Video: U of T's Jooyoung Lee to teach students, build community over Twitch

The University of Toronto’s Jooyoung Lee is betting that an online streaming service normally associated with video games is just the thing to keep students engaged this fall.

The associate professor in the department of sociology in the Faculty of Arts & Science will be teaching on Twitch, a live-streaming platform where the most popular channels feature such games as Fortnite and Call of Duty.

Lee, who credits the idea of teaching on Twitch to his online gaming friends, says he’s planning to hold students’ attention by keeping his lectures to “a 10 to 15-minute, TED talk-ey type of experience,” with students able to ask questions and engage with the material in a follow-up live stream.

“I’m very excited because creating a community through Twitch or whatever platform you’re using could be really meaningful to a lot of students right now,” Lee says. “I know it will be meaningful for me just to connect virtually with other people again.”

Lee isn’t the only U of T professor to embrace Twitch. U of T Mississauga’s David Samson, an assistant professor of biological anthropology, is also using the livestreaming service to deliver his lectures.