FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

Effective and Efficient Online Teaching in the Age of Corona: A

Hands-On Workshop

Login Related Issues

Please see this separate FAQ here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x3Yo3QTw9UTBS03v3loix-x7VPI-XU4V8uFVETy_JQE/e
dit?usp=sharing

Questions Related to This Workshop

1. Question:​ Is it sufficient to learn video creation/editing in one platform? That is, only
Windows, or only Linux?
Answer:​ Sure, but we recommend that you at least watch the videos for the other
platform, so that if there is a need in the future, you are better prepared.
2. Question:​ Are there any more videos for this workshop? When will they be uploaded?
Answer:​ Of course, many more videos are upcoming, on the topics mentioned in the
brochure. We will upload them as and when they become ready: please check
BodhiTree regularly: at least twice a day.
3. Issue:​ I answered an in-video/out-of-video question correctly, but still I have not been
given marks.
Solution:​ Some of the quiz questions, even though objective type, have some amount of
subjectivity. Do not worry about the marks you get; the fact that you attempted the
question will count.
4. Issue:​ Some videos do not have in-video quizzes
Solution:​ Well, we have added in-video/out-of-video quizzes wherever relevant. On
some topics, there may not be in-video quizzes.
5. Question:​ What should you install on your laptop prior to the hands-on session?
Answer:​ See all the installation/setup videos given in the course contents and install
accordingly. At a minimum OBS, OpenShot are necessary.
BodhiTree Usage Issues
1. Question:​ How to use the discussion forum in BodhiTree?
Answer:​ Please check if your question/issue has already been asked/raised, before
posting a new thread. You can use the search feature in the discussion forum. If a
thread already exists on that question/issue, please post a comment on that existing
thread rather than creating a new thread. Please also check this FAQ before posting a
question/thread on the Discussion Forum.
2. Question: ​What does in-video quiz mean? What does out-of-video quiz mean?
Answer:​ In-video quiz: the questions which pop-up while you are watching a video.
Out-of-vide quiz: the questions which are present in a section outside of the videos in the
section.
3. Issue:​ Some features, like in-video quiz or out-of-video quiz is not working.
Solution:​ Please check your browser version if it is the latest
4. Issue:​ Course contents are not showing after login
Solution:​ Please check your browser version if it is the latest
5. Issue:​ I have seen all the available videos but my course progress is still 0%
Solution:​ You have to attempt the in-video and out-of-video quizzes for progress to
show
6. Issue:​ “Load more threads” is not working on the Discussion Forum
Solution:​ Please try reloading the page. If it still does not work, please check if the
browser version is the latest. Sometimes, the feature works on Chrome browser better
than on Firefox, so check that option too.
7. Issue:​ Unable to answer subjective question answer on BodhiTree in-video quiz
Solution:​ Many subjective questions are simply for the viewer (student) to pause and
think. BodhiTree does not expect answers for these or evaluate these questions.
8. Question:​ Can I save/download and watch videos offline?
Answer:​ You can do this in the BodhiTree Android App. Unfortunately, the app is not
getting published on play-store. You can download the BodhiTree app from here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1s3tQlDRzrT-TUN0LxqzSreJn_b0Lr9so
After opening the app, please choose “IITB MOOC/Internship”
After login, you may have to “refresh” the page once: touch-pull the screen down
9. Question:​ How can we add questions within a video?
Answer:​ This is a unique feature of the BodhiTree platform. For this, you will need an
 instructor account on the platform. During the hands-on session, we will provide
workshop participants with a trial instructor account, using which you can upload videos
and insert in-video questions.
10. Question:​ How can students post questions in organic chemistry (or other similar
subjects): they need to draw?
Answer:​ Students can draw, take a pic using their smart-phone, and attach the image in
the discussion forum, to ask a question.
11. Question: ​How is BodhiTree better than Moodle?
Answer:​ As you would have discovered by now, the in-video questions feature is liked
by one and all: this is unique to BodhiTree. Also, we believe the BodhiTree UI is much
better for teacher and student alike.
12. Question:​ Is BodhiTree free? What about costing? How to get an instructor account?
Answer:​ BodhiTree is open source. We can give instructor accounts to individual
teachers. For department/college/institute-wide usage, we have an academic pricing
which is very affordable. For more details, see here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ob8p5G4vizIgfg13pE7OwuI_ryBBrHZteWnbaeCP
E2o/edit

