1 Synchronous vs Asynchronous Delivery

Given the urgent need to maintain instruction with little time to prepare faculty should first decide on how they want to facilitate class sessions remotely.

Synchronous delivery using Bay Path’s Zoom web conferencing software allows faculty and students to interact in “real time” and it most closely recreates the classroom learning experience. Faculty could continue to meet at the scheduled classroom time but there are limits to the types of activities that are possible and some students may experience technical problems related to wi-fi bandwidth and two-way audio / video exchanges.

Asynchronous delivery is more accessible to students and it provides more time for them to engage with the material. If faculty have a well defined syllabus the transfer of materials is not burdensome and lectures can be pre-recorded using the screencast-o-matic video capture tool. While this method is most common in the online learning world it might be less common to traditional students who could be misdirected by instructions that lack real time directions.

The following article might help you to decide on a primary format. Hrastinski, S. (2008) Asynchronous and Synchronous E-Learning, A study of asynchronous and synchronous e-learning methods discovered that each supports different purposes. EDUCAUSE Quarterly Number 4, 2008.