Faculty question #6 How did you balance synchronous and asynchronous connections and collaboration?

Bill Machold, MM,
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MUSIC, DIRECTOR OF BANDS
I’ll use two courses as examples. Music Appreciation, which is a Bonaventure course for non-majors, was done without any Zoom meetings. I designed a series of weekly content questions that required the students to find answers in the course PowerPoint slides or through outside sources. Answers had to be submitted by Thursday of each week at which point I read through the responses and provided feedback, which was promptly emailed back to the student. The assignments were graded. Those students also had a paper on a major composer due by the end of the semester and a quiz on course content to complete online. I maintained regular communication with the students and answered promptly whenever a student had a question. I thought that creating a consistent routine in that manner was important for this group of students. For Music Theory II, which is a requirement for music majors, we met through Zoom usually once per week with assignments due to be submitted through Moodle at various points. Music Theory requires quite a bit of physical demonstration on a music staff. I recorded all Zoom interactions so that the students could go back and review if necessary. If the students needed extra time or help, we arranged a Zoom meeting to address it.
Brian D. Royer,
MS, LMHC, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE		 I offered a Zoom meeting at least once per week but also videotaped lectures that were then available at any time on Moodle, for students to access anytime.
Anna Shajirat, PhD,
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH		 The work for my classes was entirely asynchronous. I took this approach to create equitable learning conditions for every student. In the midst of the crisis, many students started working extra hours at their jobs, became responsible for childcare and/or caring for family members, and did not have reliable access to high-speed internet. To accommodate all students without putting pressure on anyone to share their hardships with me, I had students collaborate asynchronously via online discussion boards and did not include any synchronous video chats.
Minerva Cruz,
PhD, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
OF HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION		 My classes were asynchronous. It would have been hard to do synchronous connections and collaboration with graduate students, given that most students are working in full-time jobs and might have family obligations. I applied the same to undergraduate students, given that they could be facing similar situations during the pandemic.
Kimberly Hale, PhD, CHAIR,
DIVISION OF SCIENCES AND
TECHNOLOGY; PROFESSOR
OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES		 I tried to keep my classes as close to the way they were formatted as possible. I did this to provide familiarity and stability for students. I had synchronous meetings (Via Google meet) for most of my classes, but recorded them and posted them for students to watch later. Students were not required to attend the synchronous meetings but most times I had 90% or above attendance. Many students were engaged and asked questions as if we were in the classroom.
Eylsia Mahoney, MS,
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SPORT MANAGEMENT		 We met via Google Meet once per week during our class time. It was important to check in with them, go over lectures, and answer questions. Other communication was through email, phone calls, and text. I spent significantly more time working with students individually the last 8 weeks of the semester.