Online Learning at Dubai College

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Online Learning @ Dubai College This has been written in April 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak, it attempts to share and reflect on our approach to embedding the UAE government’s request that all schools provide Online Learning to students during the school closure period. This is a reflection of where we are four weeks into delivery; we have now been made aware that schools will be closed until June so will no doubt continually adapt our approach throughout this period by learning from those around us as well as harnessing community feedback.

PEDAGOGY MATTERS MOST ‘It is… the pedagogy of the application of technology in the classroom which is important: the how rather than the what.’ (Higgins et al., 2012).

What has become clear during the last few weeks is that having a clear digital vision grounded in pedagogy is essential. Over the last four years the College has striven to create a learning environment where teachers are not dependent on technology but have the skills and support to deploy it creatively, where technology is used to inform and not trap them, then allowing any improvements to learning experiences to be shared amongst the professional community. Our policy focuses on six core areas to share the clarity and cohesion of the approach.

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Digital Learning and Teaching: A Learning First Strategy By drawing on the expert research from Dr Rose Luckin we have initially landed on six effective ways we believe that digital platforms will improve student learning. These are Learning Through Making, Learning Through Enquiry, Learning Through Assessment, Learning From Experts, Learning With Others and Learning Through Practising. We are confident that these approaches enhance the advanced cognitive skills which we are seeking to embed through the Dubai College Learner Profile (thinking, linking, realising, creating, enquiring and collaborating) in addition to fostering the attitudes and attributes of risk taking and resilience, realising, creating, enquiring and collaborating.

A Blended Approach: Asynchronous and Synchronous Learning Unsurprisingly, there has not been much research undertaken into distance learning at a primary or secondary school level; there is currently much debate about which approach is the best and will deliver an educational experience that is akin to what students would be experiencing whilst at school.

Some schools have been criticised for attempting to solely deliver asynchronous learning instead of using tools that encourage synchronous learning. Having now been on this journey with staff for four weeks it is abundantly clear that both must have a place in distance learning. There is a strong case for blending the two approaches for the purpose of sustainability, and to create an opportunity for students to be seen, to be noticed and to feel that they are part of something at a time of unprecedented change.

Blended Learning: Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning Synchronous Learning…

Asynchronous Learning…

…when students are live learning at the same time with the teacher     

Interpersonal connectedness Learning preference and interactivity Immediacy in the ability to support Assess small groups in real time Introducing new and complex concepts with the ability to take questions to clarify understanding

…when students are learning neither in the same place nor at the same time      image ©2012 by tpack.org

Easier to design learning Allows independent time to practise Engage in more complex assignments.

Community knowledge building Self-reflective and more conductive to deep learning (US Department@DCol_Learning of Education, 2010)

(Rehn, Maor and McConney, 2015)

What are the skills I need to be a great Online Teacher?

The immediate reaction to this very sudden situation is to focus on upskilling staff and students to feel comfortable using the technology and the chosen technological platforms. At Dubai College this was done both before the school closed and during the closure in the form of a professional development channel curated through our Online Learning Channel on MS Streams.

It has been a steep learning curve, but with the dedication and resilience of staff and students we have managed to master these relatively quickly. Now that we are in this for the long term, it is worth 3|Page

thinking about the plethora of skills we have had to develop and will continue to develop throughout this process. Drawing on the reflections of Canadian teachers in Alberta who used video conferencing for a year to teach students who could not access school due to their remote locations, here is a summary of their learning:

Live Online Teaching: Lessons Learned from Teachers in Alberta, Canada Pedagogical Skills

  

Teach and communicate content Engage students Design learning tasks and activities that foster inquiry, construction of meaning and deep learning rather than a lecture

Managerial Skills

  

Plan and post ahead of the lesson Exchange resources with ease Organise resources logically

    

Facilitate interactions between students Create a class community Attend to students emotion and mood across the screen Get parent and community buy in Create a sense of presence despite not physically being there

   

Keep abreast of new technologies Troubleshoot technical interruptions Train and prepare students to use the technology Understand the impact of technology on practices and knowledge of discipline

Social Skills

Technical Skills

@DCol_Learning

Pedagogy matters most: Live Lessons

With lessons being cut down to 40 minutes, it is even more important to make them purposeful and effective. Whist the priority initially has been to connect with students we now need to look at how best they learn and reflect on the feedback we have had from the community so far. Whilst live lessons have been exceptionally well received, there does need to be a balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning to allow students enough time to complete tasks and to come away from the screen.

