It takes a computer command center to teach online

If you've ever watched a documentary on the search for a famous missing ship at sea (Titanic.....  Ghost Ship........  Bonhomme Richard......)  you know the center of operations on the ship is filled with computer screens, and that when something interesting appears, the entire crew both on and off watch gathers behind the watch standers to see the imagery as it comes up from the deeps.  These are samples from the two cruises I've been on to the scenic North Sea.

Inside a French mine hunter.

Inside a shipping container on the fantail of a USNS oceanographic ship.  Since many search operations use a ship of opportunity, the gear is all inside a shipping container with standard connections which can be bolted down to the ship and connected to power.  The container has all the insturments, tools, computers, and spare parts needed.

The ship also has a science lab with more computers.  The side scan sonar data is so large it needs side by side screens. 


It turns out that teaching online is very similar, and you need a lot of screens.

Bigger is better.  A decent screen (49", but remember that's diagonal, and it's actually a reasonably priced TV) lets you have lots of windows open for organization.  For mapping it lets you see a lot, but you can't share that over Hangouts.

I typicallly need at least 5 windows open, on three monitors, with two computers.  There is room for additional windows if I need any backup.  With a quick glance I can check all the windows without any mouse or keyboard activity.

1. Window 1 has the main Google Hangouts Meet window.  I try to keep this with the chat showing, so that if something happens with my mike or audio, the students can alert me.  That happened the last time I did significant online teaching, but is not happening to me now (but does with some students).  We also use chat rather then voice where there are more than a handful of students.  The program has a nasty habit of going from chat to showing the icons for participants--almost none are now using their web cams, and no one misses that.  If I forget to start recording the lesson, the students are directed to call me out.
2. Window 2 has my email open, if I need to send them something fast, or if they cannot get into the meeting.  The meeting entry problems went away after the first few meetings, but sending things out comes up fairly often during class.
3. Window 3 is a browser, preloaded with all the lesson material in tabs.  Since it is in one window, I do not have to change what I am sharing for the bulk of the lesson (and sharing the entire screen does not work, since it's completely illegible when viewed on a phone or small laptop, and the students might see something I don't want them to see yet or at all).  If giving a quiz, it's in a tab, and when I want to give the quiz, I just make it visible in Blackboard, and the students refresh their Blackboard and take the quiz with a specified time limit.  The quiz also takes attendance with no effort on my part.  I had problems getting PowerPoint to play nice with sharing and wanting to grab the whole screen, so I save the presentations as a PDF, whick are also smaller for downloads if students have weak internet connections.
4. Window 4 is the GIS program students need for labs (it could also be Matlab if I were inclined to teach with that).  For some reason Hangouts does not want to share that window, so I share the entire screen (it also helps that that is a smaller screen, so it shows up well on their small screens), which requires a shift in what I share back on the main control window 1.  When I do that shift, I start another recording, so they can easily find the worked example of how to do things on the computer.  This screen sharing, either of my screen or an individual student screen, if very effective to provide help for students having problems runing the software.
5. Window 5 is on another computer, and shows me what the students are seeing.  In this case it shows the same material as Window 3, which is what I want to be sharing.  Since sharing a screen or window takes one more step than I think it should, this keeps me honest and talking when the students are not seeing anything.