Having moved from Athabasca University (AU) to the University of Saskatchewan (UofS), I have had to switch learning management systems (LMSs). At AU, I used Moodle. Here at the UofS, I use Blackboard. There are a few Moodle plugins that I miss. The Moodle plugin that I miss the most is Marginalia (http://webmarginalia.net/). Marginalia is an annotations tool that allows students and instructors to highlight segments of each others’ discussion forum messages and write notes. The annotations can be private or public.
In a face-to-face classroom and, to an extent, in synchronous online conferencing environments, we can indicate agreement, disagreement, attentiveness, boredom, acknowledgment, and a multitude of other messages through body language. We often look at each other when talking and nod in some fashion. In an asynchronous, online environment, we cannot easily know when others are reading our messages, whether others are engaged with our comments, whether or not they agree or disagree with our opinions. When we read others’ responses to our messages, we can begin to decipher their level of interest. But, if no one replies there is simply no ready indication of interest. (An instructor can review the log files to see who has read what, but normally log files are not usually available to students.)
Marginalia allows instructors and students to give each other a “virtual nod”. As an instructor, I used to use it heavily to highlight interesting, fun, and substantive comments from the students. Without it, I often use the reply feature—which can make the discussions grow in length. Before with Marginalia, I would end a discussion and provide a link to a summary page that Marginalia automatically produced. Without Marginalia, right now, I do the summaries manually.
Students can also use Marginalia. Their use of it would help them to communicate to their level of interest. During a discussion, they can curate interesting ideas and quotes from their classmates. And, after the discussion has ended, they can more easily review what their classmates have said. This serves not only an academic purpose, but also an identity-development purpose. Students can find evidence of whose comments they tend to annotate the most. And, if the annotations are public, students can also see who annotates their own contributions. This can add extra identity, status or bonding dimensions to the development of community.
Modalities
Asynchronous – Marginalia is a plug-in that works for text-based discussion forums in Moodle. (I suspect that it could be modified to work with other LMSs).
Preparation
Marginalia is an external plugin that must be downloaded and installed on the LMS.
Locate or create “how to” videos to show the students how to add annotations and how to choose public and private settings.
Instructor responsibilities
It is helpful if the instructor demonstrates the use of Marginalia.
Discuss etiquette with students; it can be embarrassing to make an insulting annotation and set it to public.
Comments
Absolutely 5 full stars. I have asked our administrators to look into adding an annotations tool to our LMS. When teaching at AU, the students consistently commented on how much they appreciated the annotations summaries.
Note: for an introduction to identity accelerators for online teaching and learning visit this entry.
Full credit to one of my Master of Education students, Nazreen Beaulieu, for telling me about this one! I learn so much from my students.
The idea is to ask students to create a digital poster that incorporates 10 adjectives that they would use to describe themselves. The title of the poster is “I am . . .” The students are also encouraged to use a metaphor such as “life is a dance”, or “life is a rollercoaster”. The images, videos, sounds, and animations that the students choose correspond to the adjectives and should fit into the chosen theme.
By asking the students to express themselves in this way, they share conceptions of themselves. They can express their sense of humour, creativity, emotional states, and interests.
This activity can be used as an icebreaker to facilitate community development.
Modalities
Asynchronous
Primarily working via a learning management system, I find that it is easier to do this asynchronously. The students can take a few days to learn the software and compose their posters. The instructor and students can share links to their digital posters (or upload if sufficient bandwidth). Then, they can comment on each others’ posters in a text discussion. Nazreen’s class used VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com/) to comment on each other’s posters. This allowed them to listen to each other rather than simply relying on text.
Synchronous
It is possible for the students to share their digital posters synchronously. Then, you can bring them together in a synchronous discussion area (Adobe Connect, Big Blue Button, Blackboard Collaborate, etc.) to discuss their impressions of each others’ posters.
Preparation & instructions
Provide a list of adjectives to the students and ask them to select 10 that they feel describe who they are.
