Combining Synchronous and Asynchronous Elearning Tools in Distance Education – Experiences from a Course for Developing Countries

Distance learning requires a specific effort of addressing the students: Students motivation has to be kept up high throughout the course via interesting and diversified teaching material and methods. Experiences from distance courses held in asynchronous teaching mode showed that this is difficult over a longer period. Adding live online interaction using a virtual classroom system for synchronous teaching generated positive effects in terms of student’s motivation and engagement. An already established eight weeks distance course using Blackboard learning system has been brushed up with live online interaction using Elluminate Live!, a real-time virtual classroom that allows live interactions. Scheduled at strategic moments throughout the course, these live sessions help to cover important topics in detail and to keep the motivation of the students high throughout the course. The share of drop outs during the course was considerably decreased compared to previous courses. Technical problems related to synchronous approach with developing countries in terms of limited internet access or low bandwidth could be alleviated by modifying the pedagogical approach implemented.