Teaching with Technology

Humans are crucial to inclusive teaching, and using tech successfully in the classroom starts with relationships.

Bryan Dewsbury, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Rhode Island.

There are extensive resources available across the NYU Global Network with tutorials on how to deploy online tools for the remote delivery of your course. Below are some useful likes to tutorials and further resources.

Technology tools can help organize course materials, student ideation, and assessment. NYU Abu Dhabi uses the learning management system, Brightspace to help you organize your course. Inside this tool there are messaging features, assignment submission pages, a Chat Room tool, Discussion Forum, and a Resources folder. Together, these folders can help you to organise a “Lesson” folder where all the materials for a given week are in one place for your students.

For remote instruction options we deploy Zoom for live small group discussions, small break out groups, and recording and transcribing lectures.
There are extensive resources available on how to deploy Zoom for learning.

Here are a series of tutorials on how to use Zoom and its many features:

It is important to inform yourself about privacy features and safety features of using Zoom.

Additional Resources

Online Teaching at Its Best: Merging Instructional Design With Teaching and Learning Research, by Linda B. Nilson and Ludwika A. Goodson.
Minds Online: Teaching Effectively With Technology, by Michelle M. Miller.

Generative AI in the Classroom

Generative artificial intelligence, which includes natural language processing systems, may have disrupted some of the traditional classroom practices but it also offers new and exciting opportunities. The prevalence of generative AI demands a rethinking of traditional assessment methods as well as a call to come up with creative ways to use it for an enhanced learning experience. Watch this video to learn more about how you can adapt your teaching style to take Generative AI into account

NYU Zoom: Automatic Live Transcription Is Now Available

Did you know that Automatic Captioning (Automatic Live Transcription) is a feature is available in NYU Zoom meetings as a way to improve digital accessibility? Only hosts can enable this for a meeting or class. Here are some tools to help you get started:

Zoom Automatic Live Transcription: Detailed instructions on how to use automatic (computer-generated) captions in NYU Zoom meetings.
Live Captioning Overview for Zoom and Google: A comparison of the captioning features in NYU Zoom and NYU Google Apps, plus a table to help you decide when to use automatic captioning.

For assistance with the NYU Zoom Automatic Live Transcription feature, refer to the links above or contact the NYU IT Service Desk.

Technology and Teaching Tips

As NYUAD implemented the Remote Plus model, where nearly all courses were offered online during the full fall 2020 semester, the Remote Instruction Support website has been developed to direct to relevant teaching and learning resources from across the global network.

An important step towards successful online teaching is to familiarize yourself with the available online tools and their features. NYU’s Global Network uses the learning management system, NYU Brightspace.

View Full Suite of Tutorials
One-on-One support is available by emailing nyuad.academictech@nyu.edu.

NYU Remote Instruction website also covers video tutorials. Most relevant is tutorials on how to effectively use NYU Zoom. For those recording lectures for asynchronous use, NYU Stream is the available software. For testing and quizzing NYU Qualtrics is recommended. Other useful tabs on the website include Remote Assessment Methods and Practices and Secure Your Zoom Meeting.

Compassion and Pedagogy Combined

The anxieties and dislocations brought on by COVID-19 induced changes to how we work and live can negatively impact learning. The added stress can impact students' abilities to self-regulate learning behaviors and focus on their work. It is important to devise strategies for your course design and online engagement to support learning during trauma.

Students have been quarantining in varied environments, and they and their families have been impacted in a wide variety of ways. These challenges are on top of other global challenges and the pressures of collegiate life. Pedagogical compassion is focused on flexibility without sacrificing rigor. Allowing students to use their voices to make choices about their learning is the first step.

The following websites cover trauma-informed teaching and pedagogy in great detail: Yale-NUS College CTL and Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.

Faculty members who are regularly interacting with students are in a unique position to notice any signs of distress a student might be experiencing. Students can be referred to the list of resources available to them based on their location in or outside of the UAE. If you have a question about how to handle a mental health situation or have concerns about a particular student, you can contact the NYUAD Health Center at nyuad.healthcenter@nyu.edu or call (+971) 2 628 8100.

Digital Inclusion and Belonging

Not different from in-person classroom, online instruction requires intentional design and employment of inclusive strategies to support diverse learner needs and abilities. Under this unusual environment in which students and faculty find themselves, it is more important than ever to make sure no learner is left behind. NYU's Inclusive Remote Classroom Practices outline key strategies to create an inclusive and equitable remote learning environment for all students. You can also visit the Diversity and Inclusion section on the Hilary Ballon Center website to learn about terms and definitions related to diversity and inclusion and how these fit within the NYU Global Network.

Accessibility

An area of inclusive pedagogy that requires attention is digital accessibility. NYU offers a number of resources regarding this topic, including Accessibility Best Practices, Digital Accessibility Checklist, and How-to Guides.

