This article is a case study of a courseware experience with the creation of a live-online virtual classrooms using Zoom. Live-online virtual classrooms with two-way audio and HD video were created for seven different courses at the higher education level. This innovative technology allows all participants to see and hear every classmate using any device, including iPhones, tablets and computers. We describe how to set up the Zoom account and how to set up the live-online virtual classroom, including the parameters we use. We document how to set up a home or office studio and how to broadcast the classes. We explain our virtual classroom class experiences and how we evaluated students live-online. We also provide several best practices for hosting and studying in a live-online virtual classroom.
Professor,Biological Sciences Department College of General Studies University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus
Professor Mary Jo Barbosa spent over six decades teaching Biological Sciences. She was a pioneer integrating technology into the classroom. From audio-visual materials to Zoom. She began her career in 1960 as a high school Biology teacher. She worked at the Biological Sciences Department where she taught first-year Biology for 53 years. She created the first audio-visual course for the Biological Sciences department. In 2004, after 39 years of pencil and bubble testing, Prof. Barbosa changed to online assessment using the Blackboard LMS for all tests. She input her entire item pool that had been researched and fine-tuned in the previous 39 years with a base sample of over 42,000 first-year students. Prof. Barbosa was the first Director of Environmental Education at the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources, where she created the first high school biology research-based course about Puerto Rico. At the PRDNR, she created videotapes for the classroom and for teacher training. In 2012 she created videos for her YouTube channel (Induktiva), in the areas of Mendelian Genetics and Drosophila melanogaster culturing techniques. In 2017, she integrated Zoom to teach live-online.
Prof. Barbosa holds an MS in Biology from Rutgers University and Doctoral Studies in Higher Education from New York University. In the Spring of 2018, Prof. Barbosa became a Distinguished Honorary Member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars for her contributions to Leadership, Scholarship and Service.
