Suggestions / ideas for running English classes online?

I think in the current situation, authorities will not care. There are too many more important things to do than hunt down teachers teaching from home when their school is closed.

The real issue is that academic networks in Taiwan are never going to be fast enough for 40 streams going in/out of school servers. And for teaching elementary kids online… well, I doubt many know enough to handle the basics of online teaching never mind the issues of dropped connections. Just do your best with what they give you.

Yeh, the private university I work at announced this yesterday, allegedly as a result of an MOE directive. Since its unprepared, and some of the software is awful, my initial reaction was to update my resignation letter, but I suppose I’ll hang on the stern for the final plunge.

AFAICT (all announcements in Chinese, which I’m afraid I don’t do) they are going to use Google Meet for the classes and Go-learning for resource publication and online testing.

I’ve no experience with Google Meet, but at least I’ve heard of Google. Self selected alternatives are not allowed for this, since the authorities want access to its recordings of all classes, giving them potentially unprecedented levels of surveillance.

They introduced Go-learning about 2 years ago to replace a platform that actually worked (though I never used it for testing). I dunno if its an in-house or just a Taiwanese/Chinese product since the Chinglish interface is bad enough for either. Unusable, so I’ve published stuff on Google Drive when required. There MAY be self-selected options in the Novelty Exploding Cigar Virus scenario, dunno, but that tends to bring out the control freaks, so probably not. The IT people are of course delighted, since people are forced to use this crap.

The immediate general issues I can see (as opposed to getting it to work technically, which are the really immediate issues) are:-

  1. How do you stop them cheating/colluding in an online test? I’d guess you can’t
  2. How do they work cooperatively in groups (standard saves-grading feature of my classes) in a MEET online class? (These two are sort of reciprocal)
  3. How do you stop them copying the test for future reference if you just publish it as a document, which would be the easiest thing to do? (Though I guess I don’t have to worry about that)

They want a description of how we’re going to run the midterm online by 30/3. No idea ATPIT. I did pilot test Schoology maybe three years ago and decided it was more trouble than it was worth, but it’d be a whole lot better than Go-learning.

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I’m only part time now, have lost my Environmental Science course (which was interesting) and my Exchange Student course is exempt from the online requirement, so I only have 2X2 hour classes affected (which is why resignation is an easy low-cost option that is hard to resist) but that alone would still take me 25 hours a week, assuming no glitches and without any "then we’d have to re-record with the corrections."follow-up.

Surely you jest?

Or are NUTS!?

Some half-assed testing (inadequate since the IT numpties havn’t thought to provide any test ID’s to simulate students, so it may well fall over completely with a real class. Taiwanese confidence in perennially broken technology is a continued source of wonder) suggests my old laptop won’t do application sharing via MEET.

I’m not buying a new laptop for this, the frayed ropes end of my teaching “career”, so I might have to use the classroom PC, assuming the classroom can be unlocked in a Novelty Exploding Cigar Virus scenario. These dont have webcams, and they won’t/can’t buy any, so I might be shopping for one, which I was thinking of trying for a job on the car anyway.

Is a 250NT-ish web cam just going to be junk?

The one I looked at was called i-See, I think. Cant find that online, which isn’t a good sign

I’'ve got an evening class this semester which normally runs for the first 9 weeks (unclear ATPIT if they’ll want to make up the missing 2 weeks at the beginning, but I’d guess not.)

This is apparently exempt from the requirement to transition to online learning , presumably because it finishes early before the risk is expected to ramp up.

I’ve suggested that, by adding additional (probably evening) classes to my two reading classes, they could also finish early and so be exempt, which would rather neatly body-swerve the impending debacle.

This would be far less trouble than the proposed work around, which I don’t at present believe is practical.

Very little chance they’ll go for it though, given the mental flexibility required.

I suppose if they allowed it generally the short fat semester timetable might get too crowded.

