[audio logo]

Speaker 1: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Chris Vela Che: So welcome fellow colleagues to this session. The session is on effective practices for high quality online teaching. My name is Chris Vela Che, and I was meant to present with my colleague Katrina Tamura, but she wasn't able to join us today. But I'll be talking a little bit of what she has done in her online class.

Please feel free to scan the QR code to get access to the slides. We may have to go a little faster on some of these practices. If time allows, we'll go over all of them, but if not, make sure that you have the QR code, and that is working, because I think the last QR code was not working, so make sure that it's working.

Speaker 2: I think it was my fault for last--

Chris Vela Che: No, really? OK. Anyway, so are you guys ready? Did you guys scan the QR code, everybody's ready? Let's begin.

So well, first of all, I am an ESL instructor for beginning literacy, Level 1 Online Instructor. So I teach the lowest levels of language skills at San Diego College of Continuing Education. So it is always a challenge when it comes to teaching content in an online environment.

So let's talk a little bit before we begin and dive into the content of the session, please. And we can do that here, since this is not a hybrid session, we can talk a little bit about what our job titles are and experience learning online, your own experience. Have if you ever taken any online course? What has been your experience, good confusing, you don't recommend? And then also your experience teaching online.

And also, a big challenge? Is there any challenges when you're teaching online. We can all agree that we have similar challenges retention, engagement, participation. Well, all of those things it keeps being persistent up to this point. After four years, during the pandemic is when we all had to learn and to teach our students how to be the best online learners. But it was chaotic, and it continued being a challenge for all of us, I think, because teaching an online class to an ESL student, it's still is a challenge for me. So up to this point, it's still kicking my butt.

So in this session, I hope that I can help you, that you can find ideas, that you can get inspiration, or basically, sparkle some ideas on how to approach some of those problems that you guys mentioned before. So identify the strategies. These strategies are the ones that I have used and implemented in my beginning Literacy 1 class. So it may be helpful for you, it may not apply to your class, but there is potential there.

Also, recognize that teaching an online class to any language level ESL student is possible. It's challenging, of course, but it can also be successful. And then the last goal for this session is, at the end I hope that we all can recognize the beginning literacy. The students that I teach or any low beginning ESL student can also be successful, learn, participate, engage, and make progress in an online environment, with all the challenges that we have talked about. So these are some of the session goals.

Now, some students have opened up about their online experiences, and I have collected their comments throughout the months and the years. And these are some of the comments, some of the things that they have felt in regards to their learning experience with online.

So this is one, that a student said, I can't afford to go to in-person classes, but I don't think I can learn or practice my English in my online class. So the student for x or y reason cannot join an online class, because the student doesn't feel that he can or she can learn in that environment, so that's pretty sad.

And another one is, I don't like breakout rooms because my classmate does not participate, it's just a black screen. He never turns on his camera. And I don't know if you have had some students like that who complain, And then I had that experience where students will log off Zoom, and wait after the breakout room activity to be done, and then come back again, because they don't see the use of it, because nobody is participating and the cameras are off. So, yes, it's a valid point here as well, and it's pretty sad.

So another one is, I get stressed when I get assigned homework in Canvas, it is hard to navigate in English. This might be a problem of laying out your Canvas course. I don't know what was going on here, but again, this is something that is a barrier for some students, and that can also affect your enrollment in your classes, and participation, and retention, because navigating homework in Canvas is very confusing.

And then the last one, I don't have a laptop, and I don't have internet at home either. So what can we do for those students who need to learn and they don't have the resources, and they can't come to in-person classes?

So we have different types of challenges, not only for us as instructors, but also students have challenges.

Speaker 2: Can I ask a question?

Chris Vela Che: Yeah, sure.

Speaker 2: Those are very articulate. Did your Level 1--

Chris Vela Che: No, they open up, and they told me in their native language. And I do translation, like Google Translate for other-- I basically give language support when they have to provide feedback. Yes, so otherwise there is no way that they can write or tell me this.

