Coordinating interactions

When using a hybrid teaching model, technological support will be essential in coordinating interactions between:

1. instructor - participants;

2. participants-participants.

Instructor - partecipant interaction

• • All instructors are totally autonomous in planning their classroom activities and selecting the tools that are best suited to their contents, audience, and lesson time. The common goal is to keep participants highly engaged, both in the classroom and at home. This is why we recommend using multimedia tools.

  • All the possible combinations of tools can be coordinated by using the PC of the Podium alone (hereafter PODIUM), but we suggest that instructors bring their personals device as backup (hereafter DEVICE), which will make it easier to handle interactions. Personal devices can be set on the sliding tray, which can pull out from the right side of the podium. In this case, the microphone and speaker of the device must be disabled to prevent any echoes.

• Online partecipants

• When planning hybrid teaching sessions, online participants can only see one screen: the one shared via the conference call tool used to activate the call.

• This means that even if in-class participants see two screens, online learners see only one.

• That’s one of the reasons for using two PCs: with the personal DEVICE activated and accessing the session that distance learners are following via Collaborate/ Teams, it’s always possible to see what participants at home are seeing.

• You also have to decide whether and how to show online participants as they follow the session from home. This would help create the sensation of bridging the distance between participants, disseminating the classroom culture.

• We suggest displaying the screen showing online learners via the Collaborate or Team app, asking them to leave their webcams and mics on, at least when the lesson is getting started, during work group discussions and when the session is wrapping up. The idea here is that participants have to “be present” at the lesson, virtually if not physically, adopting a “classroom” posture and attitude.

• One limitation to this option is clearly the quality of the internet connection of the participants, who may need to turn off their webcams to get more bandwidth.

• The same applies for the use of microphones: during explanations by the instructor participants should mute their mics to eliminate background noise.

• During the lesson, everyone must have the chance to actively participate. At the beginning of the lesson, the instructor should tell the class how interactions will be handled.

Here are some options:

• participants can raise their hands – physically if they are in class and virtually for those at home. The instructor will be notified by hearing the sound of a tone or checking Teams/Collaborate. Once a participant is given the floor, they can speak to the group. Classrooms are equipped with boundary mics to amplify the voices of in-class participants (but the sound quality depends in part on the tone of voice of the speaker). For these reasons, we suggest that instructors repeat their questions so online learners can hear them clearly. At the beginning of the lesson, it’s a good idea to explain this to participants, so they all know that they’ll always hear questions twice. Also, any comments or input from participants (beyond simple questions) should be repeated as well (again by the instructor) so everyone can follow what is being said.

• Have participants write their questions in the chat box. The instructor would see the question (which would be best on a personal device) and then read out loud to the entire class. In-class participants can raise their hand when they want to speak.

• Have both in-class and on-line participants join the conference call and anyone who wants to speak would follow the same procedure, virtually raising their hand and/or writing their questions in the chat box.

If the instructor doesn’t have a personal DEVICE, or if in the beginning doesn’t feel confident about methods for managing classroom technology, or simply has a personal preference, other options are:

• to ask for assistance from a Community Manager during your lesson, who will assist you by relaying questions from participants in the classroom and at home;

• to ask for support from in-class participants, having them to take turns monitoring the chat from their own DEVICES.

Participant – Participant Interaction

The simplest, most effective way is to manage all participants, even the ones in the classroom, via the conference call tool. To do so, everyone who is physically present needs to be connected via their own device; they also need headphones.

Another option for managing classroom discussion is to transfer the virtual classroom onto the source in the Right section of the podium, and invite in-class participants to speak up when they have something to say.

(See also the section in this guide dedicated to managing work groups.)

Generally speaking, the more thoroughly instructors plan their lessons ahead of time, the simpler it will be to manage classroom interaction. Lesson planning means having a clear idea of the methods, tools, and technical solutions needed to manage the different stages of the session. What’s more, the more lesson plans are shared with the Community Manager and the MEO staff before sessions begin, the easier classroom management will be.