RES.21G-001 | Fall 2020 | Graduate

The User-friendly Classroom

Instructor Insights

Resource Overview

The User-friendly Classroom video training series was created specifically for teaching assistants for whom English is a second language and the USA a second culture by A.C. Kemp, a lecturer in MIT Global Languages. These videos, and their associated assignments, focus on developing international teaching assistants’ strategies for successful, student-centered communication in the interactive American classroom. The videos demonstrate best practices through authentic examples of successful teaching scenarios, interviews with undergraduates and advice from international teaching assistants.

The videos and assignments were created for use with the following courses:

21G.232 / 21G.233 Advanced Speaking and Critical Listening (ELS)

21G.217 / 21G.218 Workshop in Strategies for Effective Teaching (ELS)

The instructor insights on this page are shared by A. C. Kemp, lecturer in English Language Studies.

Resource Outcomes

  • Learn how to apply User Experience (UX) design thinking to pedagogical practices
  • Understand what expectations undergraduate students have regarding user-friendly classroom learning experiences and how international teaching assistants can meet those expectations
  • View demonstrations of effective teaching strategies
  • Evaluate one’s own teaching strategies using criteria articulated in the User-friendly Classroom videos

Instructor Insights

"Teaching for the first time can be pretty scary for anyone. Will my students understand my explanations? Will they spend more time looking at their Facebook page than the board? Will they ask me a question I can’t answer? In many ways, it’s a voyage into the unknown."
— A. C. Kemp

Below, A. C. Kemp describes various aspects of the User-friendly Classroom video training series and its accompanying teaching materials.

In this section, A. C. Kemp shares some of the unique challenges international teaching assistants (ITAs) encounter in their first teaching assignments. She also describes MIT courses and resources, including the User-friendly Classroom series, designed to support these novice educators.

Teaching for the First Time

Teaching for the first time can be pretty scary for anyone. Will my students understand my explanations? Will they spend more time looking at their Facebook page than the board? Will they ask me a question I can’t answer? In many ways, it’s a voyage into the unknown.

ITA Challenges

International teaching assistants (ITAs) worry about these things, too. However, they also face challenges unique to their situation.

The most obvious is language. Sometimes, their pronunciation can be unclear, and their fluency can be limited, making it difficult for them to explain complex concepts in English. They may also have some difficulty understanding their students’ speech, making them afraid to solicit or answer questions.

Culture also plays a part. As one example, in the United States, students often call their professor by their first name; in other cultures, this can be seen as disrespectful. In addition, the educational culture in some countries discourages student questions and stresses a lecture format. Therefore, students from those cultures can be unprepared for the expectations of MIT undergraduates, who tend to be accustomed to a less formal and more interactive environment.

ITA Training at MIT

"While no resource can entirely prepare an ITA for his or her first class, all of us involved in working with these educators hope the materials and support we provide will make the unknown a little more knowable."
— A. C. Kemp

Instructors in MIT’s English Language Studies program teach eight communications subjects for non-native speakers, two of which are specifically designed to help international students become successful teaching assistants.

The first is 21G.232 / 21G.233 Advanced Speaking and Critical Listening Skills (ELS). This subject addresses context-specific communicative tasks, such as teaching classes, presenting at conferences and interviewing for jobs, as well as improving pronunciation. Offered in both spring and fall, it is one semester long and meets three hours a week.

The second course, 21G.217 / 21G.218 Workshop in Strategies for Effective Teaching (ELS), is a teacher training class that meets for only one week in January. This class, which focuses on classroom and communication strategies, was the inspiration for the User-friendly Classroom series, a video-based supplemental resource that takes a new approach to teacher training by reimagining the classroom though the lens of User Experience (UX). Including interviews with undergraduates and experienced ITAs, the videos in this series explain what ITAs can expect from students—and what students expect from their ITAs.  It also gives ITAs concrete examples of how to meet those expectations.