Speaker 2: Right--

Chris Vela Che: No. They speak to me in Spanish, or in Dari or in Farsi, and then we'll translate. But yes, so these are just some of the comments that they have mentioned to me as to why they stopped coming to online classes.

So one of the effective practice for online teaching is to build community. Now this is before classes begin. Oftentimes, we begin our courses right on time. If the class began on Monday, then that's when we're supposed to be starting the class. But this is an excellent piece of advice to begin that community-building a week before classes begin.

And this is some examples that I use. How do I communicate with my students a week before my course begins?

So I send out emails, and because my class is online, and it requires a lot of things to get ready, I chunk the information. So I will my students an introduction of myself. Hello, my name is Chris. We'll have class next Monday. Nice to meet you.

So I'll send out an email with a little bit of text, and then the following day maybe, or in two other days, then I'll send out another email with the schedule, and then reminders. And then basically, I chunk the information. So then they can read it. And then digest all that information. They identify who am I and the schedule, the syllabus, or anything that they need to have before classes begin.

That week, before classes begin, will give students time to get ready. And you can anticipate any problems. You can solve those problems within that week window. So that is a really good best practice that it has helped my class.

I also send out videos. I like to create short videos, like a one-minute video of introducing myself, so students can see me. And this will be related to the humanizing piece of the digital environment. We want to make sure that students can see you, that you're a cool teacher, and you're smiling and, hey, I am here to help you. Nice to meet you.

So I create this YouTube shorts, they're very easy to make if you have a YouTube account. And then I send those out a week before class begins, a few days before class begins. And this has been very successful in my online class, because then, oftentimes, I'll get a response from my students. Say, nice to meet you too, teacher, with, of course, broken English, but I get responses after I send out a video. So that's Effective Practice Number 1, building that community.

Effective Practice Number 2 is sharing the syllabus. I share the syllabus, again, in that week prior to the class beginning. I also provide language support. So if my student is at the lowest level of English literacy and they need the language support, there is a way in which you can upload your document into Google Translate, select the language, and then you can just email it to your students. The syllabus is such an important document, because it sets up the tone of your class, it has the rules, the classroom culture, the homework, everything that they need to know. So if it's heavy in language, I can also provide language support so they can have it in both.

When I make those videos, I make them so short and basic. Like, hello, my name is Chris Vela Che, and nice to meet you. I will see you in class on Monday. And I send an instruction to turn in the caption. I don't do translation on that, Just hello, my name is-- Nice to meet you, and I hope to see you on Monday. And that's it, less than a minute. But that would be a good idea to send.

[laughs]

Speaker 3: I have notes for you. Tell me what you need.

[laughs]

Thank you very much. Mariana is my assistant.

[laughs]

So, yes, I can absolutely share that. And then YouTube videos, I think we're going to have a workshop on how to make YouTube Shorts. Are you guys familiar with YouTube Shorts or no? They are just the equivalents of TikTok, or reels from Instagram. They allow you to record a minute video, basically with text and music.

And it's very simple. This is just my introduction. Happy New Year of last year. My name is Chris Vela Che, and I am your teacher. I hope to see you on Monday. That was it.

I share that through email, through pronto. And text as well. So they get to see me in a video. So that's very good. I think I got a lot of students to react to my videos, like the first day that I send out these videos. So it does work, but you need to allocate the time to just make a simple video, so they see you, and that builds community. They are more likely to be open to you, and start interacting with you.

The syllabus is another important thing that we need to share before classes begin. And if you can provide the language support that it will be excellent as well. And I'm not saying that you need to translate in every single language, but just for the people who are at the lowest literacy level, and Google allows you to do that.

This is an example of my co-presenter, Katrina Tamura, an excellent ESL instructor from MiraCosta College. She was supposed to be presenting here with me today, but she was not able to make it. But she created this liquid syllabus. Are you familiar with liquid syllabus?

Liquid syllabus is just a digital version of your syllabus. It is like a newsletter, like a little website where students have access to your syllabus. So instead of having students a week before your course begins logging into Canvas, or they're logging into their email, student email, and then click on the syllabus, just make your syllabus available in a website so they can just click, check. You can even embed video, a little introduction of who you are, important information just with the click.

