I have survived… I absolutely enjoy and value the opportunity to apply the research into my teaching practice. However, it is no doubt that it has taken me quite some time to design the materials for each tutorial and think about how to best communicate and engage with my students in front of a laptop screen at home, and not necessarily see my students. As one of the post-docs suggested that we are like a TV news reporter who must be enthusiastic about reporting the news to the public, but they could not see the responses from their audience. I have also tried to use a few online tools. Mentimeter, Padlet, MS Teams have quickly become my best friends in teaching. All the hard work is paid off, once you know that your students are engaging with these tools to respond to your teaching.
It is definitely a nerve-breaking experience for the first few times teaching online. A million of buttons to press to make sure you have joined the MS Teams chat with the camera on and not muting yourself but mute all the students to minimise the acoustic feedback. Then you have to share the correct screen with your students and turn off all your emails. In addition, there is a hidden icon on MS Teams that you have to click to ensure the audio of your YouTube or Ted Talks videos are coming through to the students. But trust me, you will get used to it!
The good news is that the School’s Connected Learning working group has developed a resource – 12 Tips for Designing Connected Learning – to support each other in our journey of online teaching. We are in it together to create and enhance our student connected learning experience! I am looking forward to sharing some of the tips with you in the coming weeks, while continue trying out different online tools and strategies in my online teaching adventure.
For QUB account holders, the twelve tips for Connected Learning can be found here
Amy Wong is a post-doc researcher in health professions education at QUB. She enjoys doing research, teaching and supporting students and educators to enhance their learning and teaching experience.
Well done Amy! Wish me luck for a first module Monday!!
Many thanks, Helen. All the best for today!
Thanks Amy! Love your blog. The link to the tips are great and so many quick and useful resources that will be invaluable in these unprecedented times as we move forward in our teaching and student support.
Many thanks, Michael for your support.
Amy, so glad you survived! Please let us know about the hidden icon on MS Teams that you have to click to ensure the audio of your YouTube or Ted Talks videos are coming through to the students. So much to learn in so little time! Thank you!
Thanks Maggie! When you have shared your screen to the audience, hover the mouse to the top of your screen and a horizontal menu bar will appear. You should see the following options: ‘’Presenting/Give control/An icon of computer screen/Stop presenting’’. Press the computer screen icon and you should be able to include the audio of the YouTube/Ted Talks videos when presenting. All the best, Amy.
Amy, brilliant, thank you!
Maggie