Calling an Audible: The Use of Interactive Video Lectures and Adjusting Course During the Pandemic Affected Spring 2020 and Fall 2020 Semesters

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought monumental changes to life around the world, including drastic changes to how traditional face-to-face (F2F) American university courses have been conducted. In Spring 2020, institutions of higher education had to move courses fully online (if they were mid-term) or in some cases end a term of F2F only to return from break fully online in a span of a week. This brought major adjustments for those teaching on campus, particularly in thinking about how to provide active learning opportunities for students in what was for many a new teaching modality. This study focuses on changes I made to my three F2F courses during the Spring 2020 semester to preserve active learning for students while providing flexibility of course completion. It also focuses on four courses adjusted from a planned F2F offering to online during the Fall 2020 semester. It particularly focuses on use of interactive video lectures (IVLs) as a replacement for traditional in-class sessions in the spring semester and the use of IVLs as part of a flipped classroom model during the four synchronous online classes during the Fall 2020 semester. Below, I outline a summary of research on active learning in college classes and the emerging, yet small, body of research on the use of IVLs in classes.