World of EdCraft: Challenges and Opportunities in Synchronous Online Teaching

104 Pages Posted: 26 Feb 2021 Last revised: 22 Feb 2022

See all articles by Andrew W. Lo

Andrew W. Lo

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Laboratory for Financial Engineering

Brian Stevens

Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Sean P. Willems

Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Date Written: February 22, 2021

Abstract

Online teaching at higher educational institutions has become a much higher priority in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, but most faculty and staff at these institutions are ill-prepared to adapt their teaching methods and content to this new medium. In this article, we describe our approach to dealing with the challenges and opportunities of synchronous online teaching by borrowing ideas and tools from the gaming community. The gamification of education is a well-known concept, but we found few applications in higher-education settings to rely on when we were forced to move online in March 2020. We hope to remedy this gap by providing colleagues with a step-by-step guide to setting up their own home studios, including a complete listing of the software and hardware that we use and how we use them in three distinct online teaching applications: a large (90-student) graduate healthcare finance course at MIT, an even larger (200-student) undergraduate statistics course at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and a medium-sized (50-student) graduate operations management course at MIT.

Keywords: online teaching, distance learning, live streaming, MOOC, gamification

JEL Classification: A20, A22, A23

Suggested Citation

Lo, Andrew W. and Stevens, Brian and Willems, Sean P., World of EdCraft: Challenges and Opportunities in Synchronous Online Teaching (February 22, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3793342 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3793342

Andrew W. Lo (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Laboratory for Financial Engineering ( email )

100 Main Street
E62-618
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-0920 (Phone)
781 891-9783 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://web.mit.edu/alo/www

Brian Stevens

Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee, Knoxville ( email )

Knoxville, TN 37996
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://haslam.utk.edu/experts/brian-stevens

Sean P. Willems

Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee, Knoxville ( email )

Knoxville, TN 37996
United States

HOME PAGE: http://seanwillems.com/

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