Sync vs asynch

[KiUlv]

My grad classes have all been synchronous and I'm liking that a lot better than when I had to do some asynchronous prior to COVID. Most people I know teaching undergrad lecture classes are teaching asynchronously with prerecorded lectures they plan to reuse. My classes require more discussion and group work. Complaints about the asynchronous that was done prior to COVID were typically around having "too much work assigned" (although it was actually less than they would have had in a synchronous class) and not feeling connected to the material or one another. Based on the work completed, I'm pretty sure fewer than half of the students actually watched any of the lectures I had recorded or engaged in the learning activities assigned. Many students were very happy about the asynchronous format and feeling they could connect with one another much more easily. I do a class that combines some interactive lecture (class sizes range from 13-35 for grad students in this program) with lots of breakout room discussion and work. I'm sure it looks really different with huge classes and lecture or lab style classes.

[pepsi_alum]

However, most of my classes I teach as combinations of lecture and discussion. That's how I do my best teaching, but it isn't a format that translates well at all to an asynchronous course. It isn't ideal for online at all, but if I try to create brand new courses, I'm not actually going to create a better class for the students this year. Maybe it would be better next year, but by then there'd be no need for it.

This is my general philosophy as well. I'm reluctant to invest a significant amount of time into redesigning a course for a format that will probably last another year at most. I'll also add that I've recorded asynchronous lectures for an online class pre-pandemic. It was hard to do and most students didn't find it all that useful.

My experience teaching remote-synchronously during the pandemic has been that live lecture/discussion via Zoom is awkward, but it still works okay if I split up my lectures with polling questions and specific activities.

[larryc]

I tell my online students at the start of class that in online classes you teach yourself--and that is exactly the same as classroom courses, and for that matter life. It helps with the feedback.

[marshwiggle]

I'll also add that I've recorded asynchronous lectures for an online class pre-pandemic. It was hard to do and most students didn't find it all that useful.

My experience teaching remote-synchronously during the pandemic has been that live lecture/discussion via Zoom is awkward, but it still works okay if I split up my lectures with polling questions and specific activities.

If the prerecorded lectures were full-length, it's no big surprise that they weren't well-received. Whether in-person or remote, presentation of material has to be interspersed with student activities to be effective.