This paper is a study and educational practice report to improve answering questions from students in order to cut working time.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff have more tasks than before. For these additional tasks, they should try to reduce time for other tasks.
When students study or think something deeply, they usually need discussion with teachers, and it often occurs after lectures.
Suppose that a quarter of the students want to discuss and that each of them spends 6 minutes after one lecture, the total time on the academic discussion with students (exclude lecture times) accounts for 20.6% of the total work time in week.
Therefore, it is useful to consider how to answer students' questions more efficiently in order to save time.
The author's conclusion is to upload discussion data to Learning Management System (for example “Blackboard Learn”), this is because after uploading data, all students can read it so, logically speaking, only one discussion need in one topic (actually, of course, other students may need more), and because it is also useful for students to get reading skills better.
Next, the author thinks how to get the discussion data easily. There are 4 ideas.
The first idea is to type summary after discussion.
The second one is to use A4 size papers. When he explains, he writes and draws on A4 size papers so that he can scan them after discussion.
The third one is to take photographs. When he explains, he uses blackboard or whiteboard and before erasing them, he takes photographs with digital camera.
The fourth one is to use the interactive whiteboard (the electric blackboard). After discussion, it offers the discussion data.
The author tries all of them and concludes that using the interactive whiteboard was the best idea. It is because there are three advantages.
The first advantage is that it allows teachers and students to concentrate discussion because it can provide the data after discussion.
The second one is its features, for example, copy the whole screen, cut/copy/delete/move letters and drawings. These make teachers explain more smoothly. Therefore, they can reduce discussion time effectively.
The third one is that it makes physical distance easily because its screen is wide and it can expand letters or drawings. On the COVID-19 pandemic, these features are important.