The recommended modality is a blend of synchronous and asynchronous delivery.

 

Synchronous: you and your students are all online at the same time and interactions occur live during regularly scheduled class times or office hours. 

Highlights:

• Builds on the classroom norms established in face-to-face instruction. 
• Can be used for delivering course material during scheduled class time as well as for applying and discussing what students are learning as the course unfolds.
• Allows for student engagement through immediate feedback such as nonverbal feedback, polling and quick quizzes, group work and whiteboard sharing. 
• Reduces the sense of isolation and helps to build a classroom community.

Things to keep in mind:

• Synchronous meetings have a further reach when they are recorded and captioned. This enables students to access the material later in the course, or to catch up if at any point they are not able to participate during synchronous events. 
• Long synchronous events can cause online meeting fatigue for both students and instructors. This can be remedied by including varied activities, such as polling, breakout group work, or small breaks. 
• Security and privacy concerns (Zoom).

 

Asynchronous: students use prepared resources to learn the content in their own time, possibly ahead of the lecture. 

Highlights:

• Facilitates delivery of one-way material such as lecture notes, pre-recorded videos, course slides, exercises that tie into the synchronous meetings. 
• Allows for more flexibility with scheduling, which may be important for students in different time zones, students and faculty with family, work, or other obligations, or with challenges associated with access to the required technology. 
• Increases cognitive engagement as students explore the course material at their own pace. Students can pause, slow down, speed up, or rewatch videos according to their needs. 
• Asynchronous instruction can help reduce online fatigue associated with synchronous events. 

Things to keep in mind:

• When creating pre-recorded material, consider organizing it into smaller chunks, ideally no longer than 15 minutes. For longer videos consider also adding timestamps in the video description. 
• Asynchronous activities and learning resources accumulate fast and may overwhelm students. Provide a structured course outline and a guided approach to help keep students on track. 
• Preparing asynchronous resources requires time and sometimes considerable effort. Plan accordingly.

 

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