Online college courses can lack much-needed student interactions without live synchronous sessions. The need for socialization is particularly important for first-year students and has been of particular concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, when isolation is the new norm outside the classroom. Here we provide a perspective on the use of online synchronous sessions in a first-year biology course that encouraged student-student interactions and employed the culturally responsive teaching approach. We used group assignments, modeled on the jigsaw method, during our meetings and provided extra time outside of the dedicated class period to foster student collaboration, conversation, and social presence. We noted high attendance and participation in the synchronous sessions, suggesting effectiveness of the methods we used in student engagement and satisfaction.

中文翻译：

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在COVID-19大流行期间在线上教的第一年体验课程中促进学生与学生的互动。

如果没有实时同步会话，在线大学课程可能会缺少急需的学生互动。对于一年级学生而言，社交化的需求尤为重要，而在COVID-19大流行期间，隔离已成为教室外的新规范，这一点尤其引起人们的关注。在这里，我们提供了关于在一年级生物学课程中使用在线同步会话的观点，该课程鼓励学生与学生的互动，并采用了文化响应式教学方法。在会议期间，我们采用了基于拼图方法的小组作业，并在课堂上课时间以外提供了额外的时间来促进学生之间的协作，对话和社交氛围。我们注意到同步会议上的出席率和参与度很高，