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Synchronous Strategies for the "New Normal" | Faculty Focus
- I incorporated live or synchronous sessions into my online classes a few years ago. I experimented with the latest tools and made adjustments each semester based on feedback from students. To my surprise, students consistently requested more synchronous engagement. After doing so, I gained a new appreciation for the potential of creating meaningful connection virtually.
- optimizing the student experience in synchronous sessions.
- Organization and course design are especially important in online environments
- pedagogical value of each component
- recognizing their limited attention spans and planning accordingly.
- Running long sessions, especially past 60-90 minutes, increases the likelihood of competing distractions.
- create a minute-by-minute schedule
- Sharing an outline at the start helps students follow along and you can save valuable time by opening all files you will need ahead of time.
- Being efficient requires the instructor to recognize asynchronous portions as complements to live engagement. Ask yourself, “Can I accomplish the same goal asynchronously?
- Laying the foundations of why and how you conduct your class helps set expectations, creating a shared class culture where students take more responsibility for their participation.
- Record a video before your first live session explaining the purpose (“How will these sessions contribute to student learning and growth”)
- Establishing an expectation of cameras turned on can greatly enrich the experience for students and instructor. For students, cameras create a focused learning environment with less distraction – one much better than “dialing-in from the road.” Video also helps the instructor know when students are lost, bored, or at least that they’re still present!
- Instructors should model for students an effective virtual presence. Ensure the lighting in your environment allows students to see you clearly. Stay in the center of the frame and look into the camera when speaking
- Social check-ins create community.
- Whether in-person or online, those precious minutes before and after class are critical for answering questions and connecting with students.
- Login several minutes before class and greet students as they come in. Consider starting with fun virtual exercises.
- In Zoom, breakout rooms can be used to create student-student interaction for think-pair-share or team-based exercises.
- Zoom even allows you to float the room, checking-in on groups as they work. Students are often most surprised by breakout rooms – they never expected live interaction with their peers in online learning!
- I suggest starting with polling as a relatively easy to use option, especially since instructors may already use them in the classroom. Polling can be an effective way to engage students with practice exam questions, ice breakers, or general pulse checks (“Rate your understanding of this concept”)
- In sum, when it comes to technology, take a gradual approach.
- Perhaps a silver lining has been the widespread practice of synchronous instruction, a potential remedy for the connection students and faculty often miss in traditional online classes. The exponential growth of synchronous sessions will likely shape a “new normal” for online learning, long after the pandemic has passed.
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