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There are practical difficulties in having some students in the classroom and some students online: it's hard for a single instructor to split attention that wa

by kkylin 6y ago

There are practical difficulties in having some students in the classroom and some students online: it's hard for a single instructor to split attention that way, unless they have some help (e.g., a student assistant) in the classroom. It would be more effective if universities had more dedicated online versions of courses. This had already been happening before the pandemic and would probably be accelerated post-pandemic for a variety of reasons. Edit: fix grammar + clarify.

sjtindell 6y ago
At my school our professors actually did this split very well. They had a chime sound when an online hand was raised, they always prioritized those students, and they had good tech to display their screens both in the classroom and online. With the right tech and competent teachers, it’s completely doable in my experience.
- kkylin 6y ago
  Oh, I completely agree with that. One of the issues, especially at large public universities, is that many faculty members who are perfectly effective in person have difficulties with the technology. Asking them to split attention on top of an already stressful situation is hard, and training only gets one so far. So the online experience is hard to make consistent across courses and even sections of the same course.
hinkley 6y ago
I would think it's even worse than that. Do the same teaching aids/rhetorical devices work out for face-to-face, small group, auditorium, remote people? It doesn't seem like they do. I've cringed through a few different videos of someone who developed a presentation for 50 people and then was blindsided by a room full of 400 and their material didn't quite work. Your presentation is deeply affected by the kind of audience you're aimed at.
- kkylin 6y ago
  Oh absolutely, there are many differences between in person and online, and (as you said) the size of the audience definitely matters. Part of the job of instructors is to work the crowd, and in that sense it is not different from any other kind of performance. Setting matters. I guess I was making a point in reaction to the many "hybrid" in person / online courses being offered by universities, for the fall and possibly beyond. Hybrid is actually harder than either 100% in person or 100% online.

by kkylin 6y ago

sjtindell 6y ago

At my school our professors actually did this split very well. They had a chime sound when an online hand was raised, they always prioritized those students, and they had good tech to display their screens both in the classroom and online. With the right tech and competent teachers, it’s completely doable in my experience.

kkylin 6y ago
Oh, I completely agree with that. One of the issues, especially at large public universities, is that many faculty members who are perfectly effective in person have difficulties with the technology. Asking them to split attention on top of an already stressful situation is hard, and training only gets one so far. So the online experience is hard to make consistent across courses and even sections of the same course.

hinkley 6y ago

I would think it's even worse than that. Do the same teaching aids/rhetorical devices work out for face-to-face, small group, auditorium, remote people? It doesn't seem like they do. I've cringed through a few different videos of someone who developed a presentation for 50 people and then was blindsided by a room full of 400 and their material didn't quite work. Your presentation is deeply affected by the kind of audience you're aimed at.

kkylin 6y ago
Oh absolutely, there are many differences between in person and online, and (as you said) the size of the audience definitely matters. Part of the job of instructors is to work the crowd, and in that sense it is not different from any other kind of performance. Setting matters. I guess I was making a point in reaction to the many "hybrid" in person / online courses being offered by universities, for the fall and possibly beyond. Hybrid is actually harder than either 100% in person or 100% online.