Browse the following drop downs to learn strategies to help plan online synchronous class sessions.
Create a lesson plan/detailed agenda for each synchronous session
Consider how you want to teach the material and decide the structure of your session (see the Example Lesson Plan below). The core structure can be repeated each week to help students learn what to expect and what is expected of them during the synchronous sessions. Also, this plan will help you keep track of time, both the time required to complete the different activities and also the transitions between the different activities (e.g. screen sharing, starting the breakout rooms, monitoring the chat, answering questions, etc.). Everything you do online might take more time than you anticipate.
Tips for Lesson Planning:
Focus on interaction and active participation
Plan for instructor-student, student-student, and student-content interactions. This could be through a combination of lectures, activities, group work, and/or reflection where students are interacting with different people and materials. Presenting content in multiple ways/formats will help keep students engaged.
If you need to lecture, break it up into smaller chunks and create opportunities for students to be involved, such as answering a question or sharing their opinion. Plan for active learning strategies to help eliminate passive listening (see the Example Activities section). Also, you might consider strategies such as personal storytelling, bringing in guest speakers, or having students teach their peers.
Provide clear instructions and expectations for students to follow for all activities and interactions
Include written directions on your PowerPoint slide or on the whiteboard (if available in your virtual classroom platform) that students can refer to during the activity. Avoid only sharing this information verbally as that is difficult to remember.
Posting a timer so that students know how much time is left with a particular activity can help to keep the class on track (check to see if your virtual classroom platform includes this automatically).
Be sure to leave ample time/space
Be sure to leave enough time for active learning activities and use of technologies (i.e. breakout rooms, polling, whiteboard) and for students to “report back” or ask questions. It takes time for students to type their response in a chat box or to turn on their microphone and respond to a question so that needs to be factored into the plan.
Integrate pauses and breaks to sustain focus
To help learners focus, pause every 20 minutes or so to check-in on their understanding or start a different topic. This break helps retain attention and ensure learners don’t get lost. This is a good time for learners to contribute to collaborative learning (e.g., Sli.do, built-in polls, Google/Microsoft Word doc) to share their ideas, predictions, or gained knowledge to confirm understanding or address misunderstandings.
After 40 minutes or so, consider a short wellness break so students can stretch, look away from the computer, use the washroom, or get a snack.
Example Lesson Plan (2 hour and 50 minute class)
The following lesson plan illustrates how a 2 hour and 50 minute class can be chunked and integrate different technologies. It also offers some different ideas that could be used in certain blocks of time.
| Time | What are we doing? (Lesson Components) | How are we doing it? (Technology/Method) |
| 10 minutes | – Introduction: welcome students and share the agenda for the class – Facilitate an ice breaker activity (for the first class to build community) – Facilitate an ice breaker, check in, or intriguing content that grabs student attention (for subsequent classes) | BigBlueButton |
| 15 minutes | Lecture | PowerPoint with screen sharing |
| 10 minutes | Check understanding and clear up misconceptions | Ask questions verbally, and posted on the PowerPoint slide, and have students respond using their microphones or type in the chat |
| 5 minutes | Break | |
| 15 minutes | Lecture continued | PowerPoint with screen sharing |
| 40 minutes | Breakout rooms: – Idea 1: Create and Present – Idea 2: Case Study Have one student from each group present their findings to the class | BigBlueButton will allow you to create breakout rooms for groups of students either randomly assigned or manually assigned by you. Ideally, break out rooms should consist of 4-5 students maximum. To improve social interaction, you may ask students to turn on cameras in breakout rooms if they are comfortable doing so. |
| 15 minutes | Lecture continued | PowerPoint with screen sharing |
| 10 minutes | Break | |
| 5 minutes | Check understanding and clear up misconceptions | Use the poll feature in BigBlueButton to set up questions for students to respond to. Discuss the results. |
| 15 minutes | Lecture continued | PowerPoint with screen sharing |
| 25 minutes | Class discussion: Think Pair Share | Have students 1) think independently, 2) use the private chat to talk with their previously determined partner, and 3) employ a Waterfall Chat where one of the partners type their team answer in the whole class chat but doesn’t hit send until you tell them to. When ready, tell them to press send and watch the chat populate with answers from all the teams. It will show common understandings and keep students from being influenced by other perspectives. |
| 5 minutes | Conclusion: wrap up class by summarizing key points, drawing connections to the next class, etc. | BigBlueButton |
Keep things simple
Use technologies (e.g. polling, whiteboard, breakout rooms) only if it makes pedagogical sense, there is purpose behind the use of technology, and if it will be a meaningful exercise for students. The use of too many features can interrupt the flow of the course and take up a lot of class time. Consider reducing the number of activities you usually use to make the class time flow and to minimize technical issues.
Create opportunities where students can interact and learn from each other
It can be difficult for students to work together on a meaningful activity without first having the time to get to know each other. So, building socialization into the learning process is key since this doesn’t happen as naturally in online environments. Ice breaker and non-academic social or check-in activities help build an initial sense of online community. Then, as the community presence builds, ask students to engage in activities such as peer-review each other’s work or have small-group discussions to determine a collaborative answer.
References
Center for Teaching Excellence. (n.d.). Best practices for Synchronous Online Courses. University of South Carolina. https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/cte/teaching_resources/adapting_courses_changing_academic_needs/synchronous_online_course/index.php
Center for Teaching Excellence. (n.d.). Planning an Online Synchronous Session. Boston College. https://cteresources.bc.edu/documentation/synchronous-teaching-considerations/planning-an-online-synchronous-session/
Centre for Teaching Learning and Research. (n.d.). Principles of online learning. Vancouver Community College. https://ctlr.vcc.ca/media/vcc-library/content-assets/ctlr-documents/elearning/Principles-of-Online-Learning.pdf
Effective Practices for Designing and Implementing Synchronous Active Learning Activities by University of Guelph, Office of Teaching & Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Healey, R. & Perun, S. A. (2023, September 25). Integrating Guest Speakers and Panelists in Online Courses. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/integrating-guest-speakers-and-panelists-in-online-courses/
Humanizing Virtual Learning Copyright © by University of Waterloo; Trent University; and Conestoga College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Lieberman, D. (2024, December 2). The Power of Personal Storytelling in Higher Education Leadership. Higher Education Today. https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/12/02/the-power-of-personal-storytelling/
Teaching and Learning Services. (2024, February 13). Synchronous Learning Lessons. Carleton University. https://carleton.ca/tls/teachingresources/teaching-online/synchronous-learning-tools/
The Skylight Team. (n.d.). 3. Building Community. British Columbia/Yukon Pressbooks. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/skylightonlineteachingguide/chapter/building-community/
University of British Columbia. (n.d.). 4.6 Group activities and facilitation. Online Teaching Program (CTLT). https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/52088/pages/4-dot-6-group-activities-and-facilitation?module_item_id=1880646