Synchronous Blended Teaching: Creating a Community of Engaged Learners

• In Event: TLC at APSA: Simulations and Games Track Panel 2: Community within and beyond the Simulation

Abstract

Enabled by advancements in communication technology of the last decades, e-learning has become commonplace in higher education, even in residential universities. Yet most people associate online learning and teaching to asynchronous courses, in which instructors produce videos, audio recordings and slides ahead of time, and place them in an electronic repository, which students in turn access remotely from a location and at a time of their choosing. This paper focuses on synchronous blended teaching, which has both a face-to-face component and online lectures. However, the difference is that in the latter students and the course director sign in synchronically to an “electronic classroom”. What are the main advantages and shortcomings of this mode of learning and teaching from the perspective of students and course instructors? How to align learning objectives with weekly assignments that can be used to gauge understanding and collaboration in the two learning environments? What are the best strategies to decide which sessions (especially which course content) should be delivered face-to-face vs. synchronically online? Which technologies have an “electronic blackboard or whiteboard” where the professor can write down key terms as he or she speaks, instead of just flipping through PowerPoint slides? Which types of electronic classrooms allow for more interactions between course directors and students, and amongst students themselves? From a socio-demographic and age-related perspective, what kinds of student populations would benefit the most from synchronous blended courses? Are there groups of students with particular features – such as ESL (English as Second Language) learners, or students with visible and invisible disabilities – which would have difficulty to learn in synchronous blended courses? Based upon a fourth-year experience with this mode of teaching, the goal is to present a practical catalogue of best practices.

Author

• Simone R. Bohn, York University