Physics instructors have been compelled by the COVID-19 pandemic to design distant courses using digitally transferable materials like simulations and video recordings of the experiments.1,2 However, physics educators have had trouble providing their students with relevant and interesting content.3 For me, distant lessons also presented a unique challenge: I had to demonstrate to the students how an image is positioned in relation to its object and lens/mirror. To get around this problem, the manual focusing feature of smartphone cameras was successfully used to compare the relative positions of images in seven mirror and lens setups. Corresponding videos were then displayed to the students during distant optics lessons. This study examines how videos of a camera’s manual focusing feature were used to demonstrate to students in distant optics lectures the location of images in mirror and lens setups.

Students in physics classes perceive demonstrations as a positive aspect of...

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