Schools
Delaware Technical Community College: Energy Technologies Faculty Highlighted For Creative Teaching Practices
Energy Technologies Instructor James Horst noticed his students were not fully engaged in courses being offered through a distance-learn ...
2021-03-30
Energy Technologies Instructor James Horst noticed his students were not fully engaged in courses being offered through a distance-learning format. That’s when he decided to start using multiple cameras during Zoom sessions to more closely simulate the in-person classroom experience that offers a variety of views to students.
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Instead of relying solely on a shared screen format or an individual view of the presenting instructor, Horst dedicated separate cameras to specific areas, like a wall-mounted white board, textbooks and documents on a desk, a lab area, and a phone displaying energy-related apps.
“This set up helps students be able to see the full event of the learning experience, which has been very beneficial,” he said. “I have found that the students are more engaged, better motivated, and have a better understanding of the material than the typical one-camera Zoom session.”
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This kind of creative thinking is what led Horst and Energy Technologies Department Chair Dr. Jennifer Clemons to be selected for the Innovative Ideas in Teaching Practices spotlight supported by the Center for Renewable Energy Advanced Technological Education (CREATE).
Funded by the National Science Foundation, CREATE is offering the teaching practices spotlights to present informative webinars to benefit the renewable energy educational community.
Horst explained that setting up multiple cameras is an easy process, as is switching among them, so he encourages educators to “stop sharing screens and start sharing cameras.”
In her webinar, Clemons described her experience transitioning an energy physics course from a hands-on lab to something suitable and successful for distance learning. Realizing that making small adjustments to the existing labs didn’t transition well to the new class format, Clemons opted to rework the entire set-up and start from scratch.
This press release was produced by the Delaware Technical Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
