Toward video-conferencing tools for hands-on activities in online teaching

• Main Authors: LABRIE, Audrey, MOK, Terrance, TANG, Anthony, LUI, Michelle, OEHLBERG, Lora, PORETSKI, Lev
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: hands-on activities; online teaching; remote instruction; Educational Methods; Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/7907; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/8910/viewcontent/2022_pacmgroup_labrie_video_conferencing.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Many instructors in computing and HCI disciplines use hands-on activities for teaching and training new skills. Beyond simply teaching hands-on skills like sketching and programming, instructors also use these activities so students can acquire tacit skills. Yet, current video-conferencing technologies may not effectively support hands-on activities in online teaching contexts. To develop an understanding of the inadequacies of current video-conferencing technologies for hands-on activities, we conducted 15 interviews with university-level instructors who had quickly pivoted their use of hands-on activities to an online context during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on our analysis, we uncovered four pedagogical goals that instructors have when using hands-on activities online and how instructors were unable to adequately address them due to the technological limitations of current video-conferencing tools. Our work provides empirical data about the challenges that many instructors experienced, and in so doing, the pedagogical goals we identify provide new requirements for video-conferencing systems to better support hands-on activities.