Opinion: Making Online Teaching a Success

Here are the lessons we’ve learned so far about the keys to virtual science education—including what to do about lab classes.

Written byJohn D. Loike and Marian Stoltz-Loike

| 3 min read

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Many universities have moved classes online, with little to no time for planning and preparation, in an attempt to slow COVID-19 transmission. While technological teaching aids such as videoconferencing are readily available, many challenging pedagogical issues still need to be addressed, particularly regarding the best way to educate undergraduates in online science courses. Our institution, Touro College, has two decades of experience in online education, and we would like to share some of the lessons that we have learned.

Undergraduate students engage better with interactive lectures than with an hour-long live feed of a professor speaking. We recommend limiting online lectures to 10–15 minutes, interspaced with brief question-and-answer periods; short educational videos relevant to the day’s topic; and 10-minute inquiry tasks such as uncovering recent research developments in a research area (conducted by small groups in Zoom breakout rooms or Google hangouts, or working alone), followed ...

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Meet the Author

John D. Loike
John Loike serves as the interim director of bioethics at New York Medical College and as a professor of biology at Touro University. He served previously as the codirector for graduate studies in the Department of Physiology Cellular Biophysics and director of Special Programs in the Center for Bioethics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His biomedical research focuses on how human white blood cells combat infections and cancer. Loike lectures internationally on emerging topics in bioethics, organizes international conferences, and has published more than 150 papers and abstracts in the areas of immunology, cancer, and bioethics. He earned his Ph.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
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Marian Stoltz-Loike
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