Recipes for online teaching

On this page, the media informatics group at LMU has collected some simple recipes for the short-term conversion of conventional teaching to online teaching. Our target group are lecturers who are further away from IT in terms of subject matter, and we originally had teaching at a university in mind. However, we think that some of these aspects can also be transferred to teaching in secondary schools. The material collected here is based partly on personal experience and partly on the work of other groups and colleagues inside and outside the LMU. The material has been collected by the entire team. For inquiries, contact Andreas Butz. Additions, corrections and encouragement is welcome.

The page starts with different teaching scenarios and different forms of collaboration. Further down the page, it dives into the more technical details. In doing so, we always attempt to provide several different solutions, but we know that such a collection will always remain incomplete.

Teaching scenarios
Possibilities for technical realizations
Group work
Exams, tests, etc.
Technical building blocks
Technical tricks
Etiquette in online teaching

Teaching scenarios

Record a slide-based lecture and making it available on video

The technically simplest transmission of an existing lecture based on screen slides to an online version is recording and providing it as a screencast. To do so, a video that shows the slide presentation is created, while its' soundtrack contains the explanations of the teacher.

Interactivity: almost none, at most feedback via email
Scalability: almost any arbitrary number of listeners
Prerequisite: content should be available as screen slides
Costs: low, implementable with existing means in simple variants. Useful: external microphone, software for screen capturing (see solutions below)
Effort: hold lessons once and record, edit if necessary, put online
Advantages
- Lecturer: screencast can be created immediately from existing teaching material, no new concept necessary
- Student: screencast can be listened to at any time and interrupted at any time, playing at different speeds
Disadvantage
- Lecturer: due to a lack of feedback, the lecture speed increases so that a 90 min. lecture possibly ends up being only 60min. long, incomprehensible passages may go unnoticed.
- Student: interaction and discussion are eliminated, questions at most via email
- usually results in very big files. One should clarify what suitable storage locations may be, as content management systems may quickly be overwhelmed
Solutions:

Video of the lecture and Q&A session

If there already is a recording of the lecture from previous years or if it was recorded in advance, it can be made available online weekly and the time in which it should actually take place can be used for a discussion of the subject via video. In doing so, it makes sense not to invite hundreds of participants at the same time, but rather to form smaller groups in which a real discussion is possible. Students can ask their questions and if none come up, teachers can ask transfer questions to start the discussion. Naturally, one can also play parts of the prepared recording via screen sharing.

Software: Zoom or any other possibility to transmit live video
Hardware: microphone (internal, analog or USB), camera internal
or external
Advantages: good discussions may result in small groups
Disadvantages: for large or a great number of groups, scalability may suffer. In addition, studenty may need more time to both watch the recording and take part in the Q&A session.
Guide: Lectures with Zoom
Etiquette: Muting, Eye Contact, Answering anonymously

Live transmission of a slide-based lecture via video

The most direct transmission of an existing lecture to an online version based on screen slides is live transmission. Here, a video conference with many participants takes place. Slide presentations can be shown in real time via screen sharing, and there is a live soundtrack with the explanations of the teacher. Questions and discussions via chat, audio and video are possible for a small audience, but quickly become possible with a large audience.

Interactivity: via video only with a small audience, via chat also with a larger audience (a second person in the lecture hall may then be helpful)
Scalability: technically, depending on software, an audience in the low hundreds is possible; specialized "webinar" software scales up to 10,000 audience members
Requirements: no special requirements in regard to prepared content. Suitable software for online conferences or webinars
Costs: licensing of sotware for video conferencing is necessary. Webinar solutions are often expensive. Otherwise implementable with existing means in simple variants. Useful: external microphone, software for screen capturing (see solutions below)
Effort: Present lecture live and transmit it; if necessary, record it at the same time, edit and put it online later
Advantages
- Lecturer: lecture can take place live, new concept only necessary in terms of interactive content (e.g. quiz instead of discussion, contributions via chat rather than orally)
- Students: finds familiar lecture situation in new medium, set time and date, anonymous contributions possible via chat depending on software
Disadvantages
- General: Risk of overwhelming technical infrastructure
- Lecturer: Heavily restricted feedback due to technical constraints, does not make good use of the medium
- Students: set time and date
Solutions:
- Live lecture with video transmission

Record short lecture clips and add interactive exercises

Experience has shown that many pupils and students reach the limit of their attention span after a 10-20 minute frontal lecture at the latest. At this point, it makes sense to incorporate an interactive element, such as a practical exercise. While the lecture parts can be recorded as a slide presentation (see Recording a classic lecture on video), the interactive elements must be created and made available on a special platform.

