Indiana University’s centers for teaching and learning have seen unprecedented levels of interest from faculty seeking training and assistance in preparation for fall classes due to the pandemic.
Description of the following video:
[ATAC editor’s note: Numbers before each entry represent minutes and seconds. Text in square brackets is added description. Text not in brackets is spoken text.]
[00:00] [MUSIC]
[00:01] [TEXT: “Using Classroom Technology for Hybrid Instruction”]
[00:05] [VIDEO: Three students and one teacher enter a classroom, all wearing face masks. The teacher goes to a desk at the front of the classroom.]
[00:08] NARRATOR: If you’re teaching to both in-classroom and remote students simultaneously, or if you just need to record your class session, use Zoom on the classroom’s Desktop PC.
[00:15] [VIDEO: Teacher cleans computer mouse.]
[00:18] NARRATOR: Let’s walk you through step by step: Use the lectern touch panel to power on the classroom’s primary display and show the desktop computer on it.
[00:26] [VIDEO: Teacher touches buttons on lectern touch panel. The desktop computer display then shows up on the projector screen in the classroom.]
[00:35] NARRATOR: Log in to the computer and ready any supporting materials you’ll want to show during class.
[00:36] [VIDEO: On the desktop computer screen, a login is typed in and a program is opened. The desktop computer display then shows up on the projector screen in the classroom.]
[00:49] NARRATOR: Click the Zoom shortcut on the desktop to log in to Zoom at IU; then, from your meetings list, click to join your Zoom meeting.
[00:49] [VIDEO: A pointer clicks the Zoom application logo on the desktop and launches Zoom.]
[01:00] NARRATOR: If prompted, choose Join with Computer Audio.
[01:04] [VIDEO: On the desktop computer screen, the pointer clicks the “join with computer audio” button.]
[01:05] NARRATOR: Click Start Video to turn on your camera, and then click Unmute to turn on your microphone.
[01:06] [VIDEO: Teacher presses buttons on touchscreen computer mounted to lectern. After logging on to Zoom, the teacher then waves to other people in the virtual meeting.]
[01:15] NARRATOR: If your Zoom meeting isn’t configured to automatically record to the cloud, click Record to Cloud in the Zoom toolbar and look for the red recording icon.
[01:17] [VIDEO: On the desktop computer screen, four people are in a Zoom meeting together. A yellow highlighted line surrounds the place near the bottom of the screen where you click the “Record to Cloud” button. A yellow arrow points out the recording indicator at the top left of the screen.]
[01:25] NARRATOR: When you end your meeting, your recording will be delivered automatically to your Kaltura account.
[01:28] [VIDEO: The teacher is wearing a face mask in front of a classroom of four students wearing face masks. A Zoom meeting with four members is on the screen in front of her.]
[01:32] NARRATOR: Many classrooms feature a touch-capable monitor that works well with your finger or a common rubber stylus.
[01:33] [VIDEO: Teacher touches the on-screen buttons of a touch-sensitive monitor.]
[01:39] NARRATOR: The webcam is mounted to the lectern monitor with a flexible arm that you can move for a better angle.
[01:39] [VIDEO: Teacher rotates monitor so students in classroom can see students in Zoom call. Teacher then moves out in front of projector screen.]
[01:51] NARRATOR: As you teach, remember the direction the camera is pointing, and make a point of addressing the camera as you speak, (voice heard on Zoom presentation: “I had a question about the last assignment?”) especially when interacting with your remote students. This will help them feel more connected.
[01:53] [VIDEO: Teacher turns to camera, then walks up to the camera and computer screen to interact with her students on conference call.]
[02:08] NARRATOR: Be aware of the classroom microphone. Some rooms use the webcam’s internal microphone, which has a limited pickup range.
[02:10] [VIDEO: Teacher stands in front of the monitor talking to students on the screen. Green animated lines radiate from the microphone mounted to the top of the monitor to show its pickup range.]
[02:17] NARRATOR: Other rooms use ceiling microphones that capture a wider area.
[02:17] [VIDEO: Teacher stands in front of classroom talking with students virtually attending the class, who are projected on the wall behind her. A transparent green animated wall fills the screen in front of her to show the pickup range of the ceiling-mounted microphone.]
[02:23] NARRATOR: If your room has a lavalier microphone, clip it at about shoulder height for premium audio clarity.
[02:23] [VIDEO: Teacher clips lavalier microphone to her shirt just below shoulder height. Green animated lines show its pickup range.]
[02:31] NARRATOR: While you teach, encourage your remote students to signal if you need to move closer to your microphone, or if you need to repeat questions from your in-classroom students.
[02:31] [VIDEO: An in-class student raises his hand and indicates that a student joining the class virtually has a question. The teacher goes to the computer to respond to the online student.]
[02:43] NARRATOR: At discussion time, you may even find it preferable to ask for more comments from your remote participants, whose own voices may come through more clearly than your in-classroom students.
[02:34] [VIDEO: The teacher joins three students in a virtual call. A student in the physical classroom raises his hand. The teacher answers the question in the virtual call.]
[02:56] NARRATOR: When you need to share your screen, click Zoom’s Share Screen button. Choose your entire screen or just a window. Select Share Computer Audio if you will be playing an audio clip or a movie, then click: Share.
