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!

Congrats Class of 2020!

 Final grades went in at Holyoke Community College last week and I’ve finally had a chance to take a little time to get some thoughts down.

 

It seems like so long ago - thinking back to when we started the spring 2020 semester in January. Who knew what was coming  in 6-7 weeks…. March 11 was the Thursday before spring break and when I last met with my Systems 2 (Circuit Analysis) class in person. It was midterm exam day. At the time we had all heard about Corona and were more than a little nervous…. A couple days later we learned we were going “remote” for the rest of the semester….

 

WOW - 8 weeks, hundreds of hours of online class time, studying, homework and exams. Loss of part time or full time jobs, learning in often non-idea locations and situations, uncertainty about the future, anxiety, for some depression, sleepless or near-sleepless nights, and a whole lot of frustration with your computer, others around when you are trying to get work done and of course your professors…. And now, not having that final chance on graduation day to say goodbye to you classmates and friends. It’s sure been a haul, it’s over now and you made it! It was not supposed to end this way. I’m hoping it was all worth it. It sure has been for me. I’m so proud of all of you that pushed through this.

 

Your attitude and hard work has been an inspiration that I’ll remember and talk about for a very long time. I know you are all off to different places and I’m sorry I did not get a chance to say goodbye to you all in person. Hoping to see you at the Holyoke Community College virtual celebration in August and seeing you walk across the stage next year with the Class of 2021.

 

Thank you for all of your hard work and wishing you so much success. I know you got this…. now go do more good work!

 

CONGRATS Class of 2020!!

Engineering Student Design Team Projects at a Distance

On Friday, May 1 I had the honor of judging University of Hartford College of Engineering, Technology and Architecture Class of 2020 Senior Team Design Projects. I spent three semesters at Hartford as a visiting professor before coming to Holyoke Community College and had many of the students participating in the 2020 design competition in my classes.

I wrote about my experience at Hartford in an earlier post - after 20 years they were my introduction back to the traditional age group (18-22) engineering classroom. The last time I had students this age in one of my classes was 1998 and I had no idea what to expect. To say I was pleasantly surprised was an understatement.

Fast forward to the May 1 competition when this group once again impressed me. Senior project work runs over the fall and spring semesters with final projects evaluated and scored at the end of the spring semester by invited judges. Shutting down the campus at the half way point this spring hit them at a critical point in project completion. Student teams continued to work together online from their homes and student teams presented their projects together to us in online meeting rooms. 

I am so proud of them - each team member was able to rise to the challenge - focusing, planning and completing their projects at a distance. In some cases that distance was 6 or more times zones away. This spring has been difficult and unexpected for all of us. These students were able to adjust, make necessary changes and complete their project work. You can check out some of the projects here. 

We don't have control over what is happening but we are able to control how we view and react to it. Valuable lessons. Congrats to the Class 0f 2020!

Experience with students in my classes at Holyoke Community College has been exactly the same. I’ll write about that in my next post.

To Zoom or Not To Zoom: Week 4 Teaching Full Distance

Resting student Doggies in my campus office.
Students were working on these when we
transitioned from the classroom to online.

Five weeks ago most faculty and students in the United States went home on a Friday for spring break week.  Over the next few days we were told we were not coming back to campus for the rest of the semester and we needed to get our courses converted to 100% online for the rest of the spring semester. This past week was our fourth week back.

The last few weeks for me has been focused on fine tuning my asynchronous course content. I’m teaching an intro robotics course (EGR 110) at Holyoke Community College that was originally scheduled to meet 5 hours per week. Students spend time building and coding Lego EV3 robots. The interactivity in the classroom is a lot of fun and students seem to enjoy the class.

The Lego Mindstorms EV3 kits are expensive and we have a limited supply – not enough of them for every student in the class to take one home. With the shift to online 5 weeks ago we had to find an alternative and pivoted to an EV3 simulator. The students have picked up using the simulator on their home computers and are doing a really nice job completing different projects. I’m very impressed at how the transition has gone so far.

