Teaching via video

September 26, 2006 6:50 AM

Academic video conferencing: I've just found out I'm going to be doing some teaching via video conference, some tips would be very handy.

I'm teaching a higher education course soon, I was expecting only 1-3 students to pick my option and was planning to do a cosy seminar in my office. I've just found out I'll be videolinked to some other students, possibly up to 10. I'm concerned that a small discussion seminar won't work with a large group of students and a videolink. Do others have experience with this? Anyone have any tips on getting the most out of videolinking? What teaching methods work best? What doesn't work?

posted by biffa to Education (7 answers total)

Best answer: I teach online a lot, but always asynchronous, no video. I would be worried about the remote students keeping up with the readings and conversation, you could have them each email you a short reaction paper each week before class, and use that as a prompt: "Suzie, you write that Foucault is 'wacky.' Care to expand on that?"

A course website is a must for distance students. You can use whatever package your university has (probably the evil Blackboard) or use Blogger or Google Pages to throw something together.
posted by LarryC at 6:59 AM on September 26, 2006

Check to see if there is any type of delay and keep it in mind. Pause after a few sentences, not long, even a second or two delay so you're tripping over words when someone on the other end is asking questions. If you're using Polycom/h.323 stuff over ip theres a delay of about a second. This may not sound like much but can be annoying at times for people who talk fast. Also try to be dynamic. Move around or at least express yourself with your face and hands. It can be difficult to keep their attention over ip....try to make it a bit more entertaining.
posted by killyb at 7:54 AM on September 26, 2006

This is more a general tip about being up in front of a room, but may be useful to you. Video tape yourself once for practice delivering about 15min of content similar to they way you'll be delivering it "live". Then, play back the video at high speed and you'll soon see a bunch of repeated tics/habits/annoyances that you can focus on eliminating if they're not helpful to your delivery style. This things will be more noticeable to people watching you on tv/monitor.

I did this and noticed things like I always leaned to the right, brushed hair out of my face a lot, frequently looked for a place to put papers down as I make a point, looked quizzical when I was trying to get a point across (I thought I was putting on a thoughtful expression). This sort of thing helped me.
posted by cocoagirl at 8:17 AM on September 26, 2006

What are you teaching? Do you need to draw a lot (equations? free body diagrams? cellular structures?), or show models? The best thing you can have in a class like this is an additional camera shooting down at a pad of paper or desktop, which is easier to see (for students) and write on (for you).
posted by whatzit at 8:58 AM on September 26, 2006

If it's an IP link, be aware of the delay, which is around 1/2 - 1 second. Stay close to the microphone, so that the far end can hear you all the time. Bear in mind where the mike is, and try to speak in its general direction at all times. If you're using Powerpoint talks, don't use a laser pointer, point with the mouse. Be aware of where the camera is, look into it when talking to the far end.
posted by kenchie at 9:10 AM on September 26, 2006

Response by poster: I can use powerpoint/projector which will automatically show up at the other end. I don't think I'm going to get the camera , since we only have them in bigger rooms and I don't have enough peope at this end to justify a big room.
I don't need to use a lot of equations. Social Science stuff mostly, bit of law, politics, policy.
posted by biffa at 9:54 AM on September 26, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks all, some useful tips. I will be using the idea of making them do summaries of required reading and other tips will hopefully help too.
posted by biffa at 12:51 AM on September 28, 2006