Active participation in synchronous online learning

• Karen Kear ^[1] ; Cathryn Peoples ^[1] ; Helen Donelan ^[1] ; Jon Rosewell ^[1]
  1. [1] The Open University, UK
• Localización: 2022 Envisioning Report For Empowering Universities, 2022, ISBN 9789079730469, págs. 24-26
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Online synchronous education has recently been vital in replacing face-to-face teaching during the pandemic. Although thereis increasing use of synchronous technologies in higher education, there are still challenges which need to be addressed. Themost significant of these is lack of active participation by students. Even where educators are experienced in runningsynchronous online learning sessions, previous research has shown that these sessions tend to be didactic in nature, andinteractive elements are often not used. Students’ unwillingness to use audio or video channels is one factor, which denieseducators the non-verbal feedback intrinsic to face-to-face teaching. In general, there may be a lack of student engagement,with students attending but in a passive capacity, with a reluctance to contribute.There is a need to address two related challenges: designing synchronous online sessions which have active learning built in;and overcoming students’ inhibitions regarding active participation. This article discusses these topics, based on priorresearch and practice. It then briefly presents selected data from a student survey at the UK Open University. The surveycollected quantitative and qualitative data to gain an understanding of students’ experiences and views about onlinesynchronous sessions: for example, what value do students place on active participation, and why? The aim of thisinvestigation is to make online synchronous learning more interactive, engaging and effective.