I’ve registered for the A2 PLA course put on by SEFO/ESCO (not sure the proper way to reference the entity) via IAS/PT-Lab and I have a question about the structure of the course.
I found the schedule for the entire course that lists each date on which class is held and the times in which it is held (attached). For example, on Feb 25, class is from 14:00 to 17:15 Lisbon. Then there are a couple of columns that indicate that 2 hours and 15 minutes are synchronous and 1 hour is asynchronous. I know what synchronous and asynchronous mean, but I’d like to hear from someone who has taken one of these classes how that actually works.
Is it that 2h15m of the class are held with the teacher online and then we have to be online 1h afterwords to do work independently, so that it all fits between 14:00 and 17:15? Or does it mean that 2h15m of the time between 14:00 and 17:15 are active “classroom” time where we must be present and then we have to do an hour on our own whenever we want in order to finish whatever work is assigned?
Not looking to dodge class, but knowing how the times actually work will help me schedule my freelance stuff coming up in March.
I’m doing ESCO’s PLA course at the moment. The actual classes are only the parts listed in the synchronous column. The asynchronous parts can be done at any time, and you don’t need to spend an hour doing it.
Each 1-hour block of asynchronous time corresponds to a single task on the Moodle platform. Each “module” has six tasks, which counts for six hours total. So if you fail doing a task that gives you one hour of absence. Each task usually only takes a few minutes to complete, though a few are considerably more time consuming.
Note that the classes often run a bit longer than what’s listed (especially if the teacher shows up a bit late—which in my experience is basically every class), so don’t schedule anything immediately after the end of the class.
Hi Thomas - thanks for that intel. Super helpful. One clarification, if you don’t mind. Where it says, for example, 14:00 - 17:00 with 2:00 S and 1:00 A…does that mean that the class will end roughly 2 hours after it starts (sometime around 16:00)? Or does the online classroom session always last around 3 hours? Thx