Nonverbal Overload In An Online Engineering Classroom

Last week, Stanford researchers published a new study: Nonverbal Overload: A Theoretical Argument for the Causes of Zoom Fatigue. The study is a first shot at pointing out Zoom, WebEx, etc design flaws to isolate research areas for social scientists and to suggest design improvements for technologists. Researchers found four quite different causes for fatigue and recommend solutions for each:

Close-up eye contact is exhausting. Solution: Minimize the face sizes of attendees into grid view, and sit back a bit to allow yourself more personal space. 

Watching yourself is exhausting. Solution: Confirm that your lighting and setup look good, and then adjust the settings to hide your view of yourself.

Sitting immobile is exhausting.  Solution: Create a wider visual field for your camera. 

Video chatting is cognitively exhausting. Solution: When it’s feasible, turn off your camera for breaks—and turn your body away from the screen.

It's all exhausting! I’ve done some of my own experimenting and agree with the Stanford findings when it comes to the online classroom. Here’s how I’ve been working on some course content delivery improvements in one of my online classes.

Pre-Recorded Lectures
I’ve been pre-recording lectures  for about a year now and posting them. In one of my classes I recently started watching them with students during class sessions – I share my screen and audio, playing the videos.  Electrical engineering courses are 95% applied math and lectures typically involve a short introduction to a topic and then working sample problems. I am not a fan and do not use PowerPoint. I record lectures using an iPad and Apple Pencil. 

Class Sessions
Students are required to take notes as they would in a traditional in-person lecture with me writing on a board in front of the class. They ask questions, verbally or in the chat box. By watching my own lectures with the students, I’ve found myself much more aware of non-verbal cues. I’m able to watch the chat box, catch any mistakes I’ve made, pause a video for discussion, etc. I’m no longer sitting with my head down writing on an iPad, cranking out math problems while what seems like talking to myself. I’m much more focused on the students and the way I’m explaining the material. When they ask me to pause a video, I have a pretty good idea they are following the lecture and taking good notes!

Assessment
After each class is over, students are assigned between 1 and 3 quiz/homework problems that are due the next day at noon. I also post the videos for students to access.

Breaks
I do try to squeeze a 5 min break in when I can even though I’ve not been very good at that. I also try and keep videos to around 25 minutes so if we miss one of the 5 minute breaks there is a natural break between each video. 

Cameras

Students typically do not turn their cameras on and I’m ok with that in my classes. Some faculty will disagree.

Future Plans
We're charting new ground so every day is a work in progress - so far student feedback has been very positive with plans to further refine (have some interesting ideas for exams) and expand methods to other classes I teach.

End of First Full Week Teaching – Fall 2020 Semester Remote

Some quick thoughts/observations after the first week: 

• Email volume from students is through the roof. Not meeting in person means not being able to ask questions. Email does not scale in an online “classroom” setting. I’ve used Slack in the past in courses with mixed results. At Holyoke Community College (HCC) we are using Moodle as a learning management system (LMS) and there are ways to integrate Slack with Moodle – as an example see https://zapier.com/apps/moodle/integrations/slack I’m not sure if I have the proper privileges to do this. Will give it a try this weekend. Some are using Discord and I am also considering giving that a try.

• The more I use Moodle the more I like it. I’ve used lots of different LMSs over the years and Moodle is very nice. I’ve been really impressed with the IT staff and Moodle admins at HCC.

• More on Moodle – very nice on mobile devices. I’ve been able to make my Circuits 1 Electrical Engineering course content 100% mobile accessible. I like to think of mobile as the lowest common denominator for our students. At home they may not have a computer, have to share one, not have access to broadband, etc. The majority do have cell phones with data access though.  

• I bit the bullet on a 12.9 inch iPad Pro over the summer and it has really been nice. Using an Apple Pencil I’m using GoodNotes to record my lectures and keep track of just about everything else in my life. 

Finally, I snagged the pic here from a recent (and brilliant) Nokia ad...... imagine what it would have been like back then.....

