This presentation was prepared and delivered as part of an EU-CONEXUS training event for staff across many European Universities. This presentation is designed to discuss learning technologies, classroom interaction tools, unbundling the learning management system and how to deliver an engaging online class. More information on the project: https://www.eu-conexus.eu/en/

2. Youtube: Eirial Photography

3. My background:
• eLearning Development Officer
• Technologist
• Music nerd
• Radiohead
• In need of a haircut!

6. In This Talk
Section 1: TutorStack
(15 mins)
Section 2: Interaction and Engagement
Tools for Online Classes
(15 mins)
Section 3: Community and Collaboration
(15 mins)
Section 4: Retention and Interventions
(5 mins)

7. Keeping
Classes
Engaging
Please keep your cameras on, microphones muted
I’m going to break up this session into segments
We’ll have breaks every 20 minutes
I’m going to ask you some questions using Mentimeter
I’ll ask you to raise your hands
I might even call your name and ask you a question ☺

10. Digital
learning
revolution
Trainer Centred Learner Centric
Formal Informal
Classroom
based
Anytime,
anywhere
Push Pull
Courses Experiences

11. Changing
Landscape of
Learning
Traditional Way Of
Thinking
• Teacher/expert led
• Content driven
• Classroom
• Theoretical
• Programmatic
New Way Of
Learning
• Learner led
• Content driven
• Collaborative
• Learning while doing
• Just in time/flexible
The sage on the stage The guide on the side

13. TutorStack
Exploring The Learning Management System
Section 1:

14. Learning
Management
System
• User management
• Learning materials
• Reflection
• Communication
• Assessment
• Feedback
• Media Hosting
• Analytics
• Collaboration
• Community

16. Jack of all
trades,
master of
none…
Jack de todos los oficios, maestro de nada
Généraliste sur tout, expert en rien
Vieles können, aber nichts gut
Tuttofare, maestro di nessuno

17. Jack of all
trades,
master of
none…
Jack de todos los oficios, maestro de nada
Généraliste sur tout, expert en rien
Vieles können, aber nichts gut
Tuttofare, maestro di nessuno

18. Jack of all
trades,
master of
none…
Jack de todos los oficios, maestro de nada
Généraliste sur tout, expert en rien
Vieles können, aber nichts gut
Tuttofare, maestro di nessuno

19. Jack of all
trades,
master of
none…
Jack de todos los oficios, maestro de nada
Généraliste sur tout, expert en rien
Devatero remesel, desátá bída
Tuttofare, maestro di nessuno

20. Jack of all
trades,
master of
none…
If I’m talking too fast, ask me to slow down, if you don’t understand something please ask ☺
Jack de todos los oficios, maestro de nada
Généraliste sur tout, expert en rien
Devatero remesel, desátá bída
Visų profesijų lizdas nėra nė vieno meistro

21. Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None…
• Moodle doesn’t do everything we need it to do
• Are the facilities in Moodle the best ones available?
• What if I want to do a live class online?
• What if I want to check for plagiarism?
• Do I want to do real-time chat communication?
• Can I collaborate on documents?

22. Unbundle the
LMS
• Learning Management Systems
• Seen as end points
• One size fits all solution
• Aesthetics
• Vendor/product lock-in
• We want to swap-in better
alternatives as they become
available

23. WIT TutorStack Technology Framework
1. Instruction Materials
2. Community & Communications
3. Assessment & Feedback
4. Media (live class & recordings)

24. Pilot

25. Pilot Programme
vs
10,000 Students
How do you scale to the entire institute?

28. Moodle

36. Questions

37. See you in 5
minutes

38. Interaction and Engagement
Tools for Online Classes
Section 2:

39. Interaction
Tools
• Moodle H5P
• Turnitin
• Teams for Chat
• Zoom for Video
• Mentimeter
• Padlet

41. H5P Interactive Content Types

42. What Is Turnitin?
Turnitin is a tool to help you lay the foundation for original thinking,
authentic writing, and academic integrity practices that will last
a lifetime.

43. What do I use Turnitin for?
ORIGINALITY
CHECKING
IMPROVING
WRITING
MULTIPLE
SUBMISSIONS
ONLINE
FEEDBACK

44. What’s in the
Turnitin Database?

45. Published
Content
154 million published content
items
Content from 47,000 journals
and over 69 million articles
91% of the top 10,000 cited
journals are included in our
database

46. Web Content
70 billion current and archived
internet pages
Turnitin retains historical copies
of all webpages it has crawled
web crawler targets 68 million
web pages a day

47. Student
Papers
1 billion student papers are in
our content database
In excess of 1 million student
papers are uploaded daily
30 Languages

48. Microsoft Teams

51. Zoom Dual Screen
Presenter’s
Screen
Student’s View
Camera
Zoom Gallery Presenter View

53. Questions

54. See you in 5 minutes

55. Community
and
Collaboration
Section 3:

56. Rosell, 2018
“Without these community structures, education would be a
very lonely place. Students wouldn’t be able to work together
on group projects, help each other through tricky material or
share their interest and passion for certain subjects. Learning
communities play a significant role in ensuring that students
remain motivated to succeed.”

