May 25th, 2017 Engaging Students Online with Web-Conferencing Marcia Pedersen and Anita Peng Bellingham Technical College

1. ENGAGING STUDENTS ONLINE
WITH WEB-CONFERENCING
Anita Peng
Marcia Pedersen
BellinghamTechnical College

2. Poll 1
Raise your hand to
answer yes:
Have you participated
in an interactive web
conference prior to
today?

3. FACULTY LEARNING
COMMUNITY
2016-17 FLC

4. BTC Faculty Learning Community

5. FLC Purpose
To explore how course design, materials,
learner activities, and course technologies
affect student engagement and student
success in online learning environments…

6. FLC Survey Results – Course Modality

7. FLC Survey Results - Materials
•In general, how engaging have you found the
majority of learning materials (texts, articles, videos,
etc.) in your online or hybrid courses? Out of 89
responses . . .

8. FLC Survey Results - Activities
•In general, how engaging have you found the majority of
learning activities (assignments, discussions, group
projects, etc.) in your online or hybrid courses? Out of 88
responses . . .

9. FLC Survey Results - Interaction
•In general, how important is it to you that you
interact with your instructor in an online class? Out
of 88 responses . . .

10. Engaging Students Online
Synchronous Activities
• Benefits
• Methods
• Tools in Canvas
• Other OnlineTools
• Math/Science Specific
Virtual Assistance
• Meetings
• Presentations
• GroupWork

11. VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS
General Information

12. Virtual Office Hours – Benefits
• Office hours do not have to take place on campus.
• Office hours can take place at more popular times, such as later in the
evening, when more students can attend. Additionally students can “pop”
online when they are actually working on homework, ask a quick question
and go back to work.
• If you archive the discussions, students can go back through the
conversation if they need clarification or want to review the material under
consideration. Likewise, students who did not participate in the
conversation have access to the material.
Source: http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/engaging-students-in-learning/virtual-office-hours/

13. Virtual Office Hours – More Benefits
• Can cut down on having to reply to multiple emails with the same
question or on the same topic. It also assures students of a timely
response.
• Students can all be active participants, instead of waiting in a line outside
your office door.
• Anonymity. Shy students might be more prone to participate if they can
do so online as opposed to in-person.
• Offers the whole class a chance to see what types of questions individual
students are asking.
Source: http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/engaging-students-in-learning/virtual-office-hours/

14. Virtual Office Hours – Methods
• Step 1: Choose a tool that will best suit your needs. If you need
support, contact your e-Learning Department.
• Step 2: Set a day and time you can be available online, e.g.
Tuesday from 6:30-7:30 pm (evening times can be popular but
not necessary). Make sure to announce the time and instructions
for connecting to the online platform in class and in writing on
the syllabus.
• Step 3: Connect with students!
Source: http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/engaging-students-in-learning/virtual-office-hours/

15. Virtual Office Hours – Canvas Tools
Canvas is BTC’s Learning Management System (LMS).The
following Canvas tools can be used to help facilitate virtual office
hours and other online communication with students.
• Conferences allow you to upload files (PPT, Word, PDF, etc.),
access to a digital whiteboard as well as video and audio
features.
• Scheduler is part of the Calendar in Canvas. It allows faculty to
create blocks of time that students can sign up for, which can
help to better manage face-to-face or online hours.
Source: http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/engaging-students-in-learning/virtual-office-hours/

16. Virtual Office Hours – CanvasTools cont.
More Canvas tools can be used to help facilitate virtual office hours and
other online communication with students.
• Chat provides a way to conduct real time conversations with
history.This feature can be used for online discussions that will
allow students to go back and review material after the
conversation has ended.
• Discussions is an easy to use tool that provide FAQ’s for a course,
especially useful in large courses, and can help to cut down on
repeat questions and answers that frequently occur via email.
Source:Virtual office hours |UWCenter forTeaching and Learning

17. Virtual Office Hours – Online Tools
Other tools available to support communication between instructors and
students include:
• Yarn is a chat tool built for live “back-channel” of a course.Yarn offers
instructors a way to gather feedback, assess student understanding and
answer questions while class is going on.
• Adobe Connect (limited availability depending on department) is a
Flash-based virtual meeting room that allows you to connect with
multiple participants to share audio, video, applications and chat.
• Microsoft Skype for Business.
Source:Virtual office hours |UWCenter forTeaching and Learning

18. Virtual Office Hours – OnlineTools cont.
There are a number of commercial solutions to holding office hours
online. A few of the more popular options are as follows.
• Google Hangouts (limited to 10-15 people) offers free video
conferencing
• Skype (professional, associated fee) offers screen sharing and
group calls with a limited number of people
• join.me and Jive Chime are two products that offer screen and
multimedia sharing as well as group conferencing
Source:Virtual office hours |UWCenter forTeaching and Learning

19. VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS
Math/Science Specific

20. Virtual Office Hours – BigBlueButton

21. 1 million dollar question:
What theorem is it that
will help us find the
length of a hypotenuse
given two sides of a right
triangle?
Virtual Office Hours – Example Chat Activity

22. Virtual Office Hours – Chat Activity Hint

23. Virtual Office Hours – Predicament
How would you
explain how to use
the theorem to
someone if a mouse
or a trackpad is all
you have on a web-
conference?

24. Drawing Activity
On the next slide,
use the drawing or
writing tool to:
Write or draw
something using your
mouse or trackpad.

25. Left blank for drawing activity

26. Virtual Office Hours – Options
Document Camera Webcam as a Document Camera

27. Virtual Office Hours – More Options
iPad as a Document Camera ELMO as a Document Camera

28. SYNCHRONOUS ACTIVITIES
Meetings, GroupWork & Presentations

29. Poll 2
Use the polling tool to
answer:
Have you ever led an interactive
web conference?
A.Yes, often
B.Yes, a couple times
C.Yes, once
D. No
E. Not sure

30. ChatActivity 1
Type your answer
into the Chat:
What are some
disadvantages of
web-conferencing?

31. ChatActivity 2
Type your answer
into the Chat:
What are some
advantages of web-
conferencing?

32. Synchronous Activities - Meetings
Preparation
•Schedule

33. Synchronous Activities - Meetings
Preparation
•Schedule
•Lecture

34. Synchronous Activities - Meetings
Preparation
•Schedule
•Lecture
•Equipment needs

35. Poll 3 Raise your hand forYes
- OR -
Use the smile emoticon if
your answer isYes AND you
like it!
Do you typically turn on
your webcam during a web-
conference?

36. Synchronous Activities - Meetings
Preparation
•Schedule

37. Synchronous Activities - Meetings
Preparation
•Schedule
•Lecture

38. Synchronous Activities - Meetings
Preparation
•Schedule
•Lecture
•Equipment needs

39. Synchronous Activities - Meetings
Running the Conference
•Set up
•Welcome
•Screen tour
•Student delivery
•Conclusion

40. ChatActivity
Type your answer into
the Chat:
What other preparation
can help people who
are new to web
conference?

41. Synchronous Activities - Meetings
Post Conference
•Message
•Feedback
•Partial points

42. Synchronous Activities
Group work
•Required or optional
•Self-created and scheduled conferences
•Instructor participation or observation

43. Synchronous Activities cont.
Presentations
•Scheduling
•Smaller groups
•File limitations
•Recorded

44. Contact Information
Anita Peng
Mathematics
apeng@btc.edu
Marcia Pedersen
Business and Computer Information Systems
mpedersen@btc.edu

45. ChatActivity
Type your answer into
the Chat:
How engaged were you
in this web-conference?