Synchronous Online Teaching Between Challenges and Opportunities

Synchronous online teaching was by far the most common modality chosen during the academic year 2020–2021. Interaction through a screen is different from face-to-face, but not per se flawed. Conversation analysis and multimodal analysis are used to examine complete and incomplete sequences of triadic dialogue in terms of turn assignment and the combination of oral and written turns. In this analysis, data from field notes are triangulated with teachers’ and students’ perceptions from survey responses. The analysis of sequences of triadic dialogue shows how learners were able to communicate with their teachers, among themselves and with course contents. Teachers’ and students’ comments will integrate the results of conversation analysis to provide a comprehensive insight into the challenges and opportunities experienced in synchronous online settings over the three academic years impacted.