It is in this atmosphere of collegial sharing that we discuss these challenges with you and provide suggestions on how to resolve them. The first challenge that we encountered is one of communication. Both of us quickly discovered that part of the subtle nuance of teaching is the ability to read the non-verbal signals from students. Although we could focus the camera on students throughout the class period, unless we zoomed in to focus exclusively on one student, it was hard to distinguish the students' facial expressions. The second challenge became apparent during the very first class period and was more of a problem for some of our students than others.
Many students are visual learners and atrocious spellers.
These facts, coupled with the fact that the first five weeks of the course focused on biological concepts, left the visual learners in a state of near panic. There was a marker board available in both classrooms. Challenge number three was a matter of student training. Although students normally are quite willing to ask and answer questions in class, they seemed quite tentative about doing so in this new format. If the camera at the remote site was focused on a document, or on the marker board, however, the distant instructor would perceive nothing but silence.