During the COVID-19, our classes at NYU and literally all universities across the world moved to online mode of instruction. This is a detailed scene wise comparison of the same how it actually happened.

How an online zoom lecture is like?

Pre Lecture -

  • The professor goes live at X pm.
  • He confirms with us whether we can see his shared screen.
  • He greets the students.
  • The lecture begins with a recap of the previous lecture/discusses the past concepts in brief/makes important announcements for the class, like when is the exam, what is the submission deadline for an x assigment. More often this is written down on the notepad he has shared or the students make note of it somewhere (on their local notepads).

Lecture -

  • Then he starts writing on the Ipad and students watch him make notes/illustrations/diagrams etc.
  • Doubts and questions by students are asked on the chat column feature. He reads the question out loud so that it is recorded on voice and then he speaks out the answer. (Mainly because chats are not available later on when the student sees the recording of this lecture?)
  • Doubts could be related to the ongoing concept in the lecture/it could also be something related to the assignment.
  • A question asked by the Professor is answered via polls (Hand Raise feature on Zoom) or through audio or could also be typed on the chat.

~ Break of 10-15mins ~

Post Lecture -

  • Professor does a live demo of the algorithm he taught by sharing his IDE, (Note: this is very specific to a CS course I’m talking about, this experience could differ for other people). The main idea is that a live demonstration of a concept taught during the class could happen at this point.

It ends with what the next lecture will be about and then a goodbye. The Ipad document where the professor was writing was then converted into a PDF and uploaded in our dashboard.

How an offline lecture is like?

Pre Lecture

  • Lecture starts at X PM, students come in at various times
  • Greets the students, and starts right away
  • Recap of the previous lecture/Past concepts in brief/Important announcements for the class, written down on the notepad he has projected.

Lecture

  • Doubts and questions by students are asked directly via a hand raise.
  • A question asked by the Professor is answered via raising a hand.

~ Break of 10-15mins ~

Post Lecture

  • The live demo is shared on the projector.
  • Students open their laptops and type it out with the Professor

It ends in the same way as above.

This was written as part of a wiki for a project which I’m working on. Do feel free to share your thoughts or contribute.