeks so for term, when everyone's very busy, so we were really grateful for that.
13:09:06 Of these, we had 39 responses from faculty and ta is across five departments the breakdown for that was 22 tenure track faculty nine non tenure track faculty and 70 days.
13:09:19 We also had 52 responses from students across five departments.
13:09:24 And then an additional 34 responses from a similar survey from the epidemiology students but this survey was slightly longer but included the same three questions that I mentioned previously, our team reviewed each questionnaire and identified themes
13:09:39 separately from the teaching perspective so from respondents that our faculty and ta is, as well as the learners perspective so those students, those responses that were students.
13:09:50 And we compared results and summarized are cross cutting findings as lessons learned.
13:09:58 So before going over to Patrick to talk about those specific findings from students we wanted to share some of our high level findings from the faculty and students, and these are more specific to the virtual learning.
13:10:11 So despite it being a challenging year.
13:10:14 Each group noted that adaptation as possible and supportive and communicative environments, and each group indicated that engagement in courses is a priority.
13:10:23 However, the definitions for engagement, different between students and faculty, and these in these definitions might need to be brought in so we're going to talk a little bit more about that in subsequent slides.
13:10:37 Also, each group noted that flexibility in the virtual environment was a priority, and it is an advantage, but needed to be balanced with maintaining active academic rigor, specifically high quality virtual instruction is important, and was cited to need
13:10:55 to be need to be prioritized to avoid an opportunity gap from those students receiving online and in person learning.
13:11:07 So just a few findings that were specific to hybrid instruction, some of the successes that were noted was that it was the guest lecturers could more easily participate via zoom, Which faculty and students appreciated.
13:11:22 Also, there was greater attendance of flexibility, which allowed again for set some advantages for faculty and students. Some of the challenges that were noted, specifically timezone differences, especially the extreme timezone differences have more than
13:11:39 10 hours, among students attending remotely was noted to be challenging.
13:11:45 Also, there were students noted that expectations occasionally varied for in person versus virtual students. And then finally the use of complex technology, while simultaneously trying to engage students in person and virtually was known to be challenging
13:12:01 by faculty and.
13:12:06 So with that I will hand it over to Patrick to walk us through the students specific findings, as well as recommendations.
13:12:13 Yes, thank you, Jennifer.
13:12:16 So, really, I wanted to start with kind of the successes, because you know, it can be pretty easy to get kind of down and kind of think about all of the, you know, problems with the pandemic but one of the things that we found was that students had a
13:12:30 lot of successes that they really appreciate it from this virtual and hybrid learning and so one of them was that they were some were able to work from home and therefore didn't have to commute and so could spend more time actually working on their work
13:12:44 instead of having to incorporate travel time as well. Students appreciated the ability to self pace and and really show that they can teach themselves through really understanding the material and not having to follow such a strict structure.
13:13:06 Also, it allows students to really self reflect and really learn more about themselves and, for example, what do they need to learn what boundaries are they need to set and what supports Where did they find needed and so we saw that some students said
13:13:19 that that without this kind of environment they may not have had to ask themselves these questions and really reflect. And then again, students were able to find solidarity with their cohorts and classmates from everything from communicating outside of
13:13:37 the classroom to having writing groups where they could work on on learning with each other, and then some even had some non academic zoom activities to really stay engaged.
13:13:49 Next slide please.
13:13:54 But, you know, that being said there were still definitely challenges and so similar to what I just said about the engagement burnout was common and, you know, there's a lot of z, we all have a lot of zoom meetings now and there was a lot of screen fatigue
13:14:09 as well as feeling drained from engagement efforts where you know you felt like we're students felt like they had to attend. and then we're really starting to feel burnt out.
13:14:19 Additionally, you know, when it comes to working from home, not every student is created equally when it comes to the resources as well as the environment, you know, some students found that they had a lot of household distractions or were caregivers
13:14:33 or were not able to dedicate as much time in as they would if they had to go into the classroom, and then others found that you know it led to kind of a blurring of the work and life boundary, you know, working later than they would if they were in the
13:14:49 office.
13:14:51 Other students felt that, you know, there was some under preparedness for exams and high level coursework, in part because of, you know, a lack of discussing with peers and and really having that in person classroom experience.
13:15:08 And really, it all comes down to, you know, sometimes there were a lot of lack of communication, whether that be with faculty, you know, in many departments, there are events that, you know, faculty and students attend and so can really form that bonding
13:15:22 and lead to that, networking and connection between both students and faculty, as well as just between other students.
13:15:29 Some students felt like they weren't really in contact with their cohort as much as they would be if they were you know seeing them in every class every day.
