How does integrating synchronous learning sessions within the online environment assist in developing a learning community for students? Discuss this question at length in your blog.
Integrating synchronous learning sessions within an online environment can assist in developing a learning community for students by offering the needed live interaction. It can help the instructor get to know the students and the students to get to know the instructor. From the synchronous learning session, the instructor can see which students like to answer questions and which are quiet. The instructor is able to hear how well the student articulates ideas and use this information to instruct. The session can give the instructor immediate feedback on how well a student understands a concept being taught. Many of the platforms used for the synchronous session have a variety of tools which can engage students such as polls, break out rooms and opportunities to have student create visuals using a whiteboard. A instructor could use polling to allow students to have a choice in certain plans. This can make the student feel heard and appreciated. the chat function is useful during the session because some students may not be very vocal at first, but may enjoy using the chat feature to make points as well. One feature which I enjoyed when I was in an online synchronous session as a student, was the ability to use symbols to agree or disagree. As brought out in the lesson, these sessions give the instructors platform to facilitate a discussion, present a lecture, have small groups collaborate and even conference in private, which all help the online class feel connected.
Artifact: Create an outline or lesson plan of a 30 minute synchronous session which you would facilitate. What activities would you include? What transitions are needed? How might you use the session as a formative assessment? How would your session a build learning community among your students?
Below is an outline for a 30 minute synchronous session which I would facilitate as a healthcare instructor. The activities and transitions are listed within. I could record the session to use it as a formative assessment. This session has a group activity and an interactive lecture with would help with building a sense of a learning community for my students.
Lesson Outline
Welcome (1 minute or less ) -
State and show objectives and transition (3 minutes) Relate what we did last time and what we will do today.
A transition would be needed here, I learned to ask one person to repeat back to me what we will do. Then I will move forward.
Set induction ( 1 minute) - video from Teacher Tube relating to the content which we will discuss for example infection control , then the video can be someone washing their hands properly.
Interactive lecture with slide presentation ( 7 minutes) - I make it interactive by asking questions and having students volunteer read some of the points.
Breakout session and transition ( 16 minutes) -group students and assign roles such as who will time, who will draw. Have them create a poster about infection control which will be saved and turned into the dropbox or it could be presented next week. I would need a transition here to tell them who they will work with ( I'll decide that in advance) and the assignment. I'll have someone repeat it back and answer any questions. While they are in the rooms, I'll visit and listen in and offer suggestions if needed.
Closing ( 2 minutes ) ask a couple of review questions based on the learning objective
and tell them what we will do next time we meet.
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