It had been cold; that bone sapping cold England gets in the depths of winter. Outside was white, my cars creating two lumps in my driveway and a view of purity that cleansed the expanse of farm land my home overlooked. The ‘Beast from the East’ had hit Lincolnshire with a fury not seen in about a decade. Many of my students travelled into the University from afar, so it was very likely they too were presented with a similar scene to one outside my own home.
Over the weeks, teaching had really gathered momentum, the module schedules finely tuned to deliver a deadline just a few weeks away. Not wanting to disrupt this fine balance, I rearranged the 2 hour lecture we were meant to be having that day for an online lecture using Collaborate Ultra, a software designed to host an online classroom. This meant both student and teacher alike could stay in the comfort of their own home and close their curtains to the torrid storm outside.
I emailed my students advising of the change in delivery, copied in the link to the online classroom along with joining instructions and to my surprise, I had around 30 students attend out of the 35 registered on the module. Sat at my desk at home, I loaded up my powerpoint slides I had previously prepared, sorted out a few technical glitches with a couple of student connections and proceeded to lecture to a computer screen. An odd experience at first, but after a few minutes got into the swing of things.
The software offers the facility for students to raise their hand if they have a question and a chat room visible to all in the classroom to communicate with the host and other students. Many students remained passive, simply listening to me take them through the content, glancing at my web cam image as I flapped my arms about enthusiastically. The usual suspects engaged and significantly, a few who in the classroom environment remained silent, became active members of the conversation. Students asked questions as I went through, they responded to my questions and particularly when I needed to ascertain understanding, I set an anonymous Yes/No poll. In short, the lecture continued as it would have, had we been sat in the University.
After two hours, punctuated by a tea break, we said our goodbyes. Unexpectedly, I received a few emails from the students that had attended thanking me for continuing the lecture programme as they did not want to miss anything, but simply couldn’t travel in such dangerous weather. One student explained it felt a real privilege to sit at home in comfortable clothes on their sofa engaging in legitimate university work. A student with a chronic illness explained how the online delivery made the content more accessible as she was not so fatigued from the journey into the University. Another student explained it felt like listening to a pod cast where he picked up much more than he would with the peripheral distractions of the classroom. A couple were so taken with the way the lecture was delivered, they asked if this mode of delivery could be embedded in future modules as they found it offered a unique relaxed space for their learning. The lecture even appeared in the module feedback from multiple students posting positive comments about the experience.
Enthused by the student response, I hosted all my teaching that week using the software, all generating similar feedback. All sessions were recorded with the permission from those who participated and then made available on Blackboard. This ensured all students had access to the session should they have missed it for any reason.
Overall, this was an unanticipated success. The weather had rendered normal teaching arrangements void, but with the facilities offered through Collaborate Ultra and a classroom of engaged students, the whole experience was both positive and offered benefits way beyond simple convenience. The online classroom can therefore be seen as a genuine alternative to lecture theatre teaching.