Frequently asked questions in the semester of hybrid education
1.part: General recommendations
Which general questions should be considered at the start of the semester?1. The teacher should discuss the forms of cooperation with the students and they should review the conditions of the work to be carried out together. This is an atypical semester. Students should know and understand its peculiar features, opportunities and pitfalls.
2. When elaborating the schedule of the course, such aspects should be considered as
a. eventual technical problems during distance education (e.g. internet connection problems) or
b. the new challenges of organising and managing classes (e.g. keeping 1.5-meter distance, wearing mask, more problematic groupwork, etc.) during the contact classes or
c. communication challenges between students joining in the class online and students being present on site during hybrid education (e.g. involving students having joint through the internet is difficult, continuously ensuring the proper sound and image quality of the broadcast, eventual time difference, etc.).
3. It should be remembered that the aim of the contact class is not the simultaneous presence of the students, but that the students should feel that the teachers wants to know them, that they are curious about them! This way the contact classes may be organised in smaller groups, in shorter timeframes.
4. In case we decide to keep the lessons exclusively in distant mode, we should consider offering 1-2-3 personal consultation(s) during the semester (not beyond the class, but included in it), or even in smaller groups (e.g. the first, sixth and last class will be on site; the first half of
the class for the first part of the group, the second half of the class for second part of the group, or divided in even smaller groups, etc.).
5. The teachers have a great variety of online platforms available during the courses. However, please, be aware that for students it can be very demanding if different teachers use different platforms.
6. Always follow the university and faculty news related to the pandemic. They can have a great influence on our recent plans and can give us help related to the preliminary planning of the rest of the course’s schedule. Please, click here to access the official website of ELTE Epidemiological Operative Coordinating Body and here to access ELTE PPK’s faculty work group’s information and guides related to education.
7. In case we teach first year student group as well, we should strive to ensure on site sessions during the semester so that they can start their studies with minimized disadvantages, just like their senior peers. However, even with them, the security aspects should be remembered!
2.part: Recommendations for distance education mode exclusively in the online space
Where do I find tips, descriptions, guides if I want to teach my course in distant mode?- At the start of distance education, we made numerous recommendations, created guides helping teacher work (either synchronous or asynchronous class), or the evaluation of student performance.
- ELTE PPK guides supporting distance education (Canvas, applications suitable for integration, methodological considerations, evaluation, examination, etc.) https://ppk.elte.hu/en/content/guide-for-education-and-evaluation.t.39176?m=601
- IT Directorate’s guidebooks (O365, MS Teams Panopto, VPN, etc.): http://iig.elte.hu/howto
- Guidebooks of ELTE Directorate for Educational Affairs ( https://www.elte.hu/elearning/lms)
- For the sake of transparent education and for supporting student orientation, the Teams platform is recommended at the first place for online classes until 40 number of people. With a simple Neptun integration the teacher can automatically establish the Teams group connected to their class (with one day of transit time). Then, the system automatically assigns the students of the course to the Teams course’s platform.
- Do not forget to activate the Teams group after the group of your course is present on the Teams platform (by clicking on the blue ‘Activate’ button after entering the group)!
- It can happen that due to an error not all students get into the Teams course group. In this case, you can add students based on their name / Neptun code / ELTE student email address / by clicking on the three dots next to the course (adding members). In case a student was assigned to the Teams group of the course who is no longer a student of the course, do not forget to remove them manually because the system automatically does not do it.
- In case we teach a class beyond 40 number of students (for example lectures) and we intend to have them as asynchronous classes (for example with first year students for the sake of an “easier” acclimatisation), we recommend using ZOOM. Per institutions the faculty provides a ZOOM Business subscription that is suitable for teaching classes up to 300 number of people for illimited time with supplementary features (e.g. smaller size chat rooms, in-built voting system, etc.)
At the same time, only one teacher can have class on the institution’s ZOOM platform. It is recommended to record the name of the class and that of the teacher in the ZOOM Schedule (planner) part in each case to avoid eventual clashes. It might be worth creating a common planning platform and request order at institutional level. Its system should be arranged and coordinated with the institution’s director and the institution’s secretariat.
