Tech Set Up for In-person BIO 182
Description
Course: Bio 182
Modality: In-person
General approach: Majors Biology 2 – In-person lecture and lab class, with live-online lecture option available. The class had two lectures each week (Monday and Wednesday at noon), and each student attended one lab a week. Labs were held on Monday and Wednesday from 9 am-noon. Students had to attend each lab in person for credit.
Equipment
Classroom podium in LS 208, on MCC Southern and Dobson Campus. The classroom has been adapted for remote learning with the addition of a microphone huddle in the classroom – which picks up both instructor and student conversations and a tracking camera in the back of the classroom.
Programs
Logged in to Canvas to access Lecture slides that were constructed using Google Slides.
Logged in to MCC Gmail to access the calendar, where a stable Google Meet link was embedded in the calendar. Live online students had a copy of the Google Meet link in Canvas. Initiated Google Meet, which automatically used the huddle microphone and tracking camera.
Reflection
What worked?
The students quickly adopted the recommended procedure of contacting me via email before the lecture, to let me know that they would be attending live online. This allowed me to ascertain their reasons for attending live online. A large majority of the students attended live online on days when they did not have a lab AND were not feeling well. Surprisingly, most students continued to choose to attend in person even when they did not have a lab. Clearly, the overall student attendance was enhanced with the live online option.
Attendance was taken at the beginning of every lecture, using Canvas Attendance – no discrimination was made between in-person and online attendance. This was simple and effective regarding attendance, however, it would be a better pedagogical practice to have students begin the lecture by sitting down and working on a short activity before taking attendance.
What can be improved?
- It takes a long time to log in and load meeting platforms that allow recordings and breakout sessions. I used Google Meet for its simplicity and stability. A student can easily log in to Google Meet on their phone or portable device. Other platforms that have better functionality (e.g. Zoom) often require students to download apps. One option could be to have a beginning-of-semester assignment, where students confirm that they have downloaded appropriate apps and have saved the remote attendance links to allow them rapid access to the online lectures when needed.
- The tracking camera has some idiosyncrasies that I have not yet figured out – it “locks” onto particular areas of the classroom. Sometimes jumping around in front of it helps it to reload, other times it is a lost cause. There is no easy or direct access (e.g. an app on the desktop) to the tracking camera settings to be able to reset it.
- The room has two projectors and two screens, with the option of displaying different media on each screen. The podium screen is a touch-screen, which allows for easy navigation between slides. However, in order to display the podium screen “Full screen” on the projected screen, you cannot simultaneously display lecture slides AND see the remote meeting platform on the classroom podium. In order to do this, one would need to set up an additional device, and then log on to it, and ensure that the sound settings were switched off, to prevent feedback.
- It was difficult to juggle online student questions and in-person questions. In addition, I could not see the written chat while presenting.
- Given that the number of live online students was low (1- 5, out of 40) and variable, it is challenging to plan active classroom activities that the remote attendees can participate in.
- Have students take photos of whiteboard diagrams to share and post.
Contributor
For more information, contact Nicola Plowes (Mesa Community College) nicola.plowes@mesacc.edu
