For just-in-time teaching to be truly effective, students must be given activities that are truly reflective of their understanding of content material. This means that the activities should require application of the material, not simply regurgitation of facts. In the online setting, application activities may include wiki posts where students discuss how the information applies to their real life, podcasts of digital slide shows about the topic or a short essay quiz.
Just-in-time activities almost always require students to review the material before completing the given assignment. To ensure that students have ready access to the necessary materials, virtual classroom teachers must either select materials that are accessible online, such as journals or eBooks, or have all course materials shipped to students prior to beginning the course. Because just-in-time teaching is so time-sensitive, teachers cannot allow students to turn in assignments late due to lack of necessary materials.
Just-in-time teaching absolutely requires that instructors review the work submitted prior to the next class session. This is, after all, the whole point of the method. If the instructor is not able to review the work and modify her virtual classroom lesson prior to class, the point of just-in-time teaching is completely lost. To ensure that the instructor has time to complete this task, she must carefully select assignment due dates. Generally, leaving approximately six to eight hours between the assignment due date and class proves enough time.
Virtual classroom teachers can use just-in-time practices to create learner groups. Instead of teaching in one general classroom and presenting all students with the same information, these teachers can effectively review student work and use the results to group students based on understanding. Once the students are grouped, the teacher can, if technology allows, place the learners in different sub-groups within the virtual classroom and deal with each group separately, clearing up any confusion that exists.