Accomodations

The Moses Center for Student Accessibility (CSA) works with students to determine and implement appropriate and reasonable accommodations as well as access available programs and resources to support equal access to a world-class education. You can contact Aisha Al Naqbi, NYUAD liaison for Moses Center and Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Campus Life Initiatives at aha5@nyu.edu.

Wellness

Students may experience a range of issues that can interfere with their ability to perform academically or impact their daily functioning, such as: heightened stress; anxiety; difficulty concentrating; sleep disturbance; strained relationships; grief and loss; personal struggles. If you have concerns about student well-being or mental health you have the option of referring them to the list of resources available (login required) to them based on their location in or outside of the UAE.

Students requiring mental health support outside of these hours can call NYU's Wellness Exchange hotline at +971-2-628-5555, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They can also utilize the Wellness Exchange mobile chat feature, details of which they can find on the student portal.

Student Support for Learning Online

Online learning is new to students as much as online teaching is to faculty members. Navigating this unfamiliar environment can be difficult and challenging. There are a number of resources to help students feel more comfortable and confident. NYU Student Success collected tips on Successfully Navigating Remote Learning and Successful Study Habits for Remote Learning (PDF). NYUAD's Center for Academic Technology website has a dedicated section on student instructions for Brightspace.

How to Create Collaborative Classroom Online

The following will guide you through the principles for successful group activities that foster collaboration in online learning. Looking at the list of examples, you might find that you already use many of these activities in your teaching efforts. We recommend choosing one activity that may be new to you and try implementing it as an actionable step forward.

Why do we want to foster collaboration among students?

The literature on the positive effects of collaborative learning on academic success is robust with decades of research (Scager et al., 2016). The review article by Laal and Ghodsi (2012) outlines four overarching categories of benefits fostered by collaborative learning:

Social — strengthened support system for learners, improved understanding of diverse viewpoints;
Psychological — reduced anxiety and increased self-esteem;
Academic — enhanced critical thinking and problem-solving skills, improved academic results, active engagement of students in their learning process;
Alternate Assessment — wide variety of assessment techniques.

What are some barriers to collaborative classrooms?

In her article on Involving Students in Online Collaborative Learning, Emtinan Alqurashi articulates the most common challenges instructors face:

Lack of student know-how on how to work collaboratively online
Lack of student understanding on how to construct knowledge together in an online environment
Lack of guidelines on how to grade and assess individuals in an online collaborative work

How to implement a successful collaborative group activity?

* Adapted from 5 Strategies to Deepen Student Collaboration by Mary Burns

Let students know why being able to conduct collaborative work is important, either for your discipline, the technical expertise relevant to a real world application of it, or simply as a help to gain the tools to live a more examined life. Link these skills to your course learning objectives and tell your students the reason why you are including them. Apart from the benefits of collaboration, set student's expectations on how to engage together and what a successful group collaboration looks like. Help them establish not only the norms for working together but for resolving conflict as well.
Free-riding is a complaint many students raise in relation to collaborative assignments. You can minimize the opportunities for students to free-ride by assessing students both individually and as a group. You can also ask students to evaluate their own effort and that of each team member and compare these assessments with yours.
The process of collaboration often gets lost in students' focus on creating the final product as efficiently as possible. If you want them to engage with one another on a deeper level and share their intellectual experience, incorporate opportunities for discussion in the design of assignment. One way to do this is ask students to come to consensus around a solution and defend the common vision. Students will learn how to negotiate, argue constructively, and ground their ideas in evidence.
The aim of a collaborative activity is not only to strengthen students' existing skills but to stretch one another's expertise and knowledge. Students should learn, do, and experience more than they would alone. Each student should play an important role in the process. To give students ownership in the process, design specific team roles which can also guide you in assessment.

Examples of Collaborative Learning or Group Work Activities

Synchronous discussions in smaller Zoom breakout rooms
Online field trips
Group presentations
Asynchronous discussions that allow students to respond to a prompt and each other
Case problems solved in groups
Homework forums
Online blogs that allow students to see each other’s reflections
Peer-editing of an assignment

You can find more examples on Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation website.

References/Resources

5 Strategies to Deepen Student Collaboration by Mary Burns

Online Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature by Amy Trietiak

Involving Students in Online Collaborative Learning by Emtinan Alqurashi

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R., & Holubec, E. (2008). Cooperation in the Classroom

Morgan, K., Williams, K. C., Cameron, B. A., & Wade, C. E. (2014). Faculty Perceptions of Online Group Work. Quarterly Review Of Distance Education, 15(4), 37-42.

Scager, K., Boonstra, J., Peeters, T., Vulperhorst, J., & Wiegant, F. (2016). Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: Evoking Positive Interdependence.

Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 486–490.

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