It was interesting to review the different student learning styles. The learning styles are:
1. Avoidance
2. Competitive
3. Dependent
4. Collabrative
5. Participant
6. Independent
Clearly students have many different learning styles
I learned in this module that there is a clear difference between synchronous and asynchronous learning.
Clearly asynchronous learning is the best way for Online instruction
What I learned in this module was about the Bergquist and Phillips (1975) propose that student exhibit various learning styles. 1) Avoidant 2) Competitive 3) Dependent 4) Collaborative 5) Participant and 6) Independent. This information was very useful, because it taught me how to distinguish and be careful with avoidant, competitive and dependent student learning styles.
Engaging learners in the online discussion forum can be time consuming but exciting as an instructor. Reading all the posts, keeping track of student responses and who I have responded to (via excel spreadsheet), making sure their content is appropriate, relevant and applicable to course content, performing my own research about the topic discussed- this can all take time. However, probing students by asking additional questions, application questions, stating what I liked most about their response, etc. engages the students and improves confidence and promotes further discussion. This it the "meat" of the course.
When learning online, feedback allows the learner to assess their progress and determine potential areas of self-improvement. It promotes self-reflection, increases knowledge retention, and encourages constructive discussion with instructors or other online learners.
Sycchronous Real time and one on one Discussion.Very interesting.
We have a Weekly topic discussions and also I schedule a weekly Zoom Live lecture meeting with them and its recorded so for those students that cannot attend they may view and listen to it anytime. I find that students are very active on both.
Synchronous discussions work best one-on-one.
Asynchronus discussions are best used when involving all or multiple students. Synchronus discussions should be conducted with one student. Both are largely driven and motivated by the instructor.
Instructors need to have a solid understanding of how to facilitate asynchronous discussions. In my experience I have been both a student and an instructor in courses where the discussion boards were not robust leading to feelings of isolation. These situations increase failure and drop rates, and greatly influences retention and graduation rates in online programs. It would be ideal to have synchronous components to classes, which many schools are utilizing now, but there are disadvantages to this approach especially for the student that requires maximum scheduling flexibility. It is also helpful to identify the different learning styles of the students as well as their personalities. Some will be overbearing and very active while others do little more than lurk on the discussion boards. It is also vital for instructors to provide timely feedback to the student so they can incorporate that feedback into future assignments and posts.
We use Teams right now for cirtual teaching so we have a lot of synchrenous discussions becasue the entire class is on there at one time. If we were strictly on a LMS I would see the merrit of using discussion boards, however, we do our discussions face-to-face virtually.
This section, I learned the difference between Asynchronous and Synchronous discussions, when each should be used, and should not be used. Class size plays a very important role in whether you should use Asynchronous or Synchronous discussion method.
I also learned how important it is to monitor students posts/comments, keeping track of each students posts/comments, making comments on their discussions and providing them with feedback.
The difference between asyncheinous and synchronous. Also the different Learning styles.
I learned the correct form of dissusion for my class, and the best way to give feed back.
Reply to Liz Clark's post:I agree. Synchronous discussion could be used when you toting otherwise you can't use it for large group.
Reply to Mark Grafton's post:That is true and it will be even more difficult to bring them back in track.
Each student has a different learning approach and some a combination of them. Getting them engaged in learning is very important and should be valued. The discussion on synchronous and asynchronous was very interesting and I will apply the hints in my classes.
Synchronous discussions should be avoided when covering the bulk of important content. The advantage of asynchronous discussions is that it allows the students to formulate their responses in a concise and organized manner that demonstrates critical thinking.
Be careful with feedback tone to motivate and encourage learners
The tips for using synchronous and asynchronous discussion are very useful. This allowed me to be more mindful when facilitating such discussions online to provide for optimal feedback and participation from all categories of students and learning types.
