The online synchronous classroom is widely acknowledged as a learning space that could be described as ‘supercomplex’ both for the teacher (Halissey, 2016; MacDonald & Campbell, 2012) and student (Falloon 2011; López-Pérez, Pérez-López & Rodríguez-Ariza, 2011. This paper seeks to offer insight into one possible approach to support student engagement in such a supercomplex space, referring to the conference topic ‘innovations and design in online blended learning’.
In 2016, the authors engaged in research around student engagement for participants of a Masters programme in which students identified a lack of confidence and the public nature of the online space as factors influencing their contribution to discussion within the synchronous online classroom (Logan & Stone, 2016). Following on from this research, the use of an online debate as a teaching strategy was explored as a possible means of supporting increased confidence levels and to allay fears around speaking publicly in the online space. Students on the 2016-2017 programme were invited to present on specific topics in the online classroom with advance notice of two weeks given and two classes flipped to prepare. Chairs and timekeepers were also recruited from amongst the cohort to facilitate the debates, with guidelines circulated to all students around the structure of the class in advance of the live sessions. Contribution was expected from the entire cohort with clear direction given to those not speaking formally in the debate outlining the expectation of some contribution in terms of comments or questions. This presentation will outline briefly the background and rationale for introducing the online debate, how the debate was managed online and will also present feedback from students on their experience of the online debate.
References:Falloon, G. (2011). Exploring the virtual classroom: What students need to know (and teachers should consider, MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 7(4), pp. 439-451.
Hallissy, M. (2017). Sharing Professional Practice – Tutors have their say, Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning Volume 2 No. 1 Accessed online March 2017 @ http://journal.ilta.ie/index.p...
Logan, A. & Stone, S. (2016). Collaboration between a lecturer and learning technologist to support student transition to and engagement and learning in the synchronous online classroom: Having the best of both worlds. Published in the proceedings of the 10th International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Valencia.
Lopez-Perez,M., Perez-Lopez, M. & Rodriquez-Ariza, L. (2011). Blended learning in higher education: Students’ perceptions and their relation to outcomes. Computers & Education 56, 818–826.
Macdonald, J & Campbell, A. (2012). Demonstrating online teaching in the disciplines. A systematic approach to activity design for online synchronous tuition.British Journal of Educational Technology Vol. 43 No 6, 2012 883–891, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01238.x
