When to Teach Online Classes Live and When to Let Students Learn on Demand

When Elizabeth Self starts teaching her 11 a.m. class via Zoom, she has to remember that it isn’t 11 a.m. for all of her students. She’s in Tennessee—where she is an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University—but some of the students she’s teaching are now taking the class from California, where it��s only 8 a.m. And a couple of students are back home in China, where it’s midnight. Even when students are all in the same time zone—such as for most K-12 schools and community colleges—getting to a live online class on time can be challenging for those who live in households where there aren’t enough computers or tablets for every learner, or where the internet connection isn’t robust enough.