A brave new Zoom world – planning for online, blended, and hybrid synchronous and asynchronous delivery

In 2020, when the global pandemic forced educational institutions to offer courses online, many opted for synchronous solutions in which the bulk of the instruction took place via a web-conferencing application. A learning management system (such as Moodle) was then used as the repository of digital documents, assessments, and grade books. Students who formerly studied exclusively in face-to-face environments now had to navigate the unfamiliar territory of the online classroom and the learning management system. While it was a positive thing to be able to view one's instructor or classmates online via web-conferencing software such as BigBlueButton, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom, web conferencing alone was not enough. The best design brought together synchronous with asynchronous, with collaboration, interaction, and hands-on guided experimentation incorporated into the learning...