Facilitation and Classroom Norms
The way in which Dual Modality instructors will facilitate their classrooms will vary based on class size, the number of in-person and remote students, and personal preferences. This section presents considerations for facilitation and classroom norms, as well as recommendations from Dual Modality faculty, that may inform your decisions in the classroom.
Facilitation Considerations
- Acknowledge who is where at the beginning of class. Allow remote students to know what their presence in the physical classroom looks like.
- Rote attendance
- Quick check-ins
- Greet each person individually, if possible. Greet groups if not.
- Ask/verify that audio and video are working
- Consider your enrollment and the number of in-person and remote students. Is there a balance or does one form of attendance predominate? Many faculty approach the Dual Modality course as an online class for planning and facilitation purposes.
- Consider using a laptop camera to join Zoom as well as the OWL/tracking camera to provide different ways of looking for remote students. Some faculty invite in-person students to join Zoom sessions as well (while muted).
- Zoom hosts can pin up to 10 participants on the confidence monitor so that in-person students will see remote students on the monitor (rather than themselves)
- Remind remote students of their options for adjusting their view of the classroom in Zoom (pinning, spotlighting, gallery view, etc.)
- Will you teach sitting down or standing up? Consider what your style is as you plan norms
- Do you switch up throughout the session?
- Standing for a lecture and sitting for a discussion is a common approach.
- Try to narrate your actions (Now I’m connecting the whiteboard…) or summarize them if audio is disturbed so that remote students are included in the physical classroom.
Classroom Norms
As with facilitation practices, classroom norms will vary based on the course and student and instructor presences. Before a Dual Modality course, instructors will want to consider how they will manage the aspects of the class listed below. Developing these norms with students can be particularly effective and increase buy-in.
- Presence in class
- Are remote students required to keep their cameras on?
- Hand Raising
- Do all students raise their hands online?
- Do remote students unmute to ask questions?
- Chat
- How will the chat be used in your course?
- Do in-person students use/see the chat?
- How will you manage private messages?
- Having Zoom on your personal laptop can help with this.
- Respond to private messages during breaks
- If you share the chat on the main screen, let students know it will be visible
- A teaching assistant might monitor the chat. (If you do not have a TA and ask a student to fulfill this role, consider how it might impact their learning)
- If the chat is too much to manage, let students know how it will be used (example: link sharing only)
- Consider building in specific times when you’ll pause for questions. Ex.: Any questions? Let’s check the chat.
- Discussion
- Encourage only one person to speak at a time to make the audio the most effective
- Ask students to repeat questions back. Encourage active listening practices
- Sharing materials
- Provide access to all materials online via the LMS
- Zoom norms
- Will remote students be required/expected to be on video?
- Establish a procedure for automatic muting to limit audio interference
- Consider setting up the Zoom meeting so that students/participants are automatically muted
- Breaks
- Include built-in breaks to check technologies, respond to messages etc.
- Managing student requests to talk before or after class
- Consider providing time for students to ask questions after class. Determine a procedure for remote students to request that time.
- Some faculty keep Zoom on, and use breakout rooms as needed
- If a remote student has a private question, consider waiting until in-person students leave
- If necessary, provide another way for students to contact you/set up time (email, calendy/youcanbookme)
- End class clearly
- This gives remote students the clear ‘go-ahead’ to leave
- Recording
- Will you record classes?
- Guest speakers
- Will they come via Zoom or in-person?
- Consider the preferences of the guest and their readiness for the Dual Modality environment.
- Group work
- If you use group work in your class, think through how you will form groups in the Dual Modality course. Will in-person and remote students work together across modalities or will you group in-person students and remote students separately? If students are grouped by modality, plan ways for the class to connect after the group work (report outs, summaries, etc.)
