When we try to replicate classroom experiences in an online environment, it’s easy to think of video conferencing as our go-to tool for all sorts of learning objectives—and for good reason. Most of us have participated in a video conference at work or had a video chat with friends or family at some point. We like the idea of being able to see and hear our students while interacting with them in real time just like we do when teaching face to face. But there are two key factors that make this approach problematic.
1. Bandwidth
High-bandwidth technologies work great for students who have newer computers, fast and reliable internet access at home, and unlimited data plans on their phones. For other students, courses that require frequent use of high-bandwidth technologies can limit their ability to fully participate in course activities. This can jeopardize their success in the course, create a sense of shame and anxiety, and leave them feeling like second-class citizens.
2. Immediacy
The second factor, immediacy, refers to how quickly we expect our students to respond when interacting with us and with each other. Typically, we think of immediacy as a good thing. It’s baked into face-to-face learning, so it doesn’t feel like a limited resource. But one of the biggest advantages of online learning is that it can provide you and your students with more flexibility. When we require our students to be online at exactly the same time, we sacrifice one of the key benefits of online learning, and that can make an online course feel like more of a burden than it has to be.
Shifting Our Thinking
If we compare these factors on a coordinate plane with bandwidth on the vertical axis and immediacy on the horizontal axis, we can divide instructional technologies into four categories or “zones.” By reflecting on the unique pros and cons of each zone and the drawbacks that come with high-bandwidth/high-immediacy tools, we can identify ways to make our courses more flexible and accessible.
The Green Zone: Underappreciated Workhorses
Starting with the green zone in the lower left, we have readings with text and images. These types of assignments may not seem exciting, but sharing readings with students in a consistent and organized way provides your online course with a very practical, solid foundation. Email and discussion boards also belong in this quadrant.
Online instructors have been using these three tools—file sharing (for readings and such), email, and discussion boards—for decades. And while that might make them sound boring, you can create some fantastic instructional experiences with just these three tools.
The Blue Zone: Practical Immediacy
Moving over to the lower right, we have low-bandwidth tools that can add immediacy to student interactions. If you’ve used Microsoft Office 365 or Google Drive, you’re probably already familiar with some of the features and benefits of collaborative document editors. These tools allow multiple people to edit and comment on the same document, spreadsheet, or presentation slides. Depending on how you structure your assignments, students could collaborate over an extended period of time, or they could go online at the exact same time and write and edit each other’s work simultaneously.
When it comes to group chat/messaging, there are lots of free apps that can be useful in an educational setting. Slack and GroupMe are two popular examples. These mobile-friendly apps allow students to post text-based messages and images without requiring anyone in the group (including you!) to share their phone numbers. These tools allow students to communicate quickly and easily without scheduling an entire day around a formal video conference.
The Yellow Zone: Audio and Video on Demand
Many instructors like to move in-class lectures and demonstrations online by creating screencasts. Screencasting allows you to record what’s on your computer screen—from PowerPoint slides to math equations to works of art—and add audio narration as you record. Screencasting adds a human element to online courses because your voice creates a sense of presence that plain text can’t.
Learning how to create pre-recorded lectures can be intimidating, especially if you don’t have any experience with video production. It can also be challenging to create concise screencasts that keep students engaged. Students are more likely to watch a series of shorter videos than a single, longer video, which is why I recommend instructors try to divide long screencasts into five- to ten-minute segments (whenever possible).
If you’d like to explore a free screencasting tool on your own, Screencast-o-Matic is one that I’ve been fairly happy with. There are many other options available, so I’d recommend talking with the instructional technology specialists at your institution to see what they recommend. At DePaul, for example, we have detailed guides and trainings on Panopto, the screencasting tool and video-management platform integrated with our learning management system. It’s also worth noting that you can use a videoconferencing tool like Zoom to record slide narration even if you’re the only person in the meeting room. Once you’ve started a Zoom session, you can press record, share your screen, and voila! You now have a recording of you talking over your slides or whatever else you might show using the Share Screen feature. The only major disadvantage to this approach is that you’ll have to use a separate program if you want to edit your recording.
