Conducting Research 
A peer reviewed journal or article is an article or journal that has been reviewed by experts in the field and deemed to be worth reading by other professionals. Typically this is an extensive process in which reviewers are carefully vetted for expertise and professional experience. In this assignment, you will have an opportunity to examine a peer reviewed article and apply what you have learned to a professional scenario or activity.

Please refer to the following tutorials for guidance on conducting scholarly research:

• About Scholarly Journals and Online Databases
• How to Conduct Research Using the Ashford Library 

Activity:
Imagine you are the lead for a team of 10 remote employees in an organization. [Note: The organization might be an institution of higher education, a PK-12 school, a corporate initiative, or even a military group. The choice is yours; as you consider this dilemma however, keep the employee/learner audience you have selected in mind!] The 10 employees live across the United States and are therefore in different time zones. There is no budget to bring everyone together physically in the same location. The dilemma is that you need to quickly train your team of 10 on new policies and procedures for your organization about taking leave time. You also need to train everyone how to use the scheduling system for leave time. A few of the employees suggest a meeting with the group using a webinar. Pat, one of your employees, recommends Adobe Connect. Ryan, another employee suggests Blackboard Collaborate. However, you are thinking of free options, such as Skype or similar free software for synchronous interaction given your budgetary restrictions. To prepare for your decision, you decide to review literature about synchronous e-learning.

STEP 1: Review Synchronous Learning Literature
Pat sends you Hrastinski’s (2008) article about asynchronous and synchronous e-learning online and Ryan sends you the McBrien, Jones, and Cheng’s (2009) article on employing synchronous online classrooms for student engagement:

• Hrastinski, S. (2008). Asynchronous and synchronous e-learning. Educause Quarterly, 4, 51-55. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0848.pdf
• McBrien, J. L., Jones, P., & Cheng, R. (2009, June). Virtual spaces: Employing a synchronous online classroom to facilitate student engagement in online learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/605/1264

Although the articles are helpful, you decide you need more current literature about synchronous learning. Therefore, you decide to go to your favorite library (i.e., the Ashford University Library!) to research more current articles about training with synchronous tools.

After reading the articles from Hrastinski (2008) and McBrien, et al (2009), linked above, use to locate at least one more scholarly article about use of synchronous tools for E-Learning and instructional design. The article needs to come from a peer reviewed source (e.g., Journal) and be a full-text article. 

• Tip: Suggested search keywords are “synchronous learning,” “elearning tools,” “synchronous instructional design.”. You should then use this article(s) to support your response in the weekly discussion. Please specify the database where you located the article(s) as part of your APA citation.

STEP 2: Research Specific Tools
Review the following product pages for the three products you are considering to gain more familiarity with each tool in terms of options and pricing. As you review each product, consider how you might design the training for your team of 10 and what features you will want to incorporate based on the literature about designing for synchronous learning you reviewed in Step 1.

• Adobe Connect
• Blackboard Collaborate
• Skype

STEP 3: Write a Response to the Dilemma
Construct a response (e.g., Letter, Email, Video) to your team addressing the suggestions made for webinar training and the tools you’ve considered. The letter must explain your thoughts on the use of a synchronous learning as an eLearning tool and discuss specific trends and issues with instructional design in relation to using synchronous learning. Support your discussion in the response by synthesizing and referring to the literature you reviewed. For the citation of the article you selected, please be sure to include the database where you retrieved the article. If you select a video option, a transcript or closed captioning is required.