Interactivity: rather high, if suitable practice material is provided
Scalability: close to arbitrary number of audience members possible
Requirements: experience with or willingness to learn about creating interactive practice material
Effort: low for the lecture, enormous for creating interactive material, high initial effort required for becoming familiar with the platforms
Advantages
- Lecturer: Course can be taken "autonomously" in large parts, good with online group sessions, can also be combined with physical practice groups
- Students: can be watched at any chosen time and interrupted at will, learning at their own rhythm
Disadvantages: Effort, possibly costs for authoring tools
Solutions:
- Moodle as a learning platform for interactive exercises, e.g.: incorporated moodle elements, H5P, Adobe Captivate with SCORM export

Possibilities for technical realizations

Presentation program with built-in recording function

The presentation programs Keynote and Powerpoint offer a built-in recording function for recording a sound track while the slide presentation is being played back. This can then be exported together with the slides as a finished screencast.

Software: Apple Keynote, Microsoft Powerpoint
Hardware: microphone (built-in, lecture hall, analog or USB)
Advantages: only a single piece of software, little technical effort
Disadvantages: impossible to leave slide presentation
Guide: Record audio in Keynote on Mac, PowerPoint training - Record presentations
Tricks: USB audio interface

Presentation program and separate screen recording

If other content, such as websites or interactive demos, is to be recorded in addition to the slide presentation, the built-in recording function of the presentation program is not sufficient. Instead, the screen content can be recorded using separate software.

Software (Presentation): Apple Keynote, Microsoft Powerpoint, OpenOffice Impress or any other method of showing a screen presentation
Software (Recording): there is a wide variety of possible solutions. On Apple devices: Apple quicktime. TechSmith Camtasia has proven itself, given that it contains extensive functiuonality for editing and exporting video content. If video conferencing software such as Zoom is available, you can also hold a one person conference and create a recording of that.
Hardware: microphone (built-in, lecture hall/a>, analog or USB)
Advantages: Leaving the slide presentation is possible: anything that happens on the screen is recorded.
Disadvantages: Requirement to control two software tools simultaneously, possible problems with using a separate presentation view (which screen is being recorded?)
Guide: Recording your screen with QuickTime player on a Mac, Camtasia-Tutorials
Tricks: USB Audio Interface, Controlling file size in Camtasia

Presentation via tablet with pen annotations

For a mixture of a slide presentation and free-hand input such as might be necessary for formulas or drawings, a tablet (e.h. Apple iPad) with an input pen (e.g. Apple Pencil) is very well-suited. In this case, the presentation is run on the tablet, while it is possible to draw on the presentation screen with the pen. The recording has to be done on the tablet as well in this case.

Software (Presentation): Apple Keynote, Microsoft Powerpoint in the tablet version
Software (Recording): built-in recording function of the tablet
Hardware: iPad and Pencil (ca. 600 €). An external microphone is recommended, but has to be compatible. (either specifically intended for use with the tablet or via USB adapter)
Advantages: Leaving the slide presentation is possible: anything that happens on the tablet screen is recorded.
Disadvantages: Requirement to control two software tools simultaneously
Guide: Brief guide for recording with handwriting (in German)

Filming of the lecture with a video or photo camera

With a digital video camera or, alternatively, with practically all current compact or SLR cameras, video recordings of a lecture or teaching unit can be recorded. The image and sound quality depend heavily on the model used and, due to available light and noise which cannot always be controlled, are usually worse than recording directly from the screen. In return, however, you can work freely with the board and also with experimental setups.