The right side of the yellow zone is home to asynchronous discussion with audio and video. If you’re not familiar with this concept, I’m referring to discussion tools that allow students to respond with audio and video instead of just text. One tool that’s been a leader for a long time in this multimedia discussion space is VoiceThread. While VoiceThread’s defining feature is its user-friendly approach to audio-based commenting, it can also be used to create narrated presentations with PowerPoints slides, images, and video. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the interface of a traditional screencasting tool, VoiceThread is worth exploring as a simpler way of recording online lectures and fostering discussions that go beyond plain text.
The Red Zone: Natural Conversations at a Cost
The upper-right quadrant is reserved for tools that require both high bandwidth and high immediacy, and the best examples of this are videoconferencing tools like Zoom or Skype. Videoconferencing is a great way to engage with students when they truly need to see and hear each other in real time. It can also be useful for online office hours, since it’s easier to feel connected and avoid misunderstandings when you have the benefit of tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language.
Unfortunately, videoconferencing is one of the most inflexible and bandwidth-intensive activities we can ask our students to do. Before you rely on it too heavily, look at the other quadrants and ask yourself if there’s any other way to accomplish your learning objectives without it.
Conclusions
I like to encourage faculty to start their online-course design process by imagining how they’d structure each week’s assignments and activities using only the tools in the green zone. Setting these types of strict limits at the start can make it easier to identify creative solutions. It also helps ensure that when you’re ready to consider tools in the other quadrants, you’re more conscious of the tradeoffs that come with moving from the lower left to the upper right areas of the chart.
None of this is to say that videoconferencing is inherently bad or that it has no place in an online course. It’s simply a reminder that seemingly small (and sometimes unconscious) choices about the technologies we use can have a big impact on how inclusive and effective our teaching is. The more aware we are of this, the more we can ensure we’re choosing the right tools for the right reasons.
Twitter: @dstanford LinkedIn: /dstanford
I found this article interesting and, in general, agree with the categorizations presented in it.
However, I am interested in exactly what is meant by “high bandwidth.” We have found at our institution, after moving away from some traditional video-conferencing systems that used the H.323 protocols (we had used older Polycom brand systems running these protocols and these required quite a bit of dedicated bandwidth, both upload and download), that our bandwidth requirements dropped down to a level that even a mobile phone could operate in (higher end 3G and lower end 4G wireless networks).
While video conferencing still needs a good connection, the bandwidth needs are now low enough that even those on DSL speed networks can easily take part, and, as each participant is connecting via the host servers, users on slower connections do not degrade or limit anyone else in the conference. Other than those who are on connections below 800KBs in both up- and download, there is no real problem.
All good points and very helpful to know. I’m not familiar enough with minimum speed and stability requirements to ensure effective participation in Zoom meetings, but I can tell you I have very high-speed cable internet and was just kicked out of a Zoom session today due to an “unstable” connection. I had a hard time reconnecting and hearing everyone even with only four participants all with video turned off. Ultimately, my hope is that everyone will start thinking more of asynchronous, very low-bandwidth options first and view videoconferencing as more of a luxury—not just because of internet speed requirements, but also because of limits on students’ monthly data plans and potential widespread internet “brownouts” as millions of new videoconferences start popping up during business hours. I also think shifting away from real-time meetings just a tad (while still holding them when needed) could make everyone’s lives easier in the coming months.
Love the zones ! Thanks. Will use in a webinar this week!
Thanks. I am going to add this to a resource for our Lecturers faced this week with some decisions about moving online
That’s fantastic, Maureen! Hope it helps.
Hi Daniel,
Great overview. Really useful and not too technical to help educators make choices!
Sake
Thanks, Sake! Hope you and all our friends in the Netherlands are staying safe and healthy.
