Tips for Online Teaching

Webinar by Greg Wilson: How to teach online on short notice
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rE5e2kSFNICNkBJ4iIIgd9eqACi62gxahknKLtw9Hzs/edit#slide=id.g55ddde1eae_0_2

https://education.rstudio.com/blog/2020/03/online-teaching-qa/

Notes from Greg Wilson: https://education.rstudio.com/blog/2020/03/teaching-online-on-short-notice/

Teaching Carpentry Workshop 9am-5pm + other courses (one day online EMBL course with ~75 persons)

option A: *
option B: ******
option C: **

General tips:

  1. Shared note taking document => Pooling participants, sharing links. Examples: HackMD (good for programming), Google Doc (anything else than programming). Email URL of shared doc before the course or just at the beginning. Zoom is loosing chat history => use something else? Something with line numbers is useful.
  2. Use 2 screens: screen sharing on one screen, the other screen for your notes. Notes next to your camera
  3. Clean your nose before teaching ;-) 🤧
  4. Microphone close to your mouth and away from keyboard -> use headset
  5. Screen sharing: entire desktop or individual windows -> select window that are relevant
  6. Mute audio from attendants (Zoom feature: space bar to mute/unmute) || space bar only works if one has clicked on mute at least once and do not click anywhere else in zoom (at least on linux) Host has the power to mute attendants
  7. Ask people to raise hand (Zoom feature: button to raise hand - not recommended because easy to miss, rather use the Zoom chat to type hand in the chat, stay longer visible and keeps order of questions)
  8. Not the time to re-write entire curriculum - stick with material you are familiar with
  9. Schedule quite long breaks (mid morning, mid afternoon and lunch), advertise breaks in advance
  10. Manage/Chair discussion: give everybody equal chance to contribute
  11. Don't teach alone, have someone with you to watch questions, to manage the shared notes document, to do troubleshooting (breakout room for one-one help, Zoom allow to give control on the computer of someone else), to look for links, to catch when you forget to say something

Questions:

  • Use zoom chat at all??
    • Maybe not => Try Slack! Perhaps only for raising hands? It also allows private messages between participants, which can be helpful (but so does Slack, I suppose…)
  • Does Google Doc have line numbers?
    • I don't think so. But it does make it much easier to display images, and is a more familiar interface for many (most people aren't comfortable with Markdown)
  • Having more than one document/chat? Google Doc for course content and another chat?
    • unfortunately, you may have to have separate platforms for chat, notes, and video/screen-sharing :( having to switch quickly between a lot of different applications is one of the things that takes a lot of getting used to when teaching online
  • Are there any recommendations for headsets?
    • I use a Sennheiser PC8, which wasn't very expensive. I haven't had any complaints ;)
  • I would only buy a microphone and use the computer speakers, ok?
    • probably fine if you're alone. I don't think my wife would want to hear what everyone else is saying - listening to me is bad enough!
  • Can one share only Fiji? There are all kind of windows…
    • I believe you're limited to one application window at a time - not sure how this would behave with pop-ups, toolbars as separate windows, etc. maybe we can try it here? DOES NOT WORK.
  • Is the sharing of individual windows limited to Zoom calls?
    • no - also possibel on LifeSize, BigBlueButton, and probably several others
  • Make sure at the beginning that everyone in the audience has permission for edit mode for question ;)
    • good point :(
  • Do you suggest the presence of a moderator to help with questions/break?
    • yes - never teach alone
  • /hand in Slack also OK? Or should one use Zoom?
    • Zoom is easier for me - but with practise it probably works for Slack too - perhaps you can ask that people only type questions (rather than raising a hand and talking)? You could always ask them to unmute and give a longer explanation if necessary…
  • Do people need to install Zoom before? Should one tell them before?
    • they do. it's a very quick download and install
  • Zoom: account? Official option at EMBL Lifesize, Google Meet/Hangout and Jitsi (jitsi.org)
    • For Jitsi you have to use the VPN.
    • Preference for Zoom*: 2 pro accounts for BioIT project, free accounts not recommended for teaching (40 minutes limits), Scheduling option on paid account (paid account can be shared), pro account = 140 US dollar/year, send email to BioIT if you want to try Zoom
  • Online teaching from virtual machine? Might complicate things.
  • Co-host: most of the same priviledges as hosts in Zoom.
  • Are breakout rooms maintened if all participant exit? Back and forth for exercise? Can be maintained

* my preference for Zoom is because:

  1. it seems to be more robust to variable bandwidth and scales well to many participants (100 is the limit per call for a Pro account - can pay to increase to 1000)
  2. breakout rooms are really helpful

Breakouts - type "done" next to your room number when everyone in your group has had a chance to try sharing their screen

room 1
Done
room 2
Done
room 3
Done
room 4
Done

Was everyone in your group able to share their screen? If not, what were the obstacles that prevented this?

Yes, room 4: mac security issue at first, Mac tells one to quit zoom and restart; just pressing share again worked.
Yes, room 1
Yes, room 2: also tested in Android
Yes, room 3

What was confusing about this screen sharing? What questions do you have about how to use them?
Need to be in full screen mode to hide task bar

Is the chat only for the room or for everyone?

Select a repo