Embedding Pedagogy and Blending Edtech in the Learning Design of a Virtual Classroom: A Portfolio of Good Practices

 

Introduction

            Let us first acknowledge that we are currently in an extraordinary situation. We are in the middle of a global pandemic. This is unprecedented in our lifetime and across a number of generations, I would say. In fact, if you would ask an 80-year old grandfather about pandemic, outrightly he would tell you that in his lifetime he has not experience such health crisis of such scale.

            In the context of the business of education, a lot of us are caught off guard and flat footed even if our schools, colleges and universities have established LMS or learning management system, the teaching and learning requirements amid COVID19 are simply huge and overwhelming.

            In retrospect, the virtual teaching experience of the English language program of the Faculty of Business and Logistics (FoBL) in Bahrain Polytechnic is not unique. Similar with the other programs of higher education institutions across the globe, the program has made a 360-degree virtual shift in response to the disruption of the global pandemic COVID-19.

The Challenge

            Apart from the expected connectivity and technical issues, an equally important recurring concern that the program must face squarely head on is ensuring the quality of virtual teaching. Ensuring the quality means that virtual teaching needs to have a sound learning design and pedagogical foundations. This is because in a digital mode of instruction, only the medium or channel has changed. Virtual teaching is still a form of teaching that must have a learning process. It being such requires a learning design and a pedagogy or the mechanism by which teaching is carried out. Learning design and pedagogy ensure that the teaching practice is in accord with the principles of teaching and learning, and would therefore warrant quality.

The Response that works

            The virtual delivery in the program takes two modalities-synchronous and asynchronous. To monitor students' track, a series of guide questions would have to be asked to check students' engagement in the instructional loop. The weekly cycle involves two pre-sessions, two live sessions and an optional post session. The pre-session is asynchronous since students learn at their own time and pace.  On the other hand, the second session is synchronous since it is live and students learn together facilitated by the tutors, while the post session is either synchronous or asynchronous. It can be synchronous when done together with the active support and guidance of the tutors. On the other hand, it can be asynchronous when done individually in isolation.

            The first question that we have to ask a student is: Have you watched, read, and or have answered materials on Moodle? if the answer is NO, then the student would be advised to go to Moodle. If it is YES, then the second question/ would be asked: Have you attended the live BBB (Big Blue Button) lecture and break out room activity? If the answer is NO, then the student would be advised to go to BBB recording. If recording is not available, then the teacher had to share materials via email. If the answer is YES, then the third question would be asked: Have you done your share of the work on OneDrive? If the answer is NO, then then the student would be advised to go to OneDrive and do the work. If the answer is YES, then the student would be directed to proceed to the next lesson for the week. And the cycle continues.

 

Sustaining the Response that works

           We have been talking about managing the elements, but how about embedding them. The answer is found in the learning design of our sessions-both synchronous and asynchronous. The learning design is the framework or the template which would serve as the prototype for our lesson or session design. Having a sound learning design in placed is one of the best practices in virtual teaching.

         For the learning design of virtual classes, Gagne's instructional design model is recommended. Gagne's model is based on cognitive social constructivism, an educational philosophy that advocates that learners construct knowledge not only through their meaningful experiences but also through social interaction and collaboration with other learners.

            There are nine learning events in this model, but events numbers 1, 3, 4, and 8 would therefore require a specific learning solution or edtech app in a virtual teaching context.. Moreover, there is an emerging need to revisit virtual classes and evaluate if they followed an instructional design framework like that of Gagne's model; and if these modalities have been effective in sustaining interaction and collaboration with in the virtual learning space. 

       The bottom line, edtech solutions and tools should be deliberately selected and blended strategically and creatively to the main learning platforms in order to enhance specific aspects of the learning experience of our students.It should have a clear match with a specific learning event. That cannot be over emphasized.

            A caveat: No amount of sophisticated technology would have the greatest impact on the learning process, but how we would apply these technologies on our virtual teaching that would make the greatest impact on our students' learning.

Managing Interaction

                For learner's interaction to be effective, it should be able to penetrate through the three layers- with other learners, with the teacher and with the content.

