Strategies for Synchronous Online Learning
The strategies and ideas below were developed collaboratively by a group of instructors during a “crash course” on teaching with Zoom workshop. The facilitators used breakout rooms and a collaborative Office 365 document for participants to brainstorm. Their work is presented here, along with additional ideas and resources for synchronous online learning.
| What’s the strategy’s name? | How does the strategy work? | Share links to help others try the strategy |
| Polling | Poll students on various questions using an online tool. Highlight or show results during the meeting. |
|
| Dress Up Challenge | Challenge everyone to (a) pick a theme and (b) dress up during a synchronous session (or rotate different themes each week) | 13 virtual theme party ideas |
| Intro videos | Use video discussions to construct an introductions activity (outside of the synchronous session) so students and you can share more about yourself and the environment you’ll be working in | |
| Bring Your Pet to School Day | Have everyone bring their pet(s) with them to a Zoom session | |
| Make Discussions Not Suck | Consider different formats and “protocols” for setting up your discussion activities | |
| Class Map | Create a Google Map of where students are from – they submit their hometown, you put it into a custom map to share out | Making a map with layers |
| Entry / Exit Ticket | Do a quick form, check-in, poll to gauge where learners are and how they’re doing (I.e. muddiest point, what did you learn today) in less than 5 minutes at the beginning or end of class | |
| Breakout rooms | Allow students to have small group discussions, utilize during curriculum planning | Managing breakout rooms |
| Padlet | Having students share their ideas/thoughts on post-it notes on a wall | padlet.com |
| Think/Pair/Share | Throw out a question, put students in break out rooms to discuss, come together as a whole group to chat | In Praise of Think-Pair-Share |
| Zoom poll | Set up polls in Zoom to assess student learning and engagement | |
| Kahoot | Trivia/pop quizzes or just making sure students are paying attention/engaged with the day’s lesson or a previous lesson | kahoot.com |