Robert Yang, a professor and software developer at New York University Game Center, instructs a course on sociology to his students through teaching on Twitch. However, he has been experiencing mixed results teaching on the Twitch software due to echo.
Conventionally, Yang does not stream content in his classes but recently, he has been compelled to due to the Covid–19 outbreak. The pandemic has pushed political meetings and gaming conventions to streaming. With universities and colleges closing up on physical attendances, New York University is not any different.
A student intervened and opined that Yang could possibly deploy Twitch to instruct remote classes, a decision that Yang describes as a bad idea.
The New York University game center is more inclined to a practical approach with a community emphasis. Teaching on Twitch and through remote streaming removes the fundamental contexts in the education of student engagement because it’s hard to keep in touch with each student’s engagement on a group chat.
Is teaching on Twitch viable for online education?
Yang has a different view on the use of Twitch for streaming educational content to students. Yang further learns that there is a collapsing of context while teaching on Twitch because the instructor cannot distinguish between who is keeping up with the streaming.
His content mainly focuses on Taylor’s “Watch Me Play” with a choice for curriculum diversification. He explores a piece on streamers without viewers, based on previous verge reporter Patricia Hernandez. The piece delves on anxiety built by seeking to be heard by an audience and how Twitch increases the anxiety.
Yang’s streaming drew an audience of 584 viewers with 78 different chats. Students were thrilled to find strangers getting to their class and probably acquired new followership but Yang did not like the process.
The experience is terrible for instructors since the platform does not provide simple classroom management tasks like keeping tabs on time and aiding in students‘ discussions. Simply, it is not clear to tell keen students.
What is the future of education?
With the recent Covid-19 outbreak, universities and colleges have closed doors and the future of education is at stake. Instructors are turning to offer courses online for their students which has a fair share of advantages and disadvantages. In attempts to curb the spread of infectious pneumonia, students learn from home through online platforms and streaming like teaching on Twitch.
According to Yang, the Twitch platform could be ideal for lectures that do not need interaction through discussion. For the classes that demand interactions, chats get clogged up and are not necessarily from the students. Twitch does not ensure a student’s privacy too.
Yang had put it across that his teaching on Twitch was popular but he was totally sure he would never repeat. Students who had originally asked for streaming through Twitch also changed their minds.
