Having spent many hours in online training, my experience was that lecturing to students was both boring, uninspiring and didn't really provide a true learning experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred many educators to adapt their face-to-face class activities to synchronous online sessions.  

At the start of the pandemic, Glenn College instructor Mark Barbash kept his course plans the same, simply delivering the two weekly class sessions for Public Affairs 4030: Public Budgeting through CarmenZoom. But he found the result “profoundly unsatisfying” as an instructor and for his students.  

Going into autumn 2021, Barbash transformed his learning activities to better foster and support student participation in a synchronous online setting. His previous in-person lectures became pre-recorded short videos and readings for students to explore independently, and he cut down from two synchronous Zoom meetings per week to one.

For the Zoom session, he planned small-group activities that focused on real-life application of the week’s material and allowed students to interact more closely with their peers. Active learning activities included interactive online simulations, case studies, and discussion questions about key topics and challenges in the budgeting profession. Afterward, the class came together to report out their ideas, and students could access collaborative notes capturing contributions from each small group.  

Mid-semester surveys showed that students appreciated the many opportunities to engage with their peers. One student wrote, “I think that our breakout rooms are a good way to facilitate conversation between the students. It helps us to have a better connection."