Instructor: Professor Hiroya Tanaka
How many students took the course?
There were approximately 660 students enrolled, with an average of 500 attending in real-time.
What was the class format?
All classes were streamed live and recorded so they could also be viewed on-demand. Students who participated in the live sessions were able to ask questions directly.
Feedback from Students
"The 'SFC Spirit' course was interactive, leveraging the online format to include alumni in group work."
"A style where the lecture part was recorded, and the discussion part was conducted live."
"From the perspective of creating a live atmosphere in a large-scale class, I felt that the use of YouTube Live, as seen in the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, was a good initiative. A key advantage over formats like Zoom webinars is the comfortable viewing experience, even when watching on-demand later."
"Combining on-demand content with live streaming on YouTube (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)."
3. You held breakout sessions that included alumni. I imagine this is different from on-campus group work; were there any particular points you had to be mindful of?
The group sessions with alumni were positioned as "theme-based sub-seminars." They were held outside of class hours and were optional for interested students. One of the instructors, Koichiro Eto, spoke about the importance of "sub-seminars" as a form of autonomous student learning and shared his own experiences (although this was chronologically "after" the sub-seminars had already started). I believe this helped students understand a university-style of learning that is not solely instructor-led but is initiated by the students themselves. Additionally, the final presentation for the sub-seminars was held separately from the last class session.
In conducting an online class for the first time, were there any other creative measures you took? Please share them with us.
We included BGM and videos at the beginning, during breaks, and at the end of the class. During the lectures, SAs (Student Assistants) took the lead in continuously answering questions in the chat box and Q&A in real-time. For the final class, we introduced Comment Screen. Although we could only do it a few times, we set up a Spatial Chat space after class for students to make friends. Furthermore, in addition to the main Guest Professors (Part-time) who were in charge of the lectures, we had other Guest Professors (Part-time) log in whenever they had a bit of free time, such as between company meetings. This led to a situation in the final class where "six Guest Professors (Part-time) gathered in one place," which I believe was a special experience only possible online.