Rapid Conversion of Intensive Teaching Sessions to Online Delivery

Written by: Annie Harrison, Hannah Waterson, John Owen and Cath Wasiuk

Zoom meeting

Background

The learning and teaching context

The University of Manchester runs a distance learning Masters in Public Health. Students have to complete eight 15 credit course units and a dissertation to complete the MPH. A small number of course units are blended, with a short intensive period of face to face (FTF) teaching. One of these is ‘Engaging the Hard to Reach for Health Gain’. In semester 2 of 2020, 12 students were enrolled on the course unit, 11 from the UK and one from North America. The FTF teaching (23–26th March) was to be run by Course Unit Lead Annie Harrison and Course Tutor Hannah Waterson and was intended to take place in Manchester. It was to include two blocks of FTF teaching by another MPH tutor Andrew Rogers, and a panel discussion with three external experts, chaired by Andrew, which would include a ‘World Cafe’ to allow students to have an in-depth small group discussion with the experts. The mid-term assignment was a group presentation with a group mark.

The challenge addressed

3 weeks before
On Thursday 5th March, we emailed the students to acknowledge that the FTF teaching might be impacted by COVID-19 and to reassure them that we would update them immediately if there were any changes. We received a couple of emails from students working in clinical and public health about their concerns that it would impact on their availability to attend the FTF teaching.

2 weeks before
During the week beginning 9th March, we began contingency planning in case we had to deliver the FTF teaching online. We aimed to make the student experience as close as possible to the FTF experience with live webinars in place of presentations and live panel presentations with remote speakers, with all content recorded in advance as a fall back in case of technical issues. On Friday evening, (13th March) the university announced it would spend the following week transitioning to online teaching and from Monday 23rd all teaching would be online. The course director emailed students telling them that the FTF teaching would be taught online and that they should cancel travel plans. We asked them to let us know if they had microphones, and headsets or speakers.

1 week before
The contingency schedule was finalised and sent to the students on 16th March. By this stage, both Hannah and Annie were working from home due to health reasons. On Tuesday 17th the university closed ahead of schedule and all further preparation was completed remotely. During the week, two students withdrew from the course, leaving 10 students in total.

There were several challenges:

• Replicating the FTF experience online including panel presentations, guest speakers, group work and a group presentation assignment.
• Accommodating the needs of the external speakers who were also dealing with changes in work patterns related to COVID-19.
• Ensuring that all timetabled sessions had a fallback with similar content including backup platforms to deliver the material.
• Ensuring that there was adequate technical support for both students, staff and guest speakers.
• Tutors were unfamiliar with live online teaching technology.

Implementation

Blackboard Collaborate

Embedding the technology

To facilitate the online sessions, we used Blackboard Collaborate. The online component of the course was already delivered through Blackboard, so using Collaborate made sense as the students were already familiar with Blackboard and accessed the online materials regularly. The recording functionality in Collaborate allowed the live sessions to be quickly and easily deployed to students within the Blackboard course unit, without any additional steps to download/upload/release.

The external presenters were asked to record a narrated PowerPoint presentation as a backup in case their live presentation failed for any reason.

The students developed their assessed group presentations using PowerPoint, creating a narrated version, also for backup purposes. The groups presented their slides live through Collaborate and they also submitted their presentations to an ‘upload only’ Dropbox folder, again in case of any technical failure during the live presentations.

During the last day, Collaborate encountered technical problems and went offline for some time while the problem was being resolved. We were able to quickly move to a Zoom meeting to ensure the sessions continued without major disruption. This was planned for in advance of the sessions.

Intended outcomes

The main intended outcomes were to:

1. Move from blended learning to fully online to ensure continuity in the delivery of the course
2. Make the online experience as close to the FTF experience as possible — sticking to the original timetable
3. Provide parity of student experience regardless of the mode of delivery
4. Ensure flexibility in the choice of technologies to move to plan B quickly if plan A failed
5. Develop a model and guidance for expanding this approach to other credit-bearing / CPD courses

Evaluation of Impact

The success of the switch to online delivery was evaluated through the feedback of staff and students.

1. Move from blended learning to fully online to ensure continuity in the delivery of the course

Having put contingency plans in place as the COVID-19 situation developed, tutors were able to switch from FTF to online delivery of the sessions as soon as a decision was made by the university to cease FTF teaching activity. The students and external participants had been prepared for this eventuality in advance and were kept fully informed at all times. This ensured the students were not disadvantaged by missing an essential element of the course unit. In their feedback, some students commented on the good preparation by the tutors.

2. Make the online experience as close to the FTF experience as possible — sticking to the original timetable

The FTF element of this blended unit was delivered fully as an online equivalent, following the same timetable as planned and with contributions from all scheduled tutors and external speakers. Group discussions and collaborative work was facilitated through Collaborate and worked well. Students and external speakers were able to engage in Q&A through the chat function in Collaborate. Students highlighted the long teaching days, which is also challenging for students when the content is taught face to face. However, when taught online, it meant that the students were online for up to 12 hours and some talked about getting a ‘screen headache’, sore eyes and backache, as well as missing the opportunity to move around. Students from other time zones had to access the course in UK time. Students also fed back that they missed the opportunity to meet each other, enjoy informal social interaction and meals and drinks together.

3. Provide parity of student experience regardless of the mode of delivery

Delivery and assignment preparation was designed to be possible using software and tools normally available to all students through Blackboard so no additional resources were necessary. Some functions, such as recording of audio to PowerPoint, were new to students and individual support and guidance were provided. Where IT capabilities made use of such functions difficult (for example, different versions of PowerPoint) an alternative submission method was offered, and students were reassured that their mark would not be influenced by these factors. An opportunity to practice using these tools was incorporated into the sessions before submission of the final assessed presentations, which served the dual purpose of allaying student anxieties and troubleshooting any potential issues.

Internet connection speeds varied, causing some students difficulty participating in some parts of the course. This was minimal, and the provision of backup recordings meant that students could access parts they had missed in their own time. However, some students highlighted connection difficulties and technical problems with their presentations in their feedback. Others felt they had benefited from learning new technological skills.

4. Ensure flexibility in the choice of technologies to move to plan B quickly if plan A failed

In the main, the technology worked well. Due to a sudden surge in demand, an issue with Collaborate was flagged up shortly before the final presentation session. Students had been asked to provide pre-recorded versions of their presentations in case of this eventuality. To ensure the session could go ahead, one tutor collated presentations in Collaborate, whilst another prepared a backup session in Zoom where students could view the recorded versions and still participate in Q&A. In this instance, plan A was able to go ahead, but the importance of a contingency option was highlighted, particularly as the session informed the assignment mark.

5. Develop a model and guidance for expanding this approach to other credit-bearing / CPD courses

Students and tutors have been asked to provide feedback which will inform guidance for using this approach in future. With more time to prepare, additional functionality could be incorporated to enhance student experience still further.

Recommendations

The main intended outcome to move from blended learning to fully online to ensure continuity in the delivery of the course was achieved. Nine students completed this element of the course with one withdrawing from the assessment because of personal reasons. Based on our experience of rapidly converting intensive teaching sessions to online delivery, our main recommendations would be:

1. Allow more time for synchronous online activity and assessment — everything takes longer online
2. Consider whether everything needs to happen synchronously — can elements be done in students’ own time? Could students be given more prep time?
3. Build time away from the screen into the schedule
4. Always allow students an opportunity to test the technology beforehand, especially when it comes to assessment
5. Test any technologies in advance, especially those that have not been used before
6. Technical support is essential, especially during the planning and at the start of the course
7. FTF course elements should be designed with an online contingency in mind

However, it is important to note that this example of rapidly converting FTF teaching sessions to online delivery happened as a response to unprecedented external factors and an urgency to ensure continuity of delivery rather than postponing or cancelling the session. Therefore, had this been solely delivered online from the beginning, we would have taken greater advantage of the flexibility afforded by technology to design the course instead of replicating FTF delivery.

Additional information

• Blackboard Collaborate — Hints and tips https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RRQxnWjJBIipmTN-KMl9Rhh2oVm2gQAlbHcP2S5RDUg/edit#heading=h.lrqf1z11gpk0
• Synchronous online delivery — Blackboard Collaborate and other tools (Short Guide) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VmWxG0ETe11T1v4LkoBABas2VShDx9krX2HZmHZaWfc/edit#

About the authors

Annie Harrison delivers two modules on the Masters in Public Health (MPH) — Arts and Public Health and Engaging the Hard to Reach for Health Gain. She is also involved in a number of evaluations including Well North — a multi-site project which aims to improve health in the poorest communities and Winning Hearts and Minds — a programme looking to improve heart and mental health outcomes in Manchester. Annie is leading on building public and patient involvement and engagement network for the i3HS Hub. She is also involved in several grant applications for i3HS, with a specific focus on integrating creative research methodologies into proposals and collaborating with the voluntary sector.

Hannah Waterson completed a PhD in the evolution of HIV prevention policy in Japan at the University of Manchester and completed the MPH after a period working in policy and media roles. She is now working as a lecturer as part of the i3HS Hub, developing a new unit on Infection Prevention and Control, and teaching on the units: Arts and Public Health, Global Health into the 21st Century and Engaging the Hard to Reach for Health Gain. She is also working on the evaluation of a range of public health interventions and research projects on issues such as health inequalities and childhood obesity.

John Owen is a Lecturer in Technology-Enhanced Learning with over 20 years’ experience working in further and higher education in both teaching and support roles. He has a background in teaching multimedia computing, educational development and technology enhanced learning, with extensive experience in the development, implementation and evaluation of online and blended learning. John currently teaches on two courses for the Master of Public Health programme — Implementation Science and Digital Public Health. He has a PGCE and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Cath Wasiuk is a Learning Technologist at The University of Manchester in the i3HS Hub. She has over 10 years of e-learning experience within various roles across the Higher Education sector in the UK. In her current role, she supports healthcare professionals to develop reusable (open, CPD and credit-bearing resources), innovative, learner-centric and multi-discipline learning materials. Cath has a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, a Postgraduate Diploma in Academic Practice, an MA in Electronic Communication and Publishing, and is a Fellow of the HEA.