Managing large classes in virtual teaching: experiences of university teachers in Ghana during COVID-19.

This research used the qualitative multiple case study and phenomenological designs to explore how, without training, university teachers in Ghana managed large student numbers in the virtual environment during COVID-19. The study examined further the challenges the teachers faced in their virtual instructional delivery. Twelve participants drawn purposively from four large Ghanaian universities participated in individual interviews and follow-up virtual class observations. The findings revealed that the participants employed two management techniques in their virtual teaching-regulating the behaviour of learners and controlling instructional content. The research further uncovered that, although the teachers' complaints generally centred on environmental constraints and inadequate institutional support, those whose difficulties included using virtual tools did not have virtual teaching experience before the COVID period. The study supports the clarion call on university teachers involved in virtual teaching to personally seek a continual update of skills and competency in virtual delivery because it is an approach hinged on evolving technology.

Suddenly moving large classes online: Illuminating the experience of the teaching staff in one university

In early 2020, the transition of large classes from the face-to-face to the online context occurred overnight and at scale at a time when the crisis was being faced at all levels of society, nationally and internationally. This paper is based on research which examined the impact of this sudden transition on large classes in Dublin City University with a view to illuminating the experience to inform future practice (Authors., in press). A rapid, systemised review of literature was carried out with the aim of contextualising data gathered through surveys with staff and students in relation to our experience of moving large classes online in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the study examined the impact from the perspectives of teaching staff and students, this paper reports on the perspectives of teaching staff only. Large class teachers found this experience challenging, reporting a sense of isolation and worry. However, it would seem that opportunity was seen in the face of adversity, whereby staff have identified potential for better ways of doing things going forward as a result of their experiences between March and May 2020

On Individualized Online Assessments in STEM Subjects

As traditional paper-based examinations became difficult to conduct during the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more universities sought to look at online alternatives. While online assessments have their advantages, they lend themselves to collusion as well as contract-cheating. This paper proposes individualized questions as a potential solution, and presents an approach for designing and implementing individualized questions for online assessments. This approach is deemed to work particularly well in STEM subjects, and scales to large classes. © 2021 IEEE.

The benefits of incorporating active learning into online, asynchronous coursework in dental physiology.

The COVID-19 pandemic required a shift to online learning that posed particular challenges for the education of dental students. Basic science courses were presented in an online, asynchronous format to facilitate small group rotations through preclinical work. The success of active learning was previously examined in a Dental Physiology course, and it was desired to reassess those methods in an online environment. Students were provided with prerecorded lectures containing learning activities, and the effectiveness was compared with traditional lecture recordings. On surveys, dental students had more positive perceptions of online recordings that incorporated active learning strategies, with higher perceived effectiveness of the lecturer, ability to pay attention, motivation to study, and confidence with the material. This was similar to the previous study, in which face-2-face (F2F) active learning was more positively reviewed than traditional lectures. Compared with these past sections, the online cohort expressed similarly positive perceptions of the active learning sections, but the online traditional lectures were perceived to be less effective than F2F lectures. Despite the differences in student perceptions, unit exam scores were similar for didactic lectures in both online and F2F settings. Unit exam scores were significantly higher when active learning strategies were employed, with the highest performance levels in the F2F cohort. While active learning strategies continue to be effective, further research is needed to optimize these methods and engage students in online coursework. The results suggest the importance of active and collaborative learning opportunities in the education of students in physiology coursework.

Design at Scale in a First-Year Transdisciplinary Engineering Design Course

Many Canadian engineering faculties employ a first-year design course. Offering a large-scale, realistic and valuable design experience to students beginning to learn about engineering is challenging. In 2020 the Faculty of Engineering (University of Alberta) introduced a new first-year design course for 1200+ qualifying year students: Introduction to Engineering Design, Communication, and Profession. The course is founded on four principles: engineering design is a distinguishing and core feature of engineering practice and education, transdisciplinary engineering design has a common process, sustainability is a key societal goal and integral to engineering design, and the communication of the evaluated design proposition is a necessary step towards design implementation. The course objectives are to introduce first-year students to the transdisciplinary design process and demonstrate differences between the engineering and traditional science programs. The course design had four additional requirements: (1) meet the needs of all our programs;(2) be taught by instructors from each of our disciplines (supporting transdisciplinarity and discipline ownership);(3) engage applied learning;(4) use the design process to solve a community-based problem. The course implementation was supported by two co-lead instructors, the continued involvement of a third design instructor (course co-creator), eight guest instructors (representing all Faculty programs and the provincial professional association), and ten teaching assistants from both engineering and industrial design programs. All course materials (lecture slides, online resources, project descriptions, assessments) were developed in advance. Even as we were implementing this new course, we were collecting midterm feedback, reflecting on and adjusting the course in real-time, and planning the next iteration using a continual improvement process. At the time of original submission, the aim of this paper was to provide insight into the course development, implementation and lessons learned through its delivery. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, many more challenges faced the instructional team;these are also detailed in this paper.