Unit 4 Planning and Facilitating Effective Synchronous Learning
Planning Synchronous Configurations
Web conferencing can be used as an online counterpart to classroom-based tutorials, seminars or any synchronous (real-time) learning activity, such as collaborative, project- based work. Its most typical applications are for one-to-many slideshow-based presentations (webcasts) and many-to-many group meetings (webinars), but it can also include one-to-one private tutorial or innovative assessment sessions. Web conferencing tools are usually highly multimodal, with simultaneous video, voice, text chat, whiteboard annotations and screen sharing, making them rich and dynamic — but also complex — learning environments
Many systems often include more advanced features that can mimic certain classroom activities, such as polling or breakout groups, and can therefore be effective for varied and interesting workshop-style learning sessions, in addition to allowing for the now standard abilities that allow for live, personal and spontaneous learning discussions and brainstorming sessions between students and teachers.
Web conferencing requires learners to log in at scheduled times, which may undercut some of the flexibility we hope to achieve through online learning. It can also require stable, high-bandwidth Internet connections, which may make it less accessible for some learners or locations. While its multimodal capabilities can ultimately lead to stimulating class sessions appealing to a wide variety of learners, they can also initially be complex and overwhelming; training sessions and ongoing technical support may be necessary. Finally, there can be capacity limitations for many of these tools or services, such as limits on the number of simultaneous users or minutes per month, which have to be considered when planning a blended learning programme.
Nevertheless, the dynamic qualities of web conferencing environments and the sense of direct, personal connection through video and voice make these tools particularly effective for developing social and teaching presence, while the potential for collaboration can lead to more creative and flexible forms of learning.
This section above adapted from Cleveland-MacInnes & Wilton, http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3095
Videoconferencing can be divided into three areas:
- Personal videoconferencing
- Web conferencing, and
- Room-based videoconferencing
Personal videoconferencing usually connects two (or more) individuals with something that can be thought of as a telephone call with video.
Web conferencing, while it is similar to personal videoconferencing in that it allows both video and audio, adds a number of features such as interactive whiteboards, voting, text chat (to all members of the web conference or between selected members), and a number of other features. Web conferencing is one of those products that was originally designed for businesses, but which is now used extensively in distance education.
Room-based videoconferencing differs from the previous two kinds of videoconferencing principally because it is oriented to connect a large number of people at each location to each other (e.g., two or more classrooms sharing a lecture or a guest speaker at the Canadian Space Agency presenting to a class of elementary students in rural Alberta).
The BCIT Learning Hub’s Virtual Classroom tool is an example of a Web Conferencing application.
Determining what is the purpose of bringing participants together at the same time
Think about the overall purpose of the session that you’d like to hold. Why would you like to do it? Some common purposes might be to:
- host a discussion or question and answer session
- plan or make decisions about something as a group
- build or maintain online class community
- gather feedback from people
- interactively teach a topic
- host a guest speaker
- model or demonstrate a skill
- hold office hours and meet one on one with individual students
Thinking about your session’s purpose is a necessary step to confirming whether it does make sense to hold your session synchronously online. For example, if you determine your purpose is to “hold a lecture” in which you talk at your participants for the entire hour, you may wish to ask yourself if you think that is the best use of your participants’ time (or even if it is the best way for your participants to learn!) Although there may be a place for “web-casts” (uni-directional synchronous online learning events) in some situations, they perhaps aren’t best used in the higher education context where we aim to promote participatory and interactive learning and/or some of the other purposes mentioned above.
