Last night's session for E304 (Exploring English Grammar) was interesting. The students coped well with what are quite complex concepts, related to mode.
It was noticeable that many of the students did not have working microphones and this poses some challenges for the teacher. It makes getting feedback particularly slow. Students can write in text boxes and I can see that a student is in the process or writing, it is hard to predict when they are going to finish writing and what they are likely to say.
I quite enjoy online tutorials but they are often very intense for the tutor as they need to think about what they are going to say as well as monitoring chat boxes, remembering who can be called on to speak (as they do have working microphones) and manipulating slides and working the whiteboard at the same time.
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I reckon the phenomenon that there are fewer people have working microphones this year is down to the Adobe Connect software. It's connection to an otherwise working microphone can be temperamental.
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Thanks for the comment, Simon. You might well be right.
Something else that has been noticed is that there is sometimes a delay for some students seeing what I have written on the board. Some students say they cannot see anything while others say they can and it seems if I wait long enough, it does eventually display. A student suggested this may be down to the strength of the internet signal in the student's own home. This is clearly frustrating for the students concerned and another challenge for the tutor to consider.