Google+ Hangouts

A short video describing this teaching strategy can be seen here.

Joe Bull, Biomedical Engineering, teaches an “oldschool, chalk and blackboard” lecture course, introducing biomechanics to 95 sophomores. The course emphasizes quantitative problem-solving techniques to help students learn to think like biomedical engineers. Many students use office hours as a critical support mechanism. During a term with demanding travel obligations, Bull did not want to decrease his accessibility to students or the quality of student-instructor interactions. Thus, on several occasions, he used Google+ Hangouts to hold virtual office hours from another continent.

First, Bull added his students to a Google+ “circle,” a private group within this social networking application. Circle members can share documents and create and join hangouts of up to ten participants. A Hangout enables video and audio web conferencing, as well as text-based chat, and it also allows participants to share screens and files. Consequently, Bull could create a Hangout and hold office hours at the usual times with any students who wished to join online. Read more »