Here is a summary of the student feedback after two weeks online:

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Online Learning EBI More time during lessons to complete activities Variety in methods of delivery Less homework Screen time A consistent method to ask questions Technical issues More collaborative opportunities Efficient lessons that are structured to fit the time allocated Technical issues Learning Platform EBI Lag on both CISCO/Teams OneNote syncing More consistent use of Assignments in Teams Teacher registration Resources and instructions posted ahead of the lesson

WWW Face to Face contact Ease of access to resources Assignments in Teams Prerecording Explain Everything and PowerPoint Balance of synchronous and asynchronous tasks Quality of discussions Opportunities to collaborate Explicit instructions on posts Ability to communicate with teachers

WWW Ease of use Uploading work Assignments in Teams Screen sharing Video lessons and call quality Recorded lesson to watch back WWW Tutor time Being able to talk with friends Shorter lessons for down time Daily workouts Staff checking on students Seeing the counsellors Daily emails from leaders PE and DS More family time Contact with teachers on Teams is easier

Mental Health and Wellbeing EBI Less homework Less screen time Timed exams were less stressful The prospect of exams Live PE lessons or more frequent opportunities to exercise during the day

Table One: Student Survey summary feedback on Online Learning during week 2

It may be comforting to the students and staff to conduct all lessons synchronously, but it is important to stick to our guidelines around varying the time online as far as it is possible:

Balancing Lessons to encompass both online and offline tasks Ensure that across the 3 lessons you have in a week with each class you include…

1. Live Lesson

      

Hook the group and review prior learning Teach content Check understanding Assign task Discuss learning Cold Call for a quick assessment Focused instructions for next lesson

2. Engage in Activity: Offline

      

Register on posts Post explicit instructions Teach the content Students complete learning task ideally in books Remain online to address questions: Direct students to the ‘posts’ to add their question Check in to say goodbye

3. Check in lesson

 

 

This lesson should begin online to offer clarity and support Depending on how much the students have progressed this lesson can be used as a hybrid of offline or online.

Check understanding or introduce new learning @DCol_Learning

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Offline lessons should encourage students to work away from the screen to allow them to give their eyes (and yours) a break, they should also encourage hand written responses in their exercise books that are then uploaded by students photographing their work and uploading it to Teams. Where possible encourage the use of Office Lens to ensure the photos are clear or students can use their phones to upload through the Teams app.

The Effectiveness of Online Learning Depends on Design When reading around what makes effective online learning I came across some really useful blogs from Catlin Tucker who draws on the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger to examine the potential effectiveness of online learning. Their work focuses on the situated learning theory, this asserts that learning happens as a result of doing things that are ‘situated in’ our lives providing an authentic context for that learning. Activity, context and culture are central to this learning theory, which emphasises the practical over the abstract.

They highlight that the design of online learning must take into consideration four aspects of learning: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Content Context Community of Practice Participation

As we embark on 12 additional weeks of online learning this idea of community, participation and socialisation is even more important. The Economist highlights the need for us to adapt quickly and whilst a pixelated version of spending time with a friend merely slows down the ‘rate of decay’, we know from first hand feedback it is making a huge difference (Table one). Leaning into educational heavyweights such as Dewey, Bruner, Vygotsky, Papert, Lave and Wenger highlights how our social environments influence the learning process. Vygotsky emphasised that learning happens through the interactions students have with their peers, teachers and other experts. It is this very discussion, collaboration and feedback that allows teachers to create an environment and culture to facilitate knowledge construction and critical thinking. We learn through this cultural lens by interacting with others to allow us to create the right environment for our learners (Table Two): Developing Learning Communities: Collaborative Learning and Group Work: Discussion-based Learning for deep learning: Instruction that supports social learning: Students work together on a task:

Tutor group Teams, assemblies, musical performances and the virtual staff room Channels in Teams, Padlet, OneNote Collaborative Space, MS Whiteboard Harkness lessons, debates, flip grid and cold calling for participation and discussions Videos/posts sharing explicit instruction and differentiation Teams Channels, Padlet, OneNote Collaborative Space, MS Whiteboard

Table Two: Vygotsky’s social learning environment in the context of the DC Digital Learning Environment

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Saying this, it is also important to give students the space and time to take in and apply their newly gained knowledge and understanding independently. Our Student Survey showed that we needed to make an adaption to our approach to ensure students had time to complete tasks where they could demonstrate and consolidate their learning. Our approach has now shifted to ensure that out of the three lessons per subject, one is face to face, the second is offline and the third is a blended approach.

We have also adapted our homework timetable to reflect the issues that were highlighted in the students and parent survey.

