Synchronous Online Learning for Solving Physical Problems in a Team: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Today’s challenges make us change and sometimes, for example, in critical situations, forcefully transfer studying to digital spaces. One of the main objectives raised by educators is ensuring effective, collaborative interaction between learners and teachers or groups of learners involved in the educational process (Verstegen et al., 2016). E-learning is not an exception, there interaction and collaboration are also very important (Stadler et al., 2019). This raises a key question: how to ensure that interaction and collaboration are upheld in distance learning? To find an answer to this question qualitative case study was chosen. The case study considers the interaction and collaboration in solving physics problems. The aim of the research – to find in what ways does coherence between the Collaborative Problem Solving construct and various interactions help the teacher to strive for effective education of students during synchronous learning. Results show that cognition and practical activities are inseparable, when solving problems and cooperating in virtual environments. In addition, solving life-related problems in a virtual environment is one of the most effective ways to empower students to act. The findings of this research can be beneficial to teachers of natural sciences when striving to enhance distance learning in crisis and other extreme situations. It can also be an incentive to change attitudes towards the limitations of distance learning.