Remote Teaching: Applying Principles of Flexibility & Consistency

In the above video, Physics Professor Phiala Shanahan, winner of this year’s Teaching with Digital Technology Award, describes how she transitioned her course, Relativistic Quantum Field Theory I, to remote teaching. Guided by principles of flexibility and consistency, she maintained the structure and format that had already been established at the beginning of the semester. In addition, she provided multiple ways to access information and multiple access points for students to connect with course staff.

In her lectures, when writing in real time on the online blackboard, she made sure that students could see the current board as well as past ones, so they could refer back at any time to reinforce and clarify concepts.

Prof Shanahan also facilitated students asking questions, and did so in ways that were of minimal burden to them. Chat, text, voice, virtual hand raising -- all were acceptable. During class, her TA monitored a dynamic chat session on Zoom in real time.