In the final week of the Spring 2020 semester, Elif and I collected anonymous survey results in our class Introductory Dynamics (TAM 212). This was the semester disrupted halfway through by COVID-19. Students reported that their biggest challenges were feeling disconnected from other people in their courses and staying engaged and enthusiastic. They also liked live lectures and having two professors, and they weren’t in favor of online exam proctoring. This class had 407 students and there were 68 survey responses (17% response rate). Read on for the details.
Continue reading Student survey after the corona-semesterOnline lectures should be live
As we move our lectures online due to COVID-19, I’ve been surprised to find that online lectures are much better if they are live, with students participating in real time, rather than pre-recorded. Live lectures are more fun to give, allow natural interaction and a sense of community, provide structure for students at home, and even open up some neat new interaction possibilities. Of course we also record these lectures so that students who can’t make the lecture time can still watch later.
Continue reading Online lectures should be liveTablets for lecturing
I grew up as a young professor lecturing on blackboards and I loved sliding sets of huge boards up and down and covering myself in chalk as I worked through a complex derivation. But these days I’ve fully converted to writing on a tablet and I can’t imagine going back, for many reasons that I explain below.
Education at Scale 