Week Four Student Survey Highlights We are constantly reviewing our approach and surveying students to gain some insight into what is working and how we can adapt things. After a month in it is very clear that there is a consistent approach to live lessons and some tools that are fast becoming firm favourites. There is a large proportion of students who are receiving a synchronous learning experience, coupled with a mix of asynchronous learning activities. Most students are happy with the proportion of live face-to-face lessons but some would like to have more time to complete tasks they did not have time to complete within lesson time.

A range of collaborative tools are being used by staff, with screen sharing, group work in Teams channels, OneNote and Padlet being firm favourites. Most students feel they can contribute during lessons, but we still need to work on ensuring that the learning environment is completely inclusive to those who are less forthcoming (some suggestions can be found later in the booklet). The tool that students deem as being most effective to receive feedback from staff is Assignments in Teams and feedback received through OneNote.

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Successfully Taking Offline Classes Online The Cognitive Presence: Engaging the Class in Meaning Making This entire process of going completely digital has been both overwhelming and exciting, one of the biggest challenges for students highlighted across year groups was trying to manage and cope with so many different instructions, tasks and means of communication. Our students may be digital natives in their ability to circumnavigate the world of social media, but their ability to learn online shows that they are as new to this as we are.

If we think about the building blocks of a traditional lesson, we will begin to see how those modular activities (direct instruction, discussion, collaborative group work, and others) can be shifted online using a variety of tools, many of which are probably already embedded into MS Teams. Table Three breaks down some of the basic building blocks that educators use to design offline lessons and describes how teachers can use technology tools to engage students in these activities online.

Building Block

Objective

Online Tools

Direct

Transfer information (lecture or mini-lesson)

Use Screen casting through PowerPoint, video or

Instruction

or explain a complex topic.

Explain Everything to record a screencast.

Modelling

Conduct a think-aloud as you navigate a

Use PowerPoint, video or Explain Everything to record

task, apply a strategy, practise a skill, or use

a video showing students how to do something or

an online tool or resource.

record a screencast to demonstrate how to navigate something online.

Discussion

Engage students in academic conversations

Post discussion questions on MS Teams or use the chat

about a text, video, podcast, topic, or issue.

feature to engage students in asynchronous text-based discussions.

Host a synchronous discussion using a video conferencing tool like MS Teams or Cisco WebEx to allow students to engage in a real-time discussion.

Research and

Encourage students to research a topic or

Give students a topic to research online and ask them

Exploration

issue and crowdsource the information they

to crowdsource what they are learning in a shared

find.

space online (an online discussion board in MS Whiteboard, shared online document or slide deck, Padlet Wall, or FlipGrid).

Collaborative

Group students online and allow them to

Use a collaborative suite, OneNote Collaborate space in

Tasks

work collaboratively on shared tasks.

Microsoft, to engage groups of students online (shared documents or slide decks).

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Practice and

Connect students with practice and review

Use online resources, like Quizizz, Kahoot!, Quizlet or

Review

activities.

Khan Academy to encourage review and to create retrieval activities.

Use digital documents (Word Documents or Microsoft OneNote) to assign review activities or writing assignments.

Assessment

Assess student work and use that data to

Administer tests and quizzes using online assessment

determine what students need moving

tools.

forward.

Assign a writing prompt, task, or project designed to assess the students' mastery of content and skills.

Reflection

Ask students to think about what they

Use Microsoft Forms, or Socrative to create an end-of-

and

learned, how they learned it, what questions

the-week exit ticket to encourage students to develop

Metacognitive

they have about the concepts or skills

their metacognitive muscles. Teachers can also ask

Skill Building

covered, and what support they need to

students to reflect in an online journal or learning log

continue improving.

about their progress each week.

Table Three: The Building Blocks of an Online Lesson Source: Adapted from Catlin R. Tucker

Long term Curriculum Design and Progression in Learning The first few weeks were definitely a shock to the system and in some ways we adapted what we could very quickly. It is now worth considering a more long term approach that is consistent across the department. This will also mean that the curriculum will have to be adapted and reconsidered. It may be useful to have a department overview for each month so that students and staff are clear on the departmental expectations and groups get a consistent experience.

We are lucky to an

also have

abundance of online resources that have been collated and catalogued by our amazing librarian,

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Gaelene. She is always happy to run department and student training for anyone, so do get in touch.

Here is a summary of what we have access to:

Cognitive Overload! How not to overload our students To ensure that we do not overburden students and ourselves when setting tasks it is always really useful to draw on Sweller’s well recognised cognitive load theory.

