Online teaching: A rich pedagogical approach

Contributors: Catherine Braithwaite – History, Chantale Giguère – French,
Daniel Goldsmith – Humanities, Selma Hamdani – Psychology, Reisa Levine – Cinema-Communications
Posted on: Academic Matters: Communicate – Connect – Collaborate (Dawson College Publication)
Date: Sept 2019

The E-learning Fellows group met regularly during the winter 2019 semester to reflect on online pedagogy and explore tools to develop and implement online activities. Although we started only a few months ago, we would like to share some of our reflections and experiences, as well as clarify some aspects of online teaching at Dawson.

Definitions – What do we mean by an online course? While a variety of definitions coexist in different education systems, here are a few basic ones that we use at Dawson.

An online lesson is one that is conducted entirely online and can take one of two forms: synchronous or asynchronous.
Synchronous lessons occur in real time, on a web conferencing platform, during the scheduled course time.
With asynchronous lessons, videos and other learning materials are posted online and students can complete them whenever they choose, within a specified time frame. A good asynchronous lesson includes both online activities and interaction requirements, to ensure that students fulfill course competencies individually or in groups.