Teach digitally

On this page you can read more about teaching digitally and about hybrid teaching. Find ideas and tips on what to think about when teaching in these environments.

As a teacher, you may want or need to use digital or hybrid teaching methods. On this page, you will find information about both forms of teaching as well as ideas and tips on what to think about in order for the teaching to be as good as possible for your students.

Below you find various suggestions for digital tools and working methods for digital and hybrid teaching.

Digital teaching

Synchronous teaching

Synchronous teaching can be, for example, a lecture or a seminar that you hold in real time.

You can:

have a video meeting with the students via your own computer or book a room that has suitable technology
give students the opportunity to ask questions or collaborate online via a learning platform or Office 365, for example in Teams, in preparation, during or after the event
let students discuss in small groups in breakout rooms or digital rooms
create interactivity during teaching, for example with the help of Mentimeter

Tips for succeeding with synchronous teaching

If you teach in a room with a whiteboard or know that you would like to move when you give a lecture, it may be wise to set up your mobile on a tripod, connect it to the meeting and point it at yourself. This gives you more space to move around. Think about where the microphone is, your sound must be clear to those who are listening.
Begin your teaching by explaining how to communicate and collaborate and what functions you use, such as chat or raise hand or other reaction buttons.
Feel free to ask someone to keep track of the chat. If you are two teachers on the course, it is best if one is minding the chat, where students can ask questions during teaching.
If you want to record the session, it is important that all students are informed that the recording is taking place. The student has the right to have his camera turned off during recording. It is also important that you are aware of the Law on Accessibility to Digital Public Service and that the film needs to be subtitled if you share it with the students afterwards.

Asynchronous teaching

Asynchronous teaching can, for example, be recorded teaching elements or teaching and tasks that you post on the learning platform.

For example, you can:

record your presentation and let the students watch it via Umu play
write reflection questions to answer, independently or in groups, or do a quiz that the students take
post a message in the learning platform with a task that the students will work on
upload instructions for teamwork in the learning platform. It is a good idea to post tasks to solve in the learning platform, possibly with peer review
divide the students into groups and let them discuss questions or cases
let the students themselves produce material (text, sound, film) and upload to the platform

Record or broadcast a live lecture from the auditorium with Umu Play

There are bookable halls equipped with technology to record your lecture. The recording is saved on Umu Play and can then be subtitled and published. You also have the opportunity to broadcast your lecture live. The live broadcast is shown on play.umu.se under the tab Live broadcasts.

Halls with this technology can be found in TimeEdit if you search in the category Recording + livestreaming via Umu Play.

Book a room in TimeEdit

More about Umu Play

Hybrid teaching

Hybrid teaching means real-time teaching where students participate both at online and on campus.

For hybrid teaching, you should book a room that is specially equipped with suitable technology, for example a "Zoom-room".

Tips for succeeding with hybrid teaching

When you are preparing to teach hybrid, there are some pedagogical challenges to make the teaching work. Below are tips and advice regarding planning and implementation of hybrid teaching.

Preparation and implementation

Familiarize yourself with the room. Note that you must book the room to access it.
Share the link to the digital meeting with your students, for example via a notice in the learning platform.
Inform students about the conditions for hybrid teaching. For example, you can inform if you want the cameras to be on or off, how students can ask questions, time frames and groups. If the groups are also hybrid, be sure to remind the students attending in the room to bring their own computers and headphones.
Be in the room well in advance, get ready, connect your computer and the room in the meeting. Check that the microphone and camera work. Turn off the sound on your own computer to avoid the sound feeding back.
If you have a large group of students, it is an advantage to be two teachers or to appoint a student who is in control of the chat or virtual raised hands. Another option can be to regularly take breaks for questions so that students feel that they can follow the teaching and have time to ask questions, whether they are in the classroom or at a distance.
If you want to record the session, it is important that all students are informed that the recording is taking place. The student has the right to choose not to have their camera on during recording. It is also important that you are aware of the Law on Accessibility to Digital Public Service and that the film needs to be subtitled if you share it with the students.

Sound and picture

Sound is very important. If hybrid teaching is to be meaningful, everything that is said on campus must also be perceived by those who participate online. Check the sound once everyone is in place to make sure everyone hears you.
If there are not enough microphones in the room, you may need to repeat the questions and answers you get in the room so that everyone can hear.
As a teacher, you should keep in mind to be visible to students at a distance at all times. Therefore, you need to think about where the camera is located and how you can move in the room in relation to it.
If you are going to use the whiteboard in the room, you need to check how visible it is for the online participants if there is no whiteboard camera. Another option is to use a digital writing surface.

Digital writing surface

If you want to write by hand or draw on a whiteboard, you can do it in several ways. Both Zoom and O365 have digital whiteboards that you can use. You can also connect a tablet to your computer and choose to share a program from your device.

Student activation

Teamwork and "beehives" can be used in hybrid teaching. Feel free to try to mix the groups so that campus and online participants mix and get to know each other. This is assuming that everyone on campus has a computer and headset.
Use polls in Zoom, ask questions in Teams or use Mentimeter to interact with the group and get quick feedback. In Mentimeter you can ask questions, create word clouds and get input, opinions and views from students.
Use the learning platform or Teams to support your hybrid teaching where students, for example, can collaborate on various issues or cases.