Questions Related to Flipped Classroom

1. Question:​ Can flipped classrooms be used for theory subjects? Life sciences? What can
one do in-class?
Answer:​ Flipped class can absolutely be used for any subject, including theory subjects.
In-class, teacher can ask students to solve numeric problems, subjective questions,
design questions, essay questions, etc. and have a discussion on these, etc.
2. Question:​ Can flipped classroom for drawing subjects, for labs, accounting, finance,
statistics?
Answer:​ Of course! In fact, for practical subjects, labs, arts, drawing, sports, dance,
music, and such, the ONLY form of teaching which is effective is flipped classroom
teaching: we just don’t realize it. Consider this: would you attend, say, a tabla class
where the teacher only lectures? Or would you send your child to a cricket coaching
academy where there are only lectures? Of course not! It is only in college education
that somehow we have this practice of “lecturing”, whereas the only learning which
happens is by practice/doing. Flipped class achieves this for all subjects:
activity/practice centered learning.
3. Issue:​ How does flipped class handle below average students or slow learners?
Answer:​ Suppose you attend a tabla class where the teacher only lectures but there is
no “active learning by doing”. Then obviously you will not learn any tabla. Will you call
yourself a slow learner then? Or is the problem with the teaching methodology? There
are “slow learners” in the current system because traditional teaching via “lectures” is
fundamentally flawed: it is boring, repetitive, a constant struggle between teacher and
student. In flipped teaching, the problem of “slow learners” will actually become lesser,
because there is actual learning by doing.
4. Question: ​How to motivate students for flipped class?
Answer:​ See above answer for “slow learners”. With flipped classes, the problem of
unmotivated students will be lesser, we guarantee it from our experience !
5. Issue: ​Policy makers need to know about flipped classroom
Response:​ We agree with you 100%
6. Question:​ What if students do not watch videos before coming to class? How will the
flipped class model work then? How to ensure that it is student who is watching video
and not someone else?
Answer:​ If there is no check, then many students will likely not watch the posted videos.
To check if they have watched, you can give several in-video quizzes. Also, you can
give a short 5-minute quiz using the SAFE app: ​http://safe.cse.iitb.ac.in/​ . These quizzes
can have say 10-15% weightage in the overall marks for the subject. The instructors of
this workshop have always conducted a quick SAFE quiz in every class, for the last 4+
years.
7. Question:​ How to deal with the issue of poor network connection? What if students
cannot download videos?
Answer:​ Unfortunately, broadband or even cellular network is not available in all places
yet. Even if available, the quality may be poor. Flipped classes and pre-recorded videos
can cope with this reality much better than online lectures: because students can
download videos whenever network is available, and watch offline any time. Also, note
that it is important to reduce the video size as much as possible (1-1.5MB per minute),
so that video content can be downloaded even with 2G/3G network.
8. Question:​ What if a student is from a poor family with no smart-phone or PC?
Answer:​ Use of BodhiTree assumes that the student has at least a smart-phone and a
reasonable network connection. Fortunately, today these are available at low cost. For
those who cannot afford even these, the college/institute must arrange suitable
alternatives, such as access to a computer in the campus/department itself, or a loan for
a smart-phone + cellular data connection, etc.
9. Issue:​ Time spent by student in front of computer/phone screen increases
Answer:​ There is no evidence to show that ​structured​ screen time is harmful. What is
harmful is unstructured and addictive screen time. Of course, for long activities, proper
distance from screen, posture, etc are all important.
10. Issue:​ Teacher has to spend time creating content
Answer:​ Yes, this is true. This workshop is meant to make that process easy. Also,
