Title: The Power of Syncronous Sessions in Distance Education: Building Community and Resilience in the Age of COVID-19
Stream: Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Roxana Toma, State University of New York Empire State College, United States
Ali Ait Si Mhamed, State University of New York Empire State College, United States
Abstract:
The COVID-19 disaster has come to college with astonishing speed. Within weeks of reopening, many universities in the U.S. had reported clusters of cases, forcing schools to frantically backtrack on their plans of reopening face-to-face and suspend in-person classes. The shift online has also accelerated fundamental questions about the future of higher education in light of globalization and the emergence of a 'global education policy field'. While online courses have been increasingly gaining credibility, many argue that with online classes, learning outcomes often disappoint, and that virtual instruction runs counter to the most important asset at a major university: personal interaction with faculty and their peers. This is where we come in. We bring social capital theory and Bourdieu’s work on the sociology of education in the often-misunderstood, one-sided narrative of online learning, which is seen as both an isolated and deeply isolating experience. Our contribution is threefold. First, we introduce the idea of building social capital in an online environment. Second, we look at praxis – informed, committed action, to address socially differentiated educational attainment, which is perceived to be more pronounced in online learning. Lastly, we draw on our experience teaching online courses to highlight the powerful added benefits of holding regular synchronous sessions in online courses, particularly for teaching research-based and analytical subjects in the graduate programs.
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