ADL 115 - Virtual Classroom Strategies
Course Description
Learn how to design and facilitate live online learning events such as online classes and virtual meetings. Examine synchronous learning tools and their use in creating interactive and collaborative experiences for learners in a virtual classroom. Develop skills and strategies that will help you improve your success and confidence as a facilitator of live online events.
This practical course will be delivered fully online in weekly synchronous (live) sessions via Zoom with supporting resources in the asynchronous environment (Desire2Learn). As the final course project, you will create and deliver a synchronous event utilizing the tools and techniques mastered in the course.
Course Details
By completion of this course, successful students will be able to:
- Apply collaborative design techniques to create or migrate presentations to online learning events
- Create collaborative synchronous exercises utilizing whiteboard, chat, breakout rooms, application sharing, and synchronized web browsing
- Use the templates provided to create synchronous facilitator and participant materials
- Apply techniques for maximizing learner engagement, energy, and motivation in the online learning environment
- Examine the supporting role of a producer or assistant facilitator
- Manage the various technical and participant difficulties that can and will occur in synchronous learning
- Deliver a synchronous session (either instructional or meeting oriented) including participant preparation, producer preparation, logistical set-up, and post-session follow up
Topics of Instruction
- Best practices for designing and using, chat, polls, whiteboard, breakout rooms, application sharing, and synchronized web browsing to create interaction and collaboration in the virtual classroom
- Instructional uses, constraints, and best practices for each tool
- Difference between face-to-face facilitation and facilitation in a live, virtual session
- Different event types in the synchronous environment
- Different synchronous platforms
- Design of serial and concurrent collaboration
- Common design problems and possible solutions
- Online cues that indicate attentiveness, energy, responsiveness of an online audience
- Reasons participants disengage in a live session
- Virtual alternatives to body language and nonverbal cues
- Role of the producer in the virtual environment
- Disaster recovery and technical back-up plans for difficulties that can and will occur in synchronous environments
- Features to consider when selecting a virtual classroom tool
- Developing competencies for virtual classroom facilitators
Notes
A background in teaching/training is recommended.
ADL 136 Teaching Online or ADL 122 Facilitating Adult Learning is recommended.
Formerly known as ADL 117 Designing and Facilitating for the Synchronous Online Classroom.