Day 1 Fall 2020 Semester Remote

I spent much of the summer preparing for Day 1. I was not sure what to expect – sure we went remote in March for the second half of the spring semester but that was a little different. We all knew each other and the ice had been broken a long time before we started zooming…… 

The first day of a traditionally offered class is always the same - most of the students do not  know each other and they don't know the instructor. They don’t say too much and it is hard for the instructor to get any kind of feedback – positive or negative. Do they have any idea what the heck I’m talking about? I rely a lot on visual feedback when I’m in front of a class – Are they taking notes? Paying attention? Staring out the window or door? Looking at the clock? Looking at their phone? And sometimes just staring blankly into space? 

In some ways day 1 class zooming has not been much different. I noticed the majority (~75%) did not have their cameras on during the first class. Is that because they are shy? Doing something else like looking out the window, at their phone, etc? I’ve heard some faculty are requiring their students have their cameras on. I’m not going to do that. I am hoping to see them come on voluntarily as we get into the semester. 

I also noticed about the same percentage (and the same students) have their mics muted. I can understand that – I mute mine when I’m not talking. 

Conclusions – I don’t have any yet. It seems like a normal first day with a bit of a remote zoom twist. Our challenge as faculty has always been to get our students learning and that includes  engagement, working together, not being afraid to ask questions, smiling and laughing every once in a while and generally feeling comfortable. From my perspective so far so good!

Video: I Am Worried About My Grade

With the end of the semester coming in a few weeks it's that time of year on college campuses. This is for those of you who teach. If you've been at it long enough, you've probably heard just about all of these.
Enjoy!

Students - you need to be a little more creative and  thanks to Jean and Diane for passing this along.

SharePoint As An Academic Learning Management System (LMS)?

Over the weekend I had an interesting email exchange with a business owner who runs one of the larger IT companies in Western Massachusetts. He's looking to hire some student interns from our college with Microsoft SharePoint experience. I've been a SharePoint fan for a while now and currently use it as a collaboration/file sharing/communications/etc tool for a national economic development project managed by the American Association of Community Colleges.

I got to thinking after that email exchange - with some added pieces (including a FERPA compliant gradebook), SharePoint has the potential to be a pretty nice Learning Management System (LMS). A few minutes and a quick web search later I found it is already being done by companies like SharePointLMS.

I'm not an LMS design expert but I do use one almost every day. I am sure there are shortcomings using applications like SharePoint as an LMS but - there are strengths and weaknesses with any software based application including the current crop of academic LMS's.

It makes sense to take a look at products like SharePoint and their classroom potential. The more real-world skills and experience our students graduate with the better when it comes to getting that first job.

Is Your College Online eLearning Program Typical?

I don't usually refer to a report more than once when it comes to blog posts but I'm just loving the Instructional Technology Council (ITC) 2009 study I wrote about a couple of days ago titled Trends in eLearning: Tracking the Impact of eLearning at Community Colleges.

Page 15 asks the question Is Your OnLine Program Typical?

Here's how the report says you can tell:

1. Is the primary source for enrollment growth for its institution.
2. Does not offer enough classes to meet student demand.
3. Increases access to higher education.
4. Is attracting an increasing number of non- traditional (younger) students.
5. Reports to the academic side of the institution (dean or above).
6. Is under-staffed, working in cramped conditions, and has an inadequate budget
7. Offers approximately 160 online classes/class sections each semester.
8. Has become a significant change-agent, prompting increased faculty training and professional development, rethinking how we teach, and providing a catalyst for integrating technology into instruction,
9. Often leads the institution in dealing with issues of assessment, design, rigor, course quality and learning.
10. Struggles to obtain understanding, acceptance and support from campus leaders, who often lack direct experience with this method of teaching and learning (sometimes a generational disconnect).

The report goes on saying individual programs that do not reflect these generalized characteristics can be highly successful – it often depends on the culture of the institution and how well they are able to “work their magic” to serve their students.

The excellent 18-page 2009 report is available as a free download here.

