Background

When I was hired as Director of Learning Design at Great Hearts Online in October 2020, one of my central responsibilities was to understand the essential pedagogical practices of Classical Education and translate them into a fully online environment. While many schools had relaxed their standards during the scramble to adopt distance learning, Great Hearts Online was envisioned as both fully Classical and fully online from the outset.

This posed a number of instructional design challenges. Classical education emphasizes embodied, paper-based learning: students are expected to use math manipulatives, develop precise penmanship, annotate printed texts, and draw. These activities are not easily replicated in a digital environment—and any solutions had to be affordable, scalable, and require minimal training for both students and parents. Still, the learning science supporting handwriting is strong, and we could not credibly call ourselves a Classical school without it.  

Process

Each student’s materials budget was fixed within the broader school operating budget, and there was no room to exceed it. While mailing commercial document cameras to families seemed like the obvious solution, even the least expensive models hovered around $100—far beyond our per-student allocation.

I began exploring the idea of creating a low-cost, DIY document camera. After researching specs and sourcing parts, I found a webcam with a hinged base and tripod mount that paired well with a flexible, clamp-based phone stand originally designed for vlogging. Together, they met our resolution needs and fit our budget. We ordered these components in bulk and assembled kits for every family before the school year began.

I wrote a detailed parent guide to support setup and use, trained teachers using a “train-the-trainer” model, and integrated the cameras into classroom routines. Students used them both to show handwritten work in live Zoom lessons and to photograph and upload assignments to the LMS.

After a few months of consistent use, we encountered a new challenge: a ChromeOS update rendered our document cameras non-functional on student-issued Chromebooks. With even fewer funds remaining, we pivoted to a new solution: IPEVO had just released a small, clip-on mirror device that used the laptop’s built-in webcam to mimic a document camera. We quickly trained teachers and families on the new setup and distributed hundreds of mirror cams, which got us through the remainder of the school year.

During the summer, I was able to connect directly with manufacturers in China who were producing small, affordable document cameras with built-in software compatibility. After reviewing demo units and negotiating pricing, we selected a model that met all our instructional and operational needs. This device became the long-term solution and remains a cornerstone of teaching and learning at Great Hearts Online today.