LASC Online: Synchronous Student Contact

a. Opportunity for synchronous questions and answers in a chat room such as the Chat feature in Canvas

b. Web conferencing through Canvas Conferences, ConferZoom, or other virtual meeting platforms

These options allow you to set up online web conferences within Canvas. Then, you can share the information

about how to join the meeting with students and

when it will take place.

Synchronous Student

Contact in Online Classes

Canvas Chat,

ConferZoom, and

Canvas Conferences

From LASC's Regular Effective Contact Policy

Asynchronous Contact

vs. Synchronous Contact

4. Synchronous contact: Part of the weekly effective contact instructors have with students should be synchronous. Instructors should have synchronous contact with students for at least 20 minutes per standard hour in order to answer questions and offer guidance as a kind of online “office hours.”

The course syllabus should clearly state when and how this contact will occur. Examples include:

Synchronous contact is an important part of communicating with students and is now a requirement for all online classes at LASC, per the Regular Effective Contact Policy that was approved by the Academic Senate in November 2016.

ASYNCHRONOUS CONTACT: Contact that doesn't occur in real time (ex: emails, Canvas Inbox, discussion forums)

SYNCHRONOUS CONTACT:

Occurs in real time

Option 1:

Canvas Chat

Option 1:

The Chat Tool in Canvas

In order to make sure Chat is visible and available to students in your Canvas shell:

The Chat tool in Canvas can be used for simple things like answering student questions. You can let students know what time you will be available in the Chat room ahead of time in the course syllabus and through a Canvas message, email, or announcement.

• Go to "Settings" at the bottom left of the screen
• Click on the "Navigation" tab
• Drag "Chat" into the visible navigation area

Option 2:

Web Conferencing

Web Conferencing

Ideas for When to Use

Web Conferencing

One of the best ways to communicate synchronously

is to use one of the web conferencing options that are available in Canvas

• ConferZoom
• Canvas Conferences

You can communicate through audio, video,

digital whiteboard, and chat and even share your screen in order to show something like a Prezi or PowerPoint or to demonstrate how to do something in Canvas.

• To hold online “office hours” every week
• To hold a review session for a test or final exam
• To lecture on a particularly important or

difficult topic; you can share your screen in order

to go over a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation

and explain as you go through the presentation

by sharing your audio. Since you’ll be doing

this in real time, students can ask for

clarification.

There are two web conferencing options

available in Canvas:

Below is a video tutorial that shows how to create and launch ConferZoom meetings within Canvas and outside of Canvas at conferzoom.org

• ConferZoom: This site is provided as a service to the administrators, staff and faculty of the California Community Colleges system.
• Canvas Conferences: Canvas’s tool for hosting web conferences; can only be used by Canvas users, in Canvas

• ConferZoom can be used within Canvas (you can create meetings within Canvas, and students can join within Canvas) or you can create and launch a meeting outside of Canvas at conferzoom.org and send out the meeting information to students

It's best to look at the pros and cons of each option and determine which option

is best for you.

Then, before the start of the term, you can create practice meetings to try out each option and see which you prefer.

ConferZoom is the strongest option because:

• there is no limit to the number of students who can participate in a meeting
• its integration with Canvas is fairly seamless
• you can request live closed captioning (at least 5 business days in advance), so it

can be ADA compliant.

• Canvas Conferences can only be used within Canvas

Documenting

your Interaction

Once you've decided which option to use, include that information in your syllabus, along with when your synchronous contact will occur each week.

• For ConferZoom meetings created in Canvas, the event recordings will be in Canvas (in the ConferZoom area under "Event Recordings")

• You can take screenshots of Chat interactions

• You can record (video) your web conferencing sessions or take screen shots

• You can refer students to recordings of web conferencing meetings, so they can access the information even if they weren't able to "attend"

• For ConferZoom meetings created at conferzoom.org, the recordings will be under "My Recordings" at conferzoom.org

It’s VERY IMPORTANT to document your interaction for accreditation and evaluation purposes!

Thank you for watching!

For more information and resources, please go to:

http://lasc.edu/students/classes-areas-of-study/online_classes/Faculty-Online-Support.html