How do I activate students before the live contact?

Knowledge Clips

Knowledge clips are short videos (about 7 minutes) that are used to convey information about one or more concepts. Keep the following criteria in mind when creating a knowledge clip:

• Modularity (can also be used separately, not only as a series)
• Reusability (usable for several years, content does not refer to recent events, course name (may change), date, season, etc.)
• Compactness (limited duration, information is concise, no repetitive examples, etc.)
• Visually ‘attractive’ (attractive not in the ‘pretty’ sense, but in the sense that the visuals actively support the story, so for example no slides with four bullet points that remain static for five minutes without anything happening on screen)

More information on knowledge clips

Best Practices

• Use Zoom for recording: Zoom allows you to change the background for the recording. It can be nice to use the same background for each topic for the week so that students can see that they are watching clips that belong together.
• Don’t record your knowledge clip in one take, but in small chunks (3-5 minutes) at a time. Redo them if you make a mistake, and add them together later (or ask our teaching assistants to help you with this icto-feb@uva.nl)
• Add quizzes to your lecture (slides) when you create a video to make the clip interactive. You can use FeedbackFruits to do so. With this tool you can also integrate that students must first answer the question before they can continue the video. Moreover, by using FeedbackFruits, you could for example see how many students watched the video, what the students answered per question and how many students answered the questions (correctly).

– With thanks to Michael Werner
Have a look at the best practice from Michael here:

Suggestions

• Use knowledge clips with in-clip questions, which you can insert with FeedbackFruits
• Use knowledge clips in combination with a feedbacklecture or tutorial, to discuss content that is not yet clear

Pre-recorded lectures

As the name suggests, pre-recorded lectures are lectures that have been recorded in advance.

• Make sure slides and speaker are visible
• Split the lecture into several smaller parts (e.g. 4 x 15-20 min)
• Record the lecture in Zoom (or other recording application), with PowerPoint shared via share screen

Learn more about pre-recorded lecturess

Best Practices

• Create series per week. Decide on one theme per week and divide this into a number of 15-minute videos.
• Try to finish topics within one video. For example, if there are 5 articles to cover, make sure that one article is covered per video. This helps with the learning process of the students.
• Share the slides during the recording, and if possible, the face of the speaker.
• When teaching quantitative courses (online) use a digital whiteboard, such as Explain Everything, to show and explain quantitative equations.

Suggestions

• Use pre-recorded lectures in combination with preparatory formative assessment or preparatory discussions, to find out what is unclear
• Use pre-recorded lectures in combination with a feedbacklecture or tutorial, to discuss content that is not yet clear

Literatuur

Through Perusall and FeedbackFruits, you can have students review literature in advance.

Perusall

• Perusall brings together the reading and discussion of articles by allowing students to comment on the document
• Scoring and grading is automatic
• Perusall also provides a confusion report and an overview of the most-upvoted comments & questions that can be used in a live discussion

FeedbackFruits

• FeedbackFruits allows teachers to define a learning process, for example, reading an article and annotating in the text
• Students and teachers can discuss and comment on supplied study material, in order to collaborate and better engage with the learning material

More information on Perusall
More information on FeedbackFruits

Best Practice

• Perusall has an automated tool (through machine learning) that grades students’ comments and their participation in the discussion based on quality. Their participation can thus be scored as a small part of the grade (10% or bonus) to encourage participation and activation.
• Use clear reading questions for each article to structure the online discussion. Students are then prepared for the (flipped) classroom and as a teacher you have a good idea which parts are well understood and which are not. In this way, you know what to focus on during the lesson and you can use comments/questions or interesting examples from the students in the class (co-creation).
• As a teacher, try not to interfere too much in students’ discussions. Otherwise, students will wait for your comments and stop discussing with each other.
• Don’t put all the articles the students have to read that week in Perusall. It takes a lot of time for the students to go through the articles that way. For example, if you have 4 articles per week, you can put 2 articles in Perusall and explain the other 2 through knowledge clips or self-study.

– With thanks to Karin Venetis

Read the extensive best practice of Karin here

Suggestions

• Use literature in combination with  preparatory formative assessment or preparatory disccussions, to find out which parts are unclear
• Use literature in combination with a feedbacklecture, or tutorial to discuss the parts of the literature that are not yet clear

Course-related Content

To give students a better understanding of the course material, you can also supplement the reading material and lectures with other sources, such as:

• YouTube-videos
• Documentaries
• TEDtalks
• Podcasts

More information on course-related content

Best Practice

• Using course-related content for your course is a great way provide information to students in a more diverse way than just having to read literature. Utilising different videos or podcasts can allow for the necessary learning materials to be livelier. However, do make sure that the external content you use fits with the content of the course/week, and that the different sources are coherent and interrelated. Not just add such external content without it having a purpose. It is best if it adds to required learning materials/literature.
• When using external content for your course provide a little bit of direction. So, for instance, introduce the external content with a separate video/text so students know how the content relates to the course/topic of the week. In addition, provide clearly stated learning objectives (one or two, depending on the length and importance of the source) for each external source. This will help students with knowing what to focus on/what to learn when going through these external sources. Besides, this could also help for you as a teacher when needing to create exam questions.
• If you use external sources, make sure that it is indeed accessible for all students, and try to provide them in one place so students can easily find them and do not have to search for them themselves.
  • YouTube videos can be embedded into Canvas, however when having multiple videos for one week it is also possible to create a YouTube playlist with the videos of that week. You could add all videos to an unlisted playlist and share the link with the students on Canvas. When a playlist is unlisted, only the people who have the link can access the playlist. Providing videos in such a way keeps a nice overview of which videos belong to which week and might be quicker than having to embed all YouTube videos separately in Canvas.
  • If you want to use podcasts for your course, try to choose podcasts that also provide their transcripts online, this improves accessibility. (For example, The Harvard Business Review provides weekly podcasts (ideacasts) on different topics with written transcripts.)
  • Tip: When using articles or podcasts from sites such as the Harvard Business Review, students will likely have the problem that they will run out of free articles/podcasts, and thus cannot access the material. To solve this, students can open the link of the article or podcast in an incognito window. Then they should be able to see the material without any problems.

Have a look at the best practice by Brooke below:

– With thanks to Brooke Gazdag

Suggestions

• Use literature in combination with preparatory formative assessment or preparatory discussions, to identify content that is still unclear
• Use course-related content in combination with a feedbacklecture, or tutorial to discuss the parts that are not yet clear

Preparatory Discussions

In Canvas, you can use discussion boards to facilitate discussions between students and allow students to ask questions. You can also use them to collect questions for the lecture.

Learn more about Canvas’ discussion board

Best Practice

We do not yet have a best practice for preparatory discussions. Do you have a good tip for your colleagues? Let us know at tlc-eb@uva.nl.

Suggestions

• Use the discussion board as a platform to post questions in response to knowledge clip, pre-recorded lecture, literature or other course-related content
• Use the results of the discussion board in the feedbacklecture or tutorial to clarify content

Preparatory Formative Assessment

In Canvas it is possible to create quizzes. You can use these to gain insight into students’ level of knowledge of the course material. You can create a short formative (non-mandatory) quiz of about 6-10 MC questions in Canvas and ask students to take the quiz before the live contact moment. Their answers can help you understand the students’ understanding of the material, which you can take into account when preparing your lecture.

Learn more about Canvas quizzes

Best Practice

• Reasons for introducing quizzes before the lecture:
  • Students put off reading
  • Many students are embarrassed to show their ignorance in public
  • Students would rather listen than talk
  • Students tend to skip ‘non-essential’ activities
  • Students do not like break times
• Create quizzes that students can do before going to the live lecture or feedback lecture (i.e. after watching the pre-recorded lectures/knowledge clips). Depending on the structure of the course, you can make these quizzes compulsory or optional.
• Clearly communicate the structure of the course and the didactics behind it. So, explain the teaching structure to the students. In addition, when creating activities for the students (Perusal assignments, Canvas quizzes, etc.) publish the expected time the students will need to complete them. This will give the students a good indication of how much time the tasks will take.

– With thanks to Florian Wagener

View the extensive best practice of Florian here

Suggestions

• Use preparatory formative assessment in the form of a Canvas quiz to test the course material following knowledge clips, pre-recorded lecture, literature or other course-related content
• Use the results of the quiz in the feedbacklecture or tutorial to clarify content