This blog was first published by the FASoS Teaching & Learning Blog on 17 April 2020. One of the few good things about the the need to stay at and work from home, is that we’ve managed to get a lot of work done in the garden. We’ve enlarged one of the borders, planted a tiny forest consisting of native trees, shrubs and herbs, and have started preparations for putting in a wildlife pond. Last week I’ve also finally sowed the first flower and vegetable seeds in the greenhouse. I’ve also started sowing the seeds for my online teaching this period.
I am organising a series of webinars on online teaching and learning and am learning a lot from listening and talking to colleagues. For instance regarding technical issues, such as how to best make use of breakout rooms while being unable to see what happens in them, or how to use screen-sharing to produce collective notes. But also regarding group dynamics, which can be less dynamic due to more limited online attention spans, but which can also be improved due to the increased importance of letting someone finish their contribution. Or regarding the role of the tutor – taking over the note-taking role from students can help to offer much-needed structure. But my own experience has so far been limited. As I wrote before, I am not teaching any tutorials, only lectures and supervision of BA and MA theses. My experience using Zoom for meetings with my BA and MA supervises (and with colleagues) has been quite good. I’ve utilised breakout rooms, screen sharing and the whiteboard to support discussions and allow detailed discussions. As always, some students are more engaged than others, but interestingly enough these divisions mirror students’ normal in-class behaviour. The screen doesn’t seem to matter too much here. Even though I will not be teaching any tutorials, I’ve nevertheless asked two colleagues – Marisa Mori and Mirko Reithler – if I could join one of their online tutorials. I want to experience online tutorials for two reasons. First, to see how things are going – how students and colleagues translate PBL to an online environment – and to learn from Marisa and Mirko. Second, since it may be possible that online teaching and learning continues into the next academic year, I might as well be prepared. But even when normality resumes as of September, I expect to still be inspired to rethink some of my regular teaching. I’m also going to join online lectures of two other colleagues – Andreea Nastase and Anna Herranz-Surrallés – both in our BA-level EU politics course. Here my interest is more evident, as I have to give a couple of lectures in May. One of these lectures will be on Euroscepticism and will be in the same EU politics course. I’m currently considering doing a mixture of knowledge clips and/or podcasts plus online discussions, not that different from your normal flipped classroom. For two other lectures in our BA European Studies mentor programme I am considering making them completely asynchronous. These are lectures in which colleagues and myself present BA students with some need-to-know information about their upcoming second or third year and some of the important choices to be made (e.g. concerning elective courses, Erasmus exchange, internship). Here, we’re probably going to update existing slides and accompany them with short matter-of-fact videos from colleagues and experience videos from senior students, plus a short instruction on how to best view this material. For our third-years we’d normally do a final session in which we review the whole BA. I’m not yet quite sure what to do here. Yet, given that my experience using Zoom for larger groups (staff webinars) has been rather good, I suspect that we’ll reenact a more standard think-pair-share setting. So, the seeds are sown. But obviously additional efforts are needed to make sure that they’ll germinate. I’m seeing some first succes in the greenhouse; now to translate this to my online teaching.
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This blog was first posted by the FASoS Teaching & Learning Blog on 2 April 2020. We are now in week 3 of online teaching and learning here in Maastricht. Last week I posted some first reflections on my own experience so far, and I want to come back to this again. But I want to start with the rise of the online teacher. Make no mistake, I am not referring to myself – or, better, not just to myself. Instead, what I am referring to is the immense commitment and motivation of academic staff (and students!) to make the best of these rather confusing times. And not just your normal teaching and learning crowd, but virtually everyone I talk to via Skype or Zoom or correspond with over email or WhatsApp. Let me start by illustrating this by the fact that our first ever FASoS webinar on online teaching and learning, which took place yesterday, was attended by just over 40 (!) colleagues from all ranks of our faculty (and some from beyond). Notwithstanding the usual challenges, Zoom worked quite well and everyone was willing to learn and engage in sharing experience. Obviously, some rules had to be set from the start (inspired by our MA ES colleagues, but also for instance by these useful guidelines), but we had stimulating discussions in groups of five, followed by a plenary debate, plus input from experts. But when I refer to the rise of the online teacher, I am also referring to the social media flurry. So many colleagues are sharing interesting links or their own experience (check out Rachel Dickson’s blog on connecting with students online); on making online teaching and learning work, but also on making life work (something that is certainly not to be underestimated either). And thankfully there are also creative souls who make us laugh, such as my friend and colleague and poet Paul Stephenson, whose quatrains and limericks are spot on! This is all truly inspirational. And if we can keep this momentum going when ‘normal’ teaching resumes, at least one good thing will have come out of these confusing times. Meanwhile, I’m slowly finding a new daily focus and routine. On a normal day, I would walk to the faculty, grab a coffee halfway, and arrive 20 minutes after having left home. Now I go for a 30-minute walk before breakfast, which is always very relaxing. With a small nature reserve just next door and Spring upon us, it’s also a very rewarding time for going for a walk. Fortunately, I’m also still able to go for a run and ride my race bike. In a more radical move – for someone who’s a bit of a news junkie – I’ve temporarily stopped following most of the news. Not because I don’t care – because I do; but because it is quite depressing, which really doesn’t help right now. The good thing is that I have a bit more time for other stuff, such as working on an alternative skill set. I’ve also started listening to some new podcasts. Call me boring, but I’ve really gotten into Gardens, Weeds & Words by Andrew Timothy O’Brien (he and his guests discuss gardening and the arts, identity, race… inspirational stuff!).