content creation is a one-time job, especially if you do not mind using videos/material
created by your colleagues or other experts.
11. Question:​ Can flipped class be used in a packed semester? How is time spent by a
student affected?
Answer:​ In our careful studies, we have found that students spend about THE SAME
amount of time in a flipped classroom, compared to traditional teaching. But the learning
is much better.
12. Question:​ Can flipped teaching be used in large 100+ student classes?
Answer:​ Absolutely! All the UG core courses taught by the instructors of this workshop
have had 120-140 students, and flipped teaching has been most effective, especially in
such large classes.
13. Question:​ What if a student is stuck while watching a video?
Answer:​ This can happen, but if the video is well designed, such cases will be rare.
Note that such instances will be much rarer than cases where the student simply does
not follow what a teacher is “lecturing” in a traditional teaching model, and is too
afraid/shy to ask.
14. Question:​ Is flipped classroom narrowing syllabus?
Answer:​ Absolutely not! All our IITB courses, we have taught in flipped classes have
had the same syllabus as traditional teaching. The question is similar to asking “Does
Tendulkar have a narrow set of cricket skills because he was taught cricket in a flipped
model (i.e. learning by doing), as opposed to making him listen to cricket lectures?”.
15. Question:​ How to reduce video length in subjects (like Control Systems) where
derivations can take more than 20 min?
Answer:​ In our experience, if an explanation takes one hour of lecture (in class), then
the same explanation ​reduces​ in length in recorded video, to about 20 min. So if your
derivation takes more than 20 min in class, it does not mean that recorded video will be
so long. Furthermore, even the most complex derivation or mathematical proof can be
broken into steps/stages/section. Break-up a video into multiple parts: each of 15-20
min.
Questions Related to Content Creation
1. Question:​ Can mobile app be used for recording instead of Windows/Linux? Can
Chrome extension be used? Can a camcorder or just a mobile camera be used?
Answer:​ Sure, any method can be used to prepare your video. BodhiTree finally expects
an mp4 video to be uploaded.
2. Question:​ How to reduce size of videos?
Answer:​ Please await upcoming videos on video editing and production
3. Question:​ Will reducing video size reduce quality?
Answer:​ To an extent, yes, but the videos you are seeing on this online workshop are all
of adequate quality and they are all about 1.5MB per minute of video.
4. Question:​ How to do noise reduction?
Answer:​ Openshot can do this. There is also another free software called audacity
which is excellent in audio noise reduction. But we will not be able to cover this much
detail in this workshop: you will have to learn on your own after a point, by seeing
suitable youtube videos or exploring the software on your own.
5. Question:​ How to zoom to a portion of the screen during screen recording?
Answer:​ This is a feature of “Camtasia”. You can also do it in OBS during video editing,
but it is all too complex: we won’t cover it in this workshop.
6. Question:​ How to merge video with chart/image/pdf ?
Answer:​ Just show the chart/image/pdf in an appropriate software while doing screen
recording using OBS.
7. Issue:​ OBS is not recording sub-window in window-capture mode
Solution:​ You will have to use display-capture (entire screen) in this case
8. Question:​ What are the system requirements for installing the various software such as
OBS, OpenShot?
Answer:​ Generally, any recent operating system, and reasonably recent hardware:
laptop/desktop within the last 3 years should work. There are no strict hardware
requirements as such.

Miscellaneous Questions
1. Question:​ How to conduct online exams? Can we conduct descriptive exams online?
Answer:​ This is NOT the topic of this workshop, but all the same, we DO NOT
 recommend REMOTE online exams. For online/e-exams where students are present at
a venue with proctoring, we recommend SAFE: ​http://safe.cse.iitb.ac.in/
2. Question:​ Can we install Linux if we have a Windows machine?
Answer:​ You can use WUBI. Search google to find out what it is.