The User-friendly Classroom series and the two ELS courses complement MIT’s other resources for teaching assistants, including subject-specific teaching assistant training in individual departments and the Teaching & Learning Laboratory, which serves all MIT educators. While no resource can entirely prepare an ITA for his or her first class, all of us involved in working with these educators hope the materials and support we provide will make the unknown a little more knowable.

In this section, A. C. Kemp describes what inspired her to create the User-friendly Classroom video training series and her process for creating the series, including how she applied user-centered design principles in developing and refining the resource.

Needing More Time to Practice

21G.217 / 21G.218 Workshop in Strategies for Effective Teaching (ELS) is an intensive course that meets only 2.5 hours per day for five consecutive days. Most of the students in this workshop-based course have never taught before. A few have taught prior to taking the course, but need more strategies to improve their teaching. Many teach their first MIT class a few weeks after the workshop.

Given the immediacy with which students need to apply what they’ve learned in the course, it’s a very high-stakes week, and because the time is compressed, it’s essential that the workshop sessions are very carefully planned to maximize the practice of teaching skills and communication strategies.

I first taught this course in 2009, and over the first few years, I adapted and developed materials, homework assignments and activities in order to streamline the class. Nonetheless, I routinely noticed that students needed more time to practice the skills they were developing.

Flipping the ITA Classroom

To address the need for more practice time, I began to think about flipping the classroom. In a typically flipped classroom, students view video lectures at home and do activities in class that reinforce and extend their learning. Therefore, it seemed an odd—and almost redundant—approach for ITA training, as our classrooms were already student-centered and activity-based.

However, I thought that if students could watch and analyze teaching models at home, they could come to class better prepared to practice their own teaching. From my experience facilitating other classes, I knew that, outside of class, students tend to watch a video more than once, and if they are assigned meaningful questions, they may spend as much as twenty minutes on a five-minute video. That meant that adding a five-minute homework video wouldn’t just save five minutes of class time—it would add at least three times that many minutes to students’ learning.

Unfortunately, there was a gap in terms of appropriate videos for my students. Although they had access to OpenCourseWare (OCW) videos of MIT faculty lecturing, these lectures tend to capture exemplary teaching. When you’ve never taught before, trying to match that level of teaching can be intimidating.

The ITAs I worked with requested real-life examples of their peers at MIT who had less refined communication skills and less experience than the seasoned faculty on OCW, but who were still successful teachers because of the strategies they employed. They also wanted to know, preferably from undergraduate students themselves, what exactly MIT students expected of them and how to meet those expectations. I developed the User-friendly Classroom video training series in response to this request. 

The Process of Creating the User-friendly Classroom Video Training Series

The process of creating the User-friendly Classroom video training series took several years from the initial idea to publication on OCW, and was only possible due to the support of my colleagues and my students. 

First, I created interview questions for undergraduate students with my colleague Jane Dunphy, the Director of MIT’s English Language Studies Program. After further developing the plan for the series, I received funding from the Gilberte Furstenberg & Douglas Morgenstern Fund for Innovation in Language Instruction to record and edit the first video segments. I recruited a diverse group of undergraduates to interview and found skilled ITAs to serve as models for good teaching.

The actual recordings were completed in less than a month, but the editing process took much longer. Since the interviews were unscripted, it took time to identify the best advice and to logically organize the students’ and teaching assistants’ insights.

Making the User-friendly Classroom Series User-friendly

"In creating the video series, it was important to use the same principles of user-friendliness that we advocate for in the classroom: learning the students’ expectations, creating materials to meet them and revising the materials based on feedback."
— A. C. Kemp

In creating the video series, it was important to use the same principles of user-friendliness that we advocate for in the classroom: learning the students’ expectations, creating materials to meet them and revising the materials based on feedback. In terms of content, the ITAs had requested realistic examples of teaching and advice from undergraduate students and experienced ITAs at MIT. In terms of delivery, some of those expectations were the same ones the undergraduates have of ITAs: videos that were easy to understand and use. 