Many of you will already know that this relates to the amount of information that working memory can hold at one time. Sweller said that since working memory has a limited capacity, instructional methods should avoid overloading it with additional activities that don’t directly contribute to learning. This is especially useful to keep in mind when we consider the learning design of online lessons and the way in which we generate instructional procedures.

In the rest of this guide, I will draw on some examples staff have used to approach problem solving, foreign languages and subject content, spoken and written information and permanence versus transience whilst using both auditory and visual components.

Lesson Plan Outline: Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age Having read through various practical tips and research papers I have devised a lesson plan outline for a forty minute live lesson. The recommendations are not dissimilar to what we would normally be doing in the classroom, but seeing that we now try to deliver similar methods through a two dimensional resource we will have to adapt. We need to merge the traditional pedagogies with digital ones to find a working method that is both effective for students and staff. Again I have drawn on the very useful book Rethinking Pedagogy for a digital age. Designing for 21st Century Learning by Helen Beetham and Rhona Sharpe, alongside the accessible resources from Catlin Tucker, an expert in blended learning. Their recommendations are as follows: 10 | P a g e

Over the course of a week you should aim to integrate these five methods into your online lessons: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Hook the group Explicit Explanation and Collaboration Model, Review, Build Real Time Feedback Quick Assess and Individual Support

On the next page you will find a quick ‘5 minute lesson plan’ template that you may find useful to track your activities for a group over the course of a week. A Word version can be provided in case you do not have a printer, you may even just decide to have this in the back of your head. For me one of the biggest challenges has been not to talk too much during the lesson and to allow students to lead their learning and this has definitely helped to readdress the balance! I have included an example that I have used with Year 7, I have two lessons a week with them and intended to pull apart the Burgess model…yes, we are still teaching land use!

The rest of the booklet will show some working examples and how this can work practically, if you have any more examples please do share them as we will continue to add to this. I hope you find it useful and reassuring as I know many of you are already doing so much of this .

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40 minute Online Learning Live Lesson Plan @catlin_tucker 1. Hook the group

5. Quick Assess & Individual Support

Present a problem or challenge, ask students to pair up to discuss and solve. Debrief and follow up with instructions or modelling.

2. Explicit Explanation and

Collaboration

Explain and model, run through an example as a group.

Use challenges to group or pair students to tackle another problem. Continue to practise and apply individually.

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Use short quizzing tools to do a quick assessment, use this data and tasks to judge who needs more feedback or support.

Prepare next assignments that build on knowledge.

Support students who need to practise more.

3. Model, Review, Build

Provide a model exemplar or answer sheet. Give students time to check, correct and capture questions. Review as a group and provide follow up explanation. Build with additional instruction.

4. Real-time Feedback

Ask students to bring completed work to the lesson. Set work that builds on the work they have done. Jump in and out of group channels on Teams or documents to provide one to one feedback.

j

Year 7: Is Burgess even relevant?

1. Hook the group

5. Quick Assess &Individual Support

Present a problem or challenge, ask students to pair up to discuss and solve. Debrief and follow up with instructions or modelling.

Use short quizzing tools to do a quick assessment, use this data and tasks to judge who needs more feedback or support.

Prepare next assignments that build on knowledge.

Support students who need to practise more.

10 mins total: Starter: Guess the city!

5 minutes total: Pair discussion in MS Teams channels with photo: Is Burgess relevant? Visit groups and ask questions:

Quick group quiz to check students understand the difference between Burgess and Hoyt.

Why do you think it is/ is not relevant? What would make it more relevant? How would you change it? (Nominate team leader to start meeting, record and end meeting).

Extension task for project: Design your own land use model that would represent the structure and growth of a modern day city.

Instructions for land use model comparisons.

2. Explicit Explanation and Collaboration

Explain and model, run through an example as a group.

Use challenges to group or pair students to tackle another problem. Continue to practise and apply individually.

15 mins total:

3. Model, Review, Build

Provide a model exemplar or answer sheet. Give students time to check, correct and capture questions. Review as a group and provide follow up explanation. Build with additional instruction.

N/A this week, but will get onto this when I share the assessment criteria shared by NTH.

4. Real-time Feedback

Ask students to bring completed work to the lesson. Set work that builds on the work they have done. Jump in and out of group channels on Teams or documents to provide one to one feedback.

10 mins total:

Spot the difference: Use MS Whiteboard to get students to annotate the key differences between the two models.

Use Z______’s work as an exemplar of WWW and EBI – students to give group feedback on the project so far.

Explicit Explanation: Explain how and why Hoyt designed his land use model as he did.

Monitor which students have contributed so far, cold call on students who have not yet contributed.

Ask questions: Do you think it is any more relevant that Burgess – why?

