The Challenge
Given the challenge of moving to online instruction
The goal is not to declare - "online medium won't work for my topic or my teaching style".
The goal is to adapt one's teaching style so that one's class works well in online medium.
The real challenge becomes "How do I deal with the online medium and ensure that student learning is not comprised?"
A better way to frame this challenge is
"How do I exploit the power of the online medium and utilize it to promote effective student learning?"
In order to meet this challenge, we first need to know what all options exist in the online medium, learn their advantages and disadvantages and make decisions accordingly.
Modes of online teaching : Synchronous and Asynchronous
Synchronous: Instructors and students gather at the same time on a specified online platform and interact in real time. An example is a "live" class using videoconferencing technology such as Zoom.
Advantages: feeling of personal engagement and immediate response.
Disadvantages: availability of bandwidth for all students, logistics challenges in scheduling, managing sessions, student fatigue with longer lectures or having to deal with audio / video glitches, and instructor fatigue of speaking into a software for the duration of the class.
Asynchronous: instructors prepare and post course materials for students in advance. Students may access the course materials at a time of their choosing and will interact with each over a longer period of time. An example is a set of pre-recorded videos and corresponding practice questions uploaded on a LMS such as Moodle.
Advantages: anytime-anywhere access, self-paced and flexible, and greater cognitive engagement since students may interact with the material repeatedly and over longer duration.
Disadvantages: lack of immediate response, and a possibility that students may not look at the posted material.
Mix of synchronous and asynchronous: Can combine advantages of both modes