World of EdCraft: Adventures In Synchronous Online Teaching

When Professor Andrew Lo taught his course 15.482 Healthcare Finance remotely, he wanted to improve upon the traditional classroom experience. Technology facilitated unprecedented access to guest speakers, and allowed students to connect with each other and with the speakers more easily and efficiently.

Using principles founded in the power of storytelling and social connection, as well insights from the gaming community, Prof Lo was able to make his remote course even better than in-person in several dimensions.

In this xTalk Prof Lo will discuss the importance of synchronicity in online learning, the benefits of chat in student-to-student interaction during lecture, the ways in which rigid views of classroom protocol need to be redefined in the online environment, and how to use active learning so that students take on vital roles in the classroom. In addition, he’ll discuss the importance of flexible assignments and his commitment to initiating social interactions with his students. Please join us as Prof Lo shares insights from his teaching experience as well as what in-person teaching might look like after the pandemic. To learn more, watch Prof Lo’s videos describing his studio setup, and teaching healthcare finance remotely.

There will be a Q&A after the presentation. Faculty are invited to participate and share comments and reflections.

Andrew Lo is Professor of Finance at Sloan and Director of the Laboratory for Financial Engineering. Winner of numerous awards (Guggenheim, Batterymarch, Sloan), Lo was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world. Lo has published extensively in academic journals. His most recent book is Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought.

Read MIT student Kevin Shoa's reflections on this xTalk