A common misconception is that online courses are going to be easier than face-to-face courses, but if you ask anyone that takes an online course, they will quickly dispel this myth. Typically, the course content and learning goals do not vary across modalities, but what does change is how the courses provide opportunities for students to learn. Classroom-based learning often involves readings, synchronous discussions, homework submissions, presentations, and then summative assessment measures (i.e., exams or projects). How does this differ in the online modality? This post will address ways in which to strike the balance between synchronous and asynchronous course components all the while meeting your learning objectives and students’ expectation of workload.

University policies: Fully online modality

Most universities have written policies regarding what constitutes a fully-online course, including the amount of course per week required for each credit hour, and what percentage of the course credit hours can be synchronous and what percentage is required to be asynchronous. In the strictest of designs, a fully-online course must be 100% asynchronous, however, that will vary by the institution. For example, some universities stipulate that in order to be considered a fully-online course, it must deliver at least 80% of the course load asynchronously, which then leaves 20% of the course open to optionally be delivered in a synchronous format.

Online design: The purpose of synchronous sessions

One question to ask yourself before assigning any synchronous work is ‘is the other person (or people) necessary in order to meet the goals of the task?’. If the answer is yes, then the next step is to determine the length of time and modality to be used. For some of my fully online courses, I require students to meet for fifteen minutes with two other students synchronously using the Recordable Video Chat (RVC) in Connect. I use the RVCs in my language courses (i.e., Spanish I, Spanish II) and students are prompted to do something such as telling their partners the steps involved in preparing a particular food (i.e., guacamole) without stating what dish it is. Based on their instructions, the group members have to guess what dish they are preparing. Another type of assignment involves sessions that require these same group members to meet with me to complete a task, such as asking questions about our weekly schedules and determining when we could all meet for coffee. These tasks are all designed to be completed in 15 minutes or less and in each case, the other group members are necessary to complete the task. 

University policies: Hybrid-course modality

The issue of university mandated-policies also applies to the hybrid format – in a conservative design, a course might have 25% of the course consist of online class preparation work and 75% be in person in the classroom. In a more liberal design, there could be upwards of 51% time in person and the remaining 49% consisting of online work. Most universities describe the various course designs offered, and as such additional fees might be incurred depending on the course design. As such, you will want to document the estimated amount of time for any online work assigned so that course can truly be hybrid. 

Hybrid design: What type of coursework to have online?

At this point, the question to ask yourself is what type of, and how much, online coursework should students complete prior to class time in order to best prepare them for the in-person sessions. I tend to assign only the automatically graded in Connect as a way to prepare students for class. I assign strict 8:00am deadlines, however you could opt to provide right up until class time as a deadline (i.e., if your class meets at 10:30am, set your deadlines for 10:29am). In the automatically graded pre-class work, I include video tutorial, multiple choice questions, true / false questions, fill-in-the blank questions, as well as the Adaptive Learning Assignments (ALA). The ALAs ensure that students arrive to class having demonstrated proficiency at the level set in Connect. One additional advantage of using Connect activities, is that I can quantify how much time students spend on these assignments and concomitantly have the data to support the hybrid course design if the administration were to ask for documentation.