On Campus to Online – A Novel Teaching Experience

The sudden move from actual classes to online classes was difficult to start with. But over time I have got a hang of it. 

I record my lectures on my laptop, upload them on YouTube, and then share the content with the students via Moodle. Moodle has an activity called ‘Lesson’ which allows for adaptive learning. Students can view the lesson at their own pace. The lectures are interspersed with questions (generally objective questions), which ensure that the student has gone through the entire lecture. 

Every week I give assignments for some of the courses, to further engage the students with that week’s Lesson. For some courses, I meet the students via ZOOM, once a week, to clarify doubts and (re)explain some important parts of the week’s content. At times, not all the students are able to attend the Zoom class because of various reasons, like a power cut or lack of internet connection and so on. Hence, I am not strict about them attending the online classes, provided they complete the lessons and submit the assignments.

I find that my recorded lectures are much shorter than actual classes. Something that would take me nearly 45 minutes to cover in a class is now reduced to a 20-30 minute video. I think the reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, no questions are being asked in between that interrupt the lecture, which is what usually happens in a regular class. Secondly, based on the mood of the class, picked through non-verbal cues, I would repeat a particular part of the lecture if I felt that the students had not understood it. Both these are missing in an online class. Also, at times, the questions that students ask bring to mind some other concept, which is then shared with the students, if relevant. This too is missing. Now, all such discussions, if any, are conducted online using the ‘Forum’ feature of Moodle. Besides, I have shared my phone number with them so that they can call me in case of any doubts.

Technology has been extremely useful in these difficult times. I am happy that because of such software, the students’ education is not completely disrupted. There are other benefits to these recordings too. The University and I can use them in the future, if and when I’m on leave.