13:15:37 Throughout the weeks. Next slide please.
13:15:41 So, you know, we found these results from our survey and we did want to kind of consider how we can can find some solutions and so one thing.
13:15:53 Like I mentioned, students found was really important was reflection and so for the faculty here. We thought that it would be beneficial if you know you thought about ways that you could engage your students and ask them to reflect on how they can be
13:16:10 engaged how they can utilize zoom participating in class discussion, whether that be in the classroom or through a discussion forum on course plus.
13:16:20 Is there going to be reading reflection.
13:16:23 You know is that, How does the workload of the class contribute to burn out and things like that.
13:16:29 And then also, you know, if there are ta is in your course, encouraging students to communicate with the TA is as they run into issues or as things come out throughout the term, and really understanding expectations.
13:16:45 Next.
13:16:46 So here are some a little bit so those kind of recommendations were a little bit more abstract here are some practical ones.
13:16:52 So for example, the, the importance of taking breaks when you're working at home.
13:16:59 You know, sometimes it's, it's, It's hard to schedule out those kind of breaks.
13:17:05 When you're working from home and, like I said, students found that the work life balance could often be blurred.
13:17:11 So making sure that you use different techniques like the Maduro technique which is listed here on the slide, or utilizing the 2020 method, 20 2020 method to reduce eyestrain.
13:17:26 And then, you know, working on those kind of distractions that can occur when you're at home. So, you know, utilizing time limits, whether that be on your apps or, you know, avoiding certain sites throughout the day when you're working.
13:17:41 And then finally we wanted to really point out that, you know, students can always reach out to the Johns Hopkins students assistant program, where they can do video calls and phone consultations so we wanted to point out that this is definitely a place
13:17:55 where you can inform your ship to this resources available if they're not aware of it.
13:18:03 And then specifically, we also had some recommendations for hybrid instruction. I was fortunate to be a TA in a hybrid class.
13:18:12 In the spring in third term and so I wanted to help with some of these recommendations and so one of the things that we found was super important was just being prepared, not just you know, before the class starts but before each individual class so making
13:18:27 sure that you know you're in the classroom to set up so that way.
13:18:32 Zoom is set up for those at home. And then also, students in the classroom are prepared.
13:18:42 Yes. And so the multimedia teams here are all really great and are really help, or really happy to help you out. And so there is the opportunity to send them an email and I believe, Celine will put it in the the specifics in the chat about how that can
13:19:00 be done so you can set up a meeting and and really test out some of the rooms before before hybrid learning begins next week. Another thing that we found was important was practice lecturing in a mask.
13:19:13 You know, if you've never lectured in a mask before it can be a different experience and both being understandable but also you know so that way you don't get tired out.
13:19:24 And then also, you know, one thing that Jennifer mentioned earlier that was important is making sure that you have clear expectations for your students, both in person and those that are hybrid, so that way you know that neither of them kind of feel like
13:19:38 they're being left out.
13:19:42 Yes, and then another thing that's you know like we talked about burnout for students there also might be burnout for faculty so making sure that you know you are delegating appropriately to your TA so that way you know they have a fair amount of things
13:19:55 to do, but also not too much. And, and then also the value of recording sessions for students who may have time zone issues like Jennifer mentioned.
13:20:09 So with that, we are going to move on to the kind of discussion portion.
13:20:17 So thank you everyone.
13:20:20 Great, thank you so much. I certainly got a lot of tips for my own work as well I think they're good lessons for students and for, for all of us.
13:20:30 So as Patrick and Jennifer mentioned and first thank you both for that great summary and overview and if there are any questions, please feel free to put them in the chat and we can come back to some of those specifics.
13:20:44 What we're going to do now though is here, a little bit about a specific class and sort of how some of the interactions happened.
13:20:53 So, the course of, I'm sorry I'm sort of bring to the stage except on zoom it doesn't quite work that way. But we'll hear from Crystal Lee and Kate Atkins, who will tell tell us about the course that crystal and Tyler Derek taught and sort of how things
13:21:10 worked over the term so alternate I think crystal at this point. Thank you.
13:21:16 Sure. Good afternoon everyone.
13:21:18 The course that Tyler and I talked during fourth term, this year and last year actually is called foundations of university teaching and learning it's offered by the department of health behavior and society.
13:21:32 Admittedly for context it is a small course and it was designed as a discussion based seminar type course so some of the experiences will obviously dramatically different for classes that do not meet those have different characteristics.
13:21:49 The courses offered for the first time.
