Asynchronous learning activities are individual or collaborative learning activities that you can plan for your students, and that they can engage in at their own pace and when it fits in with their other activities. Therefore, this is the most flexible way of carrying out online course activities both for you and the students.
Suggestions for teaching and learning activities
We recommend making your video lectures available via a discussion board or the Media Gallery in itslearning. In that way, your students will have the possibility to ask questions relating to your video lectures. You can also pose questions to your students to engage them in active learning.
There are several ways of recording video (lectures, presentations, introductions etc.) using the hardware and software you already have access to. Below, you’ll see the possibilities and detailed guides.
Technical instructions for this activity:
- How to record video lectures - Complete guide
- Hardware and software needed to record a video
- How to install Kaltura Capture (Kaltura Capture)
- Kaltura Capture - Getting Started (Kaltura Capture)
- Recording slideshows in PowerPoint (Microsoft Office 365)
- How to upload videos to the Mymedia tab (itslearning)
- How to make your video lecture available in itslearning
- How to comment on videos in itslearning’s Media Gallery
- How to add a discussion board activity (itslearning)
- Add a video to a page in itslearning
Encourage active engagement
By providing your introduction as a short video you can encourage the students to take active engagement in the planned activities for the lesson. It is also a easy way for the students to get an overview of the lessons activities - and to get started.
Try to talk to the students by talking to the camera and use full-size video, not just a talking head "behind" a PowerPoint slide.
Technical instructions for this activity:
If you do case-based teaching in your courses, you can follow the plan below to conduct your case-based teaching online instead:
- Break your plan for the case-based lesson down into separate activities and prepare instructions for students:
Write clear and precise instructions for your students so they know what to do, where to do it online and when to do it. We recommend that you include the following in the instructions to your students.- Your introduction to the case and the planned activities.
You can provide your introduction as text, video or audio. - One or more resources/texts and questions, students should study.
- An activity where students work with the case online, individually, in pairs or groups.
- Students work with the case and provide answers to the questions posed.
- Students upload their answers to a discussion board, e.g.
- They provide feedback to two fellow students or groups.
- They review the feedback received and comment on the helpfulness of the feedback/lessons learnt.
- A discussion board where students can ask questions in relation to the case work.
- Collective feedback on students’ work.
Skim students’ contributions and write an announcement where you list the good points and points that could be improved/are missing. You can also record your collective feedback on video and embed this in an announcement.
Use Plans in your course in itslearning to set up the case-based lesson you have planned. Below we refer to your case-based lesson as a learning path.
- Your introduction to the case and the planned activities.
- Create an announcement and inform students of the availability of the case-based lesson and its activities. Monitor students’ progress in Blackboard, send reminders, answer questions.
We suggest setting up a separate discussion board forum - a Q&A forum - for questions from students, e.g. in the first Topic in your course in itslearning.
- When you reach the deadline, you have set for completing the activities, you can create an announcement in which you thank students for their engagement and wrap up the lesson.
Follow the model below in case you need to facilitate student presentations online (asynchronously).
Overview: Teacher introduces the activity. Students present a topic individually or in groups via a discussion board in itslearning – they can upload a PowerPoint presentation or record their presentations and upload them as videos to the discussion board. If you want your students to record their presentation on video, you can make this guide for Recording video using Kaltura Capture in itslearning (LINK indsættes) available to them. Each student or group provides feedback to two fellow students or groups. Students review and reflect on feedback received. The teacher ends the activity.
- Break your plan for the student presentations down into separate activities and provide instructions for students:
Write clear and precise instructions for your students so they know what to do, where to do it online and when to do it.- Your introduction to the activity, its purpose and the different steps.
You can provide your introduction as text, video or audio. See this guide for recording video (LINK indsættes). - Select texts/topics. Divide students into groups if needed. Allocate texts/topics to groups.
- Create an overview of who will be giving feedback to whom.
- Prepare a rubric (LINK indsættes) that students can use to provide each other with feedback.
Set up a discussion board (LINK indsættes) for the student presentations in your course in itslearning. If you have recorded video, follow this guide to make the video available to students in your course in itslearning (LINK indsættes).
- Your introduction to the activity, its purpose and the different steps.
- Create an announcement and inform students of the activity and explain how they get started.
- Monitor students’ progress in itslearning, send reminders, answer questions.
We suggest setting up a separate discussion board forum - a Q&A forum - for questions from students, e.g. in the first Topic in your course in itslearning
- When you reach the deadline, you have set for completing the activity, you can create an announcement in which you thank students for their engagement and wrap up the activity. You can provide collective feedback on students’ work. Skim their presentations and feedback and write an announcement or a post in the discussion board, where you list the good points and points that could be improved/are missing. You can also record your collective feedback on video and embed this in an announcement or in the discussion board.