My original intentions were to provide 45-50 minute live (synchronous) lectures twice a week at the start of each class and if a student needed some extra help, hold individual Zoom sessions sharing screens. An attempt at this over the first couple weeks was not successful. 45-50 minutes was just too long and the individual Zoom sessions tended to drag, produce frustration and not lead to much learning.

BBC Worklife interviewed a couple of workplace experts - Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead, who explores sustainable learning and development in the workplace, and Marissa Shuffler, an associate professor at Clemson University, who studies workplace wellbeing and teamwork effectiveness. Their views reflect in many ways to what I’ve seen in my online robotics class. Here’s a few highlights from the interview that mirror my online classroom experience:

• “Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy.” I wrote about processing non-verbal cues online last week – very difficult if not impossible. 

• “Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you became anxious about the technology.” My experience - as a result students end up either anxious, distracted or zoned out.... crickets chirping is the best way I can describe the result. 

• “The video call is our reminder of the people we have lost temporarily. It is the distress that every time you see someone online, such as your colleagues (or classmates), that reminds you we should really be in the workplace together.” We all miss each other. 

• “Aspects of our lives that used to be separate – work, friends, family – are all now happening in the same space. When these aspects are reduced, we become more vulnerable to negative feelings.” Crowded homes, abuse, children to take care of, loss of income, lack of food, lack of computers and broadband are impacting learning (and teaching) in a huge way. For many the classroom is a safe and comfortable place to get away. 

• "Big group calls can feel particularly performative, People like watching television because you can allow your mind to wander – but a large video call “is like you're watching television and television is watching you”. 

• “Both experts suggest limiting video calls to those that are necessary. Turning on the camera should be optional. In some cases it’s worth considering if video chats are really the most efficient option." 

• “When it comes to work, shared files with clear notes can be a better option that avoids information overload.” I wrote a little about this in Week 1.

• "When online sessions are held, it is important to take time to catch up before diving into business. “Spend some time to actually check into people's wellbeing,” It’s a way to reconnect us with the world, and to maintain trust and reduce fatigue and concern.”

From my experience these observations are spot on when it comes to the online classroom. My robotics class has shifted strongly in the asynchronous direction. I rarely get on one-on-one sessions with students now. I don't do the 45-50 minute lectures at the start of each class but I am on Zoom for the first 45 minutes with student attendance optional. I’m there to help out, answer any questions, talk about how much we all need haircuts and maybe tell a knock-knock joke or two.

Most questions come in during off hours via email. If students have a problem I ask them to first email me a picture of their code (screen shot, cell phone, etc.) I can take a look and send back a hint or two. The student can then make changes in their code. This method is working well and has reduced a lot of student (and my) stress. It does require watching email closely.

 I continue to be impressed with the students in my classes. They are learning and getting their work done!

Hanging Out With Starman - Week 3 Teaching Full Distance

Four weeks ago most faculty and students in the United States went home on a Friday for spring break week.  Over the next few days we were told we were not coming back to campus for the rest of the semester and we needed to get our courses converted to 100% online for the rest of the spring semester. This past week was our third week back.

Another week online. This week I got to hang out with one of my idols – Starman. He hasn’t figured out the answer to life, the Universe, and everything yet but continues his quest.

Back on earth, in the classroom things are settling down a bit and it feels like we’re getting into a groove. Here’s my bullet list for the past week.

