Tech Town

In 2012, Dean Jacob Cohen decreed that all MBA students at MIT Sloan could pursue certificates in areas such as healthcare, sustainability, and business analytics. This requires students to take elective courses that meet at regular class times during the week. This put the Executive MBA students in an awkward position. The EMBA program meets on campus twice a month for intensive classes. Most students commute from different states, and some from countries worldwide. They all work their jobs during the program and can not commute to campus for a Tuesday morning class, for example. We needed to come up with a solution for them. This project was code-named "Tech Town." Very quickly after I coined the term of the project name, people started calling me the "Mayor of Tech Town." Because of the project, I supported our community in novel ways when snow and a pandemic shut down the campus. I was awarded the Sloan Staff Appreciation Award in 2017 and 2020, respectively, for these efforts.

Student Guide to Remote Participation

The following describes how students should access and participate in MIT Sloan courses that provide remote participation. 

Expectations of Remote Students at MIT Sloan

• You must be an EMBA student to participate through Zoom. All students in other programs may watch the Panopto live stream and/or recordings. Please submit your request for access to the TA. If approved, they would have to follow these instructions on the STS Teaching & ​Learning Technologies website​​.​

• Connect to the video conference meeting five minutes before class start time and be entirely settled in a controlled environment by the beginning of the class meeting. Your calendar should be blocked off, your staff should be made aware of this time, and class should be considered equivalent to any meeting that cannot be interrupted. Any distractions in your background are deemed equivalent to a local participant inviting such distractions into the classroom.

• Be present and attentive during class. Students who are engaged in other activities, unresponsive in the chat, disruptive to the class, or fail to meet any of these expectations will be put on brief hold by the TA.

• Maintain an uninterrupted video image of one's entire face throughout the duration of the class. Interruptions of a remote student's image are considered the equivalent of a local participant exiting the classroom. This includes poor framing, bandwidth, lighting, and/or obstructions to a student's webcam. If you have a Lenovo and cannot enable your camera, please follow the steps in this support article on IT Support Guides.

• Use an MIT Sloan Virtual background to help the faculty​ member read your name in the classroom. This will also make your digital Zoom hand easier to see.

• Interact with instructors and local participants through audio. The TA is not responsible for vocalizing your questions in class. If needed, they can draw the faculty member's attention to your question or comment. They will introduce you at this point, and you will be expected to unmute your microphone.

• Direct all content-specific questions to the TA and technical support questions about your personal technology to Zoom (follow the steps described below). The local technician is present exclusively to support audiovisual technology in the classroom.

• Do not operate a vehicle while attending class.​​​

Best Practices for Remote Connection

The brightest window ought to be in front of you and behind your device. Connect audio by your computer through internet audio. Connect a second extended display on your computer to allow for Zoom’s “dual screen mode.” This allows for additional layout features and provides a much clearer view of the slides and the classroom.

Best Practices for Asking Questions Remotely

The Zoom Raise Hand feature will appear on a display in the classroom in front of the faculty member. When you are called on​, please unmute your microphone and ask your question at the appropriate time. To ensure that all the lecture material is covered, the professors may be unable to answer every question. Feel free to send an email to the TA or the professors with additional questions on lecture material.

Support Channels for Remote Students

​The Teaching Assistants are your primary line of contact for all questions, comments, or concerns about the course. Because they are familiar with the instructor's policy for each course, the TAs are the first point of contact for permissions to gain access to the remote participation or course capture viewing. 

For personal technology issues connecting, visit https://mit.zoom.us​ and use the chat feature in the bottom right. As an MIT affiliate, you have access to premium support. They will be the best suited for troubleshooting your issues remotely. 

When you are on campus, please visit the STS Help Desk in e52-001a by making an appointment​. For general technology troubleshooting, questions, and feedback, email stshelp@mit.edu.​​

Sloan Audio Visual Essentials (SAVE101)

I have built two iterations of an asynchronous Canvas course for Audio Visual Specialists working for the MIT Sloan School of Management. The first iteration was based on my experience as an AV Specialist because I was the only person who had done the job in my department. We were starting to work with the Central MIT AV and contract technicians who needed to gain experience with our systems. The second iteration was built using feedback from the first course to prepare contract employees to get caught up quickly. 

I produced videos, wrote documentation, created quizzes, and fashioned prototype user interfaces (seen on my UniCode page) that the learners could navigate at their own pace in a web browser. Their experience culminates with an on-site session where the learner faces specific challenges in the classroom. They are eligible for shifts at MIT Sloan after they pass the course. In this course, I used multiple methods to keep the audience engaged. Videos are present for nearly every assignment, and all were kept for under 5 minutes to keep the material in decent-sized chunks. Here is an example of one of the videos:

I used Rise 360 to create an interactive module covering several topics. This module covers a lot of ground through the navigation menu on the left. For the really fun part, check out the "Kinds of Event Kickoffs" section, where you can play out different scenarios in the classroom and receive feedback if your choices didn't lead to the best outcome. It will open in a new window, so once you're done playing with the module, you can close the tab to return to this site.

The next phase of this project is to create several new modules for different areas of expertise that an AV Specialist might need to prepare for. When these "Skills" are in place, they can be tied to our ServiceNow ticketing system's "Field Service Management" app. This will allow for the auto-scheduling of technicians to events. Since the system will know their availability and skill level, it will have all it needs to assign people to the right shifts.