13:22:05 We made the decision to continue to teach at 100% synchronous and, but it was virtually through zoo. And so, we, we wanted to be intentional about creating a classroom culture that prioritize them value people, because we understood that we were all going
13:22:29 all going through, through covert and with, with the lockdowns all of this was unfamiliar to all of us. And so we wanted to create a space that prioritize people.
13:22:39 We intentionally made choices that allowed folks to have flexibility. At the same time, we knew it was important to say specifically what our expectations were but also kind of CO creates what those expectations would be in the classroom with our students.
13:22:58 Again admittedly with a small group of students, eight students at the at the most that we have. That's an easier conversation to have them with a larger class but it was, it turned out to be important for us, and we'll talk more with Kate about that
13:23:15 in a little bit. And so we play for in person, but we had to transition quickly to synchronize synchronous online virtual.
13:23:23 And again, you know, we, it became important for us within the context of Kobe, to, to intentionally prioritize people. And so some of the things that we wanted to do was to regularly check in with our students at the beginning of each session, we would
13:23:41 So at the beginning of each session, we would ask folks you know how are you doing we would share from our personal experiences.
13:23:47 You know how we were feeling. At the beginning we had a couple of students who knew folks who are getting sick from Kobe, and we wanted to make space for them to be able to, to share with they wanted to or to express them, you know concerned there to
13:23:59 just talk about what the experience was like because it's, it was new for everyone.
13:24:04 talk about what the experience was like because it's, it was new for everyone. We also intentionally.
13:24:07 Like I said before, shared our own feelings about things that were about what was happening and efforts that we were making my sisters and I were making masks and so we were talking about things like that, you know, and I found that were folks were able
13:24:21 to find a place were able to use our classroom as a place to kind of get things off their chest that they couldn't necessarily discuss with folks in in their lives and some people even living by themselves they were in apartments.
13:24:33 They weren't able to maybe have like space to be outside.
13:24:38 And so again intentionally we tried to allow or classroom to be a place where people felt like they could get a little bit of what they needed during that time.
13:24:47 Another thing that we intentionally decided to do was to do a mid semester, check in. So we sent a survey that had maybe eight questions to students just asking you know how is the class working for you is the past meeting expectations.
13:25:02 Are there things that you would like us to do differently the discussions work for you. Are the assignments too much of a heavy lift at this time and then, so we sent that survey out about mid, four weeks into the term.
13:25:15 And then we had a conversation with with our students without the disciplines.
13:25:21 After the results came in to talk about how we would do things differently so for example in this past offering up the course, some of the feedback that we got was around the weekly reflection that we asked, or our students to do.
13:25:35 And it was a little bit of a heavy lift for folks and so we had a conversation about how can we balance the needs of students to have more time, and to not have this weekly assignments, but also to give us some opportunity to identify that they were learning
13:25:51 or what kind of learning was taking place. And so we decided to shift that assignment a little bit to make it a little easier for folks to complete on a weekly basis.
13:26:04 But, and also give us something that we can base grades on the assignments on.
13:26:10 I'll leave it there for now and I'll turn it over to Kate and Kate can tell us who was her experience was that the course.
13:26:20 Thanks, um, I thought that what might be most helpful is for me to provide a little bit of context about my experience as a student and then tell a short story if there's time that illustrates how I experienced these principles, being enacted in the virtual
13:26:37 classroom.
13:26:38 So, just for a little bit of context, I'm a PhD candidate in international health and I took this course during its most recent offering which was fourth term in the most recent academic year.
13:26:50 And when I enrolled in the course. I had achieved candidacy I was done with all of my coursework. And I was really taking this course because it had been recommended to me, and I thought it would provide me with a specific set of skills that I didn't
13:27:04 yet have.
13:27:06 I say all of that just to reiterate that I came into the course with a very particular set of goals, and a particular set of expectations for what I was going to get out of the course.
13:27:19 And those were shared on day one. The advantage of a smaller courses that we had the opportunity to each share a little bit about why we were taking that course I've been in other courses of different sizes were those same expectations have been shared
13:27:32 through different formats.
13:27:34 But thinking about kind of what Patrick was sharing about that reflection process that the virtual learning environment facilitated.
13:27:42 I came into this course very aware of, kind of what I wanted to get out and equipped. After a year of virtual learning in the pandemic to communicate, a little bit about what those expectations were.
13:27:58 And the last thing I'll say about the expectations, is that my expectations and goals for the course, align largely but not entirely with the teaching and learning objectives that had been set out, and we're listed in the syllabus, so I kind of went in
13:28:13 knowing okay not everything in this course is going to be for me, but a lot of it is and so here's where I'm going to focus.