Hardware: Video or photo camera with a stable stand (careful: many cheap models have a maximum length of about 30 minutes per video clip)
Advantages: Free choice of presentation media and forms of teaching
Disadvantages: Limited quality of video and audio, unless professionally captured and produced
Guide: Place camera so that learning contents are always fully in the picture, possibly connect an external or the lecture hall microphone, control audio peak, press REC and teach as usual

Live lecture with video transmission

Software for the live transmission of video streams can be used to broadcast a given lecture live to several or many listeners. Different platforms differ greatly in terms of functionality and scalability.

Software (Transmission): Zoom or any other method for transmitting live video
Zoom contains many variants of screen sharing, which support various types of online work. Among them are a whiteboard you can write or draw on as well as the possibility to display the screen of an external iPad, on which you can write with an input pen.
Software (Transmission): If you're working with slide presentations, the choice is yours among, for instance, Apple Keynote, Microsoft Powerpoint, OpenOffice Impress or any other method of displaying a screen presentation. Zoom supports communicating with participants simultaneously to a presentation. An external monitor is then helpful in maintaining an overview. Zoom also enables collaborative annotations (i.e. annotations by participants).
Hardware: Microphone (built-in, lecture hall, analog or USB), camera built-in
or external. For drawing, an external iPad and Pencil are ideal. An external monitor can be helpful (and replaces the beamer in this situation).
Advantages: matches normal lecturing situation closely in small groups
Disadvantages: interactivity suffers with bigger groups
Guide: Guide for lectures with Zoom
Tricks: Lecturer in front of slides
Etiquette: Muting, Privacy, Eye contact

Group work

Collaboration with groups

There is a very wide range for applications for managing and executing group projects. For virtual projects, it is important to use communication spaces like chats, as well as exchange platforms such as Git, Confluence, Dropbox or Drive (or local alternatives to the commercial cloud services). Some developer tools (e.g. Unity) contain built-in collaboration functions you can use. You can either set such tools for the groups, or you can have them organize the tools themselves. In consultation with the respective groups, there is freely accessible project management software with which tasks can be assigned and tracked. The tool Trello has proven itself to be a simple solution for task sharing and monitoring in team situations.
A platform which has proven itself at schools employing online real-time lessons is Microsoft Teams (free for schools). Among other functions, Teams contains a structured work room for storing documents, a group chat, video conferencing including screensharing, group work and collaborative creation of wikis.
Clear periods of time (daily best) are important for communication and an agenda should be prepared if necessary. Video chats such as Zoom or gaming platforms such as Discord are suitable for consulting sessions for the groups. To clarify individual questions, e-mail or messenger apps such as Slack, Telegram or similar are suitable.

Agreements: Set clear dates and track tasks transparently.
Video chats: Moderation is important. Via screensharing, changes can be documented and retraced in real time.
Requirements: For video chat and screensharing: a stable internet connection.
Costs: Most tools are free; there might be free licenses for educational purposes.
Effort: Chatrooms and groups have to be setup initially and are available from then on.
Known issues & solutions:
- Unstable connection: Reduction to audio only; if not enough, ask for a summary via text message.
- Effort estimation: Discuss problems transparently during consulting sessions.
- Agreements within the group: Clarify expectations and goals at the beginning of group work.

Group tasks

Common group tasks are presentations, documentaries, posters, portfolios, etc. Presentations can be done via video chats such as Zoom or Discord. It is important to prepare a transparent grading scheme. Time plan and format should be clarified in advance. As an alternative to the live presentation, videos can also be recorded in advance and played later.

Software (Presentation): Apple Keynote, Microsoft Powerpoint, OpenOffice Impress oder auch jede andere Möglichkeit zur Anzeige einer Bildschirmpräsentation
Software (Recording): see section on video recording
Hardware: Laptop camera and microphone
Experience: Presentations are good for up to 50 people; depending on licenses and software, up to 100 participants; virtual exchange and moderation are possible

Team Building

Unfortunately, we have not had any personal experiences here yet. Nevertheless, we think that a short introductory exercise is advisable for groups that did not know each other before.

Example exercises: Virtual Teambuilding

Group feedback

Having students give feedback to each other via written summaries virtually can work well. Exemplary tools are Peergrade or Perceptiv

Software: Peergrade(beginner license free) or Peerceptiv (free during COVID-19)

Exams, tests, etc.

