Gerhard Kristandl
In the UK, the last two years since March 2020 marked nothing less than a rollercoaster ride in higher education. A series of lockdowns due to Covid-19 necessitated an initially rushed move of learning and teaching to online. A plethora of new digital learning technologies entered the professional lives of many educators that they had hitherto not been exposed to. From VLEs (virtual learning environments) to video conferencing software packages, a steep and continued acquisition of digital skills, both pedagogical and technological, triggered an accelerated cultural shift (Vigo, 2019) towards the adoption of digital technologies by many educational institutions – a shift that had started long before the pandemic hit.
The speed of deployment and the unfamiliarity of online learning and teaching overwhelmed students, educators and entire institutions alike (Schwartz, 2020). It received a bad reputation in the process, often portrayed by mainstream media as ‘inferior’ and ‘poor value for money’ (Adams, 2021). The ‘cautious optimism’ (Kernohan, 2022, in a recent WONKHE blog post) about the changes in learning and teaching that emerged and the willingness of institutions to ‘incorporate the best of emergency online provision to meet the increasingly diverse demands of students’ (Kernohan, 2022) appear to conflict with what the regulator considers to be ‘normal’.
Whilst this points to a long-term, strategic perspective, what about the short term? Were the last two years for ‘naught’, at least in terms of the digital skills acquired by the educators and the educated? Or is there a life for online and blended digital learning technologies in the face-to-face setting? In other words – can we transfer online back to the campus?
Do not discard – develop
In my experience, learning technology is often perceived to dictate what it is supposed to support. Before I explore some ways to transfer those digital practices back into a face-to-face setting, let me be clear on one thing: whatever learning technology we look at in and beyond this blog post, we must always put learner success first. This idea is not novel but may get lost in the perceived technological deluge. Learning technology needs to be an enabler, a facilitator of our work, and not get used ‘just because’. Like the toolbox in your garage, the learning technology one contains tools you would only use for a specific purpose – and only once this purpose is known and understood.
With that out of the way – what are some of those practices (and tools) that I propose have a place on campus to support student success and your teaching practices?
Three ideas to use and develop Teams and its ecosystem in learning and teaching
In the following sections, I focus on the ubiquitous Microsoft Teams and its use in terms of:
(1) the structure I employed to mirror the module set-up and generate a familiar learning environment
(2) the Class Notebook in Teams and how I used it both synchronously and asynchronously
(3) the communication practices via Teams to increase student engagement.
I hope that this will give you some ideas that you can build on and develop further for your own practice. During 2021/22, I applied these practices in exclusively face-to-face as well as hy-flex classes. At the beginning of each class, students logged into Teams on whichever device they preferred, regardless of their location.
- Teams structure and ecosystem
Teams offers groups, channels within the groups, and tabs within the channels. I named the channels according to themes/topics that mirrored the structure I used on Moodle (the platform used at my institution). I did so to invoke a feeling of familiarity and as a complement to Moodle itself (more on that later).
Each channel contained tabs linking to a variety of resources (websites, documents, videos) relevant to the topic in question. Via the channel chat, students discussed and reacted via emojis to posts, adding a dynamic element between and during classes. On more occasions than I can recount, I added materials ad hoc on my commute to class. Interestingly, students started to react via emojis within minutes to that content, showing their engagement before class had even started.
A major advantage of Teams over competing products like Zoom or WebEx is the vast Microsoft and third-party ecosystem. For example, I used the following apps extensively:
- Whiteboard (handwriting or –drawing concepts)
- Reflect (gauging how students felt on the day)
- Forms (running quick quizzes, taking attendance)
- Class Notebook (taking searchable notes ‒ more on that one later)
Have a look yourself what apps are available for your needs – you can find them under Apps on the right-hand side of the Teams window.
- Class Notebook
Class Notebook is a note-taking application based on OneNote, pre-structured with sections for collaboration, sharing content, uploading view-only materials and teacher-only access:
I added sections to the students’ notebooks, such as ‘Session Slides’ or ‘Homework Materials’, but students could add their own and re-arrange the materials as needed. Notes were taken via stylus, keyboard, as text, audio recording – and students always had them available. Class Notebook empowered students (and me) to take notes the way we wanted. Students could improve their own note-taking skills; they scribbled, doodled, shared notes, sketched – you name it. And the cream on top was that all notes in their various forms, handwritten or not, were searchable, even images and PDFs, as Class Notebook can do OCR (optical character reading).