So there are ways to create a liquid syllabus. Katrina used a program called S'mores, I don't know if you guys are familiar with S'mores. It's a program that allows you to create these newsletters by uploading, or creating a website, like this one. And then there is another program that I use. And the one I use is sway. And I don't know if you're familiar with sway, but I can write it over here, and I can send you some links.

Speaker 4: Is that the Office 365?

Chris Vela Che: The Office 365. If you have an account, an email through Outlook, you should be able to have the app called Sway. With sway. you upload your syllabus, and Sway will convert everything into a website. And that's it. You share the link, and there you have. You can send that to students prior to the beginning of your class. So they can just click.

So Effective Practice Number 3, it takes a village. It takes a village to get students on board, get students to persist, get students to be engaged into your online classes. Well, I have found that offering students support, prior to finding a problem in the future helps.

So I would encourage students to make time to get in-person, if possible, technical support. Oftentimes, I have students in class, and they have a technical problem, and teacher I don't see this and that, my Zoom. And then the family members try to translate. And it's chaos.

So what I found throughout the months and the years, is that if you offer in your syllabus, these are the support that your school has. You can go to this place, and these times, and these days, please go and make an appointment to get support on your internet at home. It might be a problem for the internet. We don't know, because I cannot diagnose what the problem is, because we are online. So please encourage your students to make time to get in-person help with technology.

That could be also laptop, cell phone logging. Or maybe they want to get a laptop, but they don't have resources. So also list programs that have low-cost laptop in your area. I link some of the things that we use in our district, like the San Diego Futures Foundation is a great program that allows individuals to have access to low cost computers, internet.

So having a list of support helps. So if there is a problem in the future, let's check your syllabus. What support do we have. You need to make an appointment. So that is a great solution for potential problems in the future. So it takes a village, it takes all of us to help students be successful in an online environment.

Effective Practice Number 4 is the first few weeks. This is what I do, and it has helped my class, because it's less chaos. So I create a routine. And what is the routine?

I'm going to click this and you'll have access to these slides. But I present my class, and we go over each slide one by one, almost every day, so students know what to expect. Prediction can lessen anxiety. If they're able to predict, Oh, what's she going to talk today, then they'll feel less anxious, and they'll be more likely to stay in your class.

Now, this is going to take a little while, but this is my presentation. And we go over almost every single day. Again, my students are beginning literacy students. I often have the challenge of students logging into my class, and then I only see Motorola 123, Samsung xy.

[laughs]

And I keep telling, please write your name. And then they start typing in the chat. No, in the Zoom screen. And I finally gave up, and just translate. OK, here is the translation, let's read it. Please add your name on your Zoom screen.

Oh, that didn't help. All right, this is the written instructions in English. This is a little visual there. Oh, it's still not working. I think this one really helped, this GIF.

All right, everybody. So before we begin into my class, and study the lesson, I make sure that they are all ready. Are you ready to learn?

Because if you assume that they are ready with their pen, they're not. Never make that assumption. Because then you hear-- No, I always begin with, let's make sure everybody has names on their accounts, and that's every single day. And at this point, I think they're getting much better.

[laughs]

But little things like that can help. And if you repeat them over time, you are helping them remember. Another thing that I do is, before we begin our online class, are you ready to learn today? Do you have rule paper, eraser, pencil? Yes, OK. Very good.

So let's go to the next slide. Please this is so important. And this is so good because a lot of the students think that if they mute themselves, they won't be able to hear me. And I keep telling, when you mute yourself, you can listen to me. If you unmute, you can talk. So we've been going back and forth with the importance of muting so they can listen to me.

And then I show them the picture over here. Is she happy? No, look what's going on here. Somebody in the bathroom. And then start laughing here. And then dancing, and then I don't know what's going on here. But please mute yourself, we're going to begin the class. So that's something that we do every day. So now at this point, they are very good with that, along with their names and their material that they have to have.

