Teaching Introductory College Physics Course Online: Successes and Challenges

This course is taught synchronously online, followed by asynchronous homework activities. The instructor uses lectures, discussions, demonstrations, and laboratory investigations to teach the course. At the beginning of each semester, the college requires each student enrolled in the course to pick up lab kit materials packaged by the physics department and return the lab kit at the end of the semester. No student takes the course without a lab kit or earns a final grade without returning the borrowed lab bit to the college. Although the lab kit requirements limit enrollment to students who can drive to the campus to pick up their lab kit, the department saw an increase in enrollment. Students from other two- and four-year colleges across the state and neighboring states take the class. In a whole group section, the instructor introduces topics with solved example problems, shows students how to set up lab materials and collect data, and then assigns students to breakout rooms to solve practice problems or complete laboratory investigations. One noticeable advantage of this small group section is that students who would not usually talk in the whole group or turn on their cameras are very comfortable in small group sections sharing ideas with their cameras on. The instructor requires in-class assignments on most contact days to increase engagement and attendance, and this strategy has proved successful. Most students attend classes and complete their work. Protecting the integrity of a test has remained a considerable challenge. Exams are timed; students see one question at a time and cannot return to previous questions, and tests with The Respondus LockDown Browser + Webcam; all practices are to minimize cheating.