Student Engagement

• These sessions will also be conducted by CIs. The first synchronous session should be held at the start of teaching and should be used to orient students to the course.

• Other sessions may take the form of tutorials. The scheduling of these sessions should be determined by the CI after negotiating with students’ possible available times

Nature of the Synchronous Tutorials: An Example

Tutorial sessions may be based on specific topics and students will have the option to attend. The purpose of these sessions should not be for the CI to deliver lectures, but to serve as tutorials where students seek clarification on content / concepts / assignments as well as engage in active discussions based on focused questions that are disseminated by the CI before the session or requested by students during the week. As in the flipped classroom model, students could be urged to prepare beforehand so that they can be prepared to engage so as to reap the full benefits of the session. Strategies used in these sessions should be very engaging so as to motivate students to willingly attend sessions. Activities can be based on debates, game-based learning, worked examples and other such activities. These will be geared towards solidifying concepts while promoting deeper learning, group cohesion and interaction. At these sessions the CI should function more as a learning coach, providing that much needed support to the students.

Duration and Structure of Synchronous Tutorials

It is recommended that these sessions should be no longer than 90 minutes. For example, a structure for the session could be specific time being allocated for CI led direct teaching / clarification of concepts, answering student questions, discussing content or upcoming assignments based on unit materials and time allocated for student engagement and interaction through online game/debate/discussion/other, hands-on tutorials etc. The CI can present a question related to a real world scenario or context, requiring varying viewpoints (and related to the units in focus) prior to the tutorial so that students can prepare beforehand. Students can then come to the session with opposing / differing viewpoints or perspectives.

As is the current practice, there will be asynchronous engagement on the Learning Exchange, utilising different forums, for example, the student questions forums (for questions based on course unit content), the general Student-Facilitator Exchange and the discussion forum.