Aim: This task clarifies the features of independent asynchronous tasks.

Time: 5 – 10 minutes, approximately

Instructions

When schools go online, the balance between live lessons and homework changes. Live lessons online (e.g. via WhatsApp and/or video conferencing) usually happen less often than physical face to face classes and the pace of work is usually slower because teachers and learners are online. In a fully online scenario, homework (asynchronous exercises) become more important and there tends to be more of it. The same happens when schools use a blended model (some physical F2F classes, and some online work). In this short task we will look at what asynchronous work means for our learners.

Part One: Asynchronous Tasks

Which of the sentences below describe the features of asynchronous tasks? Choose True if the sentence describes an aspect of asynchronous work.

Part Two: Homework

What do your learners think of homework? Look at the adjectives below. Which words do you think reflect what your learners think of homework? Choose the most likely adjective in each pair. Try to think of this from your learners' perspective!

• interesting / dull

• useful / useless

• repetitive / varied

• time-consuming / quickly finished

• easy / challenging

• thought-provoking / mindless

• creative / predictable

COMMENTARY

It is likely that you chose both positive and negative words. You could even use these words as a checklist – every time you give your learners asynchronous work/homework, think about which in these pairs of words would best describe the activity/activities you have set. Or even better, ask your learners what they think of homework you set them, and ask them to choose the adjectives from the checklist. You may be surprised at their choices!