Provide a list of metaphors or themes and/or ask the student to think of an activity that they like to do. Ask them to choose a theme.
Tell the students to search through their own pictures and videos to see if they have some media that correspond to their adjectives and theme. (Depending on the age of the students, be aware of privacy issues.)
Depending on the software, the students may need to use a search engine to find copyright-free content for their poster. The Glogster app has a built-in browser; other tools may also have built in search tools.
Depending on the whichever app or software being used, the students can import, link, and arrange their content. They can choose visual themes, etc.
It is important to find an easy-to-use app or software program that students can learn quickly and easily. Nazreen suggested Glogster (available through iTunes), for example. See: http://www.glogster.com/. Nazreen also suggested finding tools on this wiki: http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Home
Instructor Responsibilities
Students’ ages and technical expertise may require the instructor to be more or less involved in helping the students use the chosen software. For this reason, it is helpful for the instructor to be familiar with the software. In fact, when working with students who are less comfortable with the technology, it is highly recommended that the instructor create their own digital poster in order to
Familiarize him/herself with the software
Demonstrate the idea of “theme”
Demonstrate how to choose adjectives
Discuss the idea of choosing content that corresponds to adjectives
Provide technical and, possibly, artistic advice to the students.
When working with students who are more comfortable with technology, the instructor can open the floodgates and allow the students to use whichever software or app they wish. Nazreen found that her Grade 10-12 students introduced her to a large variety of tools. She commented, “It’s remarkable how much more the students know than we do.”
Set time limits and due dates for sharing posters.
Guide the sharing and discussion of students’ digital posters; maintain a safe environment to share ideas.
Ensure instructions or help are available to the students.
Comments
According to Nazreen, there are some advantages and disadvantages to the use of digital posters (face-to-face environment):
“I taught mostly synchronous high school classes and a big motivator was turning the whiteboard over to the students for the opening 10 minutes of class. Some doodled, some shared memes while other just chatted. Having access to the whiteboard gave them a sense of ownership though that I think was important not only to build community but also to keep them engaged.”
“Bandwidth always proved to be a nagging culprit and resistor to equality. For those with high-speed internet, audio and video led to the creation of some awesome vines embedded in their glogs while others had to make do with just pictures.”
Rating
I haven’t tried this yet, but I would love to!
Note
Note: for an introduction to identity accelerators for online teaching and learning visit this entry.
Last week we had another great ETAD Studio (#etadsi) at St. Paul’s College in Muenster, Saskatchewan. While there, someone (thanks, JR!) mentioned a couple of excellent books by Patti Shank:
This ideas comes from Shank’s first edition. On page 173, Shank describes the use of a custom word search puzzle as a synchronous activity. (Shank indicates that the idea originates from Karen Hyder (managing director, Kaleidoscope Training and Consulting, Palmyra, NY).
In this activity, the students will see a word search puzzle on screen, and it is their job to locate the words. There are a number of ways that this task can be done so as to encourage collaboration and teamwork.
Modalities
Synchronous – A word search puzzle can be done at the start of a synchronous session while the instructor is troubleshooting or awaiting the arrival of participants. If the vocabulary chosen is directly related to the topic of the class, it can be used as a springboard to discussion.
When you start your session, you can take a screenshot image and upload it to the whiteboard. Then, allow the students to use the whiteboard tools to circle the words they locate.
You may wish to divide the students into groups and assign each group a colour. Tell each group to set up a private chat with their moderator.
Then, give moderator status to one person in the group thereby encouraging the group members to discuss where they see the words in the puzzle image.
Instructor responsibilities
Generally, the instructor would be responsible to set up the puzzle image—particularly if the activity is intended to pass the time at the start of a session. It can also be fun to ask one group (before the session) to select key words from their readings and set up a puzzle to share with the class.
The instructor or the group (who selected the words) can debrief the class by providing definitions of the words and the reasons why they selected the words.
Shank recommends making the instructions explicit by putting them on the screen. The instructions can also be described verbally and in the instant messaging space (make sure that you know the capabilities of your synchronous system).