Last week, both colleges (WA) where I teach as an adjunct moved classes remotely. I wanted to give students the chance to connect to me and each other “virtually” as we shifted to all online. Results and accessibility were mixed. Wise advice to be intentional with the tradeoffs for the tools we use in our classes. The digital divide exists.
I am currently navigating my way around teaching online and I really appreciate this information.
I am teaching a Focal Point in the Spring, which is a seminar that requires discussion. Do you suggest limiting those to once a week?
Thank you for the excellent advise. I am now transitioning from classroom to online teaching and have to adjust timings, assignments, etc to the ‘new life’. I am dependent on PowerPoint lectures for my classes and in the classroom environment, I use animation heavily, with prompts asking students to answer questions or give opinions. I did a survey with my students last week and found that half have very limited bandwidth, and worse: no experience in online classes. Planning now to cut back on my animations, leaving the prompts. and GO SLOW until they learn. Be well.
Thanks, Daniel! This is a great resource to help our faculty think through their choices of technology tools.
Thanks for putting this together, Daniel! I like the graph. Important message for all who are making the sudden transition to online teaching.
Many thanks for sharing the options for remote training and collaboration. Your categorisation of options is very useful.
Necesitamos los recursos necesarios para la educación media y superior a distancia, que sean eficaces, para dedicarnos con asertividad a la actividad como estudiantes, agradecemos su apoyo de antemano.
Hi Daniel,
Thank you very much for this wonderful resource! I would like to share this with our academics if it’s alright with you? Cheers!
Thanks, this is a great resource to help our faculty through their choices of technology
Tools.
Absolutely, Mark! Glad you found it helpful.
Thanks Daniel, for the matrix model and your teaching perspectives online. A fervent wish is to have a simple A/V tool with an avatar to insert short audio or video clips into slide decks, into Office files, insert hyperlinks, etc. Ideally it would mimic some of the lively F2F teaching moments in 1-2 minutes pieces.
Over the years, I’ve tried VO powerpoint, video lectures on a blue screen, and other teaching tools. Student feedback and my own experience is mixed, mostly with complaints about lengthening student time for self-learning, especially if the lectures are longer than 10 minutes. Currently for asynchronous online teaching sessions, I provide the slide deck, videos and articles without any VO or videos of me lecturing. Another reason is that it takes 3-4 hours or longer of shooting, recording, editing, and reshooting at DePaul’s AV studios for every hour of usable content. Thanks, Ron – Marketing Dept.
Thanks for the insights, Ron. I think one of the best takeaways from your comment is that custom-made audio/video lectures are not an essential requirement for many instructors and/or courses. We can often do just fine by providing PowerPoint slides with notes written out in the notes section, linking to articles, writing out certain lecture content in a Word doc or PDF, or putting certain lecture concepts directly in the text field of a long discussion prompt. I think a lot of instructors feel guilty about teaching a course that really focuses on the tools and media formats in the “green zone” of my chart, but that’s completely fine in many cases.
Useful and helpful article to help think about the right use of digital technology and take into account the technical,economical and human context..
It’s really helpful.
A lot of this makes sense, especially for larger classes. I’m at a huge university where a lot of the classes have hundreds of enrollees. I think the push towards interactive Zoom, in part, was to maintain the illusion that classes are interactive.
Another thing.
Quicktime is an excellent way to screencast/ screen record. Yes Quicktime. I made this video yesterday. Sorry It’s rough around the edges and campy.
Thank you 😊 it is helpful.
And thanks for sharing about QuickTime Paul.
Thanks for an excellent article, Daniel. I was volunteering teaching ESL to tertiary students in Myanmar but had to return home due to COVID-19. Have been storing / sharing some short Zoom lecture videos in the cloud, on the basis that Zoom video files are very small (30Mb), along with Word doc lecture notes. Only 4 of my 17 students have laptops (the rest are phone only), and some have emailed to say that in their remote villages, internet connections are too patchy to play the video and in some cases can’t even open the Word doc – so it’s possible even your suggestion in the comments of Powerpoint slides with notes wouldn’t work for them. One possibility is to do everything in FB Messenger, but not sure that will solve bandwidth issues.
