Teaching Numerical Methods in an Online Asynchronous Format

Teaching Numerical Methods in an Online Asynchronous Format In the middle of the last Spring semester, all faculty at our university had to switch our courses to online instruction due to the pandemic. I was teaching two sections of Numerical Methods, a course in the mechanical engineering curriculum that until recently was a required course, and is now an elective. I chose the asynchronous mode to teach the course online whereas almost all faculty in my department chose the synchronous mode using the Zoom Video Conferencing software. This paper describes how I taught the course online asynchronously in the Spring semester using a SmartPen, and the associated labs using videos produced with the Camtasia software. The paper details changes I made in the following Fall semester to create lecture videos using Camtasia, and integrating PowerPoint slides with narrated board-work using a document camera. The paper will include the course grading policy, a sample lab grading rubric, a sample online quiz consisting of ten multiple-choice questions assigned after each lecture, and an online survey that was administered twice during the Fall semester. The paper will conclude with lessons learned, and recommendations for the future when we return to normal in-person instruction.