Safety and OnLine Collaborative Labs

[Robert Belford]

Hi All,

Please pardon cross list postings but I am about to tackle my first OnLine Lab and have some questions concerning safety.  My plan was to mix kitchen chemistry with virtual labs and a few experiments using IOT data streams, and I am grappling with the issues of safety, especially as I may have students home alone, with no one around.  My strategy is to set up the class into groups of 4, and use Zoom Breakout Groups combined with Google Docs and Forms (being managed through Google Classroom) to enable a collaborative workspace. The TA(s) and I would then jump between groups, inspecting their collaboratively written document(s) and talking with all the group members, but also have them talking to each other throughout the experiment, and thus ensure no one is "out of touch," thus providing a mechanism to quickly identify an issue if an accident happens.

I bought a year subscription to Zoom, but can't add the TA as a second host (without having to pay for a second yearly subscription).  I have tried to contact Zoom twice, but they have not gotten back, and I will do it again today, and was wondering if anyone else has figured this out. (I believe I can add the TA as cohost to each lab, but would like to set this up ahead of time, and allow the TA to run the lab if I am not available).  My goal is to be able to push the students into breakout groups and have multiple instructors jumping between those groups to check on student progress, and then at specific times, push everyone back to the "classroom," so we can go over material with the entire class.  By  moving them around and checking in on groups I have a mechanism to keep them engaged, or know if they have gone off to another room.....

Does anyone have experience with this  type of activity where you use video conferencing software in conjunction with collaborative web authoring tools, and if so, could they share protocols or provide wisdom on what works, and what does not work?

Although I am specifically tackling the issues of safety in remote learning environments,  I see this as being a valuable model for multiple types of learning activities, especially now that schools are moving to online  and hybrid instruction.

Also, does anyone have an online safety agreement/form they have used, and could share? 

Cheers and Thanks,
Bob Belford

[Jennifer Muzyka]

Bob,

Here’s what I know about having TAs run Zoom meetings.  You should set up the meeting where people can enter without having a waiting room/waiting for the host.  Then the students can use the Zoom without you in the meeting as long as you don’t try to hold another Zoom meeting at the same time.  It’s a little tough for them to use screen sharing, but that might be related to how our system administrator set up the default settings on our campus.  I don’t know about breakout rooms because I don’t have experience with those.  I saw this detail about students running meetings on a list of Zoom tips not long after we went online this semester.

Jennifer

Sent from my iPad

On May 16, 2020, at 9:49 AM, Robert Belford <roberte...@gmail.com> wrote:



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