Incorporating Web-conferencing into Teaching your Online Course

You can use the web-conferencing tool to provide the digital space for many different kinds of engaging learning activities in your online course. Some examples are:

1. Direct teaching, presenting, webinar-style.
2. Demonstrations of tools, think-alouds, processes, etc. using screen share, and or the camera.
3. Office Hours: tell your students you will be present in the room at a certain time each week and encourage them to drop-by with their questions.
4. As a site for discussions with students as driven by the needs of your course; it is also possible for break-out smaller group discussions.
5. Create rooms for students to use a project working rooms to work in together.
6. Student presentations to the whole group.
7. Invite guest speakers to present to your class via web-conferencing.
8. Organize “Field trips” to web-based resources.
9. For shared collaborative work on shared documents and other files
10. If you are also teaching a face-to-face class, the web-conferencing tool can be a means of bringing distance students into live classroom.

Teaching in Synchronous Sessions

The switch to remote teaching during the pandemic taught us that instructors are resourceful, inventive and creative, and can make whatever teaching environment they are in work for their students. Using direct teaching and learning through discussion instructional techniques were not as difficult to translate to the to the synchronous online environment. What didn’t change in the transition to online synchronous teaching was the deliberate structuring of teaching that is required equally in both environments. Increased cognitive presence depends designing learning that meets learner needs. We’ve already discussed the structuring of learning in Unit 3. Therefore, in this unit we focus specifically on those skills and suggested techniques you can apply to ensure you optimize the synchronous learning environment for enhancing cognitive, teaching, and social presences.

Enhancing Cognitive Presence in Synchronous Online Environments

Cognitive presence is tied to how you plan the structure of your teaching. As we discussed in further detail in Unit 1, a common underlying structure for mostly all well-planned lessons have four key features: discovery, exploration, integration, and resolution.

Using direct teaching and learning through discussion methods, here are some simple suggestions of what enhancing cognitive presence might look like in a synchronous online learning environment:

Activation/Discovery: Triggering events to stimulate inquiry

You can, for example, ask your students to think about at least one question (or ask them to prepare this question beforehand) that they would like to discuss about the topic. This encourages them to think deeply about the topic and engage in meaningful interaction during discussion.

You can invite special guests to participate in a discussion, to address and share their stories. Alternatively, this could be a video recording of your guest. This can be a welcome change, provide different perspectives and re-energize the class for discussions.

Demonstration/Exploration: Exploring to create coherent understanding of concepts

Frame the discussion in the form of the question that requires students to pick a side. When students are asked for their opinion, they become more interested in the topic and more invested in discussing the same. By asking students to defend their opinion and explain their views, we can generate different perspectives and creative ideas that deepen thinking.

To reduce the feeling of unpreparedness for discussion among students, give them 5-10 minutes to collect their thoughts and make notes about the topic. This allows you to call on them during the discussion without putting them on the spot and making them anxious.

Application: Integrate information and insights

Use a simultaneous online chat so that students can add their points to the debate while they listen. Most video-conferencing tools like Webex or Zoom have this functionality.

Integration/Resolution: Refine and start a new cycle of inquiry

Seek an initial response from students on a discussion topic through polling features or Reactions in Zoom. Students can type their response, raise hands, checkmark, use emojis or icons to express their views. Then call on students to explain their choices.