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� �BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH SYNCHRONOUS SESSIONS�

PATRICE TORCIVIA PRUSKO

LORETTE PELLETTIERE CALIX

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SCHEDULE

9:00 - 9:20 INTRODUCTIONS

 

9: 20 - 10:00 THE SYNCHRONOUS SESSION

 

10:00 – 10:40 LEADING A SYNCHRONOUS SESSION

 

10:40 – 10:55 BREAK

10:55 – 11:15 SELECTING THE RIGHT TOOL

 

11:15 – 11:45 SHARING

 

11:45 – 12:00 CLOSING

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ESC PARTNERS

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UNAPEC – Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - since 2007

Quality Leadership University (QLU) – Panama City, Panama - since 2009

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THE SYNCHRONOUS SESSION

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SAMPLE COURSE COLLABORATION

Duration 2-3 weeks

Initial asynchronous icebreaker

2-3 Virtual sessions

Asynchronous discussion in between virtual sessions

Team written assignment

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ADVANTAGES AND CONSTRAINTS

Scheduling

Tech Issues

Not Flexible

Language

Increased Presence

Community

Body Language

Practice

All Century Skills

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THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUAL MEETINGS

FACULTY VIEWS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUAL MEETINGS

Contribute to the student learning experience

100%

Increase student engagement with coursework

83%

Help instructors feel substantially more connected to the students

71%

Greater instructor satisfaction with courses including virtual meetings

83%

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PRE-SESSION

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GETTING READY:

PLANNING

TECHNOLOGY

FEATURES

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3 PREPARATION:

  • Pre-session communications
  • Agenda
  • Roles/ responsibilities
  • Practice

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2 DESIGN:

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  • Objectives/ Outcomes
  • Activities
  • Materials/Tools
  • Expectations
  • Assessment

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COURSE DESIGN

  • �What do you want students to be able to do at the end of your course? �
  • What evidence do you need to know they achieve your learning outcomes (assessment)?

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  • What content do you need to provide (activities/lectures/readings…)

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  • What is main objective of course and how do international competencies fit?

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SESSION DESIGN

  • Remember: synchronous sessions are all about building community.
  • What are your objectives for the session?
  • What content do you want to cover?
  • What type of interaction would you like students to have?

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SMALL GROUP WORK

With a partner:

  • Choose courses that would work together in a collaboration
  • Discuss how a collaboration contributes to the learning objectives of your courses
  • Develop one or two learning outcomes for a synchronous session as part of the collaboration. How do these support your course goals?

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LEADING A SYNCHRONOUS SESSION

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LEADING

PRE-

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  • Open early; sound checks.
  • Chat with early arrivals
  • If there is no video, post photos.
  • Check for messages.

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DURING

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  • Start and end on time.
  • Break for activities .
  • Introduce different voices.
  • Give both sides equal time.
  • Track participation; bring in non-participants.
  • Periodically ask how things are going.
  • Announce follow-up activities.

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HOW WILL YOU DO IT DIFFERENTLY?

Learning Experience

Case studies

Small group work

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

  • Use whiteboard or chat box to capture questions/muddiest point
  • Annotate, highlight, draw
  • Crossword, Jeopardy, Case Study, Wordle
  • Debate, Mock Trial, Role play
  • Small group discussion
  • Have students watch a video before or during class
  • Guest lecture
  • Virtual Field Trip
  • Interviews

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WHITEBOARD

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CLASSROOM TO CLASSROOM

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VIRTUAL SESSION

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EVERYONE AT A DISTANCE

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SMALL GROUP WORK

  • Design a one hour synchronous session to meet your learning outcomes.
  • What format (classroom to classroom, individual, etc.)?
  • Facilitators and presenters?
  • Agenda
  • Activities (Interactive elements) and their purpose
  • What pre-session preparation is necessary for participants? (readings, videos, etc.)

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SAMPLE SESSION AGENDA

PRE-SESSION

  • Make sure students have materials.
  • Have a discussion/chat moderator
  • Remind to run sound check; chat with early arrivals
  • Have video on or provide picture

DURING SESSION:

  • “House keeping” items
  • Introductions
  • Start with something that will grab their attention
  • Break presentation up into chunks. Interaction around every 10 minutes.
  • Summarize next steps
  • Set up asynchronous activity to continue discussion

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SELECTING THE RIGHT TOOL

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CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING A TOOL

  • What equipment do you have?
  • Learning objectives
  • Experience (classroom to classroom, individual participants, guest speaker)
  • Quality expectations/needs
  • Support
  • Technology restrictions
  • Budget

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USEFUL TOOLS AND RESOURCES

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STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF TOOLS

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FACULTY PERCEPTIONS OF TOOLS

