Bringing "real world" into the virtual classroom

The Educationalist. By Alexandra Mihai

Welcome to a new issue of “The Educationalist”. This week I was thinking about ways to diversify online learning activities and try to make the most of what technology has to offer. Prompted by an invitation to facilitate an online event organised by the Political Studies Association (PSA) Teaching & Learning Network this week, I started to reflect on the different activities I have been using in my online courses in the past years. What stood out was the “Expert in Residence” activity I am using in the EU institutions and EU decision-making courses I teach at the Institute for European Studies, VUB . You can read bellow my reflections on some things to keep in mind when including a guest practitioner in your course. I also included a short video where I explain the “Expert in Residence” activity in more detail. I hope you feel inspired to design similar learning experiences in your courses. I would be very happy, as usual, to hear your comments and ideas.

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Do you sometimes feel that the narrative of your course could be strengthened by having your students engage with someone working in the field you are teaching about? Here are some tips for designing and managing effective interaction between students and practitioners:

First of all, and perhaps most importantly: the practitioner's intervention should be meaningful four your students' learning journey. It needs to come at the right time, complement your teaching and provide students with access to new knowledge and expertise, or a different perspective.

Embedding this activity in your course is equally important. Think about the timing and choose a topic where the expert can bring most added value. Make sure the dialogue with the practitioner is connected to the other course activities and make these links explicit to students.

Think of ways to make sure that students make the most of this interaction. Announce it well in advance (building it in the syllabus is a great idea), build in time to prepare- and provide supporting materials/prompts- and don't forget to include a debriefing and/or reflection part.

Communication plays an important part, both with students and with practitioners. The objective of the activity needs to be clear (and ideally not very broad) and the expectations made explicit. Also, try to be mindful of time and come up with a clear schedule in advance. This will definitely help you get busy experts on board.

Technology offers some advantages for including practitioners in your course. The flexibility in terms of time and location, as well as the multimodality provided by various platforms have the potential to make the interaction more accessible to students and practitioners alike. It does not necessarily need to be a webinar! Some asynchronous ways to interact can be as valuable, if not more- for instance discussion forums or pre-recorded videos/podcasts. They provide students with more time to prepare and learn from each other as well as from the experts.

One last crucial point: be there! Having a guest practitioner doesn't mean you take a day off. On the contrary: your role is very important, from the design of the activity to moderating the discussion and making sure you bring students back to your course through reflection and debriefing.

To sum it up: this can be a very valuable exercise but it definitely takes more than inviting a guest speaker to make it a learning experience. Try to make use of technology to your advantage to give students access to knowledge beyond their physical surroundings.

For a practical example of a learning activity involving practitioners, watch this short video where I explain "Expert in residence", an asynchronous activity I've been using successfully in my EU policy-making courses.