13:28:20 So, this is fourth term.
13:28:22 I'm in the throes of districts hating managing this parents study, highly stressed, I'm one of the students who lives alone, no yard, no outside space.
13:28:32 I was feeling the burnout, really hard. And at a certain point in the course I decided I'm not going to submit this particular assignment we had regular reflections that had been helpful for me but I got to a point where I didn't have the bandwidth and
13:28:49 I just decided I'm going to focus my energy on this for this course on this other assignment, that's our big assignment at the end of the term and that was something that I really wanted practice with.
13:29:01 I wanted to gain the skills with that aligned with our particular assignment.
13:29:06 I didn't communicate this I just made the decision and moved on. I had decided that as a pass fail student who was, you know, at a certain point in my program.
13:29:16 It was, I was comfortable with the implications of that in terms of grading.
13:29:20 But I didn't communicate about it.
13:29:22 And I just went on my merry way coming to class doing the readings, engaging in ways that were meaningful to me, and then I got an email from one of the instructors.
13:29:32 And this is an email that wasn't new to me it's an email that I have sent as a TA.
13:29:38 It's the email that says hey I noticed you haven't submitted the last several assignments, just checking in, wanted to know how we can support.
13:29:47 In talking about this experience with crystal yesterday.
13:29:52 There are two things that really stood out to me about what made this different.
13:29:55 The first was a particular line or it might have been a couple sentences in the email.
13:30:03 That, for me, were really impactful in acknowledging my own agency as a student in the course, beyond saying, you didn't submit this I'm checking in, how can I support the person who sent the email also said, I recognize you're taking this course pass
13:30:17 fail and this may have been a conscious decision. Can you confirm that so we can be on the same page about your expectations.
13:30:24 That was something I had never been asked before and it's not something I've ever asked when I've sent this email to students but it's something I really filed away and started checking in on.
13:30:35 And the second thing for me was the context in which the email was sent and received which kind of drawing on everything crystal just said, I was receiving this as a student and of course where we had established from day one, you know, our shared humanity
13:30:50 that this was a space of empathy, a space where faculty and students in the course of like, you know, demonstrated through examples that it was a place where we could share everything from how freaked out we were about the cicadas coming to have stress
13:31:08 we were about our dissertation research or how annoyed we were about, you know, some other situation going on in our lives.
13:31:15 And that had been set forth through the instructors examples but then you know was, we really followed suit as students and I think.
13:31:24 I think I'll leave it at that for now but receiving that kind of a checking email in a space where I felt like I knew there was empathy and acknowledgement of shared humanity and freedom to be candid about my experiences caused me to respond in a way
13:31:40 that was very different from how it might have responded and how I have responded. When I received that email in the past.
13:31:48 So yeah, that's my that's my experience, and I'm happy to share more but I'll start there.
13:31:55 Great, thank you so much to both of you.
13:31:59 It's such a nice example of developing this culture of empathy and understanding, and I think you know some of the, I was taking notes and sort of some of the themes that came across from you or that sort of the value of empathy, the value of clear expectations
13:32:14 and communication of those.
13:32:17 And then also recognizing to kids point recognizing the different students are going to be looking to get different things out of the class.
13:32:25 It's, it's not a one size fit all fits all. And also, one theme we've had in some of these workshops, is that different students might have different ways of engaging, and especially in a virtual environment.
13:32:37 It might be that they don't have their video on all the time but they are incredibly active on the discussion forum. And so sort of using interact using the virtual space and thinking creatively about what that means and sort of reflecting respecting
13:32:53 the fact that different students, we're going to have these different contexts.
13:32:58 So, Hannah marker is asking, Kate to put the specifics of this or a sentence that you thought was like particularly well worded to help open the lines of communication and thoughtfulness.
13:33:12 So I think much of this, you know, so much of this is, it's a nice example because it's a very specific example of particular class but a lot of themes that we've been hearing in many of these workshops.
13:33:27 So, I wanted to.
13:33:29 Please support other or submit. Other questions in the chat, I wanted crystal I wanted to have you reflect a little bit more on sort of one thing I've heard and it didn't come up yet but sort of, I think, Kate mentioned that over the course of the term,
13:33:44 you know, student videos were more frequently on at the end of the term that at the beginning of the turban and I think that is something that all of us could aspire to.
13:33:52 And I think it's just a signal of the community that sort of you are able to help build. Can you just sort of expand a little bit more on how you think that works and sort of what what it was.
13:34:04 Were there any kind of little nuggets that you would give to others to help think through how to do that for other classes.
