CEE TEL Design Computations

Online Computations

By Shaun Belward - ADLT College of Science and Engineering

This document describes the setup you need to record and teach computations’ online (it does not discuss aspects of pedagogy or assessment options).

There are three elements to consider:

  • Paper
  • Physical whiteboard
  • or Electronic device – such as a tablet or iPad.

If using an electronic device:

In some cases, you can see what you are writing on the device (for example the iPad), in other cases what you write on the device is projected onto a computer screen (for example the Wacom Intuos Tablet)

Physical device

If you are using a physical device then you need to mount a camera. This could be a document camera, or something you set up with a webcam or even your phone. See the example of a makeshift document recorder at the bottom of this page.

Electronic device

If you are using an electronic device then you will need to use some software (an app) on which to write. Options include (but are not limited to):

If using OneNote:

You can either write onto a blank page, or annotate a previously created document (such as a PDF copy of lecture notes or tutorial sheet). Here are a couple of examples of recordings of OneNote annotations

The options may vary according to context – asynchronous recording versus “live” tutorial in Collaborate or Zoom.

If you are doing something interactive you will probably be using Collaborate or Zoom. Your students may not have a tablet that they can use to share their work with you.  In this case you can get them to share a photo or scan a document they have produced.

Example of a makeshift document recorder, photo shared by Saiid Aminossadati on LinkedIn.

Makeshift document recorder


You might also like to check out the JCU Learning Glass educational technology, now available at the Nguma-bada Campus in Cairns and Bebegu Yumba Campus in Townsville.