Read time: 3 minutes   

In this post, we will go through how to design a dual delivery session that’s equally engaging for students in the classroom and those joining remotely. 

As with face-to-face or online only teaching, the key to designing an engaging dual delivery class is to design for interaction. With dual delivery, an additional step is to tailor interactive activities for both online and face-to-face students to participate equitably. Let’s explore how we might achieve this. 

Step #1 – Use the time wisely  

The first step to designing an engaging dual delivery class is to decide what to include in your synchronous (or live teaching) session and what to deliver asynchronously (through your course Wattle site, kuraCloud etc.). 

Activities that require students to interact with and learn from each other, such as discussing and debating ideas, solving problems and answering questions, are a much better use of synchronous class time than transmissive lectures. Material that can be delivered asynchronously can be moved to a pre- or post-class activity through a pre-recorded video, kuraCloud lesson, or self-paced quiz.

Step #2 – Break it up into activities  

Instead of a long lecture, aim to have 3-4 chunks of 15-20 minutes each in a one-hour session, which intersperse content delivery with interactive activities. Here are three ideas for interactive activities that use online tools to engage in-class and online students:

Polling

Polling is an ideal activity for dual delivery classes as online and in-class students can participate equally effectively with no modifications required. You could use a poll at the beginning of a class to gauge students’ prior knowledge of a topic, after a mini-lecture to check their understanding or to collect information about students’ preferences, viewpoints or feedback.

We recommend using the ANU licensed polling tool Poll Everywhere. Here is a simple guide on how to use Poll Everywhere.

Group discussion

Have the in-class students physically form small groups, and assign the online students into Zoom breakout rooms. Then have all groups share their answers or ideas from the discussion online so all students can see each other’s work.

We recommend checking out Padlet for sharing ideas and answers. Padlet is a virtual whiteboard that allows students to comment on each other’s work, thereby replicating some of the interactions that would occur in a face-to-face whole class discussion. Here is a simple guide on how to use Padlet.

You could also use a shared OneNote or a Wattle discussion forum for students to share their work.

Backchannel

A backchannel is an effective way for in-class and online students to communicate with each other during a dual delivery session, and replicates the social interactions that occur during face-to-face teaching. Students may use the backchannel to discuss questions, clarify muddy points, share ideas and resources etc.

We recommend using the Chat activity in Wattle as a backchannel. Wattle Chat replicates the Chat feature in Zoom, but allows students to keep contributing asynchronously after the class has ended, and access the Chat logs after the Chat has ended.

Depending on how you would like students to use the backchannel, you could use also use a Padlet or PollEverywhere Q&A activity.

Q: Have you tried any of these interactive activities in your teaching? What factors would contribute to their success in a dual delivery class?

Please use the comment function below to share your thoughts with us.

Step #3 – Plan the details 

Consider how each cohort would access and participate in the activities. The following are examples of some key considerations for each activity: 

Activity	Considerations
Mini-lecture	Do all students have access to the PowerPoint slides? Do online students have access to high resolution images of objects used in demonstrations?
Online Poll	Do all students have the link to access the online poll? Do in-class students have a device to participate in the poll? Can all students see the poll results?
Group discussion	Have you set-up break out rooms for your online students in advance, or factored in time for this during your session? Do all students know where to find the discussion prompt? Do all students have the link to the Padlet or shared document?

Your lesson plan should include timings and details of the activities you’ve planned. Here is a sample lesson plan that includes mini-lectures and interactive activities tailored to in-person, online, and asynchronous students. 

Step #4 – Start small  

We have discussed several tools and activities for engaging students in a dual delivery class, but it’s important to not overwhelm yourself or your students with many new tools or approaches at one time! 

Keep things simple to begin with: implement ONE of these activities in your next dual delivery session and keep practicing until you and your students become familiar with it. Once you feel confident in this activity, try incorporating another one. 

It is a good idea to communicate with your students your reasons for trying a new approach and your expectations of them, and obtain feedback from students on how they are finding the new approach. 

If you’d like help designing your dual delivery courses or using any of the tools we’ve discussed, please get in touch with the TELT team at elearning.medicalschool@anu.edu.au.

In our next and final post in the TELT Tips series on dual delivery, we will discuss how to create engagement asynchronously.  

Resources

Derek Bruff. “Active Learning in Hybrid and Physically Distanced Classrooms”. Vanderbilt University, 11 June 2020. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2020/06/active-learning-in-hybrid-and-socially-distanced-classrooms/

Yael Grushka-Cockayne. “How to Design and Teach a Hybrid Class”. Harvard Business Publishing, 19 August 2020. https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/how-to-design-and-teach-a-hybrid-class

Monash University, 2021. “Hybrid-Concurrent teaching activities”. https://www.monash.edu/learning-teaching/teaching-resources/search/user-guides/hyrbrid-teaching-activities

Dan Levy. “The Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Balancing Act”. Harvard Business Publishing, 7 August 2020. https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/the-synchronous-vs-asynchronous-balancing-act