Seamless Modalities: Supporting Students from the Classroom to the Cloud
Concurrent Session 9 & 10 (combined)
Brief Abstract
The pandemic flipped online learning on its head and things will never be the same. This session will explore trends, pedagogical changes, and practical tips that you will be able to implement immediately in your courses whether it be in a physical space, a digital space, or both.
Presenters
Extended Abstract
Overnight, educators have found themselves having to re-evaluate the value and function of online learning. Every student now has experience in, and expectations for, digital learning, and not all of it is positive. During this session you will examine your philosophy and approach towards online teaching for the new digital world within which students must learn. This session will explore trends in mobile technology, pedagogical changes for online, in-person, and blended learning and provide you with practical resources that you will be able to implement immediately in your course whether it be in a physical space, a digital space, or both.
There are times in history that we will never forget. In one way or another, we are changed by these events. We used to ask where you were when the challenger exploded, 9/11 happened, they landed on the moon. Now we ask where were you in the Spring of 2020 and how was your institution affected when everyone went online? All of us have stories to tell about how we shifted, how we pivoted, and how we faired. Now with enough time and space we have the unique perspective to examine the best of what emerged in our practices and make concerted efforts to improve teaching and learning moving forward.
Let’s take a look back... way, way back to old school – to the School of Athens where academia was idealized with the master and the apprentice. While things have changed a little since then, what remains true is that the relationship between the student and the instructor has always been at the heart of teaching and learning. It is also true that how we create this relationship (i.e. “sage on the stage” or “guide on the side”) and the tools we use change and keep changing. We are in the midst of a great change in higher education in so many ways. It is important to reflect back to propel us forward.
This session will introduce the term “seamless modalities” to reflect the current expectations of today’s sophisticated consumer of education. Our students are accustomed to shopping online and in person or buy online and pick up in person. The act of purchasing and consuming is seamless between modalities. This is true for banking, shopping, even dating. The customer has an expectation that regardless of modality, customer services and quality of product are equally high. We need to think about how we deliver and provide education in the same way.
The session begins with a brief overview of a timeline of mobile devices and how we have used mobile technology over time has also changed. Participants have a fun opportunity to share their first mobile technology with the group. Then, the participants engage in a vision casting exercise where they describe their perceptions of online learning before and after the pandemic and discuss with the group.
Participants walk through an assessment of strengths of teaching and learning elements of both modalities (face to face and online asynchronous). There are some strengths of in person learning that are more effective than online, including but are not limited, to deepening human connection, opportunities for experiential learning, and discussions, especially for difficult conversations. Participants will receive practical resources to improve online learning with elements of face-to-face learning. We also learned that online learning and course design can help build internal capacity for faculty to design better courses regardless of modality. Additionally, we have learned that online learning lends to better self-efficacy for learners and provides data to help drive instruction. Participants will receive resources for strengthening these areas in their face-to-face courses. Participants will work in small groups to extend and expand on the initial list of modality strengths.
Let’s talk about hyflex and synchronous! Hyflex is by far the hardest modality for faulty to teach and few instructors feel they have received adequate training to teach in this format. Instructors report feeling like they are performing and preparing for two different audiences, developing two different set of activities, and what do when one student is in the room and twenty students are online?
My institution invested in technology but never with the condition that teachers would teach this modality permanently. We designated 80% of our classrooms as “multi-access” and we used this technology as a solution for absences at the behest of the faculty members’ policy.
After exploring the lessons that we have learned about teaching and learning during the pandemic, we dive into trends for digital learning in higher educations with opportunities for attendees to create a collective, collaborative list of trends with the presenter. We will briefly discuss the potential implications of virtual reality and the metaverse.
Levels of Participation:
The session is designed so that both virtual and in-person participants will interact with the presenter, the materials, and with each other throughout the time allotted. At the beginning of the session, participants will be provided a QR code for a Link Tree so that they can interact with a selection of digital engagement tools. Examples of interactions include engaging in low-risk, synchronous and fun responses to questions about their earliest experiences with technologies, sharing perceptions in small groups and with the whole group in response to images designed to evoke thoughts and emotions about online learning. In-person share responses through low-tech post-it notes, and discussion and virtual responses are shared through the chat function. There will be time for questions at the end of the session for additional participation. As a takeaways, participants will leave the session after interacting with each other, and with the materials provided so the resources can be used immediately.
Session Goals:
Individuals attending this educational session will be able to reflect on the lessons-learned from the pandemic, specifically from blended and hyflex modalities and traditional asynchronous and face-to-face modalities. Participants will be able to apply the best pedagogy of in-person learning and online learning, both synchronous and asynchronous, across modalities in higher education to create seamless high quality learning experiences. Participants will be able to identify and prepare for trends for digital learning in the near future.