Matt Evins, Director of Academic Technology in the Teaching and Learning Excellence Division at ACC is joined by Rise Lara, Department Chair for Communication Studies, as they talk about the use of web conferencing technology to support students in online courses. (Note: This conversation has been edited down from the original podcast.)
[Matthew Evins:] Web conferencing technology in general is something that the college has supported for quite a long time, but has taken off in light of the last year and a half or so. I’m excited to talk to you a little bit about how you’re using these technologies.
We talk about things like Zoom and Google Meet and Blackboard Collaborate by their names, but rarely do we talk about them as the general phrase of web conferencing. For those people who may not be familiar with the concept of web conferencing in general, can you provide us with what you consider to be your definition of web conferencing technologies?
[Rise Lara:] We do get stuck in the terminology of “Zooming,” or “Google Meeting,” or there’s a lot of “Teaming” if you’re a Microsoft kind of a person. But really what the goal is, at least from my perspective as a professor and even just, you know, in my day to day life — it’s a way of connecting with people who are obviously not in the same room. Many times we’re not even in the same general area. Maybe different cities, towns, etcetera. But really it’s allowing us to have a conversation much like we would have in your coffee shop, in a classroom, in your office building.
It’s just allowing that facilitation of real connection. And in such a way where we are able to, most of the time, see our faces, smile, engage. We’re doing our gestures. Everything that we would do in the normal face-to-face environment. But the nice part is that obviously we’re saving ourselves some time and some distance. We’re able to connect at different times – in those different locations. It’s almost like having that real face-to-face connection, that interaction. And again we can be anywhere. We’re able to facilitate that without long distance calls or using all of our cell phone minutes. A lot of us tend to do that thing called Facetime whether — or even using the Skype features. Really what it is is about — is just seeing, hearing, and talking to one another in such a way where again we are allowed to be as free flowing with our communication as possible.
[Matthew Evins:] Tell us a little bit about how long have you been incorporating web conferencing technology in to your course, and in what capacity?
[Rise Lara:] Initially it started out small. Back in the day ACC didn’t have too many online class offerings, and primarily they were all asynchronous. In some cases, we used to facilitate real life meetings. We would ask students to come to our campuses at different points in time whether in morning, afternoon, or evening, and really we figured out logistically that was a challenge for people. Not only because Austin with its commute times and traffic can be rather crazy to navigate, but realistically, just like my day is full of things to do, so is a student’s.
It was nice to start looking at other ways of connecting with people that would allow us to shorten the distance, shorten the commute time, and in some cases completely remove that. Initially I started out with a lot of scheduled asynchronous meetings. They were short and brief, so at first they were used to really just get an assignment done.
As a communications studies professor, whether that was a speech assignment, a speech presentation, a group discussion, or even in some of my classes I do one-on-one assessments that are oral so it’s not so much a speech presentation, but it’s a demonstration of a skill. How good do you listen? How well do you perception check or — my students’ probably least favorite activity, resolve a conflict. Right? Nobody likes conflict even online.
So that’s how it started initially, but what I started to learn, especially when online, and life, and web conferencing just became the norm in a very forced way, was that I saw my students really struggle. Those one time, one shot meetings were not enough anymore. They needed interaction. They needed to feel like they could see their classmates, that there were people still out there.
Where I began to shift was in some cases we still have students that need that asynchronous flexibility. That’s how life is for them. That’s what they need. To honor those students that needed that connection, that needed again to see that free flow exchange of ideas.
It’s definitely interesting getting to see everybody’s backgrounds -whether it’s a Zoom kind of faux background or it is their house. It gives you a window into who that person is. Even if they’ve chosen a faux background that is white, well you want to ask them about that trip or why did you choose that background.
I have little Easter eggs here in my display area that I show in some of my meetings. My students are just like, “Oh, my gosh. Is that a blah, blah, blah? Is that a –” I collect Funko figurines, those little bitty silly dolls, and they love seeing that. So in some cases it allows them to get to know me as well. So it changed from just being this one time, one shot deal just to facilitate a task, and even just from conducting your typical class session. There I am standing in front of a computer lecturing to them, and helping them understand the material, to also using it in other ways. Whether that’s also encouraging them to use it for group projects, or to have those one-on-one student meetings away from a phone, it’s so much easier and better. They still feel like they are in the office with me, or in the classroom with me or with their classmates. It’s providing them that social interaction that they really have been craving since a lot of the world has had to kind of distance itself from one another.
Podcast edited for posting.