 

 

          Since Moodle is utilized for asynchronous session, it is imperative that students get the opportunity to at least interact with the content. Creating a Moodle Quiz is one way to achieve this purpose.  There are a variety of ways that a Moodle Quiz can be created with an enabled auto-feedback. Moreover, the design of audio-narrated Power Point presentations should be framed with following an instructional design model. For instance, that of Gagne's.

            Using BBB, interactive features like public chat, shared mic and video cam should be enabled, but mics and cams are activated only for specific class purpose. For instance, discussion, recitation and presentation. Otherwise, the teaacher's voice would be competing with 20 other voices in the BBB classroom. This can potentially result to a real chaos.  In other words, prudence in managing virtual class noise is strongly advised as it could adversely interfere instruction.

            Furthermore, at times contingent on session objectives, BBB's poll feature can be exploited to activate students' prior knowledge and/or experience and to encourage individual participation. Occasionally, BBB can be complemented with Kahoot, Padlet or Mentimeter apps to serve this purpose as well.

Managing Collaboration

             For simple tasks, BBB's  "break out room" is utilized while OneDrive is for complex tasks or those that require a longer work timetable. Using BBB, teachers should first lay down short but clear expectations for group activities. For example, a teacher would tell students that when they are in the break out rooms, it is expected that they have to Think Actively about the task, negotiate their thoughts with their group mates, and then ”Seal the Deal” on what they have concurred  on. Eventually, share with the other groups when the class is back to the BBB “main room”. Using OneDrive, a teacher should make sure that task is broken down into smaller related chunks to provide scaffolding support and to avoid Cognitive Overload. Equally important is the creation of milestone checker and to reward accomplishments intrinsically to reinforce positive behavior.

Managing Feedback

          Effective feedback should transcend from task or performance level, up to the process level in which students reflect on specific learning strategies.  And finally, up to the self-regulation level where students themselves monitor their own learning.  Using BBB, teachers should make sure that they themselves are actively engage in the break out rooms. Students would see that their teachers are visible around them and that they would really feel their teachers' virtual presence. Teachers can do this by giving students timely and constructive feedback even “wake up calls” to those students who are disengaged and not on-track while they are working with their groupmates in the break out rooms.

           

             It is the same strategy for OneDrive, but the advantage of OneDrive is that students can follow through a teacher's feedback in one document. Students would see if they were able to act on the teacher's feedback and make progress from it on their assigned work. Conversely, this is a good feature of the app because students can monitor and self –regulate their learning.

Evidencing the Response that works

            Embedding learning elements of pedagogy into the learning design of a virtual class has a number of empirical evidence that reports on its benefits. Pelz (2009) concludes in his study that these learning elements of pedagogy have strong positive linear correlation with students' engagement. In the language of research, it describes the variables as “significantly related” with each other. Meaning, they move together or they synergize each other in a virtual learning environment. Hence, when the level of learning elements is high, the level of student engagement is also high.

             In the context of Bahrain Polytechnic's English language program in the Faculty of Business and Logistics, here are the numbers that support the efficacy of this virtual teaching practice. The first is a study that was conducted in the second semester of academic year 2020-2021. In that study, the digital footprints of our students were compared with their perceived virtual learning satisfaction in a survey.  The study involves a cohort of 385 students with a digital footprint access rate at 97% and survey participation rate at 92%. Here is what the numbers are telling us in a nutshell: both digital footprint and satisfaction survey results reveal that our students are "above average" satisfied with their virtual learning experience in terms of interaction, collaboration and feedback. 

      The second study involves data taken from assessments results.  Formative and summative performances are compared and analyzed. The participation rate for both assessments is at 97%. Here is what the numbers are telling us: there is a significant improvement in the performance between the formative and summative in both assessment as indicated by a consistent decrease of fail rate; and conversely a consistent increase of pass rate in both RW or ReadWrite and LS or ListenSpeak assessments. 

Conclusion

            Having said all these, it cannot be argued that we are currently navigating through unfamiliar terrain, but this does not mean that we are on a "dead end" road-like there is nowhere to go. On the contrary, we are not. We are constantly moving on a vast open unexplored field full of untapped opportunities for both teaching and learning.

            However, the challenge remains. This is the challenge of navigation or moving to the right direction in order to arrive to our intended destination. The destination where learning outcomes of our courses are achieved successfully. And this is where the right learning design and pedagogy will help us tutors through- as a navigational tool or as a compass in this journey.