On April 17, 2020, the third online meeting of the faculty in the format of knowledge cafe was held at the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM). Participants discussed how to conduct mid-term certification and surveys, if BlackBoard fails, how to track students' activity during class and establish ethical standards of e-learning.

Control of the involvement of students during the lesson is one of the most relevant challenges for the lecturers. Yulia N. Arai, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Strategic and International Management, notes that she uses games, simulations, teamwork, and various web tools that make it easier for students to learn material on the one hand, and show students involvement on the other. “In order to check the involvement of students and their level of knowledge, I created a form where I made a tablet of two columns. In one, L have written the students' full names, and in the second, I left free space. During the lesson, students write answers to questions in cells near their names. According to the results of the experiment, it became clear who was involved in the work, and not just connected to the online lecture. More than half of the students actively participated in the lesson, which I consider to be a good indicator, ” said Yulia Arai.

 

For mid-term tests of knowledge of junior students, Yulia Arai plans to use open questions. The questions will be formulated in such a way that each answer to the question will allow lecturer to evaluate the individual course of reasoning of students, the consistency of arguments and the ability to apply theoretical material.

 

The issue of students' online communication culture has also become one of the most relevant. The basic rule that most lecturers introduced in their classes is to turn on the webcam. Using the camera, the lecturer can see the student, his preparedness and involvement.

Despite the high attendance of online classes, not all students actively participate in lectures and seminars. To attract students to participate more actively in interaction in the classroom, professors suggest using a reward system. “During the lesson, I write down the names of students who take part in the discussions. For this, I asked students to replace "st" with their full name. As a result of the lesson, I reward the most active, assigning them 0.5 or 1 point. This helped me motivate students to participate in discussions, ” shared the experience Anastasia A. Petrova-Savchenko, Academic Director of the Bachelor's program“ International Management ”.

 

Margarita A. Gladkova, Academic Director of the Business Analytics and Big Data Master's program, specifically asks students who are less active in the classroom to answer questions. So participation in discussions allows students to quickly get used to the new format, motivates to understand the material, and helps the professor to understand the level of knowledge of students.

 

The next meeting will be held on April 30. Lecturers will discuss conducting tests and exams online, the possible risks that this format of passing exams carries, and solutions that will help to reduce these risks.