# Digital Classroom When learning face-to-face professors and students meet in class for lectures and to discuss readings, debate etc. But students also read to prepare for class in the library, or work on their written work in, say, a coffee shop. Thus some learning happens together at the same time (synchronous learning), and some other learning happens "asynchronously" – on the student's own time (e.g. writing papers, doing readings etc.). When a course is online, this division between synchronous/ asynchronous and group/ individual learning also happens. We will spend some time together in videoconference lectures led by the professor and small group learning led by the teaching assistant(s) via [MS Teams](/the-making-of-the-middle-ages/course-info/digital-tools/teams.md) platform. At other times, we might post a short piece to introduce a topic and then you respond or do some work on your own time You might want to attend "office hours" (i.e. meet one-on-one with the professor or teaching assistant) or work together in a group of your students via[ MS Teams](/the-making-of-the-middle-ages/course-info/digital-tools/teams.md). You will do readings and complete assignments on your own time. We want to make this class to be like an in-person classroom, but this requires students to be open to interacting together online in new environments and with new people. Actually, you students are probably far more at ease with this than I am (whose digital life began with [Pong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong)), so maybe I'll be the one worrying more about this state of affairs... --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://marc-saurette.gitbook.io/the-making-of-the-middle-ages/course-info/syllabus/communication/digital-classroom.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.