Virtual Dissection Activities as a Strategy for Blended Synchronous Learning in the New Normal

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought severe disruption to the classroom learning, with much of the learning being carried over to the virtual environment. However, for courses with heavy hands-on active and collaborative elements, such activities cannot be easily replaced by pure online teleconference mode of instruction. In this pilot study, we report on a virtual dissection activity that was developed and implemented in an undergraduate year 1 engineering course in thermodynamics and energy systems using a blended synchronous learning environment. Through the analysis of the video capture, worksheet on the online collaborative board, post-activity survey, and observation by the researchers who are not part of the course, we have distilled the affordance and challenges of implementation in this pilot study. In particular, we recognize that the use of virtual dissection activity and virtual collaborative environment are useful for both the on-site and online students to sustain their social and cognitive presence. © 2022 IEEE.

Bringing Physical Physics Classroom Online - Challenges of Online Teaching in the New Normal

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 greatly impacted all forms of social activities globally, including traditional classroom activities across all levels of instruction (kindergarten to universities). While online and blended learning (including MOOCs) have been an active subject of research and discourse during the pre-pandemic days, onset of the pandemic created an immediacy to such means of course delivery better than any administrator or teaching committee could have. This created both a gap and tension in terms of successful and engaging content delivery, where traditional modes of synchronous content delivery were forced online. This situation provided educators with an opportunity to explore the merits and weaknesses of online learning. Thus, this article seeks to outline the challenges and paradigm shifts involved in such synchronous online learning as a replacement for traditional classroom learning, following our experience at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) of conducting a full 13-week online physics course between May to August 2020. At the same time, we reflect on the merits brought about by the availability of such technologies that can potentially be translated back to the physical physics classroom. © 2021 Author(s).