Dr. Steven Harrod is Associate Professor in the DTU Diplom Department at the Technical University of Denmark.
On March 12, 2020, all education at the Technical University of Denmark made an emergency conversion to online services. I was fairly lucky. I had a home office, and a high quality webcam. Many of my colleagues did not. One colleague used his white refrigerator as a whiteboard!
Ergonomics are a real problem, and it is really hard to keep eye contact when sitting close to multiple monitors with a webcam placed above. I would strongly recommend using a tripod-mounted camera, a gyroscopic mouse, and giving lectures from a standing position. Absolute luxury would be a green screen effect, weatherman style, where I would walk in front of the slides.
Online lectures are tiring, both for you and your students. It is hard to focus on a laptop screen for long periods, especially when the screen is cluttered with faces, chat window, and a shared presentation. It is absolutely critical that you plan a 15 minute coffee break within every hour.
Strongly consider replacing some of your live lectures with pre-recorded content. I estimate 30 minutes of scripted lesson is equal to an hour or more of live lecture. Use a quality video editing software (I recommend Camtasia). Budget about 1 hour of editing for every 10 minutes of produced video. YouTube is a great distribution channel.
You may feel that your students are not participating in the online lectures. Don’t panic! Encourage the use of chat for student questions and feedback, which many students will find more accessible.
Is this the future of education? I don’t think so. Who wants to pay tuition to watch 6 hours of Discovery Channel every day? However, when used as part of a planned and balanced mix of teaching methods, online education offers flexibility and a solution to unavoidable constraints. Next time I have to be away at a conference, I will just plug my laptop into the hotel flat screen, pull out my air mouse, and class will be in session!