13:34:10 Yeah, sure. So I think that what was important for me because I was very anxious about teaching the course on virtually and what that would look like and what does engagement look like in in a virtual classroom right which necessarily is very different
13:34:27 from an in person classroom and so the first thing that I had to do was kind of relax what my own expectations about what engagement might look like and I just had to accept that.
13:34:37 The fact that somebody is camera is not on does not necessarily mean that they are not listening that they're not paying attention that they're not engaged to your point lives.
13:34:48 You know there are there are many ways that students can engage with coursework. And so the next thing that Tyler and I decided to do was to have in our introductory conversation on our first session to talk about okay let us decide together.
13:35:02 What does being engaged look like in this class for me it's important that if you are unable to turn on your camera or to if you choose not to turn your camera that's fine, just let me know that that's a choice that you've made.
13:35:15 If, If you decide that you're you can't submit an assignment by this deadline that can be trying to please just let us know everything. Generally speaking, most things can be an option if I cannot help you if I do not know that you know.
13:35:33 And so being very clear with that upfront.
13:35:36 And then asking students to also tell us like what what would work well for you. Some folks, you know would say, I, I am in a home with, I have my three children here and so, turning off my camera means that you don't see them doing whatever it is that
13:35:52 they're doing in the background or, you know, if you hear somebody screaming child screaming, it's fine. The child is three years old. So the, the ability to, to, you know, just create space in the room where folks can say what they need, I can say what
13:36:11 I what I, what I'm expecting folks to do we can talk about and agree on what it means to participate in this class, and then open up space for folks to say well I can meet that expectation.
13:36:25 Generally, but today I can, or, you know, I'm just being it being open to hearing from students. This past fourth term, one of our students was actually in Korea.
13:36:36 And so there was one evening where she was on a train.
13:36:40 Trying to get home and she emailed us in advance and said my camera is going to be off, because I'm on the train, and I'm listening but I cannot participate.
13:36:51 To me that that student was engaged, even though the camera wasn't on, even though she wasn't speaking up, even though she wasn't actively engaged in the conversation that was taking place in that course in that session.
13:37:03 I know that she was present. And that was important to set the space for that.
13:37:10 Great, thank you. Yeah, sounds like you again did a great job just creating that those opportunities for those conversations and for people to sort of be honest about their situation and then to do what worked for them.
13:37:23 I want to bring Patrick and Jennifer back into this.
13:37:28 And again, I encourage people to post questions in the chat.
13:37:32 So, this course we've been hearing about is a very small discussion class with six, you know, six to eight students.
13:37:38 Patrick and Jennifer I know you both have taught or TA and very different classes so I'm wondering if you could comment a little bit on just reflections, go yeah Patrick first and then Jennifer, your reflections from this conversation and kind of what
13:37:53 you've seen, work on this regard, or how you thought students reacted over the course of a term so I'm Patrick if you have any thoughts. Yeah, absolutely.
13:38:02 I think this has been a great discussion and conversation and I can say that, so it a hybrid course in third term.
13:38:10 It was a discussion based course where we looked through literature and students gave presentations in pairs. And then it was kind of, even though it's a presentation, it was very much about asking questions during the presentation and so there was about.
13:38:25 about. We had two sections one that was the hybrid section that had I think like 13 students and then the other one was the fully virtual section which had I think about 30.
13:38:36 And in both of them I think that an important thing that occurred with us that I think really draws on this conversation is changing the expectation of what really is participation.
13:38:46 And so in this course in years past, there were really two components of the grade there was the presentation that you gave. And then there was participating in the discussion of the other presentations throughout the term, but at the start of the term,
13:39:01 the faculty of the thought okay well then we'll just make it based on, you know, not only do you have to attend the session but you have to have your camera on and you have to, you know, participate.
13:39:11 and we realize it for a lot of students, that wasn't going to be feasible for all of the reasons that I think both crystal and Kate really hit on.
13:39:21 So then we kind of change to really, we, we talked with the students and we've changed that the expectation is really, you just need to really participate.
13:39:31 Once you know per section, and, you know, it was really just asking a question and if you couldn't have your camera on could never video on couldn't have even like your sound on that you could post it in the chat.
13:39:43 And so that was how we kind of learned to get that engagement, even if it wasn't in the way that the classic traditionally taken engagement. And so I think that's definitely something that can be applicable, no matter the class size is if you're taking
13:39:56 some kind of participation is just really thinking about how you're doing it, if you're doing it in a way that's equitable to students who may be in situations like time zones or having family at home where they can't meet the same requirements that you
13:40:09 know someone who is living alone in an apartment might be able to.
