Teaching lectures in an online setting is different than teaching on campus. Students tell us that it's more difficult to keep paying attention and lots of teachers have complained they are teaching to black Zoom screens. Also, both students and teachers want more interaction during this online time. So how can we create this interaction in an online setting and how can we solve this problem? On this page we will tell you all about it!

What is the best way to teach lectures during in an online setting? This page will give you the tips that have shown to work best after a year of experience teaching online.

The way to do this #1:
Communicate expected Zoom behaviour. If you want students to switch their camera on, you need to communicate this clearly before class starts. This way students can prepare by looking presentable.
You can share this document with your students about how they are expected to behave during a Zoom class.

The way to do this #2:
Make knowledge clips. Listening to a teacher talk for 2 hours, can be exhausting and doesn't provide any activity or interaction. By making a knowledge clip you can explain a topic to your students before class in a short video. This gives you time during your lectures to discuss the topic with your students in more depth in an interactive way.

The way to do this #3:
Provide variation during the lecture. Students loose focus if they do 1 thing for a long period of time in an online setting. By providing variety in your lessons students will be shaken awake from time to time. Ask questions to your students by using polls or Mentimeter, use an energizer, discuss topics in small groups in breakout rooms, write together on an online whiteboard to create content together. This stimulates activity and interaction.

Energizer examples

The way to do this #4:
Create a safe environment. Asking questions or speaking up during a Zoom meeting with lots of participants is scary for your students. Lower the threshold to participate by asking questions where all students can participate anonymously with Mentimeter and polls. Use breakout rooms to discuss in small groups first, speaking up after a breakout room, is less scary for students than without.

Best Practice

What does a lesson look like?

Student preparation	Watch knowledge clip
Student preparation	Read article together with Feedbackfruits
11:00-12:00	Energizer
	Discuss Feedbackfruits findings in Q&A style for additional explanation and deeper understanding
	Break
12:00-12:45	Break-out room for discussion or application
	Discuss findings with entire group
	Class evaluation with Mentimeter

How to best teach an online lecture via Zoom? After a year of teaching online, we found that these tips will help you most!

Preparation

Move the knowledge transfer into the preparation time
Communicate your Zoom etiquette
Make sure your Zoom settings are right
Plan breaks in advance

Introduction

Don't start sharing your PowerPoint right away
Create a safe environment
Energize your students
Ask how your students are doing
Use a short quiz

Facilitate interaction

Think about the structure of your lesson
Ask questions often
Take advantage of all the possibilities of Mentimeter
Ask for reactions
Have students work together in small groups

Evaluate

Evaluate with test questions
Evaluate lesson design
Try something different

How to bring these tips into practice? You can find it here:

Teaching techniques for online Zoom lectures

Floor's experience with Live Online Lectures

Floor is currently in her master’s. Ever since the transition to online education, she has been ‘attending’ Zoom lectures at least once a week. She has noticed that different teachers use and organize Zoom lectures in very different ways. Some teachers decide to give shorter lectures and combine it with a Q&A session and/or breakout rooms. Floor really enjoys break-out rooms, because this gives her the opportunity to interact with her fellow students. They share opinions and stories, not only about the course’s content, but also about informal things during these break-out rooms. But Floor also has had less good experiences. Some teachers decide to give four-hour lectures via Zoom with little interaction. "No matter how interesting a lecture is, four hours is too intense and too long."

Charlotte's experience

"We horen volop dat het studentenwelzijn enorm gekelderd is sinds Corona. Hoofdoorzaak nummer één is vermoedelijk de beperkte interactie. Docenten zijn ontzettend hun best gaan doen om online mogelijkheden te vinden voor meer interactie in hun online lessen. Vaak is het antwoord om meer te variëren tijdens de lessen. Betrek studenten op een laagdrempelige manier door ze vragen te stellen via Mentimeter. Maak gebruik van break-out rooms, gebruik hier en daar een energizer of geef een opdrachtje. Dit wil ik behouden ook in het fysieke onderwijs. Als je namelijk het gevoel hebt dat je docent echt om je geeft, de interactie met je aangaat en niet alleen maar jaar in en jaar uit hetzelfde riedeltje aflegt, dan schept dit echt een band met je docent en studie. Iets wat ontzettend belangrijk is voor het studentenwelzijn." Uit: 10 elementen van online onderwijs die studenten willen behouden


Best practices for online instruction (10:12)	Interactive Zoom sessions (13:59)	Break-out rooms in action (4:58)

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Conferencing Tools

Zoom

Licenced to VU

Intermediate

Organise video meetings for up to 300 people
Chat, share screen or record your meeting
Schedule a zoom meeting via Canvas

49 participants visible at the same time
Use breakout rooms to facilitate discussion
Use the whiteboard or polling functionalities to stimulate interaction

Mentimeter

Licenced to VU

Beginner

Use Mentimeter for online voting
Create interactive presentations
Respond via mobile phone

Immediate and easy interpretable results

A bit diffucult to integrate in Powerpoint

Can students be obliged to turn on their webcam and microphone during online education?
Answer to this question and other privacy related information can be found here.

Under what conditions can I make recording of a live lecture or a work group session?
Answer to this question and other privacy related information can be found here.

Where can I get further support for online education?

Fill out this contact form for questions or to set up an appointment with an expert;
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VU Quality ambitions for online education