It is also important to set a time limit so as to avoid taking up time from the core of the class.
Comments
I am anxious to try this activity. It would help pass the time at the beginning of a session when participants are checking their audio settings and troubleshooting technical issues. By asking the students to work together in locating the words in the puzzle, it gives them an opportunity to interact in a goal-oriented way. Similarly, if a group of students is asked to collaborate to produce a word search puzzle, discuss their selections, and provide definitions prior to class, they once again have an opportunity to share ideas and get to know each other.
Rating
To be rated . . .
Note: for an introduction to identity accelerators for online teaching and learning visit this entry.
“Sorting your stuff” is a fun activity. It can lead so some personal revelations. What this activity involves is the participants emptying their handbags, book bags, backpacks, or other containers that they have with them. Then, they sort the objects into two or three categories and, in doing so, explain how they chose the categories into which they sorted the objects.
This is an activity that I have used in conducting workshops on phenomenography. But, recently at the 32nd Annual Qualitative Analysis Conference (2015), I noted that some professors* of qualitative research methods also use this activity to introduce basic thematic coding. It is, however, possible to use this activity simply as an “introductions and welcome” activity in a more general sense. For classes that are not related to qualitative research, facilitators can ask students to select object of different topics and themes.
Modalities
Asynchronous: If used as an asynchronous activity, students can post pictures or videos of their objects. If using still pictures, it is helpful if the students take several pictures to show their thought processes. If using videos, the students can narrate their thought processes. Then, the class members can make suggestions and ask questions about the categories chosen.
Synchronous: It is possible to do this activity in a synchronous manner, but it can be time consuming. It is possible in a synchronous format for the students to work together in groups. The students could aim their cameras at their tabletops and talk about what objects they have with them. Or, the students could come prepared to the online meeting with pictures of objects (perhaps even objects that are special to them; there could be a class theme). Then, they could arrange the objects on a shared whiteboard. Fellow classmates could even move the pictures around the whiteboard to discuss alternative classifications. As you can see, there are numerous ways to do this activity online. Students can also do some meta-coding where they locate themes and categories that are common across the entire class.
Preparation
Whether face-to-face, asynchronous (text-based), or synchronous (VOIP), ask the students to have their handbags, backpacks, book bags, etc. near their computers (or bring to class).
The instructor may or may not wish to have the students read related course materials or watch videos about qualitative research (if that is the objective of the class) in advance.
Test the whiteboard and/or discussion forum to ensure that students can post images and/or manipulate the system in ways amenable to the activity. For example, students must have adequate permissions to manipulate the whiteboard. And, they must be able to post images to the discussion forum.
Teacher responsibilities
Depending on the format (face-to-face, asynchronous, or synchronous), the instructor needs to think about how to initiate the activity during the session, and to facilitate turn-taking and group structures (particularly for synchronous activities).
At the beginning of the session, the instructor can demonstrate his/her own special objects and how s/he would categorize them.
During the activity, the instructor can help guide the discussion of the categories and the processes.
And, it is important to debrief the students at the end. Help the students understand thematic coding, for example. And, if relevant, help the student make connections to the literature as well as any assignments or projects for the course.
Comments
I have had excellent success in using this activity for facilitating phenomenography workshops. However, it is important to remind students of qualitative research that they will more than likely be categorizing complex concepts. The use of simple manipulatives has its limitations. Therefore, I recommend this type of activity as a springboard. More in-depth discussions and activities are necessary in any instruction of qualitative thematic coding.
By asking the students to reach into their own handbags and backpacks, you are asking them to share some information about themselves. What we carry with us daily can provide insights into who we are as people. This activity can stimulate interesting and, at times, interesting discussions about what is important to us. I use “us” because the instructor should actively demonstrate and share alongside the students. In this way, this activity very much contributes to the acceleration of identities.
Rating 4.5 stars
Note: for an introduction to identity accelerators for online teaching and learning visit this entry.
