Videoconferencing in efl online teaching

El Refectorio or Dining Hall, Santo Domingo Church in Quito, Ecuador - Photo by Jonathan Acuña

Videoconferencing in EFL Online Teaching

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed. School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Thursday, June 14, 2018 Post 324

Though the BlendIt course I took with the Consultants-E during the month of May (2018) is over, there are still a lot of ideas whirling in my mind that need to be written down to see them materialized to be shared in this edublog. One of those ideas is the one we were developing on the course regarding effective video conferencing sessions with EFL learners. For the Consultants-E, the key to run them effectively finds its foundation in two different pillars: learner engagement in an online session and the platform one has chosen to deliver online synchronous sessions with students [ CITATION The18 \l 1033 ].

For the Consultants-E (2018), “the key to running effective video conferencing sessions lies in two areas;” let’s briefly explore learner engagement. As an online EFL instructor working with 14 low intermediate

students at the moment, learner engagement is being created on the basis of an instructional design model I designed to deal with the content provided by the LMS we use with our language students since there is no paper-based course book for the course. Everything we provide learners for their asynchronous, autonomous and self-regulated work is on the language program’s LMS. Well-designed sessions

The instructional model proposed for the course I have been developing and teaching is linked finds its basis on the ADDIE Instructional Model. The idea behind it was to have some sort of backbone that can provide learners with some schema activation, the use of new lexical items and grammar, a productive task where students can demonstrate how much they have been learning/understanding of a thematic unit, and an extension activity that it is taken out of the virtual classroom (VC) and done independently where students have to face real people and real situations.

An interesting and useful working gathering

More than a working session, what my learners are meant to experience when working on the VC is a sort of “gathering� where they come to practice the language they are working independently and not to get content explanations from me, their instructor. Material from the platform is practiced in various and interactive ways in the VC: in the main room or when working in small groups (or pair work) in breakout rooms, too. Additionally, the activities and tasks are meant to become useful tools that they can really use in the real world to be able to be functional within a given thematic unit.

A feeling that the students have learned something

Education is also meant to produce and provide us with pleasant feelings and emotions; hopefully none of the exercises is going to lead to student frustration in their language development. At the

end of each session or in the transition from one thematic unit to the next one, we want our learners to leave the VC having learned something new and useful; something they can apply at work or in their lives when English needs to be used. We want them to feel fulfilled after attending class.

The correct management of “technical aspects” of the VC one is using is another important aspect we online instructors have to keep in our minds.

“Knowing how to manage the technical aspects of your chosen videoconferencing platform, and how to quickly and effectively deal with technical issues that can arise” [ CITATION The18 \l 1033 ] is a must.

While interacting with peers in the BlendIt course, I shared with them this list of tips to be ready for a VC. Though some of the aspects seem to be logical, the neophyte in online education can discover that they can be a way to “manage the technical aspects” when one is getting familiar with a platform such as Zoom, Adobe Connect, and so on.

Content verification It is always wise to turn on the laptop and verify that the class content you are going to be using with your pupils is uploaded and/or ready to be used in class. If there is a technical problem in terms of content visualization, this is the moment to make adjustments and changes.

Connectivity and bandwidth verification

Verify connectivity and bandwidth on your laptop.

Remember that working on a wi-fi connection away from the router at home or at the office can cause fluctuations in bandwidth that can cause minor or major communication breakdowns during a live session. A bandwidth test can be carried out at http://www.speedtest.net/ quite quickly and reliably.

Sound, video, and whiteboard functionalities test

Once you are logged in your VC, do run a sound, video, and whiteboard functionalities test. You don’t want to get surprises if your students cannot hear you (or vice versa), or that your camera is not on to greet your students prior the class’s kick-off, or that the whiteboard

cannot be used because any feature that was meant to be used is not functioning. Sometimes many of these issues can be solved by closing the VC and reloading the page.

Interactivity verification

When uploading content presentations (usually on PowerPoint for my courses), interactivity has to be verified. A plain PPT is not that attractive and in my instructional design, interactivity is one of those elements that reflect a well-planned session with learners. Checking this interactivity prior launching the live session is a good idea to prevent any “bad and unexpected moment.�

Breakout rooms creation

If your session is going to include breakout rooms (BRs), it is wise to have them ready to be later used during the live session. Creating BRs right on the spot can be a bit time-consuming depending on the platform one is using, and if one is rather new in the use of the VC platform, it can be a pain-staking task. And making students wait due to our lack of platform usage expertise is something we cannot allow to happen.

Uploading material to breakout rooms

Once BRs have been created, do upload material needed to each individual breakout room, so there can be smooth transition from the main room into the BRs. Having students in the limbo between being in the main room with no instructor to being moved into a BR with no activated features is not a good sign of planning for students.

Waiting for students to show up

Now that everything is prepared, wait for students to start class. In the meantime while the class is about to start and while waiting for more of them to log in, chitchat with learner about their lives, studies, work, or any other topic that might be a good conversation starter to transition them from their native language into the target language. This is a good socialization activity that

learners value, too.

Time investment

All these “steps� may take some 10 to 12 minutes before the real class starts. And if you are new in the online teaching business, it is advisable that you are logged in some 20 minutes before until all this becomes part of your preparation routine for you to speed up the process a bit more and get to the 10-12-minute mark.

If you thought that online teaching can be done overnight, this is a good moment to mull over your initial thoughts. Labelling online teaching as a tough task is not correct, but getting ready for it can be a short or long learning path for some instructors. And as any other routine we follow as educators, this will be easily handled with some training and lots of practice.

References The Consultants-E. (2018, June 13). Blend It Online. Retrieved from http://www.train2do.com/: http://www.train2do.com/moodle/mod/page/view.php?id=56700&inpopup=1