For those that teach at home, this FB page is a good resource if it hasn’t been posted already. Lots of links, classroom ideas etc

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It was a small class, and that was just how she ran her office hours. 3h of class per week plus at least 1x one-on-one. I signed up for 2 sections so that I got at least a little bit of instruction 5 days a week. This was a conversational class for a less-spoken language, so the pressure was low and the motivation was high. Probably wouldn’t work nearly as well for someone trying to teach a required English course to 30+ students, but then this thread is titled ‘suggestions / ideas’ so I thought I’d share.

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Fair enough.

I’m being pretty negative about the whole thing, I know.

I think this is realistic, but I also think my response to you was innapropriate, and I should apologise, so I do

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Endless dicking about to get my cheapo (i-Watch) webcam to work suggests it wasn’t a very good buy, though when it does work the image quality is OK.

Some webcam software works with it on my laptop (but its downloaded driver doesn’t). It works with some Windows 10 machines and not others (?) with the Windows Camera application, works in Google Meet on some machines and not others, and I can’t login to Google Meet from the classroom machine at all.

Could be worse though. The Logitec driver for the last one I bought crashed the OS and needed a complete re-install.

Buy Steam VR and ‘Half Life: Alyx’ for $1000 USD! Your students will love it!!!

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Had a couple of test classes using Google MEET which were predictably crap, though I quite liked choosing the background music for the pauses.

I could maybe work up a Robin Williams Gooood Morning TAIIIWAAAN! stylee persona?

Maybe not. One of the classes is in the afternoon, anyway.

A word of caution for anyone thinking of trying the Hot Potatoes quiz-generator for online testicles.

It seems to be A TRAP. And you don’t want your online testicles in a trap.

Easy to generate a range of quiz styles, which I did. Then I belatedly looked into how to manage student login and result collection (Duh!) and quickly broke through the user-friendly crust into an almost undocumented world of Javascript dependency horribleness.

https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/departments/tlt-wired/articles/700-saving-hot-potatoes-quiz-results-database

http://www2.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/~gordon/research/hot-potatoes/index.html

Sort of mirrors my Linux experience, though that’s a long time ago.

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Steam VR and ‘Half Life: Alyx = some very dirty windows, a web cam, and some felt tip pens = $1000USD?

I wonder how much they think they could charge for a blackboard and some chalk.

Isurveyed my students about online learning, including asking them if they would be willing to do an accvelerated course with more classes a week in order to finish early and avoid it. Overwhelming support for this, with one dissent.

Sent the results to the school with complete confidence they would ignore them, but I’m not sure they have. Since then they’ve come back at me with about 6 covid-related survey questionnaires.

I have sown the wind, and am reaping the massive bovine flatulence.

Here’s an example.

Questionnaire of the specific travel and contact history during April 2 to April 5.

Question 10

Have you made contact with any unspecified person during this period?

Note that this question is Y/N. There is no “I plead the 5th” option.

I dunno if they mean “contact” in a biblical, military, social, or communicative sense, and I really dunno what they mean by “unspecified”.

Since they havn’t specified anyone, perhaps everyone is unspecified, so “unspecified person” means “anyone”, and the answer is therefore Y.

Or perhaps “unspecified” means “anyone you are not willing to specify in case your girlfriend finds out”, in which case it would be tactical to answer N, irrespective of the facts.

Tricky. A small problem in the scheme of things, but an irritant none the less.

Are you unspecified?

And have you ever been

Unspecified?

We’ve heard all the exhortation from specialists on social separating and ensuring we wash our hands. What we examine less is the mental interruption telecommuting has on millions around the globe. Today, I am going to share five hints you might need to actualize to ensure you feel in charge of this disturbance.

Tip 1: Maintain a Routine

We are animals of propensity and when our routine is out of nowhere disturbed, we experience a few feelings, for example, powerlessness, gloom, outrage, and dissatisfaction. So as to gain back power, you’ll need to emulate your past daily practice as close as could be expected under the circumstances.