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Focusing on Dubai College Pedagogy: Tools and Tips

Hook the group!

Present a problem or challenge, ask students to pair up to discuss and solve.

Debrief and follow up with instructions or modelling.

Examples Online Icebreaker Discussion Questions

Icebreaker: If you had to choose one way to decrease a country’s population, which would you choose and why?

1. Offer free family planning to all citizens 2. Improve maternal health care 3. Ensure there is access to education for all 4. Limit the number of children a family can have 5. Increase taxes for people that have more than one child 6. Nothing, I believe like Malthus that we will have population checks determined by a higher order Begin your post by clearly stating the option you would choose and thoroughly explain your choice.

Once you have posted your response, please read and reply thoughtfully to at least 2 other members of the class. In your reply, ask questions, comment on specific points made, compliment the ideas shared, and build on ideas shared.

This task is a great way of hooking the group in problem based thinking both asynchronously or synchronously, it hooks them in and places the emphasis on them having to think critically and make a decision. Post discussion they can also evaluate their thinking process by using this grid:

@Catlin_Tucker

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Shared Problem solving in Physics: Sharing a problem is a great way of hooking students in, this example has also been seen in Maths where students were set a problem and requested to share it at the beginning of the lesson. In this video Shawn shares some useful tips that have worked for him.

Retrieval Practice in Drama: Retrieval practice is the act of trying to recall information without having it in front of you. You might be thinking, this is nothing new. The whole concept of flashcards is built on retrieval practice, and flashcards have been around forever, right? What’s new is the research: in recent years, cognitive psychologists have been comparing retrieval practice with other methods of studying – strategies like review lectures, study guides, and re-reading texts. What they’re finding is that nothing cements longterm learning as powerfully as retrieval practice (McDaniel, Agarwal, Heeler, McDermott, & Roediger, 2011). It is a great way to hook students in at the beginning of a lesson and consolidate learning!

Below is an example that Jemma has shared:

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DRAMA KEY TERMINOLOGY The following activities are designed around retrieval practice. This means they focus on content already taught. Do your best to answer the questions without looking at your notes. Be sure to revise anything you did not know. Your teacher will upload the answers once you have completed it.

Activity 1: Retrieval Grid Consider the following questions in the retrieval grid and answer them in the blank grid below. Consider the amount of points each question is worth. The higher the amount of points, the more in depth the answer should be.

What is the definition of a Still Image in Drama?

What is the purpose of using Cross Cutting in a devised piece of theatre?

What is Physical Theatre in its broadest term? Can you give an example of when you have used it?

What do we mean by style in Drama?

What is a mime?

What is Direct Address?

What is Thought Tracking in Drama?

What is a monologue?

What does the word Gait mean?

What is Hot Seating and why is it a useful tool?

What genre was the last text/theme/issue we studied?

What are the different forms of Narration in Drama?

One Point

Two Points

Three Points

Four Points

Add in any missing gaps in knowledge in a different colour pen so you know what the focus of your revision should be.

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Explicit Explanation Explain and model, run through an example as a group.

Drawing on Rosenshine’s principles of instruction it is exceptionally important that students understand exactly what the teacher is asking of them. We have already demonstrated an example of daily review through the retrieval practice example, it is also essential to share instructions with students in clear formats that explain things step by step to clarify expectations.

@olicav Examples While using both auditory and visual components of working memory may increase capacity, we need to remember that written information is permanent, while spoken information is transient and immediately disappears unless it is recorded…that is why it is so important to hit record! Many students will re-watch and listen to instructions again to ensure they have understood.

Lengthy, complex, non-instinctive information may be difficult to understand because what is presented earlier in a lesson may be needed in order to understand what is presented later. But when presented in spoken form, that information is transient and has disappeared. In written form, learners can repeatedly return to required information, reducing the working memory load.

Complex information needs to be presented in written form or divided into small chunks when it is presented in spoken form.

Below are two examples from Sarah and Rebecca showing how you can ‘chunk’ up the task and instructions for students so they have a clear idea of the expectations and the progression of where the task will lead them:

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Saying this, it is also very useful to hear teachers go through the task, this can happen during a live lesson or a pre-recorded video to consolidate and clarify instructions: Activity 2 Year 8.mp4. This will help you to give students a balance on asynchronous and synchronous learning activities.

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Collaborative Tools Use challenges to group or pair students to tackle another problem.

Continue to practise and apply individually.

