I've learned that you should use asynchronous communication for teaching course content, synchronous communication mainly in a one to one situation to further a single student's understanding of concepts, etc. I found it instructive to learn about the different strategies in each communication mode that you can use to motivate students to pursue the courses objectives. I'm not really sure that I will be implementing this at this point, but I feel that this is giving me a clearer understanding of the key things to look for and do to encourage student participation.
