Designing and delivering skills-based effective, high-quality, customized online STEM courses requires the right balance between ease of learning, accessibility, speed, proper tools, and consistency to provide a better learning experience. A webinar hosted by DigitalEd with the Mathematics department of the University of Waterloo discussed the issues they faced along with strategies they implemented during the transition to online learning and the opportunities it presented.
The University of Waterloo has been delivering online courses to its students for over 15 years while maintaining academic standards, meeting the expectations of students, and continuing to improve their course offerings and delivery. In the face of a pandemic, many universities put elements of their course online to provide emergency alternatives to teaching, a challenge many academic institutes faced. The University of Waterloo shares its experiences and wisdom with institutes looking to transition to online courses and reflect on the time, planning, and resources it took to create compelling and engaging courses.
The panel from the University of Waterloo discusses how they leverage technology as an opportunity to steer their existing online education program into its mainstream to fulfill specific objectives and support students who consider STEM careers.
Dr. Peter Wood, a panellist from the University of Waterloo, talks about how adopting Möbius by DigitalEd as their platform of choice provides a consistent framework and helps students to have similar experiences between their classes. Using Möbius gives instructors the benefits of providing students immediate and meaningful feedback, understanding student comprehension level during the learning process, see the analytics provided by Möbius tool to see learning breakdowns and roadblocks. They get a unique experience with Möbius as they can continue to iterate the content material for continuous development.
“Students really need to do math to learn math. And you have to answer hundreds of questions, not just one or two. So having an automated, online tool that can ask a mathematically sophisticated question and get a sophisticated answer and then provide feedback is extremely valuable to the student.”
Dr. Peter Wood
When it comes to universities, educational institutes, educators who are looking for effective ways to evolve and move towards remote online learning it’s inevitable to find a platform to place all resources that provides the most effective learning experience for students and everybody is a winner. DigitalEd’s online learning platform, Möbius, facilitates educators to develop engaging and interactive content to offer hands-on learning and provides a deeper level of comprehension along with a high-quality simulated environment. Christina Perdikoulias, President of DigitalEd, addresses concerns about proctoring, high-stakes examination academic integrity, and future-proofing to deliver online remote education. She speaks about reimagining the pedagogy around STEM learning, technology’s capabilities to provide immediate feedback, and proctored settings to guard assessment integrity.
The entire webinar can be watched on DigitalEd YouTube Channel.