Once I had created drafts of the videos, I began testing them in my ITA training classes. I also received advice from my colleagues in Global Languages and the New England International Teaching Assistant Network (NEITAN). Based on that advice and the feedback I received from students, I edited the videos to improve their user-friendliness.

In this section, A. C. Kemp shares that the main purpose of the User-friendly videos is to help international teaching assistants (ITAs) develop self-evaluation skills. She describes each of the videos and illustrates how they promote ITAs’ development as educators.

Purpose of the Videos: Mastering Self-evaluation

"One of the main goals of the User-friendly Classroom video training series is to help ITAs learn to evaluate their own and others’ teaching."
— A. C. Kemp

Good teachers are constantly evolving their practice based on both new pedagogical research and on how well students respond to their course materials and teaching strategies. It’s important that international teaching assistants (ITAs) learn to view their pedagogical development as an ongoing process (as opposed to an endpoint), so that they will continue to improve and grow as teachers long after they participate in training.

One of the main goals of the User-friendly Classroom video training series is to help ITAs learn to evaluate their own and others’ teaching. The videos facilitate this learning by offering ITAs criteria for successful teaching and demonstrations of different teaching strategies. 

Video 1: “Expectations”

The first video in the series focuses on students’ expectations of their ITAs. I chose to spotlight this topic first because identifying what students want is the first step in building a user-friendly classroom. This video consists primarily of interviews with four undergraduate students about what ITA qualities are most effective, interspersed with footage of classroom interactions illustrating these points. The students articulate what they are looking for in productive recitations and the features they identify as the most helpful to their learning. Viewing “Expectations” helps ITAs learn the criteria they can use to evaluate others’ teaching and their own when it comes to meeting students’ expectations for user-friendly learning experiences.

Videos 2 and 3: “Phase Diagram” and “Lift”

ITAs apply these criteria to an evaluation of the teaching examples in the second and third videos: “Phase Diagram” and “Lift”. In “Phase Diagram”, a Chemistry ITA models clear organization, interactive teaching, and board work. In “Lift”, an Aeronautics and Astrophysics ITA uses humor and everyday examples to make the topic of lift easy to understand. This video includes questions from students and both planned and impromptu illustrations on the board.

Video 4: “The First Day”

The fourth video focuses on the “The First Day”. This video explains how to make a good first impression with step-by-step instructions. The rules are unpacked by four undergraduate students, who articulate specific words and actions ITAs can use on the first day to project approachability, knowledgeability and confidence. Experienced ITAs also offer advice. Video clips from the classroom illustrate the advice offered by students and ITAs.

As one example, undergraduates often say that confidence is an important quality for a teacher to have. However, it’s a difficult quality to acquire before one starts teaching. Therefore, most ITAs want to appear to be confident, even if they are not. Looking carefully at the ITAs in the demonstration videos, teachers-in-training can identify specific behaviors and words that signal confidence to their students. The teachers-in-training can then use those same behaviors to give the impression of confidence—until they have enough experience to actually feel confident. For many new teachers, it’s a kind of “fake it ‘til you make it” approach.

Video 5: “Introductions”

As with the previous videos, the advice given in “The First Day” is followed by a demonstration in the last video, “Introductions”. In this case, two ITAs briefly introduce themselves on the first day of class. Both ITAs are good models, but they take different approaches to greeting their classes and making their students feel welcome. These examples allow teachers-in-training to see there’s more than one way to make a good first impression.

Videos 6 and 7: “Ohm’s Law” and “Graph Theory”

In these two videos, the lessons of “Expectations” and “The First Day” are applied to online teaching. In “Ohm’s Law,” an ITA uses multiple representations of a concept to make the material and accessible to students and exploits the virtual medium to give a close-up demonstration. “Graph Theory” highlights strong organization and attention to student understanding. This ITA focuses on approachability and uses slides to further his explanations.

In this section, A. C. Kemp describes how helping international teaching assistants (ITAs) think about their classes as products can assist these educators in developing user-friendly learning experiences for students.

