I wanted to chime in on the subject of synchronous learning that was discussed in other threads and during our live meetings. In particular, I am sharing some resources that provide tips on designing synchronous sessions best fit for the online environment (and provide suggestions that would work well also for a traditional f2f class). Even when there is a desire to maintain live meetings as main modality for online course delivery, transitioning f2f sessions to virtual f2f sessions imply some changes anyway to the lesson planning, and I think that some of the tips provided into these articles can be very useful to faculty.
For example, the idea of creating note-taking assignments that students must complete as they attend the live session (at least the first sessions to establish that culture or key lectures only) and submit immediately at the end of the session. These activity could perhaps graded for completion through a self-assessment quiz or some other self-assessment tool, few points that would count toward participation and attendance, that infamous participation chunk of the grade that, especially considering our large courses, is many times impossible to effectively measure in the f2f classroom. In an online environment instead, we actually have the tools to make that participation portion of the grade measurable and meaningful, and note taking activities during a live session represent an example.