Legally sound digital exams or tests can only be implemented with great technical and financial effort. There are two main options for doing so: setting up a central examination room at the school or university, or setting up an observed examinsation situation remotely, e.g. at students' homes. For an overview in the context of universities, see the report of the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung in regard to digital examinations (dated 2015, in German).

Central examination room

In this situation, an exam or test is made available via devices in the examination room. Any apps or programs which are not directly necessary for the exam are either locked or have not been installed on the devices in the first place. An exemplary alternative to employing completely locked devices is the SafeExamBrowser of ETH Zurich, which allows students to do the exam on devices they brought.

Advantage: only legally sound scenario
Disadvantage: massive costs (example: examination centre UDE Duisburg-Essen with 196 seats, 1.060.000 Euro) and massive initial and ongoing technical efforts; does not provide a remote alternative

Remotely monitored exam situation

In this situation, the exam or test is made available to students via the internet, while a program observes and records the content of their screen. Sometimes, an additional recording of the student themself is required, which can be done with cellphone cameras. Additional requirements may include an empty desk, the complete absence of any other person the room, an ID to be held before the camera as well as no getting up, no loud talking, not moving the eyes from the screen, etc.

Advantage: no central room necessary, lower costs
Disadvantage: legally unsound, cheating remains an issue, extremely uncomfortable exam situation for students

Open Book exams

Another alternative is to design exams and tests in a way that makes it impossible for very hard for students to cheat, either by making them so difficult or time-sensitive that it is close to impossible to pass for students who are not already familiar with the contents. The model here are open book exams, in which students are allowed to bring notes, given that the required knowledge is so expansive that the student cannot find the correct answer in their notes unless they are already familiar with the topic at hand.

Technical building blocks

Built-in microphone

The built-in microphone of many laptops works reasonably well when the lecturer is right in front of the screen. If he or she turns to the side or moves away from the screen, the recording quality usually suffers considerably. The built-in microphone can therefore serve as a quick emergency solution, but should be replaced in the long run by another solution.

Advantages: no costs, no technical issues
Disadvantages: audio quality, volume fluctuation

Auditorium microphone

A (radio) microphone is available in many lecture halls. If this has a recording output (inquire with persons reponsible for lecture hall technology), its signal can be used directly as a sound source.

Advantages: low costs (cable), no additional technical requirements, free movement with radio microphone, good audio quality
Disadvantages: recording output has to be available and accessible, risk of buzzing on microphone signal

Analog microphone at the MIC input

Many laptops offer a MIC input. An analog (clip) microphone can be connected to this, which can attached to the lapel, for example, and thus delivers a consistently good voice signal.

Advantages: still low costs (microphone), no additional technical requirements, free movement within the area of the cable, good audio quality
Disadvantages: risk of tripping over the cable if connected to the laptop
USB Audio Interface

Digital microphone on the USB port

High-quality microphones often have their own audio interface to the computer and can be connected via USB. Wireless solutions which work in this way are not easy to find, but they exist.

Advantages: still low costs (microphone), good audio quality, no additional technical requirements, free movement within the area of the cable
Disadvantages: risk of tripping over the cable if connected to the laptop

Digital microphone via Bluetooth

High-quality microphones often have their own audio interface to the computer and can be connected via Bluetooth. Wireless solutions which work in this way are not easy to find, but they exist.

Advantages: still low costs (microphone), good audio quality, no additional technical requirements, free movement within the bluetooth range
Disadvantages: Regular charging necessary

Built-in camera in the cell phone, tablet or laptop

The built-in camera in the laptop (or possibly tablet, cell phone) like the built-in microphone is often a good starting point. However, it usually offers limited control options and image quality.

Advantages: no costs, no additional technical requirements, always at hand
Disadvantages: position determined by laptop, possibly limited video quality, brightness fluctuation for automatic brightness control

External camera on a PC or laptop

External cameras are usually connected to the computer via USB and allow free positioning within the cable length. With expensive models, there are sometimes more control options.

Advantages: better video quality and free positioning
Disadvantages: additional costs

Technical tricks

Simple video cutting

There are many complex and expensive software solutions to cut and edit video material, many of which have high requirements in terms of computing power and disk space. They also usually require a long period of familiarization. However, some few simple operations such as sharing, deleting and merging or replacing the audio track are sufficient for the lecture videos discussed here. Such simple edits can already be done with the QuickTime Player as it is included in MacOS and available for Windows, or with the screen recording software Camtasia.

