Teaching the asynchronous general physics course in a crisis context: a case study at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute

Abstract

The imposition of martial law and power outages in Ukraine made the first semester of the 2022/2023 academic year at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute a challenge for lecturers and students, especially in learning the general physics course. An asynchronous learning mode became the only possible form in such a situation, so the problem of increasing the efficiency of conducting a lecture, problem sessions, and laboratory work in general physics arose. This study aims to describe the implementation of the discipline of general physics (part 1) promoted in an asynchronous mode by lecturers of the Department of General Physics and Modeling of Physical Processes. We verified that in crisis conditions, it is essential to: (i) provide students with all the necessary material on Moodle course and YouTube channel, allowing them to learn the theoretical material, solve the homework problems, and analyse the data from laboratory work, (ii) give feedback and consultations to students via Zoom/Telegram chat upon request, (iii) give the possibility to perform the laboratory work both in the virtual regime and as YouTube demonstration. The results of the survey of 82 students who studied the general physics course taking into account the recommendations mentioned above revealed that the majority of the surveyed students were completely/to a greater extent satisfied with the level of organisation of asynchronous learning, as well as the level of knowledge obtained, which undoubtedly indicates the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach.