Toward Video-Conferencing Tools for Hands-On Activities in Online Teaching

Audrey Labrie, Terrance Mok, Anthony Tang, Michelle Lui, Lora Oehlberg, and Lev Poretski. (2022). Toward Video-Conferencing Tools for Hands-On Activities in Online Teaching. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI) 6, GROUP.

Abstract

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 do not effectively support hands-on activities in online teaching contexts. In order to better understand how instructors experience using online conferencing tools 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 and how instructors were unable to adequately address them due to technological limitations. Our work provides empirical data about the challenges that many instructors experienced and a critical reflection on how to improve existing video-conferencing systems to better support hands-on activities.

Materials

PDF File (http://hcitang.org/papers/2022-pacmgroup-labrie-video-conferencing.pdf)
DOI (https://doi.org/10.1145/3492829)

BibTeX

@article{labrie2022onlineteaching,
  author = {Labrie, Audrey and Mok, Terrance and Tang, Anthony and Lui, Michelle and Oehlberg, Lora and Poretski, Lev},
  journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI)},
  title = {Toward Video-Conferencing Tools for Hands-On Activities in Online Teaching},
  type = {journal},
  volume = {6, GROUP},
  year = {2022},
  pdfurl = {http://hcitang.org/papers/2022-pacmgroup-labrie-video-conferencing.pdf},
  article = {10},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3492829}
}