Immediacy vs. Bandwidth Considerations

The Green Zone: Underappreciated Workhorses

Starting with the green zone in the lower left, we have readings with text and images. These types of assignments may not seem exciting, but sharing readings with students in a consistent and organized way provides your online course with a very practical, solid foundation. Email and discussion boards also belong in this quadrant. 

Online instructors have been using these three tools—file sharing (for readings and such), email, and discussion boards—for decades. And while that might make them sound boring, you can create some fantastic instructional experiences with just these three tools. 

The Blue Zone: Practical Immediacy

Moving over to the lower right, we have low-bandwidth tools that can add immediacy to student interactions. If you’ve used Microsoft Office 365 or Google Drive, you’re probably already familiar with some of the features and benefits of collaborative document editors. These tools allow multiple people to edit and comment on the same document, spreadsheet, or presentation slides. Depending on how you structure your assignments, students could collaborate over an extended period of time, or they could go online at the exact same time and write and edit each other’s work simultaneously. 

When it comes to group chat/messaging with students we recommend using MS Teams, Brightspace messaging or the text messaging option. Be clear with the method you plan to use. These tools allow students to communicate quickly and easily without scheduling an entire day around a formal video conference.

The Yellow Zone: Audio and Video on Demand 

Many instructors like to move in-class lectures and demonstrations online by creating lecture capture or screencasts. This adds a human element to online courses because your voice creates a sense of presence that plain text can’t.  Faculty can use TechSmith Relay off campus on their computer, record in TC206 using One Button Studio or work with Instructional Effectiveness and Marketing for a more professional cut video.

Learning how to create pre-recorded lectures can be intimidating, especially if you don’t have any experience with video production. It can also be challenging to create concise screencasts that keep students engaged. Students are more likely to watch a series of shorter videos than a single, longer video, which is why I recommend instructors try to divide long screencasts into five- to ten-minute segments (whenever possible).

The right side of the yellow zone is home to asynchronous discussion with audio and video. If you’re not familiar with this concept, I’m referring to discussion tools that allow students to respond with audio and video instead of just text. We recommend using FlipGrid. It is worth exploring as a way of fostering discussions that go beyond plain text. 

The Red Zone: Natural Conversations at a Cost

The upper-right quadrant is reserved for tools that require both high bandwidth and high immediacy, and the best examples of this are videoconferencing tools like BlueJeans or MS Team Meeting.  Videoconferencing is a great way to engage with students when they truly need to see and hear each other in real time. It can also be useful for online office hours, since it’s easier to feel connected and avoid misunderstandings when you have the benefit of tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language. 

Unfortunately, videoconferencing is one of the most inflexible and bandwidth-intensive activities we can ask our students to do. Before you rely on it too heavily, look at the other quadrants and ask yourself if there’s any other way to accomplish your learning objectives without it. 

The Red Zone: Natural Conversations at a Cost

The upper-right quadrant is reserved for tools that require both high bandwidth and high immediacy, and the best examples of this are videoconferencing tools like BlueJeans or MS Team Meeting.  Videoconferencing is a great way to engage with students when they truly need to see and hear each other in real time. It can also be useful for online office hours, since it’s easier to feel connected and avoid misunderstandings when you have the benefit of tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language. 

Unfortunately, videoconferencing is one of the most inflexible and bandwidth-intensive activities we can ask our students to do. Before you rely on it too heavily, look at the other quadrants and ask yourself if there’s any other way to accomplish your learning objectives without it. 

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