Transferring interactive activities in large lectures from face-to-face to online settings
Information and Learning Sciences
ISSN: 2398-5348
Article publication date: 25 June 2020
Issue publication date: 10 August 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Within higher education, there was an abrupt shift from face-to-face to online lecturing with the introduction of social distancing measures in light of a global pandemic. The purpose of this study is to enrich the connection between students and instructors, the authors integrated elaborated interactive activities into large online lectures to enhance both students’ cognitive activities and social presence.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the goals are twofold. First, the authors introduce a classroom orchestration system and its features that support active learning across learning environments. Second, they investigate the differences and similarities between student behaviors during these activities in face-to-face and online settings.
Findings
The findings reveal individual differences in student behaviors between student cohorts, but no differences between learning environments, highlighting the versatility of the orchestration system across face-to-face and online environments.
Practical implications
This work presents the use of a classroom orchestration tool that is designed to easily support teaching and learning in online and face-to-face contexts and is particularly well suited for large classes.
Originality/value
Online lectures can be more than watching a teacher speaking on the computer display. Rich class-wide learning activities can be integrated into online lectures to support more cognitive engagement during the lecture.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper is part of the special issue, “A Response to Emergency Transitions to Remote Online Education in K-12 and Higher Education” which contains shorter, rapid-turnaround invited works, not subject to double-blind peer review. The issue was called, managed and produced on short timeline in Summer 2020 toward pragmatic instructional application in the Fall 2020 semester.
This work has been partially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation through grant No. 187534.
Citation
Olsen, J.K., Faucon, L. and Dillenbourg, P. (2020), "Transferring interactive activities in large lectures from face-to-face to online settings", Information and Learning Sciences, Vol. 121 No. 7/8, pp. 559-567. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-04-2020-0109
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited