Student Interaction
In addition to instructor outreach during the semester, students should have ample opportunity to connect with each other and contribute to the learning community. Building such a community requires intentional moments of interaction and can be developed in various modalities: in person, remotely (ex: Zoom classes), or fully online asynchronous classes.
This page includes resources both within Canvas and beyond it for encouraging students to engage with each other throughout the semester. These tools can be utilized for low-stakes activities, peer feedback, and knowledge reinforcement.
Canvas Tools for Student Interaction
Canvas comes with several outreach tools for students to connect with each other:
Pronto: This Canvas-integrated tool can be found on the sidebar and allows students to quickly message their classmates about assignment questions, class material, etc.
Discussion Boards: A staple of online learning, discussion boards can be created for classes so that students can share out their ideas and observations with one another.
Some instructors may require students to respond to each other on a discussion board. If so, we encourage explicitly laying out instructions for student responses. This includes how many peers students should respond to, how long the responses should be, and what the responses should cover. It would also help to include samples of what "good" responses look like. Professor Mariam Kushkaki includes the following examples in the discussion board instructions for her Critical Thinking & Intermediate Composition class that students can model their own peer feedback after:
"You've given a great overview of the history of [topic] in the introduction, and your point about X will help the reader understand Z. It looks like the thesis statement at the end is missing, though--be sure to include it so the reader will know what the rest of the paper will be about."
"The first claim you present in the first body paragraph is well-developed, and the quote right after serves as helpful evidence. You mention a strategy here that is from the X article we read--since we need to include quotes from the readings, this would be a good place to include a quote from the article that defines the strategy. You can check out the Quote Integration handout on the Project 1 module for ways to integrate the quote into your paper."
Peer Review: Canvas includes a Peer Review tool that allows students to provide feedback for each other through a modified SpeedGrader page that instructors typically use. Professor Tasha Frankie has students review each other's videos in her "Explain Videos" assignments which she explains to us in her video overview here.
Additional Tools for Student Interaction
Beyond Canvas, instructors and students can utilize the following free tools to foster a learning community:
Google Slides
The Google Suite of apps is widely used and likely familiar to most of your students. Google Slides can be set up in different ways for interactive experiences:
If students are working in groups, each group can have a slide on the presentation that they're responsible for filling out.
If students are providing feedback for their peers, they can leave comments directly on the slides or in the "Speaker's Notes" section at the bottom for their peers.
The benefits to such set-ups are that 1) students aren't limited to text and can make greater use of imagery, links, etc., and 2) everyone can easily jump between slides to see all of the contributions to the activity. Moreover, Google Slides updates in real time, so the learning process and participation is visible during the lesson or activity.
Below is an example of Professor Mariam Kushkaki's Google Slides activity for her students' Visual Rhetoric project. Students were asked to turn in their projects on the slides and then provide feedback for peers in the Speaker's Note section at the bottom. Students could also quickly move between submissions by using the thumbnail panel on the left.
Desmos
Similar to Google Slides, Desmos is a tool that utilizes a slides-based approach for class activities. While initially designed for math classes (there are a plethora of math-based features, like charts, graphs, and formulas), it can be utilized for any subject. Desmos offers several significant and unique features:
Each slide can have an activity or question on it with a section for students to provide their answers. Students can also see three other peers' responses to that same question.
Instructors can see students' progress through slides via a Summary view that updates in real time.
Students can engage with a variety of activity types (mix-and-match, graphing, free response, etc.)
Below is an example of a sample Desmos activity that utilizes the mix-and-match and graph activities. Students will complete the activity via the graph and through the text box; then, they'll be able to see their peers' responses under their own answer.
Perusall
Perusall is a social annotation tool that encourages active reading and collaborative engagement with texts. Instructors upload readings to Perusall so that student can write comments, notes, and questions that everyone in the class can see and respond to. With this approach, students can:
See how their peers have responded to readings in specific passages / sections rather than a broader response via a discussion board.
Observe various annotation styles (highlights, definitions, summary notes, questions, etc.).
Respond to peers to build up understanding and engagement. For instance, one student can highlight a section and leave a question, and another student can respond with clarification.
An additional benefit to Perusall is that it integrates with Canvas. As such, Perusall can assign grades to students through Canvas to indicate completion of a reading activity. The video below from Perusall's co-founder Gary King includes an overview of the tool (beginning around the 4-minute mark).