How can students work together in pairs or in groupwork in the online space?The Teams and ZOOM both provide opportunity to teamwork in small groups. While in MS Teams the smaller groups can be created manually by establishing subchannels, in ZOOM this can be done either manually or automatically in the form of breakout rooms.
How can I make my class interactive in the online space?- Besides pair or groupwork, both in case of MS Teams and ZOOM there is a chat board where we can ask questions students can answer to, or they can also ask questions. In addition, uploading files is also possible. MS Teams completes them with emoticons and GIFs. On the surface of ZOOM, buttons are available urging interactivity (e.g. clap, tick, break, etc.)
- Apart from these, we can also enhance student activity with means of dispute-based teaching and learning. We can find a lot of ideas on the internet: https://www.ctl.upenn.edu/using-online-tools-discussion .
- If we would like to integrate activities further enhancing interactivity beyond Ms Teams and ZOOM, endless other platforms and solutions remain at our disposal that can serve our course’s learning aims. In relation to this, contact your mentor or ask for an appointment from a member of Distance Education Support Task Force to discuss your course’s specific demands and opportunities.
3.part: Recommendations to the new on-site contact teaching due to the panademic
How should an on-site occasion be envisioned considering the rules of security distancing and mask usage?- During the on-site teaching the previously employed pedagogical methods and teaching and learning activities’ solutions do not work or hardly work. Carrying out groupwork faces difficulties (e.g you need tospeak louder because of the distance and mask that thus elevates the noise level too much). That is why it is worth strengthening communication through digital channels between students present during the contact class (e.g. with the help of chat, document editing together, etc.)
- Keeping hygienic rules related to the usage of tools (e.g. marker, using the board, handouts) as well need to be remembered throughout the groupwork: continuous disinfection and wiping of tools are recommended. Disinfectant liquid and tissues are at disposal in the rooms equipped with digital tools (e.g. Kazy 313, Kazy 217).
- Students’ attention should be raised to continuous washing of hands and using sensory hand disinfectant placed in certain rooms! Before entering the room, we should ask them to disinfect their hands might as be with their own disinfectant in case they have.
- In case of small size of groups, we should avoid dividing them further into even smaller groups or we should avoid any tasks requiring physical moving:
- we should employ methods based on traditional, frontal teaching and learning, by involving the entire group simultaneously.
- pair or group communication between students should be placed into the online space (Teams channels, informal chat platforms).
4.part: Recommendations for hybrid education
When should we use the forms of hybrid education?- The main points of hybrid education is that one part of students are physically present at the course and the other part (who requested it due to the pandemic for example) joins the course online (e.g. on MS Teams or ZOOM).
- It is important to mention that this teaching method is only recommended to those teachers for whom unexpected technical difficulties are not too demanding and they do not generate stressful situations. In case you feel uncertain when using digital tools for such purposes, hybrid solution is not recommended for You.
- If only one or two students asked for distance education, a teaching method, based on giving extra assignments, identical to uniquely tailored study arrangement, is worth considering instead of ensuring the eventually more demanding hybrid learning environments.
- If more students asked for distance education, then hybrid education is recommended. However, keep in mind the following:
- Students need to bring their own digital appliances (smartphone, tablet, laptop) to the room so that groupwork can be place to the online space
- Be prepared that the wireless network can be overloaded. In this case students should be asked to sign off the common wireless network. In this way the image and sound quality is not decreased for students joining the class online on the teacher’s computer. Thus, they would not drop out of the given class either.
- In case of a strong wireless connection, the student present in the room can also use the wireless network (moreover, they can also join in the asynchronous chat if the class requires it).
- If more than half or third of the students asked for distance education, distant teaching method should be considered!
What kind of methods help me engage students both physically and online present at the same time?
- The below article presents 6 learning and teaching methods that can make hybrid education more efficient by actively involving students joining in online: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/08/26/strategies-teaching-onlineand-person-simultaneously-opinion. In case you have any concrete methodological questions related to your own class, please, contact your mentor or ask for an appointment from a member of Distance Education Support Task Force to discuss your course’s specific demands and opportunities.
You can seek professional help through the mentor system established in the last semester, from your mentor in the first place. If your mentor is not available or cannot give answer to your question, you can ask for a personal appointment from a member of Distance Education Support Task Force. The time of the online consultation occasions and the availabilities of colleagues can be found here.