Hybrid Drive: Teaching with Remote Faculty in an Undergraduate Innovation Course

A constant struggle for NYU Tandon is managing brick-and-mortar space to accommodate the ever-growing student body. Undergraduate online-courses are only pursued ad-hoc and at the whim of the instructor. The lead instructor for this course had personal responsibilities which removed her from campus for the semester but was determined to provide the students with a quality experimental experience, nonetheless.

The students in this course were required to apply and interview for placement in this alternative offering. Students were aware this course served as a pedagogical experiment and were offered the opportunity drop the course if they preferred an on-campus delivery method.

The faculty delivered the first week of content on-campus and met students in person. After a failed second week of attempted faculty-led online lecture, the remainder of the semester was delivered using the university’s LMS and in virtual meetings with the instructor.  The use of the classroom was no longer needed as the project groups began meeting at alternative locations, at their discretion.

In this presentation, the faculty will detail this unique course presentation experience, describe the student experience outcomes, and discuss with the audience strategies and plans for improving the system in the future with the intention of increasing learning flexibility for both the educator and the students.

This presentation will provide the following:

• An overview of the current NYU Tandon PreCapstone Innovation Curriculum
• Description of the challenges both students and the faculty experienced during this semester
• Discussion of lessons learned and suggestions for future improvement as well as how other institutions can implement courses with distant faculty