The Community of Inquiry theoretical framework underpins much of the research on online and blended learning and is grounded in collaborative constructivism (Swan, Garrison, & Richardson, 2009). The Community of Inquiry framework is composed of three interconnected presences: 

Social presence: the learners' ability to assert their social and emotional selves, view their classmates as real people, and communicate openly online



Teaching presence: encompasses the design, instruction, and facilitation of learning



Cognitive presence: presence is learners' ability to construct meaning through a process of inquiry, dialogue, and reflection (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000)

Understanding the interplay between these presences can help teachers transition their online experiences to create learning experiences that are engaging, student-centred, and leverage the class' collective intelligence. We should not be talking at students and running through PowerPoints for the entirety of the 40 minutes, we must create opportunities for collaboration that encourages cognitive presence.

Using Channels in Teams for Group Work This is a great way to encourage group work across large groups to avoid being a ‘talking head’ through the entire lesson. Here is a great video from Christian to show you how to set up channels within our Teams and how they can be used:

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Harkness Online One great way to encourage a cognitive presence is Harkness, a teaching technique so many of you are familiar with now, which is a perfect mechanism to encourage talk and thinking. As always, students are expected to attend the lesson having prepared and to lead discussions and ask questions.

Here is an example of a preparation task sheet:

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The EPQ Harkness is working wonderfully, with more than 100 students meeting as a collective to begin the seminar with the preparation material in hand. Helen begins by setting the scene for the discussions and draws on students randomly for their thoughts. The students are then split into different coloured groups to allow smaller group discussions to ensure that everyone has a chance to talk. Helen and her team pop into groups to observe and pose questions to continue to focus the discussions. Having been invited to partake last week I was blown away by the quality of the discussions and would highly recommend you take a peek at the EPQ Channel to see for yourself.

If you wanted to collate student discussions, here is a great video showing how you can set up your own Stream so students can easily upload videos and performances:

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MS Teams Channel Rules

@DCol_Learning

If you are using channels to encourage team work ensure you…

1. Pick a Channel Leader This will speed things up, rather than students waiting for someone to start.

2. Ask the leader

3. Ensure students are guided

to hit record

back to the main meeting

This is important as you will be fliting between groups and will ensure safeguarding protocols are in place.

The channel leader should also be there as a time keeper to ensure students finish discussions and return back to the main meeting to continue to lesson.

Ensuring everyone is involved: Improving Participation: Quick Tips:

1. Hands up: If you are using Cisco WebEx you can actually see all of your students to enable

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

you to see who has their hands up. For students who may be shy there is also the ‘hands up’ features which is also coming to Teams soon.

Cold Calling: In an article published by Harvard’s Centre of Teaching and Learning, they focus on the important of cold calling on students for different reasons and how to manage the process. We highly recommend that you read it, I found it very useful.

Varying the type of question: With 40 minute lessons being so tight, it might be handy to have some questions planned before the lesson to make it as productive as possible. Here is a useful resource to remind you of the variable ways that questioning can ensure students are thinking.

Varying the method that students can ask questions: Expect questions that come through the chat function or posts as well as through live lessons as some students may not feel comfortable asking in front of their peers.

Group dynamics: Mix them up and see what works, what worked in the physical classroom may not work online, try different group dynamics out. You may start with groups that the students feel comfortable with and then begin to vary it to disrupt and create new ideas and discussions.

Expectations: Camera On: Participation levels and the enthusiasm to keep cameras on can wane as the online learning journey continues. It is really important that you do not lower your expectations, students should have their cameras on (unless of course you know that there is a genuine reason for it). I usually wait awkwardly (this may take a few minutes) until everyone has their camera on, I also ensure that I pass on any technical issues to section administrators so that they can follow up with parents.

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Catlin Tucker also talks about shared expectations (see below) with students to see what good group collaboration looks like, these may be useful when feeding back to groups or be used in tutor time as a reflective tool. Feel free to adapt these and share your versions with me!

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Organised Oracy Having now switched completely to Teams, sometimes it is more difficult to track student contributions as unlike Cisco WebEx there is only the ability to see four students at a time. I have started to keep track of their contributions over the course of the lesson in a grid to ensure that they have all contributed, and designating some of the larger Key Stage 3 groups roles like this helps:

Alternatively, if you are running a Harkness lesson you can map their responses:

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MS Whiteboard and Padlet Encourages Class participation It is vital for students to participate in their classroom in order to enhance their knowledge. From a recent survey, it is suggested that by using Padlet students can participate in class activities more effectively. This is because students can ask questions and discuss complex class topics with their teacher and other class members by placing them on the Padlet wall.

Supports Group research Below is an example of how Padlet was used during a TopUP lesson to encourage debate preparation.

