Economist Emily Nix realized midway through summer that she would probably soon be teaching all of her USC students online due to the COVID-19 pandemi

USC professor’s DIY online teaching hack to engage students goes viral

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2021-06-21 02:30:07

Economist Emily Nix realized midway through summer that she would probably soon be teaching all of her USC students online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cue the worry and doubt.

“I’m not someone who wants to give my students a subpar experience,” she said, echoing the concerns of many educators nationwide. “How can I best replicate the in-person learning experience online and make it engaging and exciting and cool?”

The assistant professor of finance and business economics at the USC Marshall School of Business usually gets rave reviews from students who take her Microeconomics for Business course. She didn’t want to rebuild the class from scratch to suit an online teaching environment, so she started hunting around the internet for other options.

It’s a simple setup: a sheet of plexiglass surrounded by a wood frame and LED lighting. Think of it as a glass chalkboard infused with light. When Nix draws on the board, her words and diagrams glow in front of her. She quickly assembled a small prototype and was thrilled with the result. When she posted a short video to her Twitter feed showing off her homemade creation, she expected a muted response. Thousands of people proved her wrong.

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