Asyncronous vs synchronous
Synchronous working means to work “in sync”, or at the same time. An example of this would be a timetabled in-person or online lecture performance.
Asynchronous working means the opposite of synchronous, to be “out of sync” or working through an activity at differing times. An example of this would be reviewing and responding to discussion posts made by peers and lecturers.
Most digital teaching and learning will take place in an asynchronous environment. This means that students will hardly ever be communicating or working through activities at the same time. Asynchronous exchanges can sometimes have less energy than either synchronous or face-to-face settings but they do allow a high degree of flexibility as students dip in and out of discussions.
When preparing asynchronous learning activities, you need to consider what that might mean in terms of your time commitment and also your relationship with students. It is important that you are realistic about the amount of time you spend online and also that you manage the expectations of students. Make a schedule for when you plan to spend time giving students guidance and feedback (See Design Participation), and let students know roughly how often and at what times they can expect a response from you in one-to-one or group discussions. (See Communicate clearly.)
It is important that you are realistic about the amount of time you spend online and also that you manage the expectations of students. For example, let students know roughly how often and at what times they can expect a response from you in one-to-one or group discussions. (See Communicate clearly.)
Encourage and monitor engagement
Allocate time to monitor discussions and activity responses. Spending time reading comments and responses is key to knowing how well students are engaging with content and activities. It can be useful to facilitate discussions by summarizing themes to help students navigate conversations, especially as students will be reading and participating at differing times.
Encourage good behaviour by ‘modelling’ it through your actions: take part in discussions and activities yourself to help stimulate conversation. For example, if you are asking students to share personal experiences, you could kick things off by doing the same. This helps to build students’ confidence and reassures them of the “how and what” of what they are being asked to do.
Keep an eye out for issues raised. Only one student may ask the question but many more will be waiting for the answer. Be mindful to write replies in a way that will be helpful to other students with the same query, summarizing or signposting to additional information where useful.
Get your students engaged from day one by asking them to take part in some kind of icebreaker. This might be an educational activity, a getting-to-know-you activity or perhaps just a silly activity to get everyone engaged.
Once you’ve thought of something, invite your students to take part by putting a call to action on your welcome page and the module feed/forum.
If you’re using Aula, encourage the students to use a hashtag like #welcome
Example
👋 Welcome to the module!
Head to the Feed and introduce yourself by answering the following question:
- If you were going to be locked in your house/accommodation for 1 month with no wifi and only 3 books to read, which books would you choose?
Post your answers in the feed with the hashtag #welcome
