Aalto Online Learning - Online Hybrid Lab

Creating engaging online learning experiences - Training for the faculty of Insituto Superior Técnico

As part of the university alliance network Unite!, Online Hybrid Lab hosted a two-day workshop including theory sessions about motivation and feedback in online learning environments as well as hands-on tutorial sessions about 360 learning environments, educational podcasts and AR applications.

The main building of Instituto Superior Técnico and the Aalto Online Learning - Online Hybrid Lab team walking towards it — The Aalto Online Learning - Online Hybrid Lab team walking towards Instituto Superior Técnico at University of Lisbon. From the left: Jutta Tavaila, Tomi Kauppinen and Teresa Rizzi.

On February 6th part of the Online Hybrid Lab team walked up the formidable hill on top of which the University of Lisboa technical campus, Instituto Superior Técnico, is situated. The morning of the training was eerily foggy but the excitement was high for the encounters and mutual learning about to happen during the next two days.

The training days did not disappoint. Over the course of nine active hours of workshopping, discussion about challenges and obstacles as well as ideas and wishes were expressed.

Firstly, we know that Covid-19 years forced educators to transform their teaching into an online format. As the pandemic lifted the counter reaction, as in many other fields and professions, was to bring live teaching back and to not look back. The pandemic, in a way, pushed education online but also pulled some educators away from online and hybrid solutions.

Getting into my first podcast recording felt really good. And it was easy to prepare. Podcasts might help me to inspire students to learn.

Educator's quote from the feedback survey after the workshop

Tuuli Metsäkoivu recording a podcast with two workshop participants. — Tuuli Metsäkoivu from the Aalto Online Learning - Online Hybrid Lab team recording a podcast episode with two workshop participants.

To counteract this feeling of either or —either a course is completely live or it is completely online— one of the key take aways from the training, was to spread the ideology that engaging online learning materials don’t have to stand alone. They can support on-site learning experiences, modify teaching to be more flexible and free live teaching moments for discussion and connection between teachers and students.

Secondly, online learning materials have the reputation of being time consuming and hard to create. And while this is partially true when it comes to high-quality video production and designing complete and functional online courses from scratch, it doesn’t have to be the case for all online materials and tools. Our primary goal with the training was to create a feeling of accessibility and ease into trying out new online environments and media.

New ideas presented at the workshop and they were the most applicable. I was surprised to find out that most of the solutions are fairly easy to apply and not expensive in the production.

Educator's quote from the feedback survey after the workshop

Workshop participants around the 360 camera and instructor Taija Votkin from Aalto University explains how to use the camera. — Taija Votkin from the Aalto Online Learning - Online Hybrid Lab team explaining how the 360 camera functions at the training.

The training consisted of both theoretical as well as hands-on themes. On the theoretical side emphasis was put on teacher presence, functional and frequent feedback loops and understanding what drives engagement in online education. In the hands-on sessions the participants got to use a 360 camera to create a learning environment and fill it with additional information in the ThingLink service. Participants also worked in pairs to create pilot podcasts and recorded them as well as crafted content for an example of an augmented reality application.

On top of these pre-defined learning goals, however, a big emphasis was on creating connections, discussions and sharing experiences from educators to educators. There are a lot of methods, tips and tricks that teachers from different fields can learn from each other once they look past the surface of the themes to be taught.

We are grateful for the opportunity to meet, train and learn with like-minded education enthusiasts. Thanks to the Unite! university network for enabling this kind of knowledge sharing and creation.

If your department, school or company is in need of online education sparring or ideation, we are always interested in projects that advance the online learning landscape in Finland as well as internationally.