Teacher-Centered vs. Student-Centered Approaches

In education, we talk about teacher-centered classes, in which teachers control the class and do most of the talking, and student-centered classes, in which students are actively involved in their learning and help to shape the class.

For many international teaching assistants (ITAs), the teacher-centered approach is familiar and appealing. With less interaction, there is less of a chance that they will be asked a question they cannot answer—or any question at all. In that scenario, they have near-complete control over what happens in the classroom, which removes some of their anxiety. However, MIT undergraduates tend to expect to have more of a say in what happens in their classes and can become frustrated and bored with a teacher-centered approach.

As educators working with ITAs, we need to accomplish two things: One is to help ITAs understand the value of student-centered teaching; the other is to show them how to teach in that way.

A Shift in Perception: Learning to See Classes as User Experiences

Although teachers do not usually think of their classes as products, understanding the principles designers use to make products user-friendly can help ITAs design their classes in a more student-centered way. ITAs may not know about student-centered classrooms, but all have experienced user-friendly (and user-unfriendly) products, services and websites. Because of their background experiences in this domain, I began introducing the idea of User Experience (UX) as an approach to teaching in ITA classes.

Understanding User Experience (UX)

"User experience is the way in which we interact with a product or service; a user-friendly experience is one that has been designed to anticipate and meet the needs of the user, creating a smooth, easy, positive interaction—one which makes a happy customer choose your product again—or come back to your class!"
— A. C. Kemp

Even if you have never heard of the design concept UX, you know it when you see it. It is a user-friendly experience when the barista at the corner coffee shop greets you by your name and remembers your favorite drink, which is delivered to you quickly, just the way you like it. Or your new smart phone is so intuitive that you don’t need to refer to a manual to send a text or download an app. On the other hand, it’s a user-unfriendly experience when your child’s “easy-to-assemble” bicycle is delivered with a tiny diagram and a jumbled list of confusing instructions.

In other words, user experience is the way in which we interact with a product or service; a user-friendly experience is one that has been designed to anticipate and meet the needs of the user, creating a smooth, easy, positive interaction—one which makes a happy customer choose your product again—or come back to your class! This requires not only planning, but also testing and improving one’s plans.

User Experience and ITA Training

The idea behind the User-friendly Classroom video series is to help ITAs apply the following UX principles in their teaching: anticipating student needs, planning classes to meet those needs, testing the classes and adapting their teaching based on feedback.

The undergraduate interviews in the video series provide an overview of what MIT students want in a class, and the teaching examples help ITAs identify the specific behaviors that make a class user-friendly based on the undergraduates’ criteria.

When I use the series in my teaching with ITAs, I notice that they come away with a clearer idea of students’ expectations. I then have them design their own lessons. They practice teaching mock classes with their peers and get feedback based on the undergraduate criteria. They also watch videos of their own teaching and evaluate themselves. Based on those observations, they adapt and improve their teaching, making their classes user-friendly and, thus, more student-centered.

In this section, A. C. Kemp describes how she uses the User-friendly Classroom training video series in her own teaching, and how other trainers and individuals might consider using them.

Designed with Others in Mind

I designed the User-friendly Classroom video training series and its associated assignments for use at MIT, but at the same time, I tried to make them flexible enough so that they could also be used by international teaching assistants (ITAs) and ITA trainers in other educational contexts. I also believe these materials will be useful for individuals who would like to teach in an American educational context but who don’t have access to formal training. Anyone with access to the internet, whether at home or in a public library, can watch and evaluate the videos in the series. To evaluate their own teaching based on the criteria in the videos, teachers just need a smartphone and/or a few friends to serve as observers.

How I Use the Materials

In 21G.217 / 21G.218 Workshop in Strategies for Effective Teaching (ELS), which meets for one week in January, I incorporate the User-friendly Classroom videos into a syllabus that also includes topics such as conducting office hours, leading discussions, using the board and creating lesson plans.

I ask students to watch the five videos and to complete questions and activities related to them (Assignments 1-4) before our first class meeting. Although I initially worried that it might be too much, I assign this work more than a week in advance, and students are generally eager to get started.