13:40:23 Great, thank you. That's great advice and I will totally confess that I'm one of the faculty that has a 10% participation, foreign to the grade and I am motivated to be more thoughtful about how you approach that this coming year and really be clear about,
13:40:31 you know, what do I really mean by that. So thank you for that.
13:40:35 Jennifer I'll turn to you for any reflections from your son.
13:40:40 Sure, um, thank you and thanks crystal and Kate.
13:40:59 to better understand as the course is going on. What do you mean by engagement and what do you, What is your sense of how like students are engaging.
13:41:05 So I am a co instructor for a DR pH course which is led by Dr. Anthony So, and it's one of the problem solving series courses.
13:41:15 So an example that we used for engaging students in that it's this year. Well, we went up from 22 students to 44 students this year so we were also trying to balance how we were going to be engaging a much larger number of students.
13:41:33 And we also have a participation grade so we actually is 10%, and we like broke it down, so students can see exactly what the point allocation was for different activities, and we decided to use the discussion forum, as our method of engagement where
13:41:53 we had students post a reflection on a policy topic. And then as part of their participation grade they also needed to post a response to another students reflection.
13:42:06 And that was all done in the discussion forum but then we for our live talks allocated about half the time to go through and review all of those and identify students from the discussion forum that had posted on a particular topic and invite them if they
13:42:22 would be willing to speak on the live talk to that topic, and also let it let other students know that this topic would be discussed and all, and that we would love to hear from them as well if they have comments.
13:42:35 So kind of touch were able to reach out and individually, you know, discuss and it actually was a half the class presented for live talk two and half for life talk three.
13:42:47 And it wasn't necessarily a requirement, but meant to be a much more just collegial environment and discussion around these policy topics and all the students seem to really enjoy that.
13:42:59 And it seemed to kind of lower the pressure a bit where they weren't expected to give a full presentation, but rather they had already posted the reflection and just invite comments from other students as well.
13:43:14 Great, thank you.
13:43:18 Again, lots of similar themes and I'm thrilled that there are now some questions from the chat so I'm going to go ahead and turn to those.
13:43:26 I think this is mostly a question for Patrick, because I think you're the only one who has taught a hybrid fully hybrid course so and let me be clear on what we mean by terminology because I think this is something we're all still learning.
13:43:38 So when we were trying to at the school say when we, when we say hybrid what we mean is the synchronous in person and online participation. So, some students in the classroom together, and then some students participating virtually.
13:43:54 So Megan Latshaw asked and again I'll turn to Patrick first and then others, how was it trying to manage a discussion that allowed people online to participate while the rest were in person.
13:44:04 So this was really something this is a great question. This is something that we really thought about and I thought about as the TA. When we were kind of figuring out the, the setup of the class.
13:44:14 And I think what what also helped was that we had a fully virtual section of the class as well so that way and you know they were the content was identical.
13:44:22 So we can really see things that work for that and try to bring that to the hybrid experience and so what we ended up doing was we had all of the in person students who like I said was about 12.
13:44:33 We had them log into zoom from the classroom with their laptops, we had them have their video on if they wanted to, and then have the audio off since you know the streaming classrooms pick up audio so that way the students at home, could match faces with
13:44:48 names and so that way when someone talked to they could kind of see oh that's who that is. And we found that that really helped with kind of students who normally wouldn't really know who some of the people in their classes were and really help with that
13:45:01 kind of have equity in that way.
13:45:04 And can I ask a follow up questions that aren't.
13:45:08 Yeah, sure. Thanks. Um, so, was it tough though Patrick for the online people to like get a word in edgewise or like, did they participate in in person conversations was that possible.
13:45:20 Yes, I would say yes I will say that the kind of the format of the discussion really facilitated that because it was like two students leading a discussion and then people would interrupt with questions and comments on the discussion so whether that would
13:45:33 be, you know, raising their hand and zoom and I was moderating the chat, whether that was putting a question in the chat, I found that both people who were at home and people who were in person, where we're more than happy to to interrupt and often because
13:45:48 we met with the presenters beforehand as t as in like went through their slides made sure they had everything okay.
13:45:55 We had made that we asked that they put into places for discussion so like slides where they said like, Hey, here's a question.
13:46:04 Another thing that I'll say briefly, is that we really utilize the zoom polling option and we found that that was really great. And that was another reason why we had students who are in the classroom still have be logged into zoom is because then you
13:46:17 know whether you were at home or you were in the, in the, in the classroom you could respond or you could fill out the poll, and then we can have discussion based on that whether that was, you know, I think we had a question was like do you think, like
13:46:30 like how, how long do you think we'll have to worry about Kobe and it was like you know next three months next six months etc etc and then we had people like justify their their option if they wanted to.
