We want to remind everyone that the asynchronous sessions are where you create that full lesson, tutorial, DIY, simulation or have your learners engage in course content at a time that they control. Many people find that using the asynchronous before the synchronous session is a great way to use blended learning or flipped classroom format so you need to decide what you would like to do. If you think about what we asked you to do prior to our first meeting you will note that we pointed you to the asynchronous resources in the Getting started module. We want you to explore and experiment and take this opportunity to explore how to build learning resources that your learner can use at a time and place of their choosing.
We want to remind you all that your synchronous session should be the place where you build relationships, develop community, and invite your learners into engagement. This is not the place to deliver information or content. Ideally, your synchronous session should last no longer than 30 minutes and the mini-lessons component should be 10-15 minutes at most. The last 15 minutes is simply feedback/feedforward from the participants within the PL course who comment on the delivery of the lesson for the benefit of the person who shared it. This last 15 minutes is also a time when folks connect, discuss, contribute their ideas, etc. and perhaps explore how they could apply ideas from the mini-lesson in their classes. When you do a mini-lesson sync session they should be short, concise, focused, and highly interactive. The mini-lesson isn’t where you deliver content; this is where you engage your learners, through breakout rooms, polling, discussion, and collaboration. Remember – content should be reserved for the asynchronous session. Yes, you will be relaying information in your sync session but you want to do so through an engaging collaborative process.
One more thing to remember. The subject of your session is entirely up to you. If you feel more comfortable doing a session on scrapbooking, BBQ, a workout, or other personal interests, please feel free to do this. You will want to focus on the process of engaging your participants and setting this up where the session is collaborative and not used as a content delivery method, so choose something that you are very passionate about and have some fun with this opportunity. If you are diving right in and creating a synchronous session for your class, we welcome you to practice your synchronous sessions with each other, especially if you will be using your session sometime soon.
We want to remind everyone that you can choose to create a welcome video that addresses some of the specifications in the Welcome Diverse Communities instructions area OR you can create a welcome video that you can use for your classroom(s). We want to encourage you to explore and experiment and think of how best to engage and connect with your audience in your welcome videos. The key is to test your ideas out and refine them each time you do this, so you will get better at building videos for instructional purposes. This is no different than teaching a lesson for the very first time….these things take time and practice!