During our first class session, students introduce themselves as if it were their first day as an ITA (Assignment 5 (PDF)). It can be challenging for the students to remember all of the criteria for successful introductions—especially since the students tend to be nervous, so each introduction is limited to two minutes. That way, the students can focus more on being user-friendly than memorizing a long speech. Another way I help them focus on delivery is to write reminder words on the board in the back of the classroom (e.g., smile, make eye contact), which they face as they address the class.

During each introduction, I ask students to evaluate their peers using the same criteria as presented in “The First Day” video: approachability, enthusiasm, knowledge, confidence, preparation and organization. Since it can be difficult for new educators to attend to all of these specific behaviors at once, I assign each student one or two of the criteria to focus on. 

The presenters are also video recorded during their introductions, and their videos are put on a private online site, so that they can evaluate their introductions in more detail as a written assignment for the next class (Assignment 6 (PDF)).

Later in the week, as we look at more detailed skills, such as using visuals to improve communication, we revisit the “Phase Diagram” and “Lift” videos in homework assignments. We consider the techniques used by the ITAs in the videos and which of those techniques students might try in their own teaching. After evaluating the teaching demonstrations in the videos, students experiment with the techniques in classroom exercises.

I’m excited to add two new videos on virtual teaching in Fall 2020, which I will be using in this class in the future. “Ohm’s Law” and “Graph Theory” show online lessons taught by ITAs. These can be analyzed in terms of user-friendliness and compared with face-to-face lessons (Assignment 7 (PDF)). As with “Phase Diagram and “Lift, these will be used to help students get ideas and improve their own teaching.

How ITA Trainers Can Use the Videos

How others incorporate these videos into their programs will depend on several factors, including what subjects their ITAs will be teaching and how much time the ITAs have to prepare before their first class. You might want to formulate your own questions or add videos of ITAs at your university as models. For example, I’ve focused on STEM subjects because the majority of our students at MIT—both graduate and undergraduate—are majoring in STEM subjects. However, at a liberal arts college, it might be useful for trainers to record their own ITAs leading a discussion in literature or teaching a recitation in art history.

Making these supplemental videos can be very simple. One video camera—or smartphone with video capabilities—can be placed at the back of the classroom so that both the ITA and the students can be seen. I would recommend videotaping a 5 to 8-minute block of class time to show to ITAs-in training and having them use the questions in Assignment 2 (PDF) to evaluate the teaching captured in the video. Shorter videos, I have found, allow for more in-depth analysis.

Don’t worry about choosing perfect teaching models—these videos should help ITAs learn to evaluate themselves and get ideas for things they might try—not to imitate an ideal. Trainers might also want to develop discussion questions specific to their own educational contexts and to add practice activities specific to their students’ needs.

However teacher trainers choose to use them, I think the videos work best as part of a program designed for students. I think of these materials as a springboard—a new way of looking at teaching—that informs other activities you might do in your classroom, rather than as a standalone resource.

How Individuals Can Use these Materials

To use these materials on your own, I recommend watching all five videos and answering the questions in the assignments that go with them. Then, if you can, recruit a few friends to watch your introduction (Assignment 5 (PDF)) and ask them to give you feedback, using the criteria in Assignment 6 (PDF).

If you don’t have an audience, record yourself. Watching your recording can be eye-opening, both figuratively and literally! One of the most common problems students have is making eye contact with an audience, whether it’s real people or empty chairs that stand in for them.

I also recommend that individuals without access to a teacher-training class seek out online video examples of instructors teaching in their own subject areas. Although watching professionals can be a bit intimidating, those videos can still provide ideas for teaching subject-specific concepts.

What Do You Think?

I hope each person who comes to this site will use the materials in a way that works best for them. I’d be delighted if you would let me know how you used the User-friendly Classroom video training series and its associated teaching materials, and what your experience was. Did the materials meet your expectations? Which activities did you add or change? What other resources would you like to see? How could I improve the materials? Please share your feedback.

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