(The original Dutch version of this article is here)
“Holy shit”, historian Nadia Bouras thought last week, when Leiden University decided to let all classes continue online. “How on earth am I going to do this? I really panicked.”
The panic is gone, although her first digital class in Kaltura Live Room was “quite an experience.” Six out of ten students joined in, but only one of them had his webcam turned on. “So, I looked at him all the time, that was weird. Part of the students don't even have a webcam. That makes giving presentations rather difficult. Guess I'll give them an extra assignment.”
“Working with Kaltura is a trial and error affair” Anne Sytske Keijser from China Studies says. For example, when students are split up in small teams in so called “breakout rooms”. “Sometimes we can't get them back into the regular virtual classroom. We've locked them up, as it were.”
Kicked out
Sometimes, a student or even a teacher is kicked out of a session and unable to log on again. “It's all frustrating stuff, that also has to do with our lack of experience”, Keijser says.
She had a particularly bad experience in a lesson about Chinese film and society. The link wouldn't work, so she made a new Live Room. “When not a single student managed to log in, I cancelled the lesson. I'll probably switch to Microsoft Teams.”
Jelmer Wagenaar from the institute of physics hears more bad stories about Kaltura “Zoom is often mentioned as a better working alternative.” Bad idea, says Keijser: “The university has banned its use, because Zoom has got some serious privacy issues.”
Among other things, Zoom collects more user data than it needs, and sells it to third parties. Admins can also read private chats and follow conversations. Keijser: “Teams offers the privacy and data security that Zoom doesn't have.”
The teachers are struggling, but that doesn't mean that the students are having an easy time of it. “It really is something different”, philosophy student Floor van Lelyveld says about her first digital class. Three hours of listening, starting with an explanation about Kaltura. “It was fine, but there were some technical problems. A few students who had bad connections were hard to understand or had to log in several times. The teacher than had to add them manually, distracting all the other students.”
In Elianne Wijnands' class for International Relations and Organizations several students were “Kicked out the application” due to bad wifi. “And then they didn't return, very annoying.”
In order to prevent a further loss of students, the teacher asked the remaining students to turn off their webcams. “Otherwise the server wouldn't be able to cope. To have a bit of interaction, five students were allowed to keep their cameras on. That's nicer for the teacher as well of course: then she has at least the suggestion of being in front of a classroom.”
Computer hassle
But it still took some getting used to, Wijnands says. “Kaltura has an option where you can virtually raise your hand, except that the teacher didn't understand it. If you wanted to ask something, you had to unmute your microphone. But because the change of icon isn't very clear, you had to awkwardly clear your throat first.” Wijnands doesn't blame the teacher: “I understand how this is hard; everyone had one week to learn all this, and there's so many things you have to pay attention to during a class.”
“You spend a large part of your time with computer hassle”, Andreas Kinneging sighs. He is a professor in the philosophy of law. “I'm a typical male, I can only do one thing at a time.” As he experienced during a Kaltura test session. “It didn't work. Images froze, the sound was horrible.” The next session is going to be up or out, he announces: “I'm going to try this one last time. I want people's attention to be with the book that we're discussing, and with what students are saying. If it doesn't work, I quit doing this.”
But then, students aren't saying all that much, Van Lelyveld says. “I noticed how everyone thinks it's very awkward. We were all quite timid, and waiting for others to go first. It's weird to see yourself on a screen all the time.”
Politicology student Bram Leferink op Reinink, who was in a class or eighteen students also says it: “Took some getting used to. But Kaltura really is a good piece of software. It has all the options you want, everyone can see eachother and the teachers presentation.”
In this class, a number of students had to give a presentation. “They did it from behind their desks, Leferink op Reinink says. They did well, he says, despite troubles with the sound and sometimes having to repeat themselves. Presentations from home might be ideal if have presentation anxiety. “There's less presure in a safe environment.”
Not practical
Still, online teaching requires a different approach. One of Van Lelyveld's teachers said that just giving the same classes online is not an option. “Staring at a screen for three hours and then trying to have a discussion while you're not in the same room was not practical, in her opinion.”
The idea is that students will now spend more of their time studying the material by themselves, and then use the Live Rooms for questions. “For a lot of students, that will not be so easy, because they have to stay in the same spot and can't, for instance, go to the university library together.”
Online teaching puts even more restraints on your lessons when you're teaching a subject like physics, Wagenaar says. “Students need pen and paper to work on mathematical problems. They used to hand in the papers with us. Now they use an app to scan their sums, and send them to us in Blackboard.”
Kinneging says it's all duct tape and patchwork. “Really, the technology isn't good enough yet. An application like Kaltura works well enough if there's just a few people connected to it. But then I have to give the same class four times. I'm not going to do that.” The philosopher says we just should accept that we cannot solve everything, and wait until we can pick up where we left. “Saying that all teaching should go online, is just nonsense.”
Less efficient
It's also less efficient, Keijser says. “The interaction is slower in a virtual classroom. You cannot process the same amount of material.” Wijnands agrees. “The teacher would ask some separate students if they understood the material, because if she asked the whole group, everyone would have to say 'yes' separately. Students who had their cameras on would nod or put their thumbs up. But it takes more time.” There is less interaction, too: “Normally, this teacher likes to let everyone speak, but now she was giving the entire lesson.”
Focussing on the teaching is also harder, she thinks. “You spend two hours staring at a scree, and that's a lot more intensive than being in a physical classroom.” Leferink op Reinink: “When your mic and camera are turned off, you are anonymous. The temptation to sneak out for coffee, look at your phone or do something else on your laptop is always there.”
He remains positive, though. “It's not perfect, but you can get all your lessons this way.” Wijnands hopes things go back to the old way soon: “I really prefer classes in a real classroom, with real interaction.”