Students see f2f sessions of hybrid classes as golden opportunities to learn together. When those sessions are canceled, students often feel disappointed. Faculty feel frustrated that instructional plans are sidetracked. However, this session describes how thoughtful instructional design can translate a highly engaged f2f plan into a synchronous online session.
There are a myriad of reasons why universities cancel class sessions. The harsh weather, this past winter, resulted in many canceled f2f sessions in our hybrid classes. Administrators often shared this sentiment with faculty via email:
If your face-to- face session is canceled, I would expect a comparable experience will be online for your students.
While it is quite easy for administrators to say, just move your teaching session online; the truth is that directing faculty to do this work can be a big instructional challenge. Teaching effectively online requires a skill set that faculty acquire with knowledge and experience.
It can be a wonderful learning experience for faculty to equip themselves with the needed knowledge and skill to be able to deliver the same type of highly engaged, interactive class session online that students can participate in a f2f classroom. In this session, I will describe the pedagogical thinking and practical application I embraced when moving a canceled f2f session to a fully online synchronous session.
Student engagement with content and with one another is a pedagogical element that was woven throughout the class. We know that learning occurs when faculty facilitate critical thinking and doing with students. This type of engagement looks different in an online synchronous format. I will share the creative thinking and design I used when weaving student engagement throughout the session.
A second pedagogical strategy I employed was the chunking of content throughout the session. Neuroscience research and what we know about how students construct new knowledge tell us that students need to acquire new content in digestible chunks. My learning design employed several ways to chunk content online throughout the session.
Finally, metacognitive pedagogical approaches were woven into the session. This offered students the chance to reflect on their learning and to file this learning in cognitively appropriate ways so that they would be able to retrieve this new, critical information in the future. Their reflective work was important for me, as instructional designer, in that it gave me a window into their learning and helped me craft next steps instruction that I would weave into our next asynchronous online session.
There are many reasons that faculty need to cancel hybrid f2f classes in the scope of a school year. Being able to skillfully move a f2f session into an online synchronous session holds promise to continue the rich learning that they envisioned in their original course design and to value the tuition dollar that students invest to prepare them for the future.
References
Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. John Wiley & Sons.
Buchanan, K. (2016). Goldilocks and the ‘just right’ strategy for helping students acquire new content. Faculty Focus, January 15, 2016.
Doyle, T., & Zakrajsek, T. (2013). The new science of learning: How to learn in harmony with your brain. Stylus Publishing, LLC.,
Doyle, T. (2011). Learner-centered teaching: Putting the research on learning into practice. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation. Retrieved 1/15/17 https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/principles/index.html.