Meetings with students and colleagues continue like before. Here too it is great to see that most people are patient and willing to help and share experiences. And everyone is always well-prepared and willing to make the best of the meetings that we have. But online meetings continue to be rather exhausting – more so than meetings in the real world, out there. And while email traffic has certainly lessened, most emails either need immediate attention, or a detailed reply (or worse: both). Because of this, focussing on research is a bit trickier than I had hoped it would be (I cannot even imagine what people with kids are going through!). I get some stuff done, but not nearly as much as I wish. But I did finish a revise and resubmit today and I’ve emptied my calendar for next week so I can finally continue work on two papers. It is learning by doing, I guess. Or as my colleague Mirko Reithler put it during yesterday’s webinar, it’s “building the boat while sailing”. This blog was originally published by the FASoS Teaching & Learning Blog on 23 March 2020. It’s been just over a week since Maastricht University decided to move all teaching online. I’ve been lucky because my teaching from last week onwards was going to be centred around individual meetings anyway, so it’s been relatively easy to adapt. Lots of respect to everyone who has already moved teaching to online platforms in the midst of an ongoing period; we can learn so much from your experience! I’ve been working from home for a week now. I usually work at home two days a week to focus on my research. And I have a comfortable home office with a view of the garden (which I can also use when the weather allows) and an adjustable desk (allowing me to do some work while standing). Still, this week has been very different from my usual days working from home. For one, all my meetings have gone through Skype or Zoom, without any problems, including my online student ‘drop-in’ hour. All students I spoke to (nearly 20 in two days time) had a working connection, which in most cases included video. I asked all of my students to carefully prepare; my Research Master students, in particular, did a great job doing so. All my students also were a bit apprehensive about this new challenge – one of the reasons why we drafted tips for students. But all of them were healthy too, as were their parents, which is most important. Communication with colleagues went through email, Skype or Zoom. This is challenging for some colleagues; some have kids running through the house, and all kinds of other stuff to be taking into account. As far as email is concerned, I’m getting less emails! And most people who do email, sent shorter messages. Perhaps we can learn from this that meeting face-to-face (in real life or in cyberspace) is more efficient than endless email conversations? All of this has been rather tiring, though, and I’ve been absolutely knackered at the end of a series of online meetings; something John also mentioned in his recent post on providing individual feedback via Skype. This – and the simple fact that all of this takes time getting used to – has gone at the expense of research, but I hope to catch up this week. But I sense a lot of sympathy and understanding towards each other. And we can use technology to still do things together, like watching an online movie to support your local independent cinema or listening to the same Spotify playlist, like my friend Afke and I were doing on Thursday. In addition to trying to keep up with normal work, I’ve also been introducing myself to online teaching, because let’s face it: for most of us this is something we have never done before. Yes, I’ve had Skype meetings before. I’ve also once designed a short, narrated PowerPoint lecture. But this is different. We cannot just record a lecture or do a group meeting like we would normally do. And did you ever consider the difference between asynchronous and synchronous activities? I certainly did not.
Emilie’s blog on using videos in teaching was a great starting point, my friends from the Active Learning in Political Science Blog have published lots of insightful posts, and I have enjoyed following the first webinars offered by the Dutch Open University. While I’m still far from knowing exactly how to shape online teaching and learning, here are a few takeaways that I will keep in mind during the next couple of weeks and months.
Challenging, I know, but I’ve decided to seize the opportunity to try developing some novel teaching material. And, really, my only obstacle right now is that I’m sometimes unable to grind coffee beans because my partner is in an online meeting at the kitchen table. So, I’ll manage. No, we’ll manage together; we can do this! |
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