The Decisions I Make While Teaching Both Asynchronously And Synchronously: Stories From the Classroom

Like many other teachers, I also struggled to realize that I could not teach everything in my synchronous sessions like our in-person days. I tried, and often, I could not do so. I had this constant feeling that I did not complete the course materials. Slowly, I realized that I needed to decide what I choose to teach in the synchronous hours and how they are connected with other learning materials. This idea takes me back to the idea of designing the teaching episodes, that is. “When designed well, online courses are just as effective as face-to-face experiences” (Moser, Wei & Brenner, 2021, p. 3). I had to redefine the term teaching and understand using the Learning Management System (LMS) that is, eConestoga effectively.

We often think that teaching means teachers will provide information to students and support them as they interact with it. But I realized that teaching should generate opportunities to meet the course outcomes in meaningful ways. I found that the most effective way was to create extensions of asynchronously delivered topics in synchronous time. So, I started guiding the students to use the LMS as their key source for learning and activities with the synchronous time to create a chance to develop understanding of the course materials.

Since all materials are provided in the course shell, I decided not to bring everything to my synchronous classroom. Instead, I created activities, short lessons, meaningful conversations based on the materials in the course shell (see the active learning tips for further information). Even though all students did not do the pre-reading, the activities helped them dive deep into the reading and eventually explore the materials in the course shell. I admit that I usually send reminder emails to the students a day before the class to explore the week’s content. Some students feel accountable when the Professors email them. This idea of flipped classroom has recently been studied in the context of one of South Asian countries, where the students appreciated constructing knowledge via pre-readings and synchronous activities (Rehman & Fatima, 2021).

For me, the synchronous hours are for doing activities, participating in discussions and answering questions and guiding them more towards the optimal use of the course shell. Any activity I do, I let them know that where students can find the related materials in the course shell. From the week’s content, I choose one or two complex topics where they need more explanations.