And then, so when everybody's ready, welcome. We're going to click on the recording button. So welcome to English Literacy Online Level 1. My name is Chris Vela Che, blah, blah, blah.

[laughs]

And I tell them my email every single day. Here's my email, if you have problems, please email me. Let's check my email, let's read it, because we're reviewing the alphabet, c, v, and then what's this, at sdc dot. So at this point they're good with that, but because we repeat it almost every day.

And then we go over their school because this a great reference, because if they have problems with technology, I often tell them, please make an appointment in your school, meet city campus, address. When is it open? You can call. They can help you with computer problems, internet problems, Canvas problems. Please go to school, because I cannot help.

Another thing that we do, is to talk about the schedule. Some people get confused, like, how many days do we study English. And that's OK, so we go over all of this every day. Here's is your schedule, schedule. And we repeat schedule. We study English, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. What time we read it?

And then the calendar, my school calendar. When do we have vacation? When is this? When is President's Day? Do we have class?

And then this part, visualizing themselves in the length in which they have to study class is good. I think it empowers them to see that you are 18 weeks until they get to English, too, so we have to study hard. And right now we are in week number five. Visually, it helps them to see that they are working towards something, which is English 2. So this also has been helpful.

And then talking about their material. Please remember we study with the books, and also in Canvas. So making sure that they understand that we don't only study here, and in class, but also, they have to do work in Canvas. They can't escape Canvas, so they have to do some sort of activities in Canvas. So it is all the time repeated almost every day.

This is extra information about their books, but here is the agenda. So all right, everybody, so write, we're going to write the agenda. Now, I had a problem with that, because what I was asking students before is, OK, please copy, copy, copy. But what does that mean, copy or write, even when I was showing them, you need to write this. So I gave up on telling them that.

And then I put something here. And I think this has been more successful. You see the little hints here?

Speaker 5: Yes. So, all right, time to write, everybody. And they see the hand, they see the paper. Now, is no way they don't understand that. Visually, OK paper, write. So a lot of visuals, a lot of this is my aid, I'm not going to show you that.

But a lot of visuals here for them to be successful. So they see how the class flows with important information that they need to remember, and also the introduction of the class. So that is Effective Practice Number 4, creating a routine. Create your slides and make sure that you follow them as is. And so then students can predict that can help a lot.

Another practice, Effective Practice Number 5 is the Zoom toolbar. If you're using Zoom on your online classes, this is so important. I cannot tell you, you need to spend time on students to identify at least the chat. You know, we are asked to make sure that our students show engagement, participation.

And if you have 36 students all beginning literacy, how do you ensure that. You have to give multiple opportunities for them to show that they are getting the content. This will be the formative assessment. I think we're going to give a session tomorrow on formative assessment. But the Zoom toolbar is so important.

And I put here how it will look like on a cell phone. So when I say, OK, Bonifaz, unmute or mute, or Chat, put your name in the Chat. So then we go over where they can find the Chat from their cell phones, and we spend time on, because I have other students who have laptops, I spend time on locating or helping them locate the Chat in a computer. So that is so, so important. So they're able to participate.

Now, this one are some instructions that I have created, and this is to solve know, or give them the language of technology. I create all this 31 class instructions in an online environment, so they are preparing their ears to hear the English that I will likely say, for example, mute everybody. So they'll understand, Oh, what is mute? Mute is to listen. Mute is so I can listen to Chris. Mute is not, I'm going to mute, and I won't be able to listen to Chris, because it seems that was the problem before. Mute.

Classroom Instruction Number 2 on mute to talk. Classroom Instruction Number 3, type your name in the Chat. So type, your typing. What is Type Is it write?

So we go over each instruction, not all of them, because there are so many, but we do have to go over these, so then they get used to the language that they will hear, not only in my class, but also when they transfer to other online classes. Type your name in the Chat.

Or take out your notebook. What does that mean? Take out your notebook. So here's the teacher in your computer. And if the teacher says, take out your notebook, students, take out your notebook, take out.

