Rouages: “Supporting teachers in educational and digital transformation”
Savine Volland and Agathe Hubert are educational engineers. Under the supervision of the Information Systems and Digital Technology Department, they support faculty members in transforming their teaching methods and adopting digital tools. As part of the “Rouages” video series, produced by the University of Montpellier, they discuss their roles, which are central to the modernization of higher education.
It was in 2015, with the merger of the universities, that UM established a team of instructional designers. As part of the Information Systems and Digital Technology Department (DSIN), there are now six of them supporting faculty members in transforming their teaching methods through the use of digital technology. This team is reinforced by the presence of other engineers within the academic departments, schools, and institutes themselves. “ Our work falls into two main categories, ” explains Savine Volland. “On one hand, there is the purely pedagogical approach, and on the other, the technological dimension.”
Make your classes more engaging
First and foremost from an educational standpoint, digital technology has, of course, revolutionized teaching practices and opened up new ways of teaching. In-person classes are now just one of several possible formats.“We can adapt these courses to make them available remotely. We can develop hybrid formats where part of the course takes place in a lecture hall and another part remotely, or even offer a course in both versions—this is what we call ‘co-modal,’” explains Savine Volland.
But the use of digital tools isn’t always synonymous with distance learning. On the contrary, new mobile apps now make it possible to energize and make lectures and tutorials more engaging by fostering greater interactivity between instructors and students or among students themselves through chat rooms or discussion forums.“At UM, for example, we have a license Wooclap license that allows students to answer questions or vote on proposals using their cell phones via text message or a web browser, take quizzes, and interact live with the instructor to ask for additional explanations…”
From the lesson plan to publication on Moodle
Whether the courses are online or in-person, instructional designers are there to advise the instructor and help them develop a lesson plan.“We’ll work with them to define their objectives, the concepts, and the messages they want to convey to students. We’ll also look at the resources they have available, the ones they’d like to create, and with all of that, we’ll build the course together,” the instructional designer continues. Gamification of teaching is also part of the instructional designers’ toolkit, with the development of serious games becoming increasingly popular.
Video conferencing, virtual classrooms, exercises, games, branching-story scenarios modeled after the digital versionof “Choose Your Own Adventure,” e-learning modules using Storyline, support for content writing and structuring with SCENARIchaine…“We also have communication tools that make it easier for teachers to contact their students, for example through forum posts,” notes Agathe Hubert. In short, there is a vast array of possibilities that more and more teachers are discovering through the Moodle platform.
“This platform allows them to upload their educational resources and create assessable activities such as tests or essays,” explains the engineer. “Today, there are approximately 2,500 teachers and more than 44,000 active students on the platform.” ” A trend that the lockdown only accelerated, as during this period the educational engineers provided six times more support than during normal times. However, as Agathe Hubert points out, “we shouldn’t embrace digital technology just because it’s trendy. Our goal is to provide added value for both teachers and students.”
Ready to take a MOOC?
Instructional designers also assist faculty members, academic departments, schools, and institutes in designing MOOCs, from video production and creating course materials to publishing content on the national Funmooc platform. Since MOOCs inherently involve “video,” this represents a new development in the teaching profession—one that isn’t always easy to master. To support them in this process, the instructional designers work closely with the DSIN’s audiovisual team. The department also provides all the necessary equipment:“We have a studio with a teleprompter and a green screen for projecting documents. Teachers who wish to do so also have access to self-service recording booths,” notes Agathe Hubert.
There are two ways to receive support from the University’s instructional designers: either individually, at a time that suits you, through the University’s service center; or by responding to the annual call for proposals issued by the University to encourage educational transformation.