Thread by @monicarysavy

I'm in the midst of a few online courses right now for fun (popularly known in the outside of academia world as "cohort-based courses" [CBCs]) & I'm going share what I'm learning in post-session tweet recaps. Here's why: 1/

Summarizing takeaways helps keep me accountable to review my notes, which helps me turn my ideas & reflections into actionable tasks & projects in #Notion, & provides you with a glimpse into what the course is like should you consider taking the course in the future. 2/

Yesterday's session was with @cahouser & @julia_saxena - "Minimum Viable Video". I participated* over my lunch hour. Participated gets a * because I had some Zoom issues which kicked me out of the first breakout session but I was successfully able to rejoin & 3/

because I was admittedly multi-tasking. I'm actively keeping an eye on a variety of projects with @fortelabs right now (P.S. Did you know we are in the middle of a launch? Check it out here -> buildingasecondbrain.com). 4/

One of the things I love about online learning is that in my opinion (as a > 20-year educator), multi-tasking by students is a reality. While I certainly strive to be engaging & entertaining when I'm teaching online, particularly live sessions over Zoom, 5/

I know that 100% of students' attention is not on me & I'm ok with that. I try to practice good participation behaviors in live classes, however. For example, when I'm in a breakout room, I do my best to NOT multi-task since I think that's viewed as rude, but I don't mind if 6/

others do it. Life happens & I'd rather students show up than not (but please mute your mic; there's really no excuse for not doing that). This brings me to the theme of my takeaways from the 1st session of Minimum Viable Video - "running an engaging live online session". 7/

Takeaway #1: I appreciated @camhouser's use of 1 breakout room during the live session. I think there was another one in the overflow / bonus time, but multiple breakout sessions weren't a requirement of the main session. Lately, I'm seeing a disturbing trend in CBCs: 8/

Replacing "Death by PowerPoint" with "Death by Zoom Breakout Rooms". Seriously, 4, 5, sometimes more breakout rooms in one 60-90 minute session? That's too much. I'll share a thread on this at some point, but today I simply want to emphasize this for course creators: 9/

Talking in breakout rooms is not necessarily the "golden ticket" to a "transformational course experience" (which is an uber-popular phrase right now in CBCs). 10/

I noticed & really admired a fellow student's Zoom practice recently (@karaminder). He renamed himself in the Zoom participant list to something along the lines of "no break out rooms, please!" (I'm curious, does it work)? 11/

I would love for this to become the norm in online teaching, where students would feel ok to say (or to rename themselves in the participant list), "No small group conversations for me today!". Similarly, let's normalize turning webcams on & off. Zoom fatigue is real! 12/

I also liked how @cahouser & @julia_saxena prepped for the one breakout room with this slide. There was a clear activity & a clear plan to integrate the sidebar conversations (breakout room discussions) back into the overall group post-chat. 13/

Takeaway #2: I loved how @cahouser shared this course roadmap slide. This is such a simple yet powerful thing to do. I could see what was happening and when, and quickly had a nice overview of everything going on. A much better way to visualize than a PDF of dates! 14/

Takeaway #3: This leads me to the "How to Manage Your Time in MVV" slide. This is the 2nd time I've seen this used in CBCs lately and I like it a lot. Two extension ideas: 1) Mention how this could change week to week due to personal workload (if that was said I missed it) & 15/

add versions of the course roadmap slide that are color-coded with the "if you have 4, vs. 7, vs. 10+ hours" options. I know that this is something I plan for @RS_Michalak & I to include in our next Notion for Academics Academy course because I really like the idea of 16/

prompting students to pick the schedule that suits them the most for the next week, for example, "How does the week ahead look for you? Pretty open? Pick the GREEN schedule (4 hour commitment week), have some flex time, pick the ORANGE week. Crazy busy, go with the RED week." 17/

Finally, my last big takeaway from MVV Session #1: "Sessions will be self-contained. Minimal homework and additional research required". YES. I firmly believe in this. From my observations, a high percentage of individuals participating in CBCs are working adults, many with 18/

multiple responsibilities. Masterful online course creators strive for high-quality online experiences with an exceptionally crafted curriculum. But this also includes remembering your audience, pacing appropriately, and setting reasonable workload & output expectations. 19/19