Why are Synchronous Online Classes Dull?

When asked, students generally feel that they learn most from Asynchronous courses, followed by traditional face-to-face courses, and least by synchronous online courses.  How can this be?

This is in-part because many asynchronous courses rigorously apply instructional design best practices based on years of research.  It is not clear that most traditional course are and probably less likely for synchronous courses given the emergency adoption during the pandemic. We must remember that teaching online involves significantly more than simply dropping a face-to-face course, or Zoom meetings, into the campus learning-management system. Designing effective online courses is hard work and differs significantly from in-person teaching. HyFlex courses essentially braid the two together, which means it is even harder.

 

Before working on an HyFlex course, it is important that you are comfortable teaching asynchronously online. If not, you may underestimate the amount of effort and interaction necessary for engaging students.

With this in mind, why are synchronous online classes dull?

The issue is not that they are intrinsically worse than traditional classes. Instead students are perceiving that they are not learning from them.  It is vital to ask another question:

Are we using the technology correctly?

The online medium is dynamic and listening passively for an hour may not be the best way to promote learning. In fact, the average time a student will watch an instructional video is 6 minutes – regardless if its length is six or sixty minutes.  Clearly, the take home message for the medium is that video alone needs to be in small chunks if we want to foster learner engagement.

 

The traditional sage on the stage model has been abandoned by a significant number of teachers. For example, many teachers flip their classroom. The content is available on online, while the classes meet for a quick review, discussion, learning activities and assignments.

 

This strategy has also been successful in implementing HyFlex.  It is better suited for brief exposition (lessons, review, or instructions) that is recorded followed by breakout sessions for groups.  The class then returns for students to present or follow up information with the instructor.

During the breakout sessions, the instructor can offer more personalized assistance by visiting all groups, virtual or within the classroom.

 

The flipped classroom has a long history of success.  It is not surprising that it also works for HyFlex.  It probably works equally as well for online synchronous courses because this strategy better aligns with the mode of educational delivery.