*Note: The speakers at the 32nd Annual Qualitative Analysis Conference who mentioned this technique were: Gail Lindsay (UOIT) and Jasna Schwind (Ryerson University).
This activity is a based on the old Canadian TV series “Front Page Challenge”. According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, this quiz show “featured four panelists, usually well-known journalists, who would ask yes-or-no questions in an attempt to correctly identify a mystery challenger connected to a front-page news item, as well as the news item itself. After the panelist had guessed correctly—or been stumped—they would proceed to interview the challenger”.
Naturally, this activity is ideal for social studies or political science classes. However, this idea can be used in nearly any class. In my case, for example, I would consider selecting someone who is an expert in instructional design or and educational learning theory.
Modalities
Asynchronous: This would constitute a week-long asynchronous discussion forum activity with a willing expert and a moderator. In an asynchronous discussion forum, it is best to introduce the activity in the forum description (or the first thread).
Synchronous: Mystery topic/guest would make an excellent hour-long discussion using Collaborate, Adobe Connect or other similar tools. The instructions can be sent to the students prior to the synchronous session along with the invitation link.
Preparation
Invite the mystery guest well in advance. Experts often have limited time. Prepare some “interview questions” (or discussion prompts) in advance and discuss them with the guest. It is possible that the students will not be fully prepared to ask effective questions on a new topic.
Make sure the guest understands that s/he can only say “yes” or “no”. (This is similar to the rules in Twenty Questions (Accelerator #1)).
Instruct the mystery guest to log in under the pseudonym “mystery guest”. They must use the guest access to the synchronous or asynchronous environment.
During this activity, the students in the class can work together as a team. Alternatively, the class could be split into groups and compete to identify the guest.
Teacher responsibilities
The facilitator can ask the first question to get the activity started.
The facilitator can also nudge the first few questioners to change their questions to yes-or-no format.
The facilitator can help the students understand how to start generally and narrow the questions as they go.
After the students guess the identity of the mystery guest, the facilitator can open the floor to allow the students to ask more specific questions to the guest.
Comments
Mystery Guest would be an ideal activity for beginning a unit on a specific topic. For example, if I were starting a research methodology unit on design-based research (DBR), I would consider inviting Dr. Terry Anderson to join the activity. Advance preparation (in collusion with the guest prior to the session) of interview questions/discussion would include topics such as
How is DBR different from or similar to action research and other methodologies?
A diagram showing the iterative nature of DBR.
A description of a successful DBR project.
Rating
I would provide a rating of this activity, but I have yet to try it.
Note: for an introduction to identity accelerators for online teaching and learning visit this previous entry.
Guess The Untruth is an activity that I adopted years ago when teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Lethbridge. Originally, it was a way to encourage students to practice the present perfect tense. This activity can be very interesting and engaging. It offers the students an opportunity to share their cleverness, their sense of humour, and some interesting aspects of their lives. In other words, the students can start sharing and shaping their identities.
Most recently, I have been using this activity with my master-level students at the beginning of the semester. It gives the students a break from the usual welcome forum introductions in which we ask them to tell us about themselves and why they are taking the class. (I can’t tell you how many times I was asked to do this when I was a student.)
Modalities
Asynchronous (recommended): warm up activity. Makes use of biography tool (LMS, blog, etc.) and text-based discussion forums with moderation. I employ this activity almost exclusively in asynchronous environments.
Synchronous (possible): warm up in VOIP (Skype, Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, etc.). But, this activity works best when the students can draw upon some information from profiles updated in the LMS (or other tool) biography pages.
Preparation
Biography tool: most LMSs and social networking systems offer a means for the students to write a personal profile.
Discussion board: set up a discussion forum specifically for this activity. For me, it is usually the “welcome” forum.
Teacher demonstration
The teacher (or facilitator) asks the students to update their profile/biography pages within LMS (or other system being used.
The teacher then asks the students to go into the discussion forum and start a thread with two true statements about themselves and one untrue statement.