Now, in an in-person class, I can demonstrate. But how do you do that in an online environment? Unless you translate, unless you find a picture. So I created all of these instructions, so they can be more successful when I ask them to do something. Take out your pencil and eraser, or sharpen your pencil, or, what else, open your notebook, just simple instructions, so they get used to the language in an online class.

Write, or trace the letter. This is the part that I've been doing with them. So we've been learning how to use the Annotate tool in the Zoom toolbar, so when they're able to master that Annotate tool, then I can say, all right, Bonifaz, on your cell phone, Bonifaz, I want you to trace letter a. Then with their cell phone, go like this. They are able to do that, because I have tested.

[laughs]

So there is more opportunities for them participate, other than just listening to you and writing and listening. Now you can tell them if you teach them how to this button works, then you'll be able to get some students, maybe not all of them, but at least two or three is better than zero, having them trace their beginning literacy level.

And I have other examples here. This is erase. And well, you'll have a link to this instructions when in the Google slides that I share with you, so you can go over all those instructions. Next one, because what time is It Do we have time? 20 minutes.

All right, so Effective Practice Number 7. Send reminders. I send reminders, because my students forget, we have class today?

Where is the link? Where is the Zoom link? I don't know how to get the Canvas, isn't the Canvas, isn't this. At least the first week, or two weeks, I send them reminders. Hello English, online class today at 5:30, please log in. There's nothing, it's just click, that's it.

The first two weeks. And I think after two weeks they get it, and they don't need that reminder anymore. But it is so important that-- Well, at least in my situation, that I send them reminders that class will begin soon. And you can set it out in your email, so it goes automatically at any time, on any day you want. And for the first two weeks at least.

Number 8 is teach them how to use the Chat, and encourage them to use reaction, so they're showing participation, it's not just you talking the whole time and forcing people to talk. But at least, if they don't want to talk, please use use, use the reaction button there.

Effective Practice Number 9 is the classroom culture. I am very intentional when I say it is very good, and it would be very nice when we go to breakout rooms that we show our faces, and we talk to our classmates, even if it's for two minutes. So we go over the classroom culture. What is it that you want your online classroom to be like.

So I created again, you'll have access to the link of this, and I have language support there. So students will be receptive if you show them what is it that you want them to do in your class as part of your classroom culture. I also put a-- Hang on here.

I think this one is an example also, I link this. They get a certificate if they complete all of this. So we go over all of this. These are all the things that you have to do in order for you to get this certificate.

So having that, I think can empower them to thrive, and to persist, and to keep going with their English classroom culture. And your contract, what is it that you're expecting students to do in order for them to get a certificate. Be very intentional and open about that all the time. And they'll be receptive, and they will get empowered.

This is, I think, the last one. So Effective Practice Number 10, make yourself available in different ways. Our district has Pronto in our Canvas LMS. Some districts use LMS and different types of tools, but our district has the Pronto. Do you guys use pronto? It is just like a WhatsApp texting tool. So this is already integrated into Canvas, but I ask students to download it to their phone, so they can easily communicate with me in case there is an emergency.

So yes, allocate some time to teach them how to use Pronto, or how to download the app. Again, if we go to Effective Practice Number 2, allocate time or encourage students to make an appointment for in-person technical support. This is where you can link the need for them to go to class, or to go to school, and get the support they need.

So in your syllabus, require digital tools, Pronto, Canvas, student email and Zoom. If you have problems with this, please go make an appointment, we have all of these resources. I cannot help you when we are having a class, but these are the resources. So again, have that list ready, then you can refer them if they need that support, they know what to do.

What else? And then we also have Canvas discussions, which is another great way to get students, you know, build digital community. Padlet I don't know if you're familiar with Padlet. It's just a tool where everybody can post on a wall.

WhatsApp. Some teachers in my district use WhatsApp, other districts do not allow WhatsApp, they use Pronto. Flip, are you are you familiar with Flip, Flipgrid video making tool? So there are many ways to create that digital community, because that's beyond the class. If you want to continue that, or strengthen that community beyond the class, these are great tools to have students use to continue with that fostering community.