Prof. Sonia Adeva, University of Alcalá, on Deploying Virtual Teaching in Just 2 days — Part 1

Interviewer/Writer: Amish Gir

Interviewee: Prof. Sonia Adeva(University of Alcalá), Professor of Spanish

Alcalá University students were forced to quarantine, and their international students had to return to their countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With Professor Adeva, we explore how they managed to adopt ClassIn and start virtual teaching in just 2 days.

To overcome the unprecedented disruption, Alcalá decided to move all their Spanish classes online. Delivering virtual classroom sessions to over 120 domestic and international students.

After 3 weeks of online only teaching Adeva discusses Alcalá’s experience with ClassIn. Their successes, challenges, how the teachers and students found the experience and any recommendations she has for other universities planning to teach virtually. Learn more about the platform they used here.

Hi Sonia! Thanks for joining us for this interview on ClassIn, something your already very familiar with! Tell us about Alcalá University and its online teaching offerings.

Alcalá University is one of the oldest universities in Spain. It was founded in the 15th Century and we have a lot of grades in the university. One part is the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language which is the department where I work.

Normally, our classes are presential with some teachers that teach online. Some classes that we teach online they are like a call or the student learn in their own rhythm and can ask the teacher their questions over email or chat. These courses are not live, like how we are using ClassIn right now.

What’s your role at the University?

I am the academic coordinator of Spanish as a foreign language courses. I’m also the coordinator and manager for students and teachers. I have to create classes, timetables and everything that’s related to the administration of classes at the University.

Tell us about why you adopted ClassIn.

A few months ago, we were talking with ClassIn and testing the program, but the actual situation in Spain with Covid-19 has accelerated our process to take on ClassIn.

It’s been 3 weeks working with ClassIn, we’ve had to learn how to use the platform in 1 day! On Friday and then on Monday, March 16th were completely online with our classes. Yes, it was very, very quick!

How many students are using ClassIn and what classes are you teaching virtually?

Right now, we have almost 120 students learning Spanish as a foreign language with up to 20 students in one virtual class at a time.

We are also doing different grades of classes like diploma and master classes. The students are doing well in that, they are enjoying discovering all the different types of things they can do with ClassIn.

Every teacher has a range of classes to teach — language classes in the morning, master classes in the afternoon.

I’m currently doing an exam preparation class for DELE, a Spanish language Diploma, in one-to-one classes. Preparing and conducting these one-to-one classes is so fun for me. It’s not the first time I’m doing classes online. I’ve done it in the past with other types of tools, it’s so easy because I can write and use my computer to share my screen or documents.

On Fridays we also have culture classes, right now they are teaching art and literature. They use pictures from the artist, or they bring in different reading material. One of the teachers was constructing a timeline, annotating it with different colours — it was so fun, it was great.

We’re also thinking about preparing more courses for teachers or more specialised courses for students. Not only to learn the language but also learn things like tourism in Spain, Spanish Law or Economics.

We’re always thinking of other types of courses that we can do with the platform. For example, we are thinking to do guitar lessons on ClassIn. Maybe uploading short videos showing finger work and using the platform to teach music.

How long did it take the teachers to get accustomed to teaching on ClassIn?

A week, maybe a little over a week. The training class was on Friday. On Monday we did the list and schedules for the new courses and then on Thursday all the teachers had 4 hours of online classes.

We couldn’t stop the classes, so we did have to work quite hard. The first day was little messy. Teachers were writing me, “Sonia, I cannot come into the class”, “Sonia, I don’t know how to move the students video feed from the top part of the screen”, “I have 15 students and I only see the same 6 students I want to move them”.

So, I asked ClassIn for supervisor access. I joined the classes, I’m like the ghost moving from one class to another and when they have an issue I appear, “I’m here, surprise! I’m watching the class!”.

How did you conduct teacher training?

The last time we were all at the centre we put all the teams on ClassIn and then we conducted lessons to simulate what we were going to experience on Monday and for the teachers to get used to it. It’s the first time we had to work in ClassIn and learn doing it in just 2 days.

Our teachers are not so young, so they are not so millennial. They aren’t used to using new technologies. We had to teach them how to use the platform and think about adapting presential teaching to a virtual way.

Spanish people don’t like change, the first few the teachers were a bit grumpy! But now it’s a complete change, now they are much more comfortable.

I also did a small manual for the teachers. It was a full day of working with the platform in order to produce a small and quick to read manual.

Did you also have to help them prepare their material for digital teaching?

Sometimes, but when we prepare ClassIn its prepared for all the students. We decide which type of digital material we need, and we distribute that to everybody.

We had to adapt our way of teaching with ClassIn and try to think ‘what is the best way to teach virtually?’.

For example, we always use a book or a guide for a book and we asked the editors for eBook versions. Right now, we are using eBooks of the same books that we use in our presential classes. When they are teaching, the teachers use the ‘Share Screen’ button to show the eBook and the students can follow.

How do the teachers find virtual teaching?

Now I think they like it; they find it fun. Every time they discover a new way to use the platform, they use their chatroom to share it with the other teachers.

For example, yesterday they found that if they put a document in the tab the students can download it immediately rather than storing all the documents in ClassIn cloud they can share a document immediately. Or they can share their screen, put it in the tab and students can watch them teach on the material.

Every day they discover things and they like it. They feel more comfortable with the platform.

For more details about student reaction and challenges of virtual teaching, read Part 2…