As each group posted a point with evidence the other group posted a counter argument. To add a competitive element you can also give points according to the strength of the argument and their ability to respond and persuade. Moreover, students can share their researched ideas with everyone by placing it on the Padlet wall. Once every student uploads their great ideas on the wall, they can discuss different ideas together.

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Like MS Whiteboard Templates, you can organise posts according to subtopics like Liz has in the MFL examples below:

Brings out creativity We all know that students love creativity. By using Padlet in lessons teachers can motivate students to be creative. Students will also avail the opportunity to show their creative work with other students by placing it on a Padlet wall. Students can also compete with each other by creating a wall and placing their creative ideas on it. When I completed an online course with MIT last year on problem based learning they emphasised the importance of brainstorming and suggested two key recommendations:

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Model, Review, Build Provide a model exemplar or answer sheet. Give students time to check, correct and capture questions. Review as a group and provide follow up explanation. Build with additional instruction.

Examples In Science, Barry sets students a task where they build on their learning of muscles, a model template is shared with them and they adapt it to create a video to share their understanding:

video-20200407-134529-b663acee.mp4

Flipgrid This is a very powerful tool to use to share student contributions, to model the task and to use as a means to build students’ understanding of what the success criteria are and how best to achieve them. Flipgrid also allows the teacher to give specific feedback and for other students to comment on their work. Here is an example of how it is used in Arabic A to model expectations:

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Modelling Metacognition for research and essay plans Inquiry-based learning is used widely, but requiring learners to obtain information using an inquirybased discovery process when they could be explicitly presented with the same information is pointless, despite its effectiveness in acquiring instinctive, natural world knowledge.

Learners initially should be shown how to solve specific categories of problems, rather than being asked to work out how to solve the problems themselves. They should practise solving problems themselves only after they have been shown how to solve them. Futile searches for problem solutions during problem-based learning impose a heavy working memory load with no discernible advantage.

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It is useful to draw on the EEF model and I used this to create a framework to support students’ thinking process in the preparation and planning of their Social Studies essays. This allowed them to both plan and monitor their arguments by posing them questions to help them evaluate the relevance and importance of their findings in relation to the main question.

Education Endowment Fund

Another useful example of using the EEF’s framework to get students to model, review and build can be seen in this example shared by Mohammed Abs in Arabic B where they have be trialling this as part of their lesson study triads:

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Explain Everything

Thanks to the persistence of Alex James, we now have a school subscription to Explain Everything.

Here Alex demonstrates the power of the platform by modelling how to answer the questions set in the mock paper, thus allowing students to independently review their answers and build on their understanding. If you are interested in learning more you can be added to the Explain Everything Team where Alex will be happy to offer support. You can also access various videos walking you through how to set up. Well worth a try in preparation for your asynchronous lessons.

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Quick Assess and Individual Support Whilst assessment is exceptionally broad, the guidance here will focus on formative assessment methods that can be used by a teacher. Earlier this year we spent some time unpicking this using Dylan William’s framework:

It is exceptionally important that we follow the same principles and ensure that we do not suddenly feel pressure to feedback on everything. As stated in our whole school feedback policy, over the course of 8 weeks departments should select at least two common learning tasks to give rich formative feedback on. We must activate learners to own their own learning by getting them to peer or self-assess their classwork at times. Just like when we are within school, it will be impossible to feedback on everything, this is where it is important to revisit your department policy and ensure you are making the process manageable, meaningful and motivating for both you and the students.

In an independent report by UNESCO, Thinking about Pedagogy in an Unfolding Pandemic it is outlined that teachers should think very carefully about formative assessment methods. They suggest the following tools:

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Examples Quick assess how much of the work the students have completed in the lesson and for homework Here Becki has used forms as a very quick way of assessing how far the students have progressed with their task towards the end of a lesson and after a sequence of lessons to enable her to adapt her lesson accordingly.

You can also use forms to create quick quizzes to test students within posts:

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Using Posts to encourage students to give peer feedback and offer self-reflection Rebecca uses posts to encourage students to self-reflect and share their reflections on the assessment and the metacognitive processes they used to approach their revision. Barry also uses Teams to encourage students to give one another peer feedback: teams and onenote.mp4

Self-Reflection Laura sets her students the task of reading through their feedback, writing their own WWW and EBIs and going through and correcting their corrections in pink. She uses assignments to do this and encourages students to continue as per the department marking policy.

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Whole Class Feedback and Yellow Box Marking Regina has continued to use the yellow box feedback method to ensure that her feedback is both specific and focused, coupled with the use of her whole class feedback form she keeps the process manageable, meaningful and motivating for students.

