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Synchronous Options

Perhaps the most straightforward way to emulate live class discussion is to hold a live meeting virtually via Zoom, UNW's preferred live video conferencing tool. You can meet with your class just like you would in the classroom to provide information and have a discussion. If you have PowerPoint slides that correspond with your lecture, you can open them on your computer and share your screen with students so they can follow along. Zoom allows a feature called Breakout Rooms (not available in Teams). This allows you to break your class into small groups for discussions. You can enter each of the rooms to monitor or participate in the discussions.

Follow the directions below to create a virtual meeting and invite your students.

Whichever method you use, be sure to clearly communicate to students the schedule and expectations for participation, especially if and how any synchronous activities are graded.

Considerations for using Zoom vs Teams

  • Accessibility (auto-closed-captioning): If your students could benefit from captioning, consider recording a lecture and posting it on Microsoft Stream. Microsoft Teams has an automatic live captioning capability for Teams meetings.

How do I set up a synchronous class meeting online?

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titleHow do I host a meeting using Zoom?

Setup a Zoom Meeting

  1. Login to unwsp.zoom.us using your UNW credentials.
  2. Learn how to host a meeting here: /wiki/spaces/IKB/pages/80285624 
  3. Share the link to the meeting with your students via Quickmail, announcement, or another communication method.


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titleHow do I host a meeting using Teams?

Setup a Teams Meeting

  1. Login to teams.office.com using your UNW credentials.
  2. Click "Calendar" in the left sidebar.
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  3. On the Calendar page, click "Meet Now" in the top-right corner to start a private meeting.
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  4. Share an invitation link to the meeting with your students via Quickmail, announcement, or another communication method.
    1. To access an invitation link:
      1. Click "Participants" on the bottom of the meeting screen. This will expand the People sidebar. 
      2. Click the link icon in the People sidebar to copy an invitation link to your clipboard.
      3. Paste the link in your message to students (using "Ctrl+v" on the keyboard or selecting Paste from the Right-click menu)
    1. Learn more about hosting a meeting here: Microsoft Teams Meetings
      1. If you are using the app version of Teams, turn on live captions by choosing the option from the more actions menu (three dots icon). The online version of Teams does not have live caption capability.
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titleBest Practices for Smooth Live Remote Sessions

—From Leslie Morris, M.Ed. at Medical University of South Carolina

  1. Do a Trial Run: A day or two before your first session, invite another faculty member or staff member to do a trial run with you.  Share your screen, go through your slides, use the chat feature, try all features of the program.
  2. Enlist a Helper: Invite a fellow faculty member or staff member, or even a student, to be your "tech support" during your first session.  Have that individual address any tech issues a student may have in the chat board or via email so that you don’t have to interrupt your lecture.
  3. Establish Norms: Think about norms and establish them on Day 1.
    1. Take the first 5 mins to do a technology check with students and ensure all are ready.
      1. Introduce your tech support person.
      2. Explain how to access the tech support person (chat or email).
    1. Take the next 5 mins to discuss norms:
      1. Will participants stay muted throughout the session?  If you’d like students to interact, let them know how and when it’s ok to unmute and discuss or ask questions.
      2. What’s the expectation for the chat board?  Do you want students to use it?  How often will you address questions that may pop up in the chat board?
      3. What about breaks?  How will you know students have returned from a break?  A quick formative question in the chat will let you know all have returned.


Asynchronous Options

If you planned to have students engage in a discussion, you could create an online discussion forum in Moodle.

Create a Forum

If you were planning an in-class discussion, you can use an online forum to facilitate the discussion. Follow these instructions to create a discussion forum:

  1. At the bottom of the current week, add a discussion forum. See Add/Edit Activities & Resources for assistance.
  2. Give the forum and name and write the instructions in the Description textbox. It is recommended that you include the following in your instructions:
    1. Purpose: Why are students engaging in this discussion?
    2. Context: How is this related to the week’s topic and reading assignments?
    3. Instructions: What are students doing?
      1. Prompt: Clearly state the open-ended questions that students should discuss.
      2. Participation: Describe the criteria for participating in the forum. For example, “Create your initial post by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday and reply to at least two other students by 11:59 p.m. by Friday.”
      3. Expectations: Clearly state how you expect students to reply to each other. For example, “Compare your analysis to your classmates’. Identify areas where your perspectives align and possibly differ.”
      4. Grading: Describe how this forum will be graded. What criteria count, and what are quality contributions?
  3. Contact the Online Learning Office for assistance in incorporating this forum into the gradebook.
  4. You can adjust the settings if you wish or leave the default settings.
    • You may want to divide the students into small groups to have the discussion. To learn how to setup a group discussion, see /wiki/spaces/IKB/pages/80282763. 

Ideas for Discussions

  1. Reflection: Watch a video or read an article provided by the instructor, and write a reflection about it.
  2. Response to inciting article or quote: Instruct students to find an article that discusses a given topic. Then, have them post a link to the article and write a reflection.
  3. Open Q&A Forum: Allow students to question their peers and/or instructor about the material that they read this week.
  4. Role Play: Invite students to reflect on what they would think or recommend from the perspective of somebody in a situation related to your course content. Exploring the perspectives of fictional people can empower more substantive discussion, since students may hesitate to argue for or against their own or their peers' actual perspectives.
  5. Debate: Stir some interest by inviting students to debate an intentionally provocative or contentious quote or statement. Set up the discussion forum ahead of time with a thread/topic for posts defending the statement and a separate thread for posts challenging the statement.
    1. Students first post an argument either defending or challenging the statement, in the respective thread.
    2. Require students to reply to posts in the opposing thread with questions, counterexamples, and rebuttals, while also engaging any replies to their own initial post.
    3. Conclude with a third discussion thread asking students "Reflect on how your thinking on this topic changed or refined from the beginning of the discussion to the end.