Engagement

In a course focused on active learning, students are truly engaged in the learning process. Incorporating synchronous and asynchronous engagement activities help students engage by connecting them with course materials, each other, and you as their instructor.

Active learning may include in-class activities, reflection, collaboration, and assessment. Students might be grappling with the course material by working collaboratively on problems. Students may look at PowerPoint slides, but they are also discussing or debating questions posed by the instructor and are asked to critically analyze the information presented. They may search the web, but they are looking for data and resources to support their arguments. In some cases, they are exposed to an extensive amount of material outside of class so that most of the in-class time can be devoted to hands-on learning. In addition, creating and maintaining a sense of community is important to fostering a classroom culture that supports student engagement.

Synchronous & Asynchronous Engagement

Incorporating synchronous and asynchronous engagement activities help students connect with course materials, each other, and you as their instructor.

Synchronous activities occur live, in real time, and use web conferencing tools such as Collaborate or Webex. In synchronous activities, students and instructors are engaging in real time with one another, asking clarifying questions, or sharing information. This might include instructor or student presentations, break out groups for students, chat, test prep, or virtual office hours.

Asynchronous learning describes activities that do not occur in the same place or at the same time. In many instances, well-constructed asynchronous activities are based on a student-centered approach that emphasizes peer-to-peer interactions.

It is clear from the research that the technologies associated with synchronous and asynchronous learning can improve the quality of student-teacher interactions, foster increased student engagement, and improve learning outcomes.  There are strengths and weaknesses to both designs. Some students like a synchronous online learning environment because they need face-to-face instruction. For other students, an asynchronous online learning environment provides more time to consider all sides of an issue before offering their own educated input. Both learning types have very unique benefits and limitations to online learning. In order to overcome these limitations the two learning types should be integrated and utilized to support student needs.

Synchronous

All UMBC Blackboard courses and communities have access to Collaborate, a web-based conferencing and collaboration tool. Key features include real-time chat and video conferencing, application and screen sharing, file upload, presentation and white board space and session recording. In addition to holding class meetings online, some faculty use Collaborate for office hours, inviting guest speakers (no need for a UMBC login) or creating student group study and collaboration “rooms” tied to a course.

UMBC supports Webex video and audio conferencing giving all faculty, staff and students accounts to host virtual meetings. Any UMBC account holder can schedule meetings and make use of the many advanced tools within the program to share their screen, and collaborate with members of our community.

Poll Everywhere is a web-based audience response system that lets speakers embed live activities directly into their presentations. Using a variety of activity types, instructors can turn a series of slides into an effective, interactive experience. Get to know students, gauge their knowledge of a specific topic, and capture their feedback at scale.

Asynchronous

Sometimes it’s just easier to show than tell. Using Panopto, faculty can capture and narrate anything they see on their computers, and then publish an online screencast movie tutorial or mini-lecture for students to watch and replay on their own time. Panopto is a sophisticated platform that provides multiple recording and editing options for the video and audio output, embed quizzes, live webcasting for interactive, synchronous presentations, cloud-based video storage integrated directly into Blackboard.

VoiceThread is a collaborative, asynchronous tool that acts like a video conference over time (not at the same time) or a discussion board that allows you to hear and see others, not just read what they write. All participants can navigate at their own pace and leave comments about any added content (e.g., images, documents, and videos) via microphone, webcam, telephone, text or even another uploaded file. Users can annotate on the screen while commenting, and pick which comments are shown through moderation.

Asynchronous, text-based Blackboard discussions support student-student and student-instructor interaction. Create discussions for the entire class or use group discussions to facilitate group work.