13:46:40 So I think, trying to do things that, you know, can be equally done between people who are in the classroom and people who are at home or just the resume, really helps to facilitate the engagement of those who are not in the classroom.
13:46:56 Thanks Patrick that's great I really like this idea.
13:47:01 This idea of having the onsite students login to zoom but turn their audio off, so that you can sort of see their faces more directly or that so the virtual students can do.
13:47:11 So thanks for that tip.
13:47:13 There is another question in the chat, which I think might be.
13:47:20 I'll turn to maybe Kate, and then see if crystal has anything, but it's basically about kind of how to engage with students who aren't who aren't don't seem to be engaging in the class.
13:47:34 So, Maria has a question about a student who kind of just wasn't engaged at all fact the TA reached out the course instructor reached out Student Services Coordinator reached out and they just never responded and so in the end, sort of had to be, they
13:47:49 were given a poor grade for the course.
13:47:52 Because it was sort of there didn't seem to be any other options. I'm curious again maybe Kate first and crystal than anyone else if, if you have any.
13:48:01 If you've come across this or have any solutions that you've used in the past.
13:48:08 This is a tough one. Um, but it's a familiar situation to me I and I was thinking as I read the question that I think I did a lot over my four years or three and however many months at Hopkins, and I have noticed that, at least in my experience as a TA
13:48:29 during the pandemic this type of situation has become much more common.
13:48:43 It used to be a more rare situation that I had encountered in previous verses, but it was kind of special situations, whereas, more and more I think in the courses I'm teaching of different sizes we're seeing students who are unreachable for whatever
13:48:49 reason, it occurs to me that, you know, this could be a situation where the student did took my approach and just said, Look, I'm getting what I want to out of the class I don't I don't feel like responding but I would guess there was probably something
13:49:05 else going on and i i think it's tough. The one thing that I would suggest, and you may or may not have done this, but because this is becoming more of a common occurrence.
13:49:18 I think it's really important to decide going into a class as a teaching team with faculty tease and whoever else is involved in the course, what your plan of action is for this situation if and what when it occurs because it probably will happen when
13:49:37 I had this happen and other courses that were I was a TA we we felt like we didn't really know what our options were. And so it was a bit of a scramble, as I'm sure it might have been for you so that taking that proactive approach I think is really important.
13:49:50 And then, for me, I think when I look back on my experience as a student, it kind of comes back to what I said about this space and crystal and Tyler's class, being established from day one, as communicative space as a space where there was, you know,
13:50:07 And we're faculty kind of embodied that empathy and interest in knowing what was going on with us, and that may look different in different courses, you know I can't imagine exactly how that would look in a purely online debate one course right, but I
13:50:31 think it's something that we can probably make extra efforts to establish from day one and of course that will maybe enable or empower students to be more responsive down the line, that's not a particularly practical answer so maybe crystal has something
13:50:46 more practical.
13:50:56 Not particularly more practical but just another just kind of a way to think about the problem. And to your point, Kate about being proactive, I think that probably the best way to avoid a situation where I guess is to do your to prevent a situation like
13:51:05 this is to try to avoid it, it from the beginning. Understanding though that sometimes this is just how it's going to go for, for any number of reasons.
13:51:15 One of the things that struck me about this is that I, I've been this students who is I was an international student for the, for all of my all of my college and grad school career, and it just means something different where I'm from, to communicate
13:51:36 with a faculty member that it does in the United States.
13:51:40 And so it's it's not a, the classroom is not really a place for where I'm from, to kind of tell the faculty member, that this is why I can't meet your expectation.
13:51:52 It's like you meet the expectation or you don't. And if you don't then, whatever. So, that's how that's why I ended up being a student who did not communicate as well as I now know would have been helpful for me and, and for the faculty, and to, to build
13:52:12 upon Kate's points about being proactive I think one of the things that Tyler and I really were intentionally trying to do was to diminish the, the, the, the power differential that that exists in a classroom between folks who are seen as teachers and
13:52:28 the more knowledgeable of the two groups, and students are participants and try to make sure that folks saw us as approachable.
13:52:39 Right. And so, identifying that this what we're doing here in the classroom is a partnership. I am trying to help you to achieve the goals that you have that I can we connect around these learning objectives right so let's work together to try to get
13:52:55 you where you need to be the approach that we take for one students is not going to work for all students. And so, reducing the, the power differential from me as a student who has found myself in this situation.
13:53:14 Students, faculty that I found to be more approachable I was more likely to approach them.
