Designing Learning Resources in Synchronous Learning Environments: some considerations and examples

Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) and synchronous learning environments offer new solutions for teachers and students that transcend the singular one-way transmission of content knowledge from teacher to student. CMC makes it possible not only to teach computer mediated but also to design and create new learning resources targeted to a specific group of learners.
This paper addresses the possibilities of designing learning resources within synchronous learning environments. The empirical basis is a cross-country study involving students and teachers in primary schools in three Nordic Countries (Denmark, Sweden and Norway). On the basis of these empirical studies a set of design examples is drawn with the purpose of showing how the design fulfills the dual purpose of functioning as a remote, synchronous learning environment and - using the learning materials used and recordings of learning sessions - developing a repository of online asynchronous learning resources.

In the course of developing a design several important restraints of CMC were identified that had significant impact on the design choices made. Among these were the need to design sessions as sequences and identifying trade-offs between design choices such as rights and privileges of participants. Focus is also placed on the importance of multiple channels of communication (seeing, writing, hearing) as a means of understanding.