Leveraging Lessons Learned

from (my reluctant and pandemic driven) online delivery of classes

Giving Students a Voice

The online/ hybrid environment enhanced and expanded opportunities for all students to have a “voice” in the classroom. In my regular F2F classroom I always used to use polling (iClickers, PollEveryWhere or Index Cards) and big physical sticky note sheets to help facilitate this... but the online hybrid environment opportunities for engagement were expanded exponentially.

What methods did I use?

By leveraging varying levels of technology (including no-tech other than Zoom), in the hybrid and online environment, there are almost unlimited ways you can solicit student input, promote conversation and/or collaboration, and provide feedback. I will most definitely continue to use these when and if we return to face to face classes. Here are a few examples:

Use Chat or a Backchannel function

In F2F classes we can continue to use the Zoom Chat or any other Backchanneling function (I have used Padlet, Mentimeter, Google Forms, and the Google Slides Q&A function). This allows the quieter or shy students to add their voice to the conversation or ask questions (sometimes anonymously). Assign one of your students to monitor or manage the chat/Q&A --- I often assign the 'sleeping' student this role.

Give your Two Cents

Everyone starts class with a virtual 'two cents'. During the class, a contribution by a student in any whole class activity = one cent. This includes a meaningful contribution in the chat or class backchannel, speaking up in class, or taking the role of reporter or scribe in breakout groups (physical or virtual). It's funny because, in the chat, students start to 'drop' pennies ("cha-ching").

Shared Google or Office365 Documents

Create a shared document where students can post questions, answer questions, gather data, create ideas and brainstorm. Be sure to have the URL to hand in class. If students are doing this activity in groups, I create a shared Google Slide with one slide numbered for each group number. It also makes it very easy and time-efficient for students to present their ideas when they come together as a whole class.

Virtual Collaborative Boards

Online boards like Google JamBoard, Miro and Padlet allow all students to contribute to the conversation/problem solving / etc. If the board or document becomes too unwieldly with too many voices, divide the board up, or assign different pages, or completely different boards to different groups. Miro has a toggle switches to turn off the movement and comments of the other users to reduce distractions.

Use Social Media to your advantage

With some careful instruction and protective wording (* See my Public Posting Policy below), you can use social media, such as Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, GroupMe, Slack, VoiceThread, or FlipGrid as means of giving students a voice, or a means of collaborating and sharing. The surprising thing is that often the least vocal student is the most vocal when given the opportunity to write their responses. Here is an example from my Freshman Innovation Group.

Use the discussion forum in a Free Website

This was something the students did when I gave them the reigns to the classroom. They created their own FREE websites with 'discussion forums' built into their facilitation process. Here are some examples from one of my classes:

https://facilitationgroup3.weebly.com/

https://seanmgunn.wixsite.com/culturalmaterialism

You could also use the Discussion Board in Canvas in real time.

Virtual Index Cards (feedback)

I have always extensively used physical index cards in my class, especially to give students an anonymous voice, this can easily be replaced with a Google Form. I have used forms to reimagine Stop/Start/Continue activity and ask Muddiest Point questions.

Polling

I have always used polling in my classrooms, and I will continue to do so whether F2F or Virtual. There are many apps you can use, including PollEverywhere, Zoom, Mentimeter and others. You are no longer confined to A/B/C/D and yes/no responses. Now polling includes placing pinpoints on an image, whole sentence responses and voting on those responses, word clouds etc. And most are free (to the student) apps that can be used on mobile devices.

Perusall

Collaborative reading and viewing provided by Perusall engage students in conversations grounded in the course material (Textbook, articles, websites, videos etc.) Think of it as a scholarly Netflix watch party! Students can have conversations and highlight problem areas and muddiest points, bounce ideas off of one another before they even set foot in the classroom. I LOVE it! Check it out - it should now be enabled in Canvas.

Write, Pair, Share

I have always advocated for a Think-Pair-Share in the classroom, but now I use Write-Pair-Share. Changing up the 'thinking' to 'writing' focuses the student's attention more and perhaps encourages them to be more reflexive. I have found by encouraging the 'write' we often get the quieter voices' vocalized.

What did you read or hear?

Instead of asking the students to share their own ideas, ask them to advocate for someone else's ideas or thoughts (maybe what they heard in the Write-Pair-Share, or in breakout room, or read in a Perusall assignment) Encourage them to advocate and give a voice to others!

Don't let the 5-10% dominate the conversation

There are always a handful of students in a class (physical or virtual) that will answer every question, and are unafraid to speak up in a crowd (that was me :) ) As the classroom facilitator (instructor) it is your job to ensure that everyone has a voice. There are several resources you can find on this page to help with this.

Connecting to course material and learning outcomes

These activities espouse the Texas A&M Universal Learning Objectives: Communication, Personal Responsibility, Social Responsivity and Critical Thinking. The student is no longer a passive box to fill with information --- they became actively engaged in their education!

Pros/benefits of using the method.

The main benefits are student engagement, creating a sense of belonging and purpose, and providing the ability to give a voice to all students. One of the most beautiful outcomes of this is the creation of a sense of community in the classroom.

Although there is often a small learning curve to using these methods, the benefits outweigh the costs.... especially when you consider an pad of large physical sticky notes can cost upwards of $40. Padlet, for example (I bought the instructor license), is $96 per year for unlimited use. Miro, Google Docs, WIX websites etc. are free up to a certain numbers of users. Google Sites, Docs and Forms, and Office365 are provided by the university, and Peruall is embedded in Canvas.

Lessons Learned and Challenges

It is my experience that students are far more engaged when they actually have something to do in class; a task. It is important, as with any new thing in the classroom, to start small, expect a personal learning curve and to experience some 'lessons learned' and go from there. But the main thing is to be brave, bold and try new things!

What workarounds (if any) should your peers know about when using this method with different sizes of groups and/or in various learning spaces?

One of the only workarounds I have made is to ensure you have an alternate methodology available for students who have need for accommodations --- maybe they cannot work in a group, or find the technology does not meet their needs. I always have an alternate task at the ready, although very rarely use it.

What are the results of the method in terms of the learner experience and student achievement? Mine is just anecdotal evidence of student satisfaction. Perhaps this is an area for SOTL and improvement.

How will you use or adapt the method for the 2021-2022 academic year? I will be using most of this, learning and growing along the way.

What advice would you give someone who is interested in adopting or adapting your idea? Go for it!

*My Public Online Posting Policy
(Used in my syllabi):

Students often tell me that they like to discuss the interesting stuff we talk about, debate, experience, learn and research in this class, with their friends, roommates, families… and the world. To facilitate this, you may (if you wish), post your assignments and stories into an online space (e.g. Google Drive, YouTube, Instagram, Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Canva, Wix, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok etc.) and just provide the hyperlink/URL in the Canvas assignment submission.

If you feel comfortable doing so, tag the posting with class hashtag: e.g. #ANTH123

If the URL/hyperlink you provide in your assignment submission in Canvas doesn’t work for the instructor or TAs, your work will be considered late. So make sure you check it!

You might like to shorten your URL (e.g. tx/ag or tinyurl.com) for ease of sharing.

There are risks associated with posting online. You should not post private information that could put you, or other people, at risk. See: https://it.tamu.edu/security/ for further information and free training.

If you use another person’s image in your posting, you should get their permission. And you should cite your sources.

In the online space you may use a pseudonym (a fake account), whereas it will be tied to your name in Canvas and that is where we will post your grade and/or make comments.

Finally there is no requirement to post your assignments in an online public space. You may submit your assignment directly to Canvas.

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