Synchronous Instruction

Many quantitative or technical courses emphasize active practice in the form of practice problems that let students build skills over time. Live sessions are an ideal time to model complex problem-solving (after asking students to complete simpler exercises asynchronously), and then invite students to tackle new problems collaboratively with peers, while the instructor is there for real-time feedback. That's the format embraced by this sample math course, which has a 75-minute live session.

• Opening · 15 minutes

  • Review key concepts, skills, and learning outcomes for the week. Check in on assignments. Open the floor for general questions and answers. Consider starting with a quick poll or discussion prompt to get students engaged.

• Complex Problem Demonstration · 10 minutes

  • Instructor-led demonstration (with screen-sharing) involving the solution of a complex or challenging problem.

• Small Group Problem Work · 20 minutes

  • Place students into small groups to work on additional complex problems, either shared within the live session or sometime before it. Instructor circulates, offering guidance and advice.

• Large Group Share-out · 15 minutes

  • Ask successful student groups to share their solutions with the rest of the class. If no groups were successful, instructor can share a solution, building on whatever work students were able to accomplish.

• Closing · 15 minutes

  • Situate these sample problems to the real-world settings in which such calculations might be required. Look ahead to future tools and skills in the course that will rely on what was learned and practiced this week. Discuss what's up next for students asynchronously, synchronously, and in terms of upcoming assignments.

Things to note:

• The live session gives students the opportunity to practice new quantitative skills to more complex examples than the ones they completed asynchronously, while first learning the concepts.

• The plan leaves room at the beginning and end of class for framing and questions.

• Small group work allows the instructor to rotate and give individualized feedback in the moment.

• The class share-out allows students to demonstrate what they’ve learned, giving the instructor valuable information about how learning is progressing.

• The instructor’s synthesis at the end establishes important connections among course concepts.

This course uses real-world business cases to structure learning. Cases are assigned as reading. Concepts and tools to analyze the case are introduced asynchronously. The live session is then focused on further case discussion, before students are asked to consolidate and submit their final thoughts to be assessed once the session is over. Below is a sample live session lesson plan from this course, which has a 60-minute live session.

• Opening · 10 minutes

  • Review key concepts, skills, and learning outcomes for the week. Check in on assignments. Open the floor for general questions and answers. Consider starting with a quick poll or discussion prompt to get students engaged.

• Case Introduction · 5 minutes

  • Quickly overview the case before a broader conversation. You might ask students to lead this discussion using pointed questions, if they’ve had time to read and digest the case before the live session.

• Small Group Discussion · 20 minutes

  • Place students into small groups for targeted analysis of the case. Instructor circulates, offering guidance and advice.

• Large Group Share-out · 15 minutes

  • Ask student groups to share their analysis with the rest of the class.

• Large Group Discussion · 5 minutes

  • Building on details shared by different groups, guide the discussion to a synthesis of key ideas and preliminary conclusions. Connect those conclusions back to bigger ideas within the course.

• Closing · 5 minutes

  • Connect case discussion back to foundational material for the week, and earlier weeks in the course. Look ahead: discuss what's up next for students asynchronously, synchronously, and in terms of upcoming assignments.

Things to note:

• The live session gives students the opportunity to practice applying concepts to real cases, continuing the inductive learning pattern of the broader course.

• The plan leaves room at the beginning and end of class for framing and questions.

• Small group work allows the instructor to rotate and give individualized feedback in the moment.

• The class share-out allows students to demonstrate what they’ve learned, giving the instructor valuable information about how learning is progressing.

• The instructor’s synthesis at the end establishes important connections among course concepts.

This course is focused on situational skills that benefit from role-play exercises with partners in class, to be observed by peers or the instructor. After reading materials on conflict resolution in groups, and doing asynchronous work that includes watching several dramatized group resolution scenarios, students attend the live session to practice some of these skills. After the live session, they are invited to reflect on the experience as part of a course-long journaling assignment aimed at developing their professional identity as a social worker. Below is a sample live session lesson plan from this course, which has a 90-minute live session.

• Opening · 5 minutes

  • Review key concepts, skills, and learning outcomes for the week. Check in on assignments. Open the floor for general questions and answers. Consider starting with a quick poll or discussion prompt to get students engaged.

• Scenario Setup · 10 minutes

  • Share details of the scenario with students. More complex role-play scenarios, such as a multi-party dispute resolution, will take longer.

• Role-Play Exercise · 35 minutes

  • Place students in small groups, depending on the ideal configuration for the selected role-play exercises. Instructor circulates, offering guidance and advice.

• Debrief · 15 minutes

  • Budget time to debrief the role-play: reflecting on students’ internal experience and decision-making in real-time, asking for self-critique or reactions from peers. Depending on the scenario, this might best be done in the same small groups, or as a large group.

• Large Group Discussion · 20 minutes

  • If debrief was done among individual groups, bring the full group back to discuss shared themes and experiences. Connect them back to learning goals and broader course ideas.

• Closing · 5 minutes

  • Connect role-play exercise back to foundational material for the week, and earlier weeks in the course. Look ahead: discuss what's up next for students asynchronously, synchronously, and in terms of upcoming assignments.

Things to note:

• The live session picks up where asynchronous learning left off and gives students the opportunity to practice key skills.

• Role-play exercises help students practice and internalize the types of skills most important to the course’s overall learning objectives.

• Small-group and class-wide debrief opportunities help students process and reflect, supporting metacognition while simultaneously giving the instructor valuable information about how learning is progressing.

• As in the prior example, the plan leaves room at the beginning and end of class for framing and questions, and the instructor’s synthesis at the end establishes important connections among course concepts.