Emergency Remote Teaching: Comparing asynchronous online activities with traditional classroom instruction

Abstract

This paper offers a comparative examination of six classroom activities taught in a traditional face-to-face classroom and an asynchronous online course as an emergency remote teaching (ERT) situation. We embarked on this comparison process as part of a critical evaluation of our knowledge and action as teachers within a transition to ERT and to understand some implications for our educational setting, and potentially others. In this self-study qualitative research, the perspectives of two teachers are considered using teacher reflections and discussions, supported by student perspectives from written reflections and end-of-course surveys. We argue that though carefully considered online instruction can confer benefits, face-to-face instruction offers important social learning experiences in the context of the course described here. This paper offers suggestions for making asynchronous online courses more effective for students to learn and easier for teachers to manage. The findings may be meaningful for teachers in other settings comparing iterations of the same course and looking ahead to longer-term changes.