Synchronous Session Overview

Synchronous sessions are online meetings which allow for discussions in which synchronous interaction with your student(s) is necessary. These sessions should have a 60-90 minute maximum duration. They are a great opportunity to interact with your students to enhance content knowledge, build relationships, and answer questions in real time. On this page, you will find strategies to maximize your synchronous sessions. 

Preparing You and Your Students

There are three things you can do to prepare yourself and your students for an effective and meaningful session.

Access TEAMS at Adler

At Adler, the tool we use for synchronous sessions is called TEAMS. All employees and students are provided with the paid enterprise version of TEAMS. To access TEAMS, follow the instructions below:

1. navigate to Adler’s Microsoft TEAMS site.
2. with your Adler login and password, click Sign In at the top of the menu.
3. Once you log in, you will be taken to the main TEAMS page where you can Join a Meeting (hosted by someone else), Schedule a Meeting (for a future date) or Participate in a Meeting (an immediate room). All of these options can be found on the top right hand of the screen.

Share Discussion Questions & Learning Objectives in Advance

Students will want time to prepare to be able to have deeper discussions about the topics. This information can be shared out through an announcement, the assignment itself, or in a preparatory discussion board post. Make sure to include details on where the session will be held and how to access it.  

Communicating the learning objectives for the session will allow students to feel more motivated to participate as they are able to understand how their learning relates to the larger course goals. 

The questions and content you share during the session should include open-ended questions to allow for debate. This will help encourage communication and participation with the learning community as they will want to share research, lived experiences, or work together to find a solution or achieve a skill.  

Chunk Content into Sections

Chunking content into small pieces will help students increase their comprehension. 

After about 10-15 minutes of teaching, pause to check-in with your students to see how they are doing and if the information is clear. This strategy will allow you to immediately address any questions students may have before getting deeper into the session. 

An example of how to chunk your content could be as follows:

1. 5-10 minutes – Community Building (Icebreakers, general chatting, etc.)
2. 15-30 minutes – Active Learning (Lecture, Student presentation, etc.)
3. 10-20 minutes – Reflection & Application (Group project work, class reflection, Q&A time, etc.)

Activity Types

Synchronous sessions are typically made up of Presentational and Interactive activities. As the purpose for your synchronous session can vary, a combination of these activities can be implemented to spark different conversations and keep learners engaged throughout the session. To get an idea of what’s possible, please see the examples below:

Presentational Activities

• Lectures
• Student presentations
• Guest Speaker Lectures

Interactive Activities

• Breakout rooms
• Discussions
• Office Hours
•  Group Project Meetings
• One-on-One Advising Sessions

Instructional Strategies

Icebreaker Activities

• Scavenger Hunt Icebreakers
  • For learners, this can be a short and easy activity for all to participate in. After the items are found, you can ask students to share the meaning/significance of the object or why they enjoy it. 
  • How to:
    • Instruct students that they have 2-3 minutes to find an object near them that fits a theme (themes can include: something significant to them, a certain color, a favorite mug, unique desk item, etc.). Then they bring that object back to their computer. Once time has ended, have learners introduce themselves and the object. This is also a great time to ask them about their course goals, intention for the session, or anything else you think would be good to know about your students. 
  • Bonus Ideas:
    • Music – Have students find and play 30 seconds of their favorite song for the class 
    • Pictures – Have students share a recent photo of doing something they enjoyed, ate, or accomplished. 
• Two Truths and a Lie
  • With a small group, this is a great way to know more about your students and their lives. 
  • How to:
    • In the zoom, have one student begin and share two things that are true about themselves and one that is false. Next, ask the other students which statement they think is the lie. Once everyone has guessed, the original student will then share the correct statement. 
    • Before moving to the next person, feel free to spark a conversation about the statements they shared and if there are any follow up questions about what they said. 
    • Repeat until each person has gone. 
• Birth Map
  • As we learn online, this activity will allow students to share where they are from and/or where they are located now. 
  • How to:
    • Share your screen with a picture of a world map. Turn on the annotation feature in zoom. Then allow students to mark or place a symbol where they are from. 
• This or That
  • This activity is a quick and great way to start conversations with one another and build connections with their peers. 
  • How to:
    • Pose questions to students with two choices, for example, Do you prefer Marvel or DC movies? Set up three breakout rooms for students to join to discuss their choice (i.e. room 1 – Marvel, room 2 – DC, room 3 – neutral/none) for 1-2 minutes. 
    • While in these rooms, students can share what they like about this option and why the other option isn’t for them. 
    • Come back together and repeat with a new question

Interactive Activities

• Using formal and informal polls
  • You can ask questions to students using the polls feature. 
  • Informal polls can include just-for-fun questions such as “What is your favorite game” (a) monopoly, (b) sorry, (c) battleship, (d) Candyland, (e) other. 
  • With a more formal poll, you can ask content-based questions as a quick check-in or knowledge-check to see if students are understanding the content. 
• Utilizing the Chat
  • Not all students will be able to speak for the entire session, being flexible with students and allowing discussion and debate to happen within the chat will provide an engaging experience for the learners. 
• Annotation Tools
  • With annotation tools, students can interact with your screen to identify an item, analyze research, or practice a skill. 
• Breakout Rooms
  • This allows you to split students up into various groups to work collaboratively on building knowledge, developing a skill, or executing a group project. 

