Shane Hutton, Ph.D. is a senior lecturer at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Psychology and Human Development. With two years of digital classroom experience under his belt with a 2U powered program, Shane has agreed to share his routine, tips, and tricks for live session preparation.
The Theory: Backward design is a key component when preparing for an upcoming live session. Each decision in preparation is made based on learning objectives set for students, but learning objectives are designed with intention as well. To prepare for a live session each week, Shane recommends “reviewing quiz, assignment, and asynchronous responses to help guide your preparation for live sessions, because you will know if there is a particular concept where students are struggling.” The purpose of the live session then becomes clarifying points of confusion and building on what is understood to further knowledge and student success.
The Tools: A few days before the live session, Shane says creating polling questions in Zoom to ask students during review and quickly assess current understanding. Additionally, you can create a PowerPoint slide deck summarizing important points from the asynchronous work. It is also during this time that you might consider a breakout room activity where students will practice with the reviewed and new material from the live session. Lastly, Shane notes, “I routinely use the whiteboard to write equations, but I don’t stop here. With Zoom you can annotate on anything, so when I show students R code, I annotate on those programs as well.” Keep in mind the ability to annotate and map out when and where you will draw graphs, equations, or notes to best benefit your students.
The Tips:
“Be flexible. I generally know the structure of each live session and what I need to cover, but there is always some room to spend a few more minutes on something that I had not anticipated coming up or forego reviewing something that students seem to have a good grasp on.
Consider polling questions. Depending on the type of material being taught, polling questions can be very useful. Zoom allows for polling questions to be asked during the live session.
Prepare extra material. I almost always have more material prepared than can be covered. For instance, I create more polling questions than I need because questions from students help guide what other polling questions I should ask. Or maybe I have an extra group activity that I can use if needed or if time permits.
Use the breakout rooms. One of my favorite parts of the live session is when I put students into breakout rooms and they pick a real-world dataset to analyze using a statistical test that we learned in class. I visit each room to see if they have questions and this is actually where a lot of them get asked. Once we are all back together, each group shares what they found, It is exciting for them and me. I always learn something!
Have everything open. It makes things much easier and the transition much smoother if you have all screens open prior to the live session.”
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