2009 Study Report: Tracking the Impact of eLearning at Community Colleges

The Instructional Technology Council (ITC), an affiliated council of the American Association of Community Colleges, has released a 2009 study titled Trends in eLearning: Tracking the Impact of eLearning at Community Colleges. Fred Lokken, associate dean for the Truckee Meadows (Nevada) Community College WebCollege authored the study that surveyed 226 community colleges across the United States.

Here are some of the key findings as quoted in the study summary:

• Campuses reported an 22 percent increase for distance learning enrollments, while Sloan-C reports increases in overall campus enrollments averaged less than two percent.
• Most programs struggle to recruit faculty and offer additional sections to meet the ever-increasing student demand. Older, non-traditional students are attracted to online classes and degree programs since they fit into their busy schedules to offer a solution for career advancement and/or change.
• Distance education administrators continue to address the need for course quality and design, faculty training and preparation, course assessment, and improving student readiness and retention. Programs are challenged by a lack the staff and resources to be successful.
• Growth in the use of blended/hybrid and Web-assisted/Web-enhanced/Web-facilitated classes continues.
• The completion rate gap between distance learning and face-to-face student has significantly narrowed. Completion rates jumped to a reported 72 percent, just below the 76 rate for face-to-face classes.
• Virtual student services and technology support services remain a priority on most campuses. Not only do students see these services as more convenient, but colleges often find they are more cost-effective than traditional campus-based services.
• The learning management system (LMS) market remains volatile. The mergers of Blackboard-WebCt and Blackboard-Angel have fostered a great deal of uncertainty.

The ITC survey is in its sixth year.

The full 18-page 2009 report is excellent - concise, informative, well written and a highly recommended read. It's available as free download here.

A Vision of Students Today at Kansas State University

A colleague sent along a link to a video created by Kansas State University Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Michael Weschin and 200 of his students. Michael and his 200 students used Google Docs to collaborate on a document that summarizes some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Content from the document was then used to create the video:



The 4 minute and 44 second video has had over 2.5 million views since posted in October 2007. According to Michael:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. So you are welcome to download it, share it, even change it, just as long as you give me some credit and you don't sell it or use it to sell anything.

It's excellent.

Virtual Worlds in the Workplace

NCTT has recently purchased a Second Life Island and we are in the process of partitioning and building out the sixteen acres of virtual space.

We'll formally announce the island on July 28 at our summer conference in Austin. We believe virtual world use will continue to grow - especially as the price of fuel continues to rise and travel costs grow.



Here's a few interesting virtual world quotes from an online Special Report at BUSINESSWEEK.COM:

• IBM uses different virtual worlds for a range of activities, including project collaboration and welcoming new employees.
• On any given day, more than 50% of employees at Sun Microsystems work remotely.
• A group of Xerox researchers from across the globe meets in Second Life each week to explore how they can use virtual worlds in various areas of their business. One idea is to use these spaces to demonstrate new technologies to customers.
• When Cisco held a summit for international partners in Honolulu in April, it wanted to include participants who couldn't be there in person. So it held a virtual summit in conjunction with the physical one.
• Architect Jon Brouchoud has used Second Life for about two years to help clients of his Wisconsin-based firm Crescendo Design visualize what their homes might look like.
• Some health-care professionals see virtual worlds as a way to help train doctors and nurses in a setting that doesn't jeopardize patient safety. The spaces can also be used to train drug salespeople in a realistically busy setting, with patients and nurses bustling about.
• Retailers are using virtual worlds to experiment with different configurations for new or existing stores. The software also lets consumer product manufacturers gauge customer reactions to new promotional displays or to the relocation of their favorite products.

Colleges that have lots of commuter students (like community colleges) have an incredible opportunity to offer classes, in part, using virtual worlds like Second Life. AT NCTT we look forward to offering our partners space on our island. For more information on how you can participate write to me via email at gsnyder@stcc.edu or say hello "in-world" on Second Life using "Gordo Book".

And....... know you read here....... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM!