Innovative use of Collaborative Teaching in Conducting a Large Scale Online Synchronous Fresher’s Programming Course

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educationist to come up with innovative solutions in delivering, engaging synchronous online academic modules. An innovative collaborative teaching approach was utilized in delivering programming concepts for freshers. A team of six academics functioned as a resource panel in delivering synchronous online lecture content. These interactive sessions were led by a moderator inquiring the resource panel on topics related to the content of the lecture. This was done in the same spirit on how a panel discussion would be conducted led by a moderator in a conference. Microsoft Teams Live was used in the delivery of the content to an audience of up to 800 students. Delivering a freshers programming course is known to be challenging in face- to-face delivery. A collaborative programming environment was used to engage students in live coding activities during the lectures. Students had opportunities to interact with the resource panel through quizzes, QA and through coding related activities. These lectures also introduced the innovative use of QR codes to get students engagement through a mobile device for the interactive sessions. Results based on a survey shared among the participated students, confirmed the collaborative teaching approach in conducting webinar was more effective over a traditional webinar that is conducted by one person. Interactive programming environment (Repl.it) allowed the resource personal to give feedback on the programs submitted by the students during synchronous sessions conducted. The best practices used in delivering this course can be easily adopted in delivering highly engaging online lectures for other courses.