In the event that you wake up at 5 a.m., at that point proceed with that equivalent daily practice. On the off chance that you like going for a run before work, at that point proceed with that daily schedule (obviously sensibly speaking). On the off chance that you get spruced up for work, at that point you should at present do likewise. Something else, in the event that we wake up at 9 a.m., not work out, not get dressed, we begin to feel strange and not have a feeling of commonality.

For the individuals who have children, keeping a similar routine will be basic for your kids; else, they will see time at home as though it were time off and not be persuaded to learn. This will make it harder for you to assist them with remaining on target in completing their school work.

Tip 2: Don’t Use Extra Time to Work

Probably the greatest slip-up individuals accomplish when they telecommute is to work more. Many do it since they feel remorseful that they are working remotely and don’t need their chief or collaborators to think they are relaxing, or they don’t have the foggiest idea how to manage the additional time and, accordingly, utilize an opportunity to “get up to speed”

Make time limits and utilize that additional opportunity to accomplish something different. In the event that you drive to work, odds are you set aside that effort to tune in to music, digital recordings, book recordings, or something different. That shouldn’t stop. The time getting to and from work is a progress period among home and work, and as disappointing as driving can be, it’s our opportunity to set ourselves up to go to the workplace. By not driving, the lines begin to get obscured among work and home.

Tip 3: Use Video Chat

For a large number of us, in-person contact is significant in light of the fact that we can peruse meaningful gestures when conversing with somebody. At the point when we telecommute, our in-person contact with collaborators vanishes; in that capacity, it gets imperative to see the individuals you converse with.

Attempt to utilize the video capacity of Zoom, WebEx, MS Teams, and different projects. I understand numerous individuals are not open to being before a camera; nonetheless, doing so will permit you the chance to see your companions and partners and, thusly, it will give the feeling that you are as yet associated. At any rate, proceed with your talks by means of moment flag-bearer or telephone. Don’t simply depend on email.

Tip 4: Take Breaks

Being in the workplace fits talk with associates. Somebody comes around and inquires as to whether you need to go get an espresso or approaches you to take a walk. That plainly will be difficult to do in case you’re currently working remotely yet that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take breaks for the duration of the day. Taking breaks will be basic to your rational soundness yet additionally ensure you rest your eyes from sitting before the PC.

One approach to include breaks into your timetable is by including an every day schedule welcome for 10 mins at 10:30 a.m. also, 3:30 p.m., or you can utilize Clockify, free programming that tracks to what extent you’ve been on your PC. In any case, put forth a deliberate attempt to step away from your PC.

Tip 5: Move Around

As of now, we don’t have the foggiest idea to what extent this pandemic will last and chances are we will be home longer than we need. So make a stride back and take a gander at your home. Ask yourself, “if this space were a WeWork or Coffeeshop, where might I need to sit for the duration of the day?” Even on the off chance that you live in a little space, moving your seat starting with one spot then onto the next will give the mind the observation that you are presently in another space. Clearly, this would be pertinent to those taking a shot at a PC.

For those chipping away at a work area, maybe consider adding blossoms to your work area zone or re-orchestrating it a little to make it look somewhat changed. Likewise, moving your work area to a region that has a ton of daylight will likewise help since it will make where you work more splendid. In any case, the fact of the matter is to discover spaces in your home where you can move around for the duration of the day regardless of whether it implies just accepting a call from your telephone some place other than your work area.

It would be ideal if you be sheltered and told me your considerations on the tips I’ve shared.

Also, working from home is a great opportunity to have a drink or three while working. I’ve been having lots of fun with Irish coffees.

Drinking while teaching children? Not cool!

Tough to get a webcam now! Sold out everywhere. I managed to grab one off the Logitech website.

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This a private argument or can anyone join in?

Maybe you should get a volleyball called Wilson during your social isolation.

Maybe we all should. Volleyballs probably disapprove of alcohol in the classroom too.

Its my single malt/blended whisky Compare and Contrast Class this week. Its been a bit cool in previous iterations, but I doubt it would be quite the same online. Less chance of getting fired though.

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You never get a written warning for drinking on the job.