I'm glad that I learned about assessments like VARK and True Colors from this course. Those assessments will be implemented immediately. It's imperative that my students and I understand what works best for them. Will we be successful in an asynchronous or synchronous course?
With COVID, I've had the opportunity to try my hand at building an asynchronous course. In the information provided by this course, there was an emphasis on the student's own "TIME and PLACE". I find that to be the greatest thing for students, but a challenge for me as a teacher. The fact that all of the information must be readily available can be a struggle. Also, I like to see when the student is confused, angry, or excited. It helps me gauge whether or not to interject an opinion, thought, question, story, or shift things right there on the fly.
I know I can create a mandatory check-in with me, a discussion forum for peer-to-peer sharing, or a weekly F2F class discussion to somewhat attempt to solve this. I guess if a particular student needs me to do that for them, the synchronous model may be a better fit for them. That's why I love that I learned about assessments like VARK.
