In-Class Discussion

Lightboard mini-lessons for student engagement with Matteo Cantarello

In a Nutshell

Matteo Cantarello’s Issues in Mexican Culture class asks students to analyze texts and films pertinent to Mexican culture, which requires consistent participation from students in their coursework and in class discussion. Matteo found that as students got used to the structure of the class, they became less and less engaged, significantly decreasing participation. Additionally, Matteo found a need to bridge units so students could keep up with what was happening in the class. Read how he uses a lightboard to inspire communication.

Annotating and commenting on videos with Davinia Pastor Pastor

In a Nutshell

Professor Davinia Pastor Pastor’s Hispanic Studies “Culturas In(Ex)clusión” (Cultures of Inclusion and Exclusion) course focuses on social problems in Spanish speaking countries. Pastor wanted to provide students with opportunities to actively engage with the Spanish language while interacting with the media-rich course materials. She also wanted to give students who felt uncertain about their Spanish language abilities more opportunities for participation outside of traditional class discussion. Read how she uses video annotation software to keep her students engaged.

Flipping a Large Classroom using Panopto with Iyabo Obasanjo

In a Nutshell

Kinesiology Professor Iyabo Obasanjo teaches Introduction to Global Health – a large lecture class with over 100 students. In the class, students learn about the status of public health around the world and major diseases of global health significance.

Obasanjo found that when she structured her course around lectures, students tended to engage passively with the course material. They would listen in class and study her powerpoint slides but they weren’t engaging with the course concepts in an active way. Public health is a dynamic field with issues changing in real time so Obasanjo wanted students to be actively engaging with the real-world implications of the field. She's using the Panopto video recording tool to flip her classroom.

Instructional videos mean more time for active learning in Adwait Jog's computer science courses

In a Nutshell

There is not enough time in class to both introduce content, and apply new knowledge by doing more intensive problem solving. In classroom active learning scenarios allow for more complex problems while still having instructor feedback in real time, but this means content needs to be covered before class time. Prof. Jog uses video introductions to the topics to make class time more productive.