This was a fantastic experience! Using the smartphone for good (not evil) during class widened digital equity, no matter the platform or the operating system: 24/7 access, synced across all devices, and I as their teacher had access to all student notebooks. This made it a breeze to distribute work via Class Notebook and provide feedback in written or audio form. Students even used it for group assessment work, and if they had questions, there was no need to send attachments via email. This also eliminated the risk of several document versions floating around and the confusion which one was the most up-to-date.
Using Class Notebook in these ways improved accessibility and inclusivity. The Immersive Reader included is a brilliant function for many students and tracking student work became much simpler. I found myself using recorded audio feedback a lot, as it conveyed content and tone. If this has piqued your interest, please have a look at my Class Notebook video on YouTube.
- Student communication and engagement
Teams is an excellent tool to keep in touch with students. I tagged them in messages and announcements to trigger notifications on their smartphones, again in conjunction with the familiar use of emojis. This helped me gauge engagement with what I announced to them. This was not a surprise – our students are digital natives used to similar platforms and interfaces. The closer and informal contact helped in building a sense of community and, dare I say it, ‘belonging’ to a group in and between sessions. Even peer support emerged where students started to answer each other’s questions, and the most asked ones helped me build a bank of frequently asked questions (FAQ) in Class Notebook.
Teams as a synchronous and asynchronous communication platform allowed me to offer direct and secure contact when students needed it. I found that this lowered students’ reluctance to ask questions – even for timid students who were otherwise afraid to speak out.
Don’t forget your VLE!
You might think now that I am suggesting Teams to replace existing VLEs such as Moodle or Canvas. Quite the opposite! It is important to highlight that VLEs are better for asynchronous learning where students progress through a structured learning journey. Teams on the other hand is better for continuous, synchronous interaction via live collaboration, chat and messaging.
As such, Teams complements and does not replace a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). After all, Teams is not a VLE – it is a dynamic communication tool. Bringing both together pedagogically and technologically has exciting potential for face-to-face teaching and learning.
Concluding thoughts
A return to campus does not mean the death knell for the digital skills we as educators and students as learners have acquired during the lockdown years. Teams is a good example of a technology to enrich face-to-face interactions, tailored to our digital natives in class. It augments our students’ skill set in an area that is here to stay, as it is unlikely that they will use a VLE in their professional careers. It will require an open mindset and a reinvention of what we do as educators – but then again, is this not what we do on an ongoing basis? The pandemic has accelerated technological advances that universities need to do their utmost to not fall behind. Done right, bringing these technologies into the classroom will benefit our students and their learning experiences beyond any module or programme.
References
Adams, R. (2021) ‘Online-only learning not worth £9K tuition, OECD warns UK universities’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/16/online-only-learning-is-not-value-for-money-uk-universities-told (Accessed: 7 September 2022).
Kernohan, D. (2022) ‘Learning technology needs to support learner success’, Wonkhe. Available at: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/learning-technology-needs-to-support-learner-success (Accessed: 7 September 2022).
Schwartz, S. (2020) ‘Flood of online learning resources overwhelms teachers’, Education Week. Available at: https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/flood-of-online-learning-resources-overwhelms-teachers/2020/03#:~:text=Teachers%20are%20overwhelmed%20by%20the%20flood%20of%20online,have%20started%20running%20lists%20of%20materials%20and%20programs (Accessed: 7 September 2022).
Vigo, J. (2019) ‘Education technology and the shift in how we learn’, Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/julianvigo/2019/08/23/education-technology-and-the-shift-in-how-we-learn/?sh=cd119062a2c7 (Accessed: 7 September 2022).
Dr Gerhard Kristandl (g.kristandl@greenwich.ac.uk) is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting Information Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems. In his role as the Greenwich Business School Learning Technologist (since April 2021), he is a passionate advocate for and visionary thinker in the use of technology in higher education. He is driving and leading a wide range of highly innovative projects in blended, hybrid, and hy-flex teaching and learning environments, especially with a focus on enabling learning technology.
As an educator in higher education of over 15 years at several international institutions in the UK, Canada, and Austria, he has won, been nominated, and shortlisted by students and staff for several teaching awards. He is an Empowered Presenter in Mentimeter in 2020 and is also its university lead since January 2021. Further, he is also the University of Greenwich SAP Next-Gen Lab lead (since 2017). Since 2018, he has held a Senior Fellowship in Higher Education.
Dr Kristandl’s research interest is currently vested in enabling learning technology and runs his own channels on YouTube and Twitch.