TA Chat: Maintaining Momentum in the Synchronous Classroom

Register here

Facilitators: Lisa Jong, Instructional Consultant
Location: Online (link will be emailed to registrants)

Does your Zoom room feel empty and quiet? Are you teaching synchronously* and having less student engagement than you’d like? Come chat with us in this hour! We’ll share strategies and activities to help re-energize your online classroom. Whether you teach via Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra or WebEx, you’ll leave with fresh ideas that can help you and your students connect with each other and the content in this final stretch of the semester. This is not a workshop, but rather a collaborative space for current teaching assistants to share resources, challenges, and successes. (And if you’re not currently teaching, you are more than welcome to join the conversation!)

* In a synchronous online class, participants (and often the instructor) interact using a virtual platform at a specific time. Structures include using breakout rooms, small or whole group collaborative documents or whiteboarding tools.

In an asynchronous online class, on the other hand, students work on their own schedule, either independently or collaboratively (but possibly at different times). Asynchronous discussion structures include contributing to online discussion boards, Q&A forums, and collaborative documents or whiteboarding tools. If you are teaching in this environment (or would like some strategies for doing so in the future) check out our next TA Chat: Keeping Students Interacting Asynchronously (linked here) on March 31.