More than ever communicating in any online course is mandatory and one of the essentials means to ensure engagement in the learning process. While there are multiple options to keep in touch with your students or trainees, here are some key elements to keep in mind before choosing your tools:
Synchronous
Through synchronous online tools you can interact with your students in real time.
What can you do?
- Conduct a live lecture (and record it for later use) either through live cam, sharing a whiteboard or a slide presentation
- Communicate with your students and get their feedback in real time
- Moderate live discussions among students
- Hold online office hours to assist students in one-on-one or small-group interactions
- Assess students or collect their assignments
Examples of tools:
- Zoom
- Skype
- Kahoot
- YouTube
- Google Meet
- Microsoft Teams
- Different social media outlets with chat and/or cam features
Asynchronous
Through asynchronous tools teacher-student communication does not occur at the same time.
What can you do?
- Share recorded lectures or presentations
- Communicate different information (updates, changes) and allow students to respond at any time
- Assess students and collect assignments
Examples of tools:
- Discussion boards
- Social media
- Slack
- Different Learning Management Systems (LMS) functionalities (quiz systems, forums, media sharing tools…)
- YouTube
- Microsoft Teams
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