FACULTY PERCEPTION OF TOOLS

TOOLS USED IN ORDER OF FREQUENCY OF USE

EASE OF USE

CONTRIBUTION TO STUDENT LEARNING

Blogs

Very easy, intuitive - 100%

Very helpful 80%; somewhat helpful 20%

Other Virtual Meeting Tools

Very easy, intuitive - 50%; Easy once learned - 50%

Very helpful 50%; did not hurt nor help 50%

Google Docs

Very easy, intuitive - 50%; Easy once learned - 50%

Somewhat helpful 100%

Skype

Very easy, intuitive - 100%

Very helpful 100%

Google Chat/ Hangout

Very easy, intuitive - 100%

Very helpful 100%

Facebook

Very easy, intuitive - 100%

Did not hurt nor help 100%

Wikis

Very easy, intuitive - 100%

Somewhat helpful 100%

Blackboard Collaborate

Very easy, intuitive - 67%; Easy once learned - 33%

Very helpful 100%

NOTE: Percentages calculated over number who used each tool

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SMALL GROUP WORK

  • Choose a tool that has the features you need for the activities you planned and will support the format you have chosen

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  • Plan logistics for the session (day, time, length, tech support (consider time zone, student schedules), where, connectivity issues, speakers and other equipment, etc.)

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SHARE

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Present the sessions you’ve designed.

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POST -SESSION

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FOLLOW-UP

  • Establish ways to continue sharing: Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, blog, etc.
  • Asynchronous discussion forums and/or assignments.
  • Collect and analyze post-collaboration surveys
  • Review the session with your collaborators: What worked well? What could have been better?

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VALUE CREATION

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(Wenger, Trayner, & de Laat as cited in Bozarth, 2012, para. 3)

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QUESTIONS?

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CONTACT INFORMATION

Patrice Torcivia Prusko

pat68@cornell.edu

patrice.torcivia@gmail.com

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Lorette Pellettiere Calix

Lorette.Calix@esc.edu

lpcalix@gmail.com

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MORE INFORMATION

SUNY COMMONS:

http://commons.suny.edu/iitg/virtual-study-abroad-student-engagement-international-interaction-using-meeting-mobile-tools/

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PROJECT WEB SITE:

http://commons.esc.edu/virtualtermabroad/

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THANK YOU!

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PROJECT GOALS

  • Opportunity for all students to participate in a virtual term abroad
  • Analyze use of virtual tools and mobile technology
  • Promote cross cultural and/or international interaction

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PROCESS

  • Organize course collaborations
  • Qualitative and quantitative analysis of discussion forums and virtual sessions
  • Pre and Post surveys
  • Interviews and Focus groups

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TAKEAWAY #1

VISUAL MATTERS

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Being able to see and hear one another promoted more interaction and kept students more focused

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TAKEAWAY #2

USE MOBILE FRIENDLY TOOLS

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60% of students who used mobile devices said they felt the ability to access collaboration activities via mobile devices increased the time they spent on the course (29% of all student participants).

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TAKEAWAY #4

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ALWAYS HAVE A “PLAN B”

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TAKEAWAY #3

A TEXT BOX IS IMPORTANT

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      • Backchanneling
      • Technical problems
      • No microphone

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FACULTY OPINION: DO IT AGAIN?

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LESSONS LEARNED

  • Icebreaker
  • Close communication
  • Collaboration part of course grade
  • Interactive virtual sessions
  • Faculty training/student orientation
  • Advance notice of virtual meeting schedule

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GETTING READY

  • Allow plenty of time for planning.
  • Dry run on the equipment you will use in the room you will be.
  • It’s all about the audio, make sure it works.
  • Explore all the features the tool has to offer
  • Practice, practice and practice some more
  • Be organized and have an agenda
  • Remember it is all about building community
  • Make it fun and interactive
  • Messy is ok

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STEPS

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Students should know schedule prior to start of course

Any readings/assignments that need to be done should be given 1 week prior to session

Send e-mail out with information on log in and call in 3 days ahead

Open session 15 minutes early and ask participants to log in early and run sound check

Think about how you will facilitate. Make sure students on both sides have an equal chance to speak.

Which teacher will lead the session?

Make sure everyone gets a chance to speak, you may want to set a time limit

Share, share, share to continuously learn

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THE SESSION

  • Remind to run sound check
  • Introductions
  • “house keeping” items
  • Just like you would in a presentation or paper start with something that will grab their attention
  • Break presentation up into chunks. Every 10-15 minutes you should stop for discussion/break out sessions/activities.
  • Keep it interactive (poll, whiteboard, share in textbox)
  • Have video on or provide picture
  • Make sure students have easy access to all materials needed for session before session
  • Have a discussion/chat moderator
  • Good to have more than one voice

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SUCCESSFUL?

  • Success is “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose”.
  • Define success for students; faculty and institution/departments
  • All students come with different experiences and different background.
  • When teaching collaboratively both teachers should discuss how they will define success���