Originally published by Active Learning in Political Science on 17 November 2020. The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has forced us all to rethink our teaching, but not all innovation has to start from scratch. For instance, when you feel uncomfortable with recording a video for your lecture, you can also simply use the narrated slides option in your presentation software. And when you want to stimulate student engagement and interaction during an online talk, existing audience response tools, such as GoSoapBox, Kahoot!, Mentimeter and Wooclap are ready for online use. I’m a frequent user of Wooclap myself, but also have experience using GoSoapBox and have trialed some other options too. My choice for Wooclap is partly one based on its user-friendliness – though the additional perks that come with Maastricht University’s subscription are welcome too. I’ve been using Wooclap offline for quite some time already, and I’ve continued using it when we went online. Wooclap functionality Wooclap comes with an easy-to-use, clutter-free interface, minimising possible distraction for you and for your audience. It is also easily accessible, regardless of the device that students are using. The weblink is short, plus you can generate a QR-code. The existence of different types of questions and various ways to present results is really helpful. You can ask multiple-choice and open questions and conduct polls. You can have students fill in blanks or locate something on an image. When you want students to actively work together, you can opt for the brainstorm option. Issues can be sorted or you can ask students to prioritise what they would like to discuss. Answers can be given in writing, but you can also ask students to make a meme and upload it. Even when you decide to only use multiple-choice and open questions, you can choose to present answers to the latter as a word cloud instead of a list of answers. This presents a nice and useful overview, because with a big group you’ll never be able to read every answer. It is very easy to reorder questions and to integrate slides – though the later comes with potential limitations when you are a savvy user of funky slide transitions and other moving bits and pieces. Other useful options include a timer for answering questions and allowing audience members to ‘like’ each others answers. One option I haven’t used yet, is gamification, which allows you to rank participants – and hand out prizes – adding a fun element to your talk. But one which can also create a sense of unease among your audience. What I also find particularly useful is the ease with which you can copy polls and questions; convenient when you want to re-use polls while keeping existing data. Indeed, you can also export results, so you could for instance look at differences between cohorts of students. Online vs offline use
To me, the offline usefulness of Wooclap is evident. It is a really simple and fun way to involve your audience in an active way, individually and in groups. I have for instance used Wooclap during interactive lectures on Euroscepticism, academic skills, you name it. You can ask students to ‘define Euroscepticism’ but you can also ask them what type of resources they’ve consulted for their research paper. When I write “really simple” I do not mean that it is self-evident. You’ll still have to explain what the purpose is of using Wooclap. Sometimes additional instructions are needed, in particular when it comes to brainstorming – talking to each other may be easy, but how do you succinctly contribute to an online brainstorm? – but you may also want to take the time to explain your questions. This is where integration of slides comes in handy. Using Wooclap in an online setting requires additional planning. Two challenges are noteworthy. First, you may have to switch between several screens, sharing one screen, stop sharing it, and moving on to the next. As I mentioned, the integration of slides goes a long way towards solving this challenge – but comes with its own limitations. Second, in a lecture theatre it is relatively easy to get a sense of how engaged students are with your Wooclap tasks. Yet, not being able to see your online audience it is easy to fail to engage audience members. These limitations should, however, not stop you from considering using Wooclap. A good plan for your talk is a must. I recommend either having a few short questions at the beginning of the lecture to, for instance, gauge students knowledge of a topic, or to have them mid-way to, for instance, see whether you are getting your point across. If you plan to have several questions – I’d say anything above five – best to distribute them across your talk instead. Because, while Wooclap is a fun and useful way to engage your students, you can also overdo it, with students ending up asking for its purpose.
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Originally published by Active Learning in Political Science on 16 September 2020. We have just entered the third week of the new academic year here. With regards to the Covid-19 challenges, our faculty has decided that we should offer students one on-campus meeting per week. This particularly concerns our new BA and MA students, who want to help adapt to this new environment. Obviously, this comes with huge challenges as to how to organise teaching, including students who have simply not been able to come to Maastricht. I myself am currently in the process of designing a new course and updating an old one. So far, I have given lectures in two different set-ups: once completely online and once in a hybrid setting with on-campus and online students. I have experience with Zoom lectures and decided for a similar approach for my online lecture on interdisciplinarity for our new BA students. This included a short video introducing topic and initial questions for discussion. This worked well. Many students seemed to have prepared the questions, which resulted in some good ideas and suggestions (including some funny memes about academic research and writing): The only real problem was that I was only co-hosting the session, which complicated things a bit as far as technicalities (breakout groups, integrating Wooclap) were concerned and which, hence, created a bit of fuss. Something to avoid in the future. Yet, with all students being at the other side of the screen, it was easy to engage with all of them in a similar way. My hybrid experience was vastly different, though. Engaging with students was just one of the problems. Going hybrid My hybrid lecture was part of our Research Master. The lecture took place in ‘Tent 1’ – the faculty has set up tents to allow for more on-campus activities. The acoustics were awful. And the A/C, despite making lots of noise, was unable to keep the temperature below boiling point… This was a lecture that I have just inherited from a colleague, which meant I had to adapt it. This, together with the fact that some students would be online and some on-campus, made me opt for a plainer set-up. Following Chad’s experience with breakout rooms I decided not to use audience response tools. As the group was quite small, I thought it would also work to simply ask questions as we went along.
Unfortunately, response was slow and only came from on-campus students. The only comment raised online concerned an echo on the portable mic that I had been asked to use. The latter was not the only challenge resulting from the hybrid setting. As ‘Tent 1’ comes with an in-built laptop camera, I had to stay in front of that laptop. I couldn’t walk around – something that usually helps me to stimulate interaction – and using the (real-world) whiteboard was near impossible, as it meant having to juggle with the laptop camera. But the most problematic thing of all was me overlooking the online students. When you have real people in front of you, this is whom you engage with. At first, I thought this might be due to the online students not having turned their camera on. I asked them to do so after the break, but, again, my attention drifted towards the on-campus students very quickly. Lessons learned I can imagine Simon being anxious towards teaching this semester. At any rate, my hybrid teaching experience was similar to Chad’s: quite terrible. I will meet most of the Research Master students again from the end of October. At least one of them is unlikely to make it to Maastricht. Hence, given that this will be one of my own courses, I have decided to:
But in any other setting I would certainly suggest not to go hybrid. This may mean having to split up students in on-campus and online groups. Yet, if resources allow you to do so, all students will benefit; either from your best on-campus teaching or from your best online teaching. |
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