Lessons from Socrates and the Online Classroom: Achieving Exceptional Performance in Project-Based Classroom

Both Online teaching and Socratic pedagogy require excellent preparation, well thought out exercises, courteous and rapid responsiveness to student needs, and a belief that independent learning is the key to high achievement. As a result of importing these principles into his campus based classroom, the Author’s freshman programming novices now create complex software systems even though no examinations are required, no papers are submitted and traditional lectures are omitted. Even marginal students can have a transforming educational experience when Socratic and online principles are implemented prudently. We discuss why prestigious internships can be won, by historically weak students, as a result of participating in an educational method that values independent study, team work, rapid assimilation of knowledge and the immediate application of knowledge in creating “real world” complex systems.