Even before the World Health Organization declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, colleges and universities in the United States were preparing to switch classes online.
Even so, transferring classes online in a short period of time is no easy task. Veterans in online teaching will inform you that preparing and executing an online course requires thought and preparation to ensure that faculty produce content effectively and that students absorb it. C&EN asked online teaching veterans for advice to support teachers who are unexpectedly faced with the difficulty of teaching online due to coronavirus-related school closures.
GET TO KNOW THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO YOU.
Your institution most likely sent you information about its learning management system and how to use its conferencing platform at some stage. “Now is the time to dive in and make sure you’re comfortable with your learning system, or at least comfortable with knowing where the knowledge you need is,” says Mary Barth, a chemistry teacher at Washington State University who teaches in the university’s online program.
People may also contact usability experts and instructional designers at their universities, according to Barth. Those individuals are likely to know “stuff you wouldn’t think about that make the classes more functional,” according to her.
Experts advise chemists to band together as they plan to go online. According to Barth, “there is no need for anyone to reinvent the wheel.” Professors also started exchanging documents with prerecorded video demos and simulations, as well as other tools.
Your school which have a license for screen-capturing applications such as Camtasia or Kaltura in terms of technology. These programs allow you to record videos and annotate your slides when lecturing. With a tablet computer that you can write on, certain tasks would be much simpler.
“We purchase a tablet for any faculty member that comes in here.” I tell them I don’t know when they’ll need it,” says Paul Leary, associate director of Arizona State University’s School of Molecular Sciences. Because of the coronavirus-related closures, Gould says, “a tablet PC or an iPad is the most effective teaching tool you have.” “Paint on it. “Take a video of yourself.” Page 1
“Getting comfortable with how you want to share knowledge will be crucial,” Barth says.
BE CONCERNED ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY PROBLEMS, INCLUDING STUDENT TECHNOLOGY LIMITATIONS.
Don’t say that your students are computer literate or that they have internet access.
Your students, also among the so-called digital natives, might not be as tech-savvy as you think. “When I first began teaching online, I assumed that all of my students will be really tech savvy, but that is not the case,” Barth says.
You must determine whether you can offer content in a synchronous or asynchronous manner. Students in synchronous learning observe the lecture as it is being delivered in real time. You capture and upload videos for students to watch at their leisure in asynchronous teaching.