emerging best practice with webinars for blended and online learning
TRANSCRIPT
Emerging Practice with Webinars for Blended and Online Learning
Calum Thomson (University of Salford)[email protected]
Dr W. Rod Cullen (Manchester Metropolitan University)
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What is a Webinar?
Commonly considered to be shorthand for “web-based seminar”
“Yet another non-word trying to worm its way into the English language due to the Internet. It belongs in the same school of non-thought that brought us e-anything and i-anything.”
Lake Superior State University - 2008 List of Banished Words
“… a live online educational presentation during which
participating viewers can submit questions and comments”
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary (1998) via Lustig (2008).1998
What is a Webinar?
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What is a Webinar?
“Webinars are live, interactive teaching and learning activities
(seminars, tutorials, workshops, lectures, etc) delivered via a full-
featured web conferencing system.”
Cullen & Thomson (2013)2013
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Overview of Webinar Technology
Benefits• Flexibility
– Time– Location– Organisation
• Synchronous interactivity at a distance – “Face-to-face” discussion– On screen collaboration
Standard Tools• Text based chat tools
• Audio and video communications
• Voting/polling tools
• Interactive whiteboards
• Document and application sharing
http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/ltia/Vol9Iss2/1_cullen_thomson.pdf
State of Play @Salford 2015
Provision• Blackboard Collaborate
(previously Illuminate) since 2008.
• Institutionally managed service.
• Access for all staff.
• Enabled through the VLE.
• Institutionally managed training and support (staff and students)
Use• No of Rooms Started
– 12/13 & 13/14 – 3000+– 14/15 3100+ so far
• Increase in mobile use:– 12/13 3.4%– 13/14 9.5%– 14/15 14.8%
• Full online modules using webinars:– 14/15 approx. 20 – 15/16 expected 60
• Disparate practice between schools.
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What we wanted to know?
• Planning
• Pre-session activities
• Staff & student support
• Delivery activities
• Evaluation
What are the emerging common techniques and
recommend practice?
Are colleagues evaluating experiences?
How are webinars being used as a teaching and
learning tools?
Semi-structured, 1-2-1 interviews with current webinar users.
Transcription followed by thematic analysis of each of these key areas.
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Who did we talk to?
15 Individual Interviews
< 1 1 - 3 4 - 6 6+0
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4
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8• School / Faculty Academics
• TEL Champs / Tech Stewards
• PGCAP Lectures
• Academic Practice Researchers
• IT Services Staff
Years Experience
Num
ber
of In
terv
iew
ees
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Primary Academic Use
0
3
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“The first week is face to face, then it’s all webinars. There’s their portfolio and blog they have to develop, but as far as my contact goes,
it’s Blackboard and Collaborate.”
“I use Skype for one to one sessions, but that’s revision and support, not really full
webinar stuff. But it seems to work.”
“They’re on industrial placements and they come back in September. So half the
course takes place while they’re away from the university via Google Hangout.”
“About 5 people couldn’t make it in and they were able to sort of take part because I sat in front of the screen and they were literally a
face amongst all the other people.”
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Some questions.Kahoot.it
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Staff & Student Preparation
1. Focus on socialisation.
2. Encourage peer support.
3. Use low stakes activity to orientate and familiarise.
“I asked them to join a hangout. Just to say hello one evening. Its from Gilly Salmons 5 steps, access and motivation and online socialisation.”
“I found some of them had used it before, so if others had technical issues I encourage them to ask each other on Google+.”
“We ran a F2F induction session and online orientation session at the start of the course. We explained the technology and equipment involved, and then ran a low risk session not related to actual teaching.”
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Planning
“It depends what you want out of the session. I run mine a
bit like running a radio show, where
you read the requests. We have a few prompts, but it’s mostly just student led discussion. No
strict agenda.”
“Have a loose agenda, puts timings, outcomes and things on it. It's really great when people start running with the topic, but you need to be able to cut that off, you need to have key things you to get through.”
“Make sure your all set with set space for interactive elements, quizzes, polls, that kind of thing.”
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DON’T PLAN TO PRESENT……PLAN TO ENGAGE!
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On presenting…
“If you deliver [the webinar] in a way that it seems the participants aren’t there, its pretty
likely that soon they won’t be. If it’s a presentation that’s being recorded then
there’s no reason not to just watch it at a more convenient time.”
“If you're just going to transmit stuff, even if you want some asynchronous discussion,
then you could do this on YouTube with the comments and discussion there.”
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On discussion between the teacher and students…
“If your asking a load of questions, and getting people to answer, whether it's the learners, or an expert, that's where webinars are really successful. For me, I found them least successful if I'm broadcasting a lecture, and there's no interaction.”
“Make sure you get as much involvement from those participating as
possible. Don't see it as simply taking somebody through a series of
information. It needs to be a two way process.”
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INTERACTION, INTERACTION,
INTERACTION!
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On discussion between students and group work…
“When I have used webinars in distance teaching, it's to replace that part of teaching where you get a sense of identity. A regular slot for our webinar is not particularly so we can present a lot of information. It's so that people can feel part of a community, so they get the benefit of distance delivery without losing the benefit of being part of a cohort. ”
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COMMUNITY
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On student creativity and presentation…
“It’s important for engagement that students get hands on with all the tools we’re using. We use a
low stakes activity as part of induction where students work in pairs or small groups to create a whiteboard slide. They draw, add text, upload
images… they create a sort of mural about the group. Then they present it back. It’s a great way
for them to get to know each other.”
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ENGAGE AND EMPOWER
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On Evaluating…
“You could do some formal stuff, but I think the most
important thing is to respond in real time to the
situation and evaluate its effectives there and then,
rather than review it at the end of term, or even
evaluate it at the end of the week.”
“So really what I should've done is prepare a questionnaire at least that we could then have distributed people with set questions and then maybe some open questions as well.”
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On evaluation…
Formal / Aspirational• Institutional Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Observations (recorded)
Responsive / Impactful• Observations (live)
• Reflective reports
• Back channel (Twitter / Chat) prompts
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Overview of Recommendations
• Begin with motivation and online socialisation.
• Don’t plan to present, to plan to engage.
• Interaction in the webinar, delivery outside the webinar.
• Build and focus on the community.
• Hand over the tools and empower your students.
• Evaluate in real time and be responsive.
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“The irony is that you think, well if I can do this in a webinar, then I can do this in
the classroom. Less broadcast style lectures, more interactive engagement. So
its actually changing and improving my classroom behaviour!”
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Questions & Discussion
Follow up…
If you are available for a chat or would like to respond to the formal survey, or have colleagues who would be, please send your contact details to:
@calum_thomson
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