5. Fortnightly synchronous Q&A session

Advertising a time where academic staff will be available online for a general discussion and Q&A about what is coming up in the subject is appreciated by students, particularly as assessment looms. For students who cannot attend the live session, you can provide ways to ask questions in advance and make responses available in a recording.

How to implement this in your subject

Step one: select and prepare your synchronous tools

If using Zoom:

• Enable Zoom in your LMS subject
• Ask any teaching staff to install and familiarise themselves with Zoom.

If using another tool: Ensure you have student- and staff-facing instructions on how to use the technology.

Step two: consider timing and schedule your sessions

Use the LMS Calendar to add the sessions to the LMS calendar. Depending on the tools you have chosen, include Zoom links, email address and links to technology support. If using Zoom, choose one of the following options:

• For sessions open to full cohorts: See the guide on how to schedule a Zoom session through the LMS.
• For sessions for tutorial groups: See this guide on how to schedule meetings in Zoom. If scheduling for tutors, ensure you don’t use your Personal Meeting Room, and assign them as alternative hosts.

Step three: set up forum for questions

Consider how you would like students to ask their questions. It is useful to provide ways that they can send questions in advance, particularly if they cannot attend the live session and plan to watch the recording. It also allows you to prepare your responses, along with any supporting resources. You could:

• Create a discussion in the LMS for students to post questions. You can streamline your workload by allowing students to ‘like’ other students’ questions, rather than repeating it. Following the session you can upload the recording to the discussion.
• Create a pre-session survey in the LMS. This could include free text fields for student questions and also Likert scale questions on areas of priority.
• Create a poll in Zoom to run at the beginning of the session.

Step four: prepare for and run your synchronous session

• It can be useful to send an LMS announcement as a reminder the day before the session.
• Prepare your responses to prior questions, along with any resources or links to share on screen or in chat.
• Set up a quiet and organised space where possible. If using Zoom, log in to the meeting room and ensure it is working as expected.
• Remember to record the session to make available to students afterwards.
• Provide a combination of supportive and constructive feedback, so the student (and other students watching) feel inclined to give answers to future questions. Find out more about strategies and skills for small group teaching in Melbourne CSHE Sessional Teachers’ handbook. Be mindful of the way you respond to individual students, and how your feedback may be received, as is not easy to interpret body language in synchronous sessions.

Step five: follow up after the session

• Make the recording available in the LMS.
• Follow up on questions you were not able address in the sessions. Find links to relevant student support resources and share these in a an LMS announcement, discussion or ‘mail bag’ video .
• Sometimes you may want to schedule one-on-ones or small group meetings following the session. You can use the LMS Scheduler to invite students to sign up for an appointment within your virtual office hours or other set times.