• Email volume has really increased and it has become a real time suck. My comfortable number of unread emails averages around 30 ~ if I’m close to 30 I’m feeling pretty good about it. My inbox right now is sitting at 259 unopened. I clean it out and a few hours later I’ve got another 50 sitting in the box to go through. I’m hoping our students are not having a similar experience but suspect many are. I’m now closing out my email client and only checking it by the hour.
• The one document instruction tip I wrote about a couple weeks ago continues to work well. Students are comfortable being able to go to the could learning management system (Moodle at Holyoke Community College) to one place to get the most recent information and I’m not burying them with email.
• I’m locked in on keeping my lecture video recordings between 15 and 25 minutes max. This seems to be working well.
• I’ve got a set of Apple Airpod Pros and they have been fantastic. I’m using them for just about everything – Zoom meetings, phone calls and video recordings along with the occasional YouTube Curb Your Enthusiasm segment or two.
• The Apple iPad and Pencil remain exceptional – especially when the Airpods are included. Lecture recording has been easy. I’m thinking about upgrading to a 12.9” Ipad for the extra screen real estate. If you are considering purchasing an IPad for lecture recording I would strongly recommend the 12.9” model. Also get yourself a screen protector for the iPad that adds some texture to the screen when writing with the pencil. I like the Paperlike protector. It gives nice tactile feedback and it feels like you are drawing and writing with a pencil on paper.
• The Pomadoro Technique I wrote about a couple weeks ago makes a big difference when I actually use it. I’ve had problems with stopping and taking a break, walking away from the computer. I think the email volume increase has had a lot to do about that.
• Meeting with classes online has been challenging at times. I did not realize how much I rely on body language in the classroom.  I look at their faces on camera and not sure if they are confused, scared, bored, frustrated, lost, upset….. I’m encouraging them to give feedback (negative and positive) and they are. I think this would be a different if we had started the course online – I got to know these students in the traditional classroom and could usually pickup pretty quickly on things just by looking at them.
• I continue to log my time with Klok 2.

Overall I’m pretty satisfied with the way things are going. I’m still going with supercomputer Deep Thought - the answer to Starman’s question is six by nine, 42.

May the tech remain with you fellow earthlings. Have a nice weekend.

Some Notes: Week 2 Teaching Full Distance

Three weeks ago most faculty and students in the United States went home on a Friday for spring break week.  Over the next few days we were told we were not coming back to campus for the rest of the semester and we needed to get our courses converted to 100% distance for the rest of the spring semester. This past week was our second week back.

This spring I’m teaching the second half of fall/spring electrical engineering circuits course sequence at Holyoke Community College. Students in this class are in the second semester of their sophomore year and will be transferring to a university next year as electrical engineering majors.

The fall Circuits 1 class is direct current (DC) focused and the math is pretty straight forward.  DC frequency is 0 Hertz (Hz) and at 0 Hz things don’t change much. That first course is a lot fundamental stuff like Ohm’s Law, Voltage Dividers, Current Dividers, Kirchoff’s Voltage and Current Laws, etc. These laws and theorems are used frequently in more advanced classes.

The spring Circuits 2 course is much more mathematical. We’re dealing primarily with alternating current (AC) and that means frequencies greater than 0 Hz. Reactive devices (capacitors and inductors) are used throughout the course and as a result voltages, currents and power change with frequency and time. Calculus and complex (phasor) math is used extensively throughout the course and I need to be really on my toes when it comes to lectures. It is very easy to mix up things like units, times, frequencies, etc.

Last week I wrote about how I’m pre-recording my lectures and trying to stay two weeks ahead. In the class session yesterday one of the students picked up on a simple mistake I made in one of my homework solutions. I had added radians and degrees together and then took the sine of the sum. Can’t do that. You can add (radians + radians) and take the sine as long as your calculator is in radian mode. You  can add (degrees + degrees) and take the sine as long as your calculator is in degree mode. But – you cannot add (radians + degrees) and take the sine regardless of whether your calculator is in radian or degree mode! I missed it.

This has me thinking about the value of live in class lecturing. If I had made an error like that on the chalkboard one of the students would have picked up on it immediately. Stuff like this happens all the time. We would have corrected it and moved on. Sitting at home by myself recording I missed it and just cruised right by it.

Here’s where I’m going with this. There is value in traditional face-to-face lectures for students and faculty. Students pick up on mistakes, they can easily ask questions and faculty can look at their faces and pickup when they are lost. Pretty valuable stuff when it comes to learning.

How close can we get online to a live classroom experience? Should I shift to live online lectures? 1.5 hours watching me write on an iPad screen - ugh. Don't think so.

Right now I’m going to back off trying to stay two weeks ahead and make it one week. I’m also going to segment my future lecture videos up as best I can, trying to keep each to 20-25 minutes. That will get me a little closer to real time. I’m hoping the segmenting will allow students to focus for 20-25 minutes, digest, take a break and process the material. It will also give me a chance to do the same as I put materials together.

We’ll see how it goes!