Asynchronous online learning is often considered the gold standard of distance learning, as it is the most convenient and flexible format in regards to scheduling. Learners can interact with the content, instructor, and classmates at anytime and from anywhere. However, a frequent complaint of new-to-online students is the sense of isolation often experienced in the virtual classroom.

One of the ways instructors can help to mitigate this isolation is to leverage technology to improve instructor immediacy. Such practices might include posting short videos of themselves explaining a particularly challenging concept or going over an assignment. By providing audio feedback comments along with writing assignments, students begin to recognize their instructors as real people. Another important practice is to offer students the option of connecting in real-time using virtual office hours.

Patrick Lowenthal has been studying and writing about social presence in the online classroom for a number of years. In a recent paper, entitled, Live synchronous web meetings in asynchronous online courses, he and colleagues Joanna Dunlap and Chareen Snelson took a look at how virtual office hours might be improved using a design-based research (DBR) approach.

Lowenthal questioned whether it was a good use of his time in earlier attempts offering virtual office house due to lack of student participation. However, more recently he began to consider revisiting the practice, and to look  at ways to increase student attendance and learner engagement.

By changing up the branding, limiting the number of sessions, and tying an instructional component to the synchronous sessions, he and his colleagues discovered they could increase student participation from less than ten to around fifty percent. Students reported the sessions were a good use of their time and allowed them to get to know their instructor better (improved instructor immediacy).

The following findings / recommendations are from their study (shared with permission):

Orientation to live sessions

1. Refer to virtual office hours using a more inviting title. For example, for more informal live sessions, select a name like Happy Hours, Coffee Breaks, Afternoon Tea, Bat Cave, and Around the Campfire. For more formal live sessions, consider titles such as Consultations, Design Studio, Conference Room, Headquarters, and Open Space.
2. Inform students at the start of the semester when synchronous sessions are scheduled. 3. Inform students of the agenda for each live session in advance.
3. Remind students of approaching live sessions in daily/weekly communications, such as via the announcements feature of a learning management system.
4. Provide low-stakes opportunities for students to troubleshoot and get acquainted with the synchronous format and associated tools. For example, during the first few weeks of a course, have each student—or small groups of students—visit with you in Adobe Connect for the sole purpose of checking out tool functionality, and to hear and see each other laugh.
5. Share a short recording of a live session with students new to live sessions so they can get a sense of how they work and what to expect in advance of participating in a live session.

Scheduling

7. Consider students’ time zones when scheduling live sessions. Use a tool like Doodle, for example, to determine best times to meet.
8. Schedule live sessions strategically; they do not need to be scheduled weekly. For example, schedule live sessions prior to the due dates of major deliverables or in advance of exams.
9. Vary the day of the week and time of day. Consider scheduling two live sessions per week on different days and at different times of day.

Relevance

10. Be transparent with students as to your reasons for including live sessions in your online courses.
11. Ask students to share questions in advance of live sessions so sessions may be tailored to meet specific goals, needs, and interests.
12. Make live sessions relevant in terms of content and activity. Make sure the live sessions add value to the students’ learning experience in an online course. For example, include a brief direct-instruction component, demonstration, or guest speaker in each live session.
13. Provide a comparable learning experience for those unable to attend a live session. For example, give those students specific questions/prompts to respond to while watching the recording.

Incentives and assessment

14. Add incentives for attendance (e.g., require it or allow students to earn points), but provide options—equitable in terms of learning experience—for those who have schedule conflicts.
15. Involve students in learning activities during synchronous sessions that support their work on projects, papers, and so on. For example, provide a lab demonstration that will help students complete their own experiments in the lab. Interaction
16. Start each live session with a brief ice-breaker and/or get-to-know-you activity to help establish connections between and among instructor and students, and to get warmed up with the technology before launching into more coursework-oriented activities.
17. Provide both informal and structured time and opportunity for students to interact with each other.

Interaction

14. Have students contribute to or determine “rules of engagement” for interacting with each other during live sessions.
15. Model the type and level of interaction that supports student engagement during live sessions.
16. Get students involved in the live meetings. For example, have them collaborate on a response to a problem of practice or peer review each other’s work.
17. Ask for questions from students who are unable to attend, and respond to the questions during the live session.

Mitigating the sense of isolation that new-to-online learners often experience can help them to make the important connections and establish the support network they need to persist in meeting their educational goals. The full paper can be found in the reference section below.

References:

P. Lowenthal, J. Dunlap, C. Snelson (2017). Live Synchronous Web Meetings in Asynchronous Online Courses: Reconceptualizing Virtual Office Hours. Online Learning Journal. Retrieved from https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/1285