Abstract:

This paper integrates our experiences and comparative analysis of using different tools for online education during times where the usual teaching methods are not an option because of various restrictions related to travel bans, quarantines or virus pandemic. The tools being analyzed are Skype, Microsoft Teams, Adobe Connect, and Zoom. Several aspects are analyzed including starting courses and creating groups of students, enrolling students to the class, delivering the lecture, communicating with the students during the class, getting feedback from the students in a virtual class, tracking student activity, creating live polls and questionnaires, sharing content, recoding audio and video content, submitting assignments and homework and accessing the archived content. Each explored aspect has a direct influence on the whole teaching and learning experience as well as the effectiveness of supporting the educational processes.

The online class delivery process is different from standard classroom practices, particularly because of the social aspects. Students may feel isolated from their peers when they don’t share the same physical space and be able to communicate with the professors or other students before or after the classes directly. Moreover, it is not easy to communicate via audio when many students try to talk at the same time, so a level of discipline is needed for effective communication. Furthermore, organizing some type of exams can also be challenging because it is not possible to use all measures used to prevent academic dishonesty. On the other side, the advantages of online classes are location independence, using advanced technology, flexibility, and the possibility to use offline video and audio recordings of the lectures several times.

The paper describes our experience and lessons learned from working in a period when moving and gathering people in larger groups was not desirable in order to prevent the spread of a virus pandemic. The experience has been gained while working at several different higher education institutions and comparing their approaches and tools they used. Each tool was tested by a professor in an environment that used several monitor displays, with an internet connection, camera, and microphone. Students used browsers and client applications to follow the lectures, access the lecture materials and submitted homework. The advantages and disadvantages of each tool were analyzed and presented with a focus on the adaptability to processes related to online education.

Keywords:

Distance Learning Experiences, Online Tools, Educational Process Support.