I’m looking into VoiceThread and Screencast-o-matic to see if they can address these issues, but it’s a little hard to tell. Thanks for these great suggestions
Adele, that sounds like a big challenge. If students are having trouble accessing your Zoom recordings, I don’t think screencast-o-matic is going to resolve your issues. You could consider posting shorter videos on a service like YouTube since they allow students to select lower quality versions if connection speed is a problem. You may also want to think about audio-only options when possible. Zoom meetings provide an audio-only version of each recording. There are also some great tools for doing podcasts with minimal effort. I like the Anchor app for this.
Thanks, Daniel, I will look at audio only. Maybe it’s possible to include accompanying visuals / documents within body of the email as a low-res snip or jpeg, though students might still have trouble downloading images.
Great resource to improve our ICT utilisation.
This very helpful resource, I need to gain materials for my university exam from practical teaching techniques so thanks for this useful information.
Dan, I saw you EdSurge profile and link to this post. Thanks for the resource, and keep doing great things!
Thanks, Stephen!
Very helpful framework. Thank you.
Thanks Daniel, very helpful. I am sharing with colleagues at my school. I would add that asynchronous helps not just those who may find real time attendance problematic due to external oressures, but also benefits those who are not native speakers of the class language (international students) and maybe also reflective learners. These are valuable voices that can get drowned out in real time classes where the more confident and asserrive (dare I say white males of means) often get to speak first and loudest.
Again, thanks!
The article was interesting. This will be my first online course. The course is 6 weeks. I do have some experience with the video conferencing. I plan you use the canvas big blue button for synchronized instruction and possible voice over power point slides
Its very much useful article to think about the right use of digital technology and helps to create E-content material for teaching and learning
Thank you so much for this informative article. Our team is doing teachers’ training and the matrix is a very helpful organizer and guide in evaluating the tech tools we’re using. Zoom, MS Team Meetings, webex, and other video conferencing tools require 600kbps/1.2 Mpbs for group video calling, which is a real challenge for us here in the Philippines. Stay safe!
Good article. Thanks for sharing
Incredible, its cool to see this from a students point of view. my school has managed to keep us fairly in the low immediacy side of the axis and it genuinely makes online learning a worthy pursuit.
The idea that this article was behind my school’s current online-learning approach is awesome.
Thanq Mr.Stanford.
Khanda.
Great!! every technique is unique in own way. I personally liked ‘Screencasting”. Thank you
Its really a Useful and helpful article to help think about the right use of digital technology and take into account the technical,economical and human context.I will look forward to use this digital technology in my context and take advantage of the same.
Thank you for providing good idea with 4 zones. Really useful.
Thank you for sharing.. it will really help us.
Thank you, very use full information
very useful article….specially 4 quadrant approach & tools assisted with each quadrant is very useful
Wonderful article sir. Many a times i felt about the students from weaker economiz zone.some of our students couldnt able to spend too much for their internet package cost. But after reading this article found it very useful by the quadrant approach with colour zones. Hope online learning will be a great impact in near future. Thank you so much.
Thanks! So glad it was helpful.
Dear Prof Daniel,
I read your article as a part of a course material organised by NPTEL India. First of all in the midst of this pandemic crisis where empathy is the emotion that is felt needed all over the world, I find that empathy brimming in your article. You have rationalised the racing after technology for teaching which has become almost a fashion rather than a deliberation. I like your approach that online education should give freedom rather than otherwise which may happen when we schedule lectures. Actually speaking, I was little offended with my students for not joining my zoom classes but your article makes me think , rather empathise their situation and have started giving assignments in google classroom.
Very Informative !! Thank You.