13:53:17 And so, you know, trying to set the stage, from the beginning of the term is probably the best way to try to approach this situation, however, understanding about some students, you know, students have a part to play as well, and they are accountable
13:53:35 and responsible to play that parents, and if they don't, then you know if everybody has reached out and we have two kids for Do you have a plan, or you make a plan for how to deal with this situation.
13:53:47 It either works or it doesn't work. And, you know, it ends how it ends and you know it's unfortunate but that's just life.
13:53:57 Great, thank you oh Jennifer you wanted to. Oh, just very quickly, um, yeah, I am one of the three course facilitators for the salsa society courses where we have anywhere from 100 to 250 students in a particular offering.
13:54:10 So we frequently have had this happen Maria and one strategy we found successful is reaching out to the academic coordinators.
13:54:20 And because they tend to have, they tend to be very plugged in, and what's going on with students and then also, they've been able to reach out to the student to say like hey you're going to need this course to graduate.
13:54:34 And are there things that we can do to support you.
13:54:38 So I would recommend that is a strategy as well.
13:54:44 Great, thank you yes I was thinking the same thing that you can help help pull in others at the school who might have insight and be able to help too.
13:54:54 Great. So we have about five minutes left and I see granola bars she has her hand up so we'll turn to a question from her and just try to wrap up in a few minutes.
13:55:03 Hi, everybody. Thank you. Great session and thank you very much for putting this together actually don't have a question I wanted to contribute to the question before that, about, because I had such a class.
13:55:14 Actually it was you kindly taught in this class the class where some students were very active and as you had you know especially in your session people were very active and answered very nicely to questions.
13:55:24 However, there have been other class sessions where students at least a part of the students were very quiet and what we did there and what worked well for us in order to engage with everybody.
13:55:35 And this very much, is to the point what crystal said about some people simply not being very comfortable talking about certain aspects of the class or certain giving certain answers that might seem to them not very sophisticated what have you, right,
13:55:50 feeling the power differential feeling the difference between Masters and PhD students all these kind of things that play into kind of making you're hesitant to contribute verbally in class is provided choices how to be provided choices for students to
13:56:08 answer in class so better either either you could contribute verbally in class or you were supposed to contribute on a discussion board and that actually combination made it possible for everybody to contribute.
13:56:20 So we also made it clear that you know there was this choice that we definitely gave sometimes Bonus points if people really were able to put their reflections into the class.
13:56:31 So you had a bit of an incentive of doing that however it was not a disadvantage of doing that so definitely it was, it was possible to get good points for and get an A basically if you were contributing either or so it wasn't a disadvantage but we basically
13:56:46 valued and honor the fact that there are different communication preferences.
13:56:53 Great, thank you so much.
13:56:55 You know one of the things I would love to dig into more, because I can just imagine, is the question in some people's mind but I think we'll have to be a topic for a future session is that, you know, again a theme we've heard is the value of flexibility
13:57:07 and sort of meeting students where they are and recognizing variation in how students might be willing or able to engage and but sort of this tension that have maybe I think some faculty might think oh but wont that reduce the rigor of the class how do
13:57:20 I know they're still learning, you know, how can I sort of reconcile that so I'm just going to put a pin in that, because we're basically out of time today.
13:57:28 But I think we've that has again been a theme of some of the other sessions.
13:57:32 And so I think I'm can be a topic, maybe we continue to return to you but I think that all of you are great examples of teachers and faculty who have found a way to balance those things and really find ways to help their students learn a lot while respecting
13:57:46 sort of where they are and how to sort of help them make get the most out of the class as possible.
13:57:52 I want to just flag that saline green. Thank you, Selena has been putting some really great resources in the chat so in case you haven't been watching the chat, I'm trying to quickly go in and skim it.
13:58:05 And there are many resources on the school's website. We will continue to have these teaching workshops, feel free to email me with ideas for sessions, and we're going to have these sort of dropping coffee chats so some of the questions if there are things
13:58:22 you'd like to just, you know, chat about with a group of teaching council members, drop in some time we're going to have those about once once per month, so looking forward to having continued ways to engage in these pedagogical questions and points,
13:58:38 as we go through this next school year. Oh, yes Felicity Thank you You can save the chat so you can download it, but a huge thanks to the team who helped put this together today really great resources and lessons.
13:58:53 And we'll see the final slide again we'll have more opportunities for conversations.
13:59:00 There's lots of resources online.
13:59:03 And just you know best wishes as everyone as we head into this next academic year, which again is going to be, maybe different than we thought it would be a couple months ago.