Using OneNote as an Assessment Portfolio The History Department have worked very hard to implement a digital portfolio which clearly automates feedback for each student that can be personalised. Watch this very insightful video created by Luke to see how the portfolios engage all stakeholders, including parents: 34 | P a g e

Sharing Assessment Success Criteria in Geography

Noel created this very useful guide for the land use model project that Year 7 have completed, it helps to clarify exactly what they will be assessed on. Students will be asked to paste this page as the last page on their PowerPoint via Assignments.

Tracking and Monitoring Through Teams Personally, I find that the Assignments feature within Teams is the easier way to set work that I want to assess and feedback on. Looking at the survey results from week four the same is felt by students.

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It allows teachers to: 

Quickly see if students have viewed, submitted or failed to turn in work.



It tracks grades for where you have entered summative data.



It allows both inking, typed feedback and the creation of rubrics that allow quick and easy mechanisms to feedback.



To hold and track graded assessments once you return them to students in case you want to use them as examples or ask students to make corrections.

It is also very useful for the students because: 

It lists all assignments and their due dates which helps with organisation when they are probably struggling to keep track of everything.



It is easy to upload photos of written work through the Teams App which many of them have downloaded onto their phones.



It also allows them to track their progress and have all of their work in one repository.

There is now a support sheet available to show you how to use this feature in more detail, click here.

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Individual Support Immersive Reader It is essential that we are catering for those students with IEPs and also checking in to see if they need any help and support. It can been useful to make individual calls to offer additional support and to ensure all resources are well differentiated. Tools like immersive reader can also be utilised for students who struggle to digest and translate large bodies of text. It can be found in Class Note Book:

Utilise Learning Tools in Word      

Column Width changes line length to improve focus and comprehension.

Page Colour can make text easy to scan with less eye strain.

Line Focus removes distractions so that you can move through a document line by line. Adjust the focus to put one, three, or five lines in view at a time.

Text Spacing increases the spacing between words, characters, and lines.

Syllables shows breaks between syllables, to improve word recognition and pronunciation.

Read Aloud lets you hear your document as each word is highlighted.

Note: Use the playback controls to start and stop the narration, to change the speed of the reading, and to switch between reading voices.

Keyboard shortcuts for Read Aloud Start or exit Read Aloud: Ctrl+Alt+Space

Pause or play Read Aloud: Ctrl+Space

Speed up reading speed: Alt+Right

Slow down reading speed: Alt+Left

Read the previous paragraph: Ctrl+Right Ctrl+Left

Read the next paragraph:

For more advice on guidance you can contact Cindy and the team at Student Services.

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References and Further Reading Bybee, R. (2015). The BSCS 5E instructional model: Creating teachable moments. Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association.

Elliman, J., Loizou, M., & Loizides, F., (2016). “Virtual Reality Simulation Training for Student Nurse Education,” 2016 8th International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-GAMES), Barcelona, 2016, pp. 1-2.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T, & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2, 87–105.

Higgins, S., Xiao, Z. & Katsipataki, M. (2012). The impact of digital technology on learning: A summary for the Educational Endowment Foundation. Education Endowment Foundation. Durham University.

Karpicke, J. D. (2009). Metacognitive control and strategy selection: deciding to practice retrieval during learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(4), 469.

Kirschner, P. (2015). The disturbing facts about digital natives. [Online] Available at: https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/2015/10/20/the-disturbing-facts-about-digitalnatives/ (accessed 2018).

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1990). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Luckin R, Bligh B, Manches A, et al. (2012). Decoding Learning: The Proof, Promise and Potential of Digital Education. London: Nesta.

McDaniel, M. A., Agarwal, P. K., Huelser, B. J., McDermott, K. B., & Roediger III, H. L. (2011). Testenhanced learning in a middle school science classroom: The effects of quiz frequency and placement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(2), 399.

OECD (2015). Students, Computers and Learning: Making the Connection. Paris: PISA. Rehn, N., Maor, D., & McConney, A. (2017). Navigating the challenges of delivering secondary school courses by videoconference. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48, 802–813.

Swan, K., Garrison, D. R., & Richardson, J. C. (2009). ‘A constructivist approach to online learning: The Community of Inquiry framework’. In C. R. Payne (Ed.), Information technology and constructivism in higher education: Progressive learning frameworks. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 43– 57.

Tu, C. H., & McIsaac, M. (2002). The relationship of social presence and interaction in online classes. The American Journal of Distance Education, 16(3), 131–150.

Tucker, C., 2017. Blended Learning in Action. Sage Publications Inc.

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Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who contributed to this booklet and a special mention to the Dubai College Learning and Teaching Group

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