Overview
In this page we give reccomendations for instructors who intend to teach this module. This module can be delivered in face-to-face or online mode. We anticipate that the online deliveries will be used more frequently, though we give recommendations for both delivery types. We recommend that the module delivery lasts no more than one month.
Helpful reading
The recommendations we provide in this document are based on up-to-date pedagogical research. Please read the following short online articles for more information on the principles coming from this research that inform our recommendations below.
Team roles
Whether online or face-to-face, the module requires a lead instructor. We also recommend that an assistant instructor be chosen, especially for large class sizes. In online deliveries of this module a technical support officer is essential. For face-to-face deliveries this role is different and not so crucial, though still recommended. Thus an ideal delivery of this class includes the following roles:
The Lead instructor welcomes the learners to the course and sets the pace of the delivery throughout the module delivery duration. They ensure that the learners are aware of what is expected of them, and how they can fulfill these expectations. If an assistant instructor is available they can help but it is the lead instructor’s responsibility to ensure that these things are done. Responsibilities: welcoming learners to the module; guiding the student activities during the classrooms; making sure each learner knows what is expected of them and how they can fulfill these expectations, for example how to attend classes, and where and when to submit the assignments.
The Assistant instructor (optional) assists the lead instructor in any way they require. This can be helping in sending out reminders about assignment due dates or class dates, marking the assignments, returning assignment feedback and so on.
The Technical support officer (optional for face-to-face deliveries) manages all technology platforms used in the module. A technical support officer should be considered required for a successful online delivery. These platforms are the course content website, the learning management system (slack, zulip, or microsoft teams) and the online classroom (zoom) if any classes are to be hosted online. The technical officer must work closely with the other instructors to avoid technical failures taking up significant amounts of learning time. They must lead the testing of the online classroom platform before each class and should be available to learners via the learning management system to help with any of their technical issues.
Teaching resources
Classroom. To deliver the module effectively we recommend that you organise a classroom to be available for classes throughout the module delivery timeframe. We recommend a flipped classroom approach for this module. This means that the students are asked to read content in their own time, and the classroom time is reserved for discussion and group problem-solving work. This classroom can be either a brick and mortar room in the case of face-to-face delivery, or an online meeting room such as that provided by zoom, gotomeeting, or google meeting. We recommend zoom in particular for online deliveries because of its “breakout room” functionality which will be very useful for class discussions.
Learning management system. This module is designed primarily to stimulate discussion amongst the learners. For this reason we recommend that a platform centered on effective team communication be used. In the event that internet bandwidth for the teachers or learners is not sufficient to host an online classroom in the case of online deliveries we recommend that synchronous text discussions be used instead. We recommend Slack is a widely used platform for team communication that integrates well with online classroom platforms like zoom. Microsoft teams is a possible alternative to Slack if your institution has a valid license; zulip is a good open source and free alternative. We strongly advise that email clients are not considered for the learning management system.
Content website. The content for the module is available here. This content is open source and available for editing via github. Links to further reading are provided there.
Some helpful links:
Communication platforms
Online classroom platforms
Getting to know your class (formative assessment)
We recommend that the lead instructor polls the learners at the start of each class to test what they already know and understand, and their educational backgrounds. In particular, we recommend that, at the start of the module, the lead instructor asks learners to complete a poll that asks them their level of education, education speciality (for example “infectious disease epidemiology”), and current career description.
We recommend that at the start of each class the lead instructor asks members of the class to give definitions of the three or four most important concepts to be addressed in that class. Based on this, the instructor can assess what level class understanding is at, and can judge what concepts to focus on. For online deliveries slack has polling app integrations which are useful, or the zoom chat can be used.
It is important that the instructors use the information from these quick formative assessments to guide the classes.
Choosing your modes of delivery (instructional activities)
Please read the following article on lectures:
optimal discussion group sizes
We recommend that this module be delivered in a flipped classroom style, for both online and face-to-face deliveries. This means that live lectures are avoided, and classrooms are used for discussion and group problem-solving only. This choice is also optimal for low internet connectivity, where important information communicated only in live lectures (or webinars) can be missed by learners if their connection temporarily drops. We encourage the recording of pre-recorded lectures but never in place of classroom time.
We recommend that a class is held for each episode. This means the students are given a place and date for a class and asked to read an episode before attending the class. The instructor then guides the learners during class through group discussions on the content they have read in their own time in the days before. We recommend that this process is repeated for each episode in the module.
The optimal group size for a discussion is four, or, from three to five. This limit is especially important for online discussions, where the group should in general be at the smaller side of this range. Depending on the class size, you may need to divide your class into groups for discussion. For face-to-face deliveries this means asking members to form small circular groups in the room. For zoom-hosted online classrooms the technology support officer should use the “breakout rooms” function to place learners into small “rooms” for discussion. For synchronous text chat classrooms the officer can create multiple threads, one for each small group, for their discussion. It is important that the discussion sessions are always timeboxed, and that the time limits are made clear to all participants by the instructor during the class. After this time has elapsed, each small discussion group should elect a representative to communicate to the whole class what was discussed. The instructor should facilitate this report-back session.
In the event that most of the students in the class do not understand an important concept the instructor may briefly take time to explain the concept to the class, but we recommend that these lectures do not take up more than 15 minutes in total per class.
We recommend that each class last for an hour, and that 3 small group discussion sessions be organised for each class. We provide instructors with group discussion questions for the groups to focus on.
Setting class expectations
The module class should be aware of what is expected of them. It is the responsibility of the lead instructor to communicate this to the learners. These expectations include class participation, assignment time commitments, and assignment delivery promptness. It is up to the discretion of the lead instructor as to what these expectations are, however we recommend that they are communicated more than once, in text and in class.
Getting honest feedback
This course module needs learner feedback to improve. We hope that by teaching this module you are also invested in improving it for future iterations. We have written a short learner experience survey, and we ask that the lead instructor administers this survey to the learners to complete at the end of each module delivery.
We further ask that assignment feedback is promptly returned to the students, and that markers’ general comments on the assignment submissions are made available to the module creators so that we may assess what aspects of the course module need to be improved.
Example module delivery schedule
- Decide on your instruction team
- Meet with the team and allocate roles to team members
- Decide on important delivery parameters, including whether the course will be online or face-to-face, how long the delivery will last, and key dates like start date and the date of each class.
- Decide on the teaching resources that you will use, for example slack or zulip.
- Send out advertisements to recruit learners. Make sure that the minimum expected requirements, such as education level, are communicated in this invitation.
- Add accepted learners to a slack/teams/zulip workspace and make sure they are all able to navigate the basic commands like the chat channels and direct messages. Create a dedicated communication channel for announcements, another for class discussions, and one for help or support.
- Send out announcements for each class a week before the class date, and again an hour before the class is due to start. Make sure all students know what is expected of them as they arrive at class, and how to arrive at the class (for example sending out zoom links, or providing directions to a physical classroom).
- Send out announcements for each assignment. For each assignment, either choose from the example questions provided by the module creators or write your own that test the episode objectives. Give details on any deadlines they have.
- Mark and return assignment feedback promptly, for example within a week of learner submission.
- At the end of the delivery, send out the learners experience survey for students to complete.