Active learning groupwork based online tutorials

Abstract

Pre-COVID, we used ‘whiteboard tutorials’ in most of our large undergraduate mathematics and statistics subjects. Whiteboard tutorials take place in a classroom with whiteboards (or blackboards) around all the walls, and students work together in small groups on mathematical tasks at the boards. The classes are a form of active learning, helping students to develop skills such as group work and communication, and provide a valuable social element to students’ University experience. In this paper, we describe a model for online ‘whiteboard’ tutorials which preserves many of the strengths of the pre-COVID whiteboard tutorial model in an entirely online environment. We discuss some challenges w..