Guide: Quicktime: editing videos and Camtasia tutorials

Editing audio

Should the audio recording for a video be too quiet or include noises and buzzes, it can be improved with simple means. (Unfortunately, a recording that is too loud or distorted is not as easy to repair.) Simple and free programs such as Audacity offer all the necessary tools (volume, noise and buzz filter, dynamic compression, ...). Cut the video first, then export the audio track, edit the audio track and finally insert the edited audio track back into the video. In Camtasia, you can do simple audio edits directly during the video editing.

Guide: Audacity tutorials, Improve audio quality in Audacity, Remove mains hum und Camtasia: editing audio

Videos selbst online bereitstellen

Learning platforms such as Moodle allow for the embedding of recorded videos. If you want to include videos externally, like on a lecture homepage, you can upload them there and directly embed them via the HTML5 video tag. Prior to doing this, you should discuss whether your server has enough capacity for video streaming with your system administrator. As with presentation slides, you should critically evaluate whether the video contains content (pictures, audio, other videos), which may be allowed in teaching, but for which public broadcasting may cause copyright issues. (Please note that this very much depends on your local copyright laws, which we cannot cover here.) In that case, all materials should be made available only with a password. In any case, a technically more advantageous soltions would be video platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. However, these often are not an option due to other considerations (public availability of the material, costs).

Guides: HTML5 Video, Password protection with .htaccess

Lecturer seen in front of screen capture

When broadcasting lectures live, an individual background image can be defined on some video platforms. In the video stream, the unmoving picture background is separated from the moving speaker and replaced by this background. If you choose your own screen as the background on which the slide presentation is running, your own face appears in front of the slides, more or less like a lecturer in front of the blackboard.

USB audio interface

Current Apple laptops unfortunately only have one socket for audio input and output. This creates problems if you want to connect an analog external microphone and output the sound of a presentation in the lecture hall at the same time. Fortunately, this can be solved with an inexpensive (5-10€) USB audio interface that is easily recognized by the system and again provides the familiar two sockets.

File size when exporting from Camtasia

Camtasia offers a variety of possibilities to modify parameters when exporting video files. It is often worthwhile to choose a lower resolution and, where necessary, a lower frame rate, as this results in significantly lower file sizes. In regard to screen presentations, for instance, a frame rate of 15 frames per second is completely sufficient.

Etiquette in online teaching

Communicate openly

The online situation creates additional communication challenges. The result may be confusion and frustration on the side of the students. In this situation it is important to communicate in time, cleraly and via all relevant channels, both concerning the general approach to dealing with the situation, and the potentially new rules that will apply. As an example, here are the text snippets published by our institute about 2 weeks before the start of the semester:

Statement of the LMU Institute for Informatics regarding the summer semester 2020
Rules for online teaching during the summer semester 2020

Muting

In a video conference with several participants and especially in a live lecture, it is helpful if all of the listeners mute their microphone. This prevents the collection and distribution of background noises, door rattles, clearing of the throat, etc. Some video platforms allow the moderator to set this for all participants. When there are large numbers of participants, it often makes sense to switch off your own camera in order to save bandwidth, since the lecturer would only get a small picture anyway.

Privacy

In general, any participant of a video conference is able to record the entire course of the meeting (using, for instance, local screen capturing) or to even boradcast it live. Thus, at the beginning of the session, one should absolutely make clear that this violates the privacy of participants and is therefore prohibited.

Eye contact

Eye contact in video conferences is a difficult topic: viewers only feel that they are looking at themselves when they are looking at the camera themselves instead of on the screen. At that moment, however, you lose the feeling of looking at your counterpart. The eye contact controlled in this way can now be used to get a lot of answers in a question and answer session, because you can look at each and every one individually at the same time. (Source: Otmar Hilliges)

Answer anonymously

Students often fail to speak up in the lecture hall because of their fear of embarrassing themselves. Some platforms offer the possibility that only the moderator sees entries in the chat history. This means that all students can respond and the lecturer chooses which contributions to respond to. (Source: Otmar Hilliges)