Online learning is very appealing because of the asynchronous nature of the learning process. Students have the flexibility to post at a time that is convenient for them, offering a number of advantages in terms of managing school, work, family and other personal commitments at the same time. In module 4 we were asked to participate in a synchronous event. I chose the Moodle Chat feature and took part in a scheduled session on a Thursday evening with my professor and 1 other student. We chatted for approximately 15 minutes and I enjoyed the activity and found it useful. I had used chat features in courses prior to this, both as a student and as an instructor. The moodle chat was a bit different in layout than the chat featured on the system we have at my college but essentially the features were the same. One of the things I learned how to do during this synchronous chat was post a link to an article, website or blog right into the chat and then have other students click on the link and make comments about it, live, during the chat. It may sound simple enough, but I had no idea that could be done. I decided to utilize the chat feature as part of a class assignment in a course I am currently teaching and instead of having students participate in asynchronous online discussion forums for the entire week to discuss a couple of topics, I am going to set up specific times for them to participate in an online chat to share the links with others and offer some analysis of the articles. An interesting article about the use of synchronous tools in online courses can be found here. You can also see a quick video on using moodle chat here.
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