Multimedia Resources, Physics Education Research (PER) and the Development of Activities for Virtual Learning

While there already was a growing demand for distance learning materials in physics, the Covid-19 pandemic alarmingly and suddenly accelerated that need in early 2020. Fortunately, previous developments in PER and multimedia provided the resources needed to maintain some elements of active learning for our introductory physics students in virtual environments. This paper will describe attempts to use the wealth of multimedia materials currently available (videos, simulations, photos, computer-based laboratory data acquisition, etc.) to adapt Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILDs) to a form that can be used by students at home. Individual predictions are retained as an essential strategy in engaging students and encouraging them to construct their knowledge from observations of the physical world. This paper will review the PER basis for in-class ILDs, describe the design features of the Home Adapted versions of these and present some examples of the freely available multimedia resources that enabled the latter’s creation. The second part of the paper will briefly explore a distance, active learning laboratory curriculum based on RealTime Physics (RTP) and the relatively inexpensive IOLab computer-based smart-cart.