Bridging the Virtual Gap

Northern Virginia Faculty Member Creates Synergy in Remote Classroom

For Margaret Ludlam, it’s all about connection points. As a faculty member at the Northern Virginia campus, she has worked diligently to identify various forms of remote teaching tools that not only work well on their own, but in concert with one another.

“It’s almost like having students raise their hands, but in a virtual environment, where their identity is kept confidential. These polls motivate class discussions, or they make a point the instructor wants to illustrate.”

– Northern Virginia Campus Faculty Member Margaret Ludlum

Like all ECPI University faculty members, she uses Microsoft Teams as a learning platform, but she also uses apps like Spatial Chat, a piece of software that recreates real-life social interactions.

Ms. Ludlam’s students can remain in the TEAM meeting, yet still break out into four different groups to prepare and organize group presentations. Little “bubble” photos of each group member appear on their phones via a web address so that they can discuss but still see each other.  

Ms. Ludlam says she has also gotten a lot of mileage out of Microsoft Forms, used as Warm Ups to engage students while taking roll or chatting with various people to personalize their classroom experience. “The Forms’ Warm Ups are far more versatile than Google’s, ranging from multiple choice to short essay, and quadrants, such as identify importance or ratings on a Likert scale. The Warm Ups inform my teaching decisions and often lead to specific requests for tutoring. They also warmup my subject matter for the day as a no-stakes measurement of student expression.”

Another tool Ms. Ludlam uses comes from PollEverywhere.com, which offers easy access through phone texts or via the website. As students vote, the visual evidence of changing data is displayed onto her Teams screen. “It’s almost like having students raise their hands, but in a virtual environment, where their identity is kept confidential. These polls motivate class discussions, or they make a point the instructor wants to illustrate,” she says.

“I really like Spatial Chat,” says student Misty Gott. “We were able to use it to talk about our group project without having to exchange numbers. It felt like we were just talking together in class.” Student Jason Morneau says Ms. Ludlum’s warm-up questions really gets him focused on the day’s work before class officially begins. “Spatial Chat is a great way to talk to other students easily and get to know them better, especially since we are not on campus now,” he adds. “Ms. Ludlam’s use of polls throughout the class also really helps us figure out what we all liked or disliked and what we learned about ourselves during the assignments.”

“Spatial Chat is a great way to talk to other students easily and get to know them better, especially since we are not on campus now. Ms. Ludlam’s use of polls throughout the class also really helps us figure out what we all liked or disliked and what we learned about ourselves during the assignments.”

– Northern Virginia Campus Student Jason Morneau