https:\/\/youtu.be\/2yRoFzGPeJw<\/span><\/a><\/p>\nI would recommend keeping your introduction a bit shorter than this one. I should have broken this up into two separate videos…but you can get the gist of what I mean by watching the first couple of minutes.<\/span><\/p>\nTo discuss or not to discuss : That is the question.<\/b> Discussion boards can be the best and the worst of asynchronous learning. Given that there are only a few weeks remaining in our semester, you might consider asking students to post up resources, or discuss key ideas — but do keep in mind that the more you impose rules on how discussions should proceed, the more restrictive and inauthentic the discussion begins to feel for students. You might ask that everyone respond to a particular topic, or share an idea…but this might not be the <\/span>ideal<\/span><\/i> time to ask everyone to post and then respond to two other colleagues. Consider too, whether you want to spend your limited time reading and responding to all of those posts? Maybe you could encourage students to read a few posts and respond when it feels authentic for them. I find it is usually a good use of my time to read through the points shared in discussion and write up a synthesis of the ideas expressed for the class. <\/span><\/p>\nConnect with your students via email, and through feedback on their assignments.<\/b> This may actually be the way to connect best with your students. Send them all messages that help them to stay updated on what is happening in your course. And maybe even take a little extra time when you\u2019re grading their assignments. Given them a few extra bits of feedback that will help them to know you are invested in their development as a learner. In the fully online courses I teach, time and time again, students tell me that beyond anything else, feedback on their work is what they truly appreciate most.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\nShould I record a voice over of a powerpoint lecture?<\/b> Maybe. But if you can support the voice-over recording with a transcript of what you say, it will be more accessible for more students…and allow them to go back to review what you said as needed. Consider breaking up your lecture into smaller chunks. Shorter (like in chunks of 5-7 minutes per video) typically works better for more learners online.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDesign Tips for Synchronous Sessions<\/span><\/h1>\nIf you\u2019re running a synchronous session, be sure to send out an agenda to your students for the synchronous course session in advance. Ensure that all of the links needed to join in, plus your plan for how things will be organized are outlined for students in advance. <\/span><\/p>\nA few norms for hosting successful synchronous meetings include:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- \n
\n- Everyone who is able wears <\/span>headphones<\/b> to minimize echos in the online platform;<\/span><\/li>\n
- Anyone who is not talking puts their <\/span>microphone on mute <\/b>so that pets, children, doorbell etc. in the background do not disrupt the online meeting;<\/span><\/li>\n
- Before starting the online class session, check that everyone in the class can hear you.<\/b> If you\u2019re videoconferencing, you can easily ask learners to give you a thumbs up if they can hear you. That way, you can see who hears you…without everyone talking over one another;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Questions from students go into the chat<\/b> — and whoever is leading the discussion (professor or another student) refers to the chat on regular intervals so that questions are addressed. For large groups, you might even want to assign a student to monitor the chat and interrupt you when important questions come up;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Expect technical difficulties<\/b>. At the start of the session, tell students what to expect if things go sideways (as they often do). If the platform crashes, tell students where they can find the materials you have presented (maybe you will email it to them, or you will put it up in a Google Drive, or you will post it in Brightspace for them). If students lose their connection, tell them to leave and try logging back in as possible. It is unrealistic to teach and solve technical issues at the same time. Unfortunately, this will be one of the downsides of synchronous approaches — but there may be asynchronous ways for students to access the materials. Plan for these situations in advance, and let people know what to do so nobody feels stressed out when things don\u2019t go exactly as planned.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Consider hosting open \u201coffice hours\u201d<\/b> so that students who have questions can just drop in to the VideoConferencing environment to talk with you about their assignment, or about a course concept.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If you have additional ideas, please feel free to add them in the comments section below. We’re in it together, doing our best with the time and resources we have to provide the best possible experience for our learners.<\/p>\n
Stay healthy and stay connected, everyone.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve been thinking all week about what really matters as teachers everywhere try to reframe their courses in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Honestly, I think it all comes down to clarity, communications and connection. No matter the technologies we use, what really matters is that we do our best to lay out a clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[280],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2052,"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040\/revisions\/2052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mschirahagerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}