[02:56] [VIDEO: While in a virtual call, the teacher uses the mouse to click on the “Share Screen” button in the Zoom conference call window. The mouse then hovers over a presentation that could be made full screen. The mouse then hovers over the share computer sound controls before clicking the “share” button.]
[03:11] NARRATOR: When you share, Zoom moves the control toolbar to the top of your screen, but keeps your remote students’ cameras on screen to help you maintain eye contact.
[03:11] [VIDEO: A presentation is pulled up on the Zoom conference screen, a pointer hovers over the Zoom toolbar. The teacher then moves the screen to face her while she is speaking to the students in the physical classroom.]
[03:20] NARRATOR: For handwritten content, avoid using the chalkboard; instead, share the classroom’s document camera in Zoom. First, make sure the document camera is powered on. Then in Zoom, click Share Screen, then Advanced, then Content from Second Camera. Use a felt-tip marker for the best contrast.
[03:11] [VIDEO: The teacher writes on a notepad. The teacher presses the power button on the document camera scanner. In the Zoom computer menu, a pointer clicks the “advance” button, then clicks the “Contents from 2nd Camera” button, then clicks “share.” Real-time video of the notepad appears in the virtual meeting shared screen. The teacher writes on the notepad with a felt-tip marker.]
[03:49] NARRATOR: When you finish teaching, click End Meeting for All.
[03:49] [VIDEO: Teacher and students wave goodbye on Zoom conference call. A mouse clicks the “End” button, then the “End Meeting for All” button.]
[03:56] NARRATOR: And don’t forget to ready the room for the next instructor by cleaning the lectern before you exit.
[03:56] [VIDEO: The teacher cleans desk with a disinfecting wipe.]
[04:03] NARRATOR: To find out more about the technology in your assigned classroom, visit Classrooms.iu.edu. For more about teaching strategies, visit KeepTeaching.iu.edu.
[03:56] [VIDEO: The “Classroom.iu.edu” website is displayed. An animation pops up that says “Classroom.iu.edu.” The “KeepTeaching.iu.edu” website is displayed. An animation pops up that says “KeepTeaching.iu.edu.”]
“When we flipped so quickly to virtual learning in the spring, a lot of the questions we received initially focused on the tools,” said Randy Newbrough, manager of instructional technology consulting for all of the university’s campus centers for teaching and learning as well as assistant director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at IUPUI. “Now, the focus is shifting. Faculty mostly have the tools figured out and are now shifting to think about the pedagogy. Questions like, ‘I may be actually be teaching from home, and have students both in a classroom and online, so how do I coordinate and manage all of that and make sure my students are engaged?’”
After the university pivoted to virtual learning in the spring, IU’s centers for teaching and learning hustled to offer nearly 50 training sessions in the two-week timeframe of the university’s spring break and the additional week added before classes restarted, Newbrough said.
Since mid-March, he said, teaching center consultants have had more than 1,800 one-on-one consultations with faculty covering a variety of topics surrounding moving and teaching their courses online or in a hybrid/mixed mode.
“One of the things we’re hearing from faculty is that they want to hear from their colleagues,” said Greg Siering, director for the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning on the IU Bloomington campus. “There’s a lot of desire to hear very practical approaches that other instructors have been using.”
That’s where IU’s Learning Spaces team got involved. That team’s goal is to develop purpose-built active learning spaces to support a variety of pedagogical strategies and increasing student engagement.
Members of the team recently spent time in classrooms to physically test out technology and then created a video to share that information with faculty, director of Learning Spaces Julie Johnston said.
“We’ve had lots of questions, ranging from ‘How will people be able to hear me in the classroom with a mask on?’ to ‘How can I engage students fully if they’re both online and present in the physical classroom?’” she said. “The video we created is intended to alleviate some of that concern, but also be very specific about the options faculty have.”
Johnston said her team has updated the classrooms.iu.edu database to ensure faculty have the latest information about the technology available in any classroom across the university.
“There were maybe 500 to 600 entries in that database at the beginning of all this, and now there are 3,000,” Johnston said. “It will tell you what kind of webcam is in the room, what type of mic system you have, if you have a projector or a flat screen. And we’ve added the social distancing capacities, so you’ll be able to tell what the space planning estimate is for that room.”
Both Siering and Newbrough said faculty with questions should start with training and webinars offered by their campus center for teaching and learning, and then schedule a one-on-one appointment with an instructional technology consultant to drill down into specific questions.
Additional information is posted on the keepteaching.iu.edu site, which was recently updated with strategies for teaching, help and other resources.
Siering and Newbrough said much of the training and information available to faculty also includes the idea that it’s possible they’ll need to pivot at some point during the upcoming academic year, should things change due to COVID-19.
“So we need to be ready, and have some of that flexibility baked into our planning,” Siering said.
In addition, he said, they’ve worked with a variety of departments and units to construct an “in-house cohort” to help faculty with discipline-specific questions or situations. For example, he said, one school partnered with the center to conduct a reading group and discuss structuring their own curriculum.
Need help or want to sign up for a learning session? Contact the center for teaching and learning on your campus.
Fall 2020
Indiana University is looking forward to welcoming students, faculty and staff to the fall semester. The university has provided safety guidelines, an academic calendar, FAQs, and campus-specific guidance for move-in, testing, teaching and learning at fall2020.iu.edu.