The teacher prompts the students to read each other’s profiles.
Then, the teacher prompts the students to read each thread in the discussion forum and guess which statement is untrue.
Set a time limit (a week) for the students to guess each other’s false statement. Then, ask the students to confess.
The teacher starts the process by
Updating his/her profile.
Starting a discussion thread with the three statements about him/herself.
Guessing about one or two of the students’ statements and demonstrating the logic processes by comparing what is said in the profile and how the three statements might be truthful or not.
Fessing up! This, too, is part of leading the group: ending the activity and debriefing.
Comments
I often send out a welcome letter to the students a week or two before an online course starts. On the course start date, I then explain this activity in a video as well as in text. (I recommend offering text scripts of videos just in case the students have bandwidth issues.)
Wthin a day of starting the activity, there can be 100 or more discussion messages posted for a class of 20 students. It can be a high volume activity, so be prepared.
I have had consistently good experience with this activity and I highly recommend it. Try drawing upon interesting snippets from your own life. For example:
I have been marooned on the Orinoco River.
I like catsup on my waffles.
I have practiced Judo in Spain.
Which do you think is the false statement?
Rating: 5 stars
Note: My students recently shared this article with me:
Dixon, J. S., Crooks, H., & Henry, K. (2006). Breaking the ice: Supporting collaboration and the development of community online. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 32(2). Retrieved from http://cjlt.csj.ualberta.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/51/48
In this article, the authors discuss a similar activity called “Liar, Liar”.
Twenty Questions is an old game that many of us played as children. But, we can also use it as a “serious game”. I would recommend that it be used as a warmer later into the semester after the students have already introduced themselves and engaged in some interaction. If used as a collaborative activity, the students can discuss strategy. Online collaborative activities help the students get to know each other better.
Modalities
Synchronous: warm up or extended activity in VOIP (Skype, Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, etc.) or Twitter.
Asynchronous: text based activity for discussion forums with consistent/regular moderation. The moderator will have to establish timelines for interactions, so the activity remains alive over a set period of time. One issue with using this accelerator asynchronously is that a very engaged student (or group of students) might arrive at the correct response before others have joined in.
Preparation
Decide if you want this to be a collaborative activity or a competitive activity. If you goal is collaboration, let the students work together. If it is competitive, divide them into groups.
Set up a “breakout room” for the class or the groups (if using a synchronous modality).
Teacher demonstration
“I am thinking of a concept in the field of program evaluation [for example].”
“Your task, as a group, is to ask questions in order to determine what concept is.”
Explain the rules and strategies:
“You may ask ‘yes/no’ type questions.”
“You may use the “20 Questions Room” to strategize; I won’t peek. (If using VOIP breakout rooms.”
“A general strategy: ask about general categories first. For example, is it a thing? Is it a process? Etc.”
“You can only ask 20 questions.”
“The team who guesses correctly thinks of the next concept (for extended activities).”
Ask the group (or one of the groups) to start.
The teacher answer only “yes” or “no”—regardless of the question form. The students pick up immediately how to formulate their questions. (Note that this is an excellent exercise for ESL/EFL students learning about question formats.)
Comments
I used this activity last night during a synchronous discussion with some graduate students studying program evaluation. Since I didn’t want to take too much time, I used one concept to get the class warmed up. I chose a concept that allowed the session to focus on a fundamental idea that branched into the current assignment. The concept was “program”. The exercise allowed us to discuss the definition and characteristics of a “program” as per program evaluation parlance. The discussion for the subsequent hour centered on program evaluation planning: focusing the evaluation, determining stakeholders, questions formulation, and selecting appropriate models. For the current assignment, it is essential for the students to wisely select a program of clear scope and boundaries in order to succeed in the development of a program evaluation plan. (It is a 6-week course! They need to choose something do-able.) Anyways, I recommend that you choose the concept(s) strategically: something relevant and important to the subsequent discussion. The students appeared highly engaged.
As higher education embraces educational technologies to greater extents