Asynchronous discussion is a preffered method for the discussion on critical content. But both synchronous and asynchronous communication are importnt for an effective online learning.
Asynchronous discussions should be used for critical and importanr course content. but both asynchronous and synchronous disussion are importnt for an effective online learning.
During covid, a church that I attended used Facebook live on Sunday mornings. As part of that experience, they had a synchronous chat session that anyone could write to all the time. That worked fabulously before the service because people who had moved away came to visit and were talking to everyone else. It was really fun. (Some kept talking during the service ... sometimes commenting on what the preacher was saying in real time...).
For an online course, though, I totally agree that a synchronous discussion isn't the best when there is more than two people communicating. it isn't the best choice because it is very difficult to maintain the flow of the discussion. From what I learned here, asynchronous discussions provide participants the opportunity to carefully think through what they post. This has a couple of of positive impacts:
1. It increases the quality of individual responses because the students have a chance to think through the issue prior to responding.
2. Everyone who reads the responses benefits from the increased thought that went into the higher quality response from #1, above. Thus, the participants learn from each other.
When I taught my course asynchronously, I arranged a 30-minute synchronous meeting once a week. I found that going completely online last year during the first six months of the pandemic caused a lot of anxiety. It helped the students to engage with the course when our online sessions began with a light-hearted "question of the day." We learned more about each other with questions like, "what is your favorite frozen treat and why" or "if you could invite anyone to dinner, who would it be?" I learned so much more about my student's personalities and got them into a more receptive state of mind.
In the classroom, learners are able to see non-verbal cues communicated by the teacher. Because students cannot see non-verbal cues online, a way instructors can use non-verbal communication is by utilizing emoticons.
Synchronous discussion works best with only one student to answer specific questions for them. If you are having a discussion with many students, asynchronous chat works best.
Learning the difference between synchronous and asynchronous helps instructors work on how they can approach thir students to the different topics to teach in class. Also learning each of the studnets learning methods helps us approach things differntly.
My big take away were the six learning styles and how Avoidant, Competitive, and Dependent styles attribute to students lack of participation. It will critical to find these traits in my students quickly to coach them until they get the confidence they require to use one of the the other three learning styles; Collaborative, Participant, or Independent.
Avoidant Competitive Dependent Collaborative Participant Independent are issues with students not partaking or engaging in online classes was a great point for me. I also enjoyed points with the loss of facial expression, gestures, and tone of vocalization, messages intended to communicate in class is not present with online classes.
I agree it is important to post rules on netiquette for discussion board posts. I would like to learn more about creating a rubric for discussion board posts. They always seem subjective and harder to grade.
Being availabe to meet synchronously with individual students will help these students feel like part of the learning community and the added bonus of a one to one session being less intimidating for the student.
You should seek feedback from students on a regular basis about how the course is progressing.
In this Module I learned that its encouraged to allow chit chat time while teaching synchronously.
There are four major disadvantages to using synchronous discussions to teach critical course content.
- Scheduling students across different time-zones or who work shifts could be a real challenge.
- The text on chat screens advance rapidly, thereby having a negative impact on slow readers.
- Analyzing and summarizing individual student input to chat sessions could also be a real challenge.
- Last but certainly not least- fast typists are likely to dominate the chat session.
The value of using a variety of forums to engage students and allow for clarification of information.
Learned the difference between synchronous and asynchronous meeting and how student participation is important. Leaned what to do when the discussion stalls and how to engage students more. Also learned that the feedback should be immediate and constructive if it needs to be. Be specific in what is missing so the student can learn and go forward in a more productive manner.
Instructors have to account for learnung styles when buildin instruction. And, small talk has a place in instruction.
Learning advantages and disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous meetings and how is important to improve your knowledge in an interactive online instruction.
The distinction between asynchronized and synchronized communication was helpful. Short, sweet, and to the point would be my online style; nevertheless a sentence or two of small talk to start and end does establish more of a caring nature and not just business.
In "Engaging Learners" module, we learned the difference between asynchronous and synchronous discussions. I learned the types of situations in which asynchronous discussions would be more effective, and vice versa. Also learned about how to give online feedback, and about fostering effective online discussions for different types of students.