57. Osterman, 2000
A community exists when its members
experience a sense of belonging or personal
relatedness...the community has a shared
and emotional sense of connection

58. Rovai & Wighting (2005)
Community “provides a place in which individuals are
free to express their identities, and helps them deal
with changes and difficulties in society at large.
Students who feel lonely or isolated will invest more
energy in seeking a sense of community and support
than in learning.”

59. Importance of Classroom
Community
• Isolation leads to higher dropout rates (Ali and T Smith, 2015)
• Community creates a better learning experience for students
(Wenger, 1998)
• There’s huge value in democratic discussion
• Strong need for Lecturer Presence (Ladyshewsky, 2013)
• Importance of Social Presence (Garrison, 2000)

60. Garrison, Anderson and Archer’s
Community of Inquiry
Matbury [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

61. Source: https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bjet.12302

62. Social Presence
It is important especially at the beginning of the semester when
students are getting to know and trust both you and one another.
If students can make interpersonal connections with others, they are
more likely to engage with the course and the content.
Indicators of Social Presence include:
• Affective responses
• Interactive responses
• Cohesive responses

64. Problem Solved?
Whatsapp and Facebook groups
are already in place and they
allow students to:
• Build a learning
community
• Provide peer support
• Build friendships
• Share knowledge
• Be the online social space
for a class
• Get an answer to a
question and not wait a
week until the next class
Real-time instant messaging
conversations
Source: Unsplash.com @thenewmalcolm

65. So what’s missing?
• They aren’t lecturer led
• Incorrect information can be shared and lecturer cannot
correct it
• No control over what is said in them
• Students have access to each others mobile phone number
(and the lecturers if they’re in the group)
These social networks for
learners don’t exist for 1st years

66. Here’s the pitch…
Source: https://unsplash.com/@campaign_creators

67. We propose the creation of a formal
Community Platform for learners
that is lecturer led and is ubiquitous
across your institute.

68. Why?
• One place for all communications
with a class
• Lecturer led
• Organised channels for each module
(e.g. classes, labs, assignments and
watercooler)
• Real-time messaging
• Desktop and mobile apps
• Works in their web browsers
• Notifications on their mobile app
• Can be used for synchronous and
asynchronous classes
• Share and collaborate on documents
• Teacher & Social presence
A single Community Platform for all students and lecturers

69. You VS Your Students

70. 1. How do I get started?
• Students need to download the app and login
• Use simple Ice Breaker
• Use personal profiles and photos
• Make it a safe place
• Use video feedback
• Be responsive to students needs
• Provide messages that are respectful,
positive, encouraging, timely, and frequent

72. The Practical Guide

73. Students need a Teams
Induction Session
1
Give students information on
how to access Teams and
everything they’ll need to get
started…

74. How do I use this thing?
2
Give students information on
how to use Teams

75. Welcome Students
3
Encourage students to
download the apps and upload
a profile picture
Pilot Programme using Slack

76. What’s a channel?
4
Give students an overview of
the channels and what they’re
used for

77. Start posting
5Introduce some ice breaker
activities to get students
posting and replying
Who’s from Waterford?
Who plays an instrument?
Who speaks a foreign language?

78. Help each other
6
Encourage students to post
their questions and respond to
questions from others

79. Create breakout rooms / group chat
7
Create chat groups for
students or ask them to set up
the chat group themselves
They can chat, share documents,
collaborate and have group video calls
here

80. The Water Cooler
8 Encourage off topic chat in a
water cooler channel

83. Questions

84. See you in 5 minutes ☺

85. Retention & Interventions

86. Online
Programme
Team
SPONSOR COURSE LEADER SUBJECT MATTER
EXPERT
ELEARNING
DEVELOPER
LECTURER ETUTOR PROJECT LEADER TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORT
ADMINISTRATION STUDENT
EXPERIENCE
OFFICER

87. Datapoints
• Moodle Report for Activity
• Slack analytics
• TutorTime

88. Slack - Days Active In Past 30 Days

89. Slack - Messages Posted in the Past 30 Days

90. Tutors Time

91. Tutors Time

92. Moodle Participants List

93. Moodle Logs

94. Interventions
eTutor • If students aren’t engaging in
past 7 days email Student
Lecturer • If student fails to engage in two
weeks
Student
Experience
Officer
• If student doesn’t reply to
tutor/lecturer
Administrator • Does the student want
to continue the course

95. It is important to note that technology
should not be used without sound
pedagogical reasoning and relevance to
learning outcomes
(Beggs, 2018)
“
“

96. In This Talk
Section 1: TutorStack
Section 2: Interaction and Engagement
Tools for Online Classes
Section 3: Community and Collaboration
Section 4: Retention and Interventions

97. Keeping
Classes
Engaging
We kept cameras on, microphones muted
We broke this session into segments
We took breaks every 20 minutes
I asked you some questions using Mentimeter
I asked you to raise your hands
I might have called your name and ask you a question

98. Questions