The Largest Online-Teaching Experiment in the History of the World

Hong Kong’s eight publicly funded universities, which have about 100,000 students, including 18,000 from the mainland and overseas, have extended the suspension of most classes through March 2, with online courses at CityU beginning tomorrow.

The efforts to contain the Coronavirus have forced China and Hong Kong authorities to call on people to stay at home to help reduce the spread of the virus through human contact. Rather than fall behind with lessons Universities are now engaging in the largest online teaching trial in the history.

The CUHK and CityU both use Zoom to deliver their lectures and I have been attending workshops and watching tutorials in the effort to catch up. I have also added an additional challenge for myself which is using the new video editing software called DaVinci. Da Vinci is quite intuitive and relatively easy to use, but I am still trying to figure out all of its functions.  

I already recorded one lesson and managed to create a uniquely boring experience. Talking to a bedroom wall combined with a lack of physical cues on how the lecture is being received made the vocal delivery a bit lethargic and bland. My subject matter is interesting but talking to myself for two hours was laborious and quite strange to be honest. However, I hold an MFA degree in acting and I have delivered invigorating speeches for walls before. I realize that my excuses for creating a boring learning experience are just that - boring excuses.

YouTube is filled with exciting vlogs that deal with a variety of topics in an interesting way and are filled with fantastic visuals. All of those content creators are talking to the wall and do not seem to be overly bothered with a lack of obvious audience cues. They are loud, exuberant, and appear candid. I plan to use them as inspiration in creating a more exciting learning experience for my next class.

With time and practice (I have a whole semester) I can hopefully deliver a high-quality lesson that is both educational and exciting to watch. In the meantime, there is this: