The world has changed dramatically over the last few weeks, and universities have been transitioning to remote working to support their staff and students and ensure business continuity. However, the last ten days of the new normal has revealed just how dependent we are on the sophisticated IT infrastructures of our institutions. Each day presents a new technical obstacle that would have been unheard of when I am working across the campus or in my the office.
At the heart of the issues I have encountered is the challenge of domestic broadband. Although sufficient for everyday communication through e-mail, or basic research using online resources, the broadband speed in my area is very poor. I am not alone in this, and it makes certain activities very difficult indeed. Teaching through video-conferencing, for instance, is very demanding in terms of bandwidth, and as there are two of us sharing the same connection for work purposes, we have to ration its use. For a very useful way of thinking about bandwidth and teaching activities, see Daniel Stanford’s (DePaul University) blog post on the same subject.
This has led me to think very carefully about the kinds of teaching materials that I develop, and also the kinds of expectations that we create for our colleagues and students. Although I am very much an advocate of synchronous learning technologies, video calls can be frustrating for both educators and learners due to high bandwidth demands. Before Covid-19 intervened, I began working with colleagues in the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning (CTEL) on the design of ‘micro-modules’, which could include short video clips and audio but were sufficiently lightweight to work on most mobile devices.
Micro-modules are short, self-paced learning platforms that incorporate interactive tasks, such as tests. They are particularly helpful for postgraduate researcher development because most of our training sessions are only around 2-3 hours in length, and provide a convenient way for learners to become familiar with the session content. This can be extended by contact time in the classroom or online in face-to-face workshops if needed. Although this form of flipped learning is more challenging for educators to create, due to the need for scripting and sourcing multimedia content, my experience so far has been very positive.
Working with CTEL colleagues has been a very rewarding experience, and their guidance around the presentation and purpose of the materials was invaluable. It made me look at the design of modules that I had taught for several years with fresh eyes, and focused attention on the key concepts that learners need to grasp before they can progress. This often meant removing non-essential content that at best was a digression, and at worst a distraction.
Covid-19 and the remote working revolution will likely remain a significant challenge to many educators, but thinking carefully about the purpose and accessibility of teaching materials means that we can better deploy a range of skills to support learning. It means we can avoid uploading static content with little pedagogical framing, long videos of lectures, or feeling under pressure to host long video calls with students and colleagues. Global crisis is disruptive to our work, but it does not need to be destructive.