Reflection Activities

This can happen at various points throughout the synchronous session. Reflection encourages students to consider and quickly recall the information and experience they just encountered. This strategy will help you understand what learners are taking away and why they feel it is important to their learning. These statements can inform future announcements, discussions, or synchronous sessions as you begin to understand what is important to them during a synchronous session. 

Reflection can happen during or after the synchronous session. During the session, you may want something short for the students to address. Reflecting after the session can strengthen their knowledge of the content as they apply the knowledge in a new or more in-depth manner. 

Prompts for reflecting on content during the synchronous session.

• Take 30/60/90 seconds to write down (in a journal or online note taking document) what you learned during this session. 
• What assumptions did you have coming into the session? Did those change or remain the same, why?
• How did your understanding of the content change?
• Share 1-2 takeaways from today’s session.

Prompts/Activities for reflection after the synchronous session:

• Respond to related prompts in the discussion board to continue the conversation with peers.
• Complete a project about the learned information.
•  Find an article related to the information and share it with the class.
• Work with a partner to solve a problem given during the synchronous session.

TEAMS Teaching Techniques

• Focus on instructor presence and personal interaction. TEAMS can be instrumental in easing students’ transition to virtual learning. For students who prefer (or are simply used to) a traditional classroom, learning online can increase a sense of isolation, but there are things you can do to mitigate that! In addition to lectures, TEAMS can also be used for:
  • discussion sessions
  • regular check-in sessions
  • office hours
  • fostering community among students (e.g., try group assignments, or encourage study groups in which students can meet in TEAMS on their own)
• Be yourself. If you aren’t hyper formal in the classroom, you don’t have to be that way online. If you are, by all means, keep your decorum standards at an 11! The most important thing is to let your students get to know you.
• Provide a clear agenda for the synchronous session. Students learning virtually benefit from being provided a brief overview of that class’ content. Screen sharing a single PowerPoint slide or Word document outline is usually sufficient. This also helps jog students’ memories if they’re reviewing past recorded sessions.
• Use Canvas as a way to conserve class time for deep discussion. Time can be saved for in-person interactions during the TEAMS session by moving class/assignment expectations, logistical announcements, grading, lectures, media and readings online.
• Give extra time for pauses. Just as in a face-to-face teaching situation, pausing while teaching virtually is important to allow students to process, reflect and generate questions. Lag and students’ need to manage multiple applications on their computer to take notes, reference materials, etc. can increase the amount of time they require to keep up with the instructor.

Supporting Students in TEAMS

Tips

• Record TEAMS sessions for later review. Recorded sessions not only benefit students who may have missed class, but can be helpful for students who wish to review your class as preparation for an activity or exam. In addition, recorded TEAMS sessions make your course more accessible for students who have learning challenges such as attention deficits or note-taking and information processing difficulties.
• Foster an inclusive environment. Allow students the space to introduce themselves and any additional information, such as their pronouns, freely. Have a space during the first synchronous session to have an icebreaker activity for you and your students to get to know each other and build comfort and trust within the learning environment. 
• Allow the course pace to be flexible. You are going to have exciting and meaningful discussions with your students, so be prepared to allow the conversation to guide the session for that day. While you will have a planned set of activities, if you don’t get to them, you can always ask students to continue their discussion in the discussion board or a follow up synchronous session next week

Attendance & Participation

It is important to encourage students to attend, however life happens. We recognize our students have commitments outside of their graduate coursework that may impact their ability to be available and active in each session. One strategy to increase attendance is to have regularly scheduled synchronous sessions to allow students to be able to plan their schedule so they are able to prepare for and attend.

Set expectations for students’ online behavior early. When students attend your session, you should plan for and allow flexibility for students to participate in a variety of styles. Allowing them to participate in a manner most conductive for learning may involve having their camera off and microphone muted. If they are doing so, encourage them to use TEAMS reaction feature, participate in the chat, and follow netiquette guidelines. Set the expectation for participation at the beginning of class and keep in mind that requiring students to have their camera on does not always mean better engagement. 

If students are unable to attend the session, you should offer students an equivalent alternative assignment. Doing so allows the students to still get the information from the session and communicate their knowledge of the concept or skill in another manner. For example, if you sent out discussion prompts ahead of time, you can ask that students respond to the statements and upload their responses to the LMS. If the student needed to present on a subject, they can record a voiceover for their presentation and submit that to the LMS.

Instructor Self-Reflection

Reflective teaching practices can help promote your professional growth. It allows you time to analyze your class sessions by noting your goals, teaching strategies, and techniques.

Reflection can help you see new and creative ways to communicate information and make your synchronous sessions more engaging and exciting.

Your reflective practices will also help you analyze your students needs, behaviors, and performance during your time together. Once you better understand their needs, you are able to develop positive relationships with them.

While everyone reflects in their own way, here are a few prompts to get you started when analyzing how the session went: 

1. What did you learn about your students’ needs as online learners?
2.  How did the synchronous session support the learning outcomes?
3.  To what extent were the students engaged in the learning activities?
4.  What strategies did you use that encouraged students’ learning?
5. If you were teaching this session again, what would you improve upon for next time?