Boosting each other in digital gadgets!
By: Mari Murtonen, Hanna Nori, Henna Vilppu, Kalypso Filippou, Heidi Salmento & Jere Riekkinen
Black screens as our partners in collaboration?
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, all universities aimed at learning-focused and thought provoking teaching. Many kinds of learning engaging methods were presented, such as, instant small group discussions during lectures, learning cafés and fish bowls. Then, in March 2020, we faced the black screens in Zooms and Teams. During the two pandemic years, both teachers and students have begun to get used to online teaching. However, teaching to black screens has understandably been frustrating, and students’ mental well-being has also been put to the test during this time. Now we are again facing a new challenge when (hopefully) universities – and the whole world – reopen. So, it’s a good time to think about what good online teaching practices we could utilize on a permanent basis.
What we already know about remote teaching
The emergency remote teaching (in Finnish: hätä-etäopetus) caused by COVID19 is different from normal online learning, which is well planned and suitable for the purpose (e.g. Hirsto & Murtonen, 2021). At the moment we are in a situation where we should move away from the emergency mode towards the normal online learning. However, we need to pay attention to the problematic features of online teaching and support teachers in this process.
In a study on Finnish university staff in Spring 2020, the teachers told their biggest worry in emergency remote teaching was the interaction with students (Murtonen, 2020). Technical questions were not often mentioned as problematic. Additionally, planning and evaluation caused worry for the teachers, meaning that they coped with new teaching environment otherwise, but they were worried about how to offer their student good teaching and assessment.
Raes (2021) studied learning in hybrid teaching comparing the on-site students and online students. There were no differences in students’ conceptual learning but those students, who came to the classroom, had better affective engagement. The online learnes were also divided to two groups – those who could interact and those who couldn’t. Unsurprisingly the group with the interaction got better results in engagement than those who only watched the lectures. Thus, taking care of interaction possibilities seems to be the key to successful online teaching.
| Tip of the month: Zoom etiquette
How to behave in digital meetings? Is it an opportunity to do your laundry, take a nap in the bed or go to a gym? We asked our colleagues the most peculiar places where their students had been or what they had been doing while participating in teaching. The responses were quite astonishing: the students were shopping, fishing, at a hairdresser, riding a bike and even a horse! One was even giving her own teaching at the same time. These examples show that we do not yet have a common ground for behaving in digital meetings. Based on our experiences and literature, we have collected a list of useful tips concerning the Zoom etiquette:
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Any hope for better interaction through digital apps?
Looking back to our first online teaching sessions and how suddenly we had to adapt our teaching to suit the online learning environments, we see how far we have come. This is apparent especially when we consider the extent of our digital skills’ development, but also in the quantity of all the new platforms and tools which are being published or updated to provide us with versatile choices and multiple activity ideas. In addition, we see groups of university teachers and students being brought together to share knowledge and exchange best practices.
When the distant mode is used, it should be used in pedagogical way, meaning that the goals of learning, specific features of the student group and the learning materials available are used in aligned and learning facilitating ways. The students should be advised how to behave on the course and what is their task. We should discuss with the students to create common understanding about the goals and working methods which lead us to the goals.
It is still very important to appreciate the benefits of real meetings in university buildings especially for certain groups of students, such as, the new students. When we use digital gadgets, no matter if the reason is a pandemic or something else, we need to seek for the best pedagogy for that specific situation. Discussing with our colleague teachers and searching for pedagogical knowledge help us in this endeavour.
We are hopeful for the future and confident that we can have better interactions and collaborations through digital applications.
Read more:
Histo, L., & Murtonen, M. (2021). Yliopistopedagogiikan kehittäminen yhä jatkuvan epävarmuuden tilassa – ja opetuksen uusi normaali. Pääkirjoitus, Yliopistopedagogiikka 2/2021.
Murtonen, M. (2020). Pedagogiikka ja tutkimus muutoksen mahdollistajina. Kutsupuheenvuoro, Peda-forum –seminaari, Oulu, 20.–21.8.2022.
Neuwirth LS, Jović S, Mukherji BR. Reimagining higher education during and post-COVID-19: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education. 2021;27(2):141-156. doi:10.1177/1477971420947738
Raes, A. (2022). Exploring Student and Teacher Experiences in Hybrid Learning Environments: Does Presence Matter? Postdigit Sci Educ 4, 138–159. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-021-00274-0
Rapanta, C., Botturi, L., Goodyear, P. et al. Online University Teaching During and After the Covid-19 Crisis: Refocusing Teacher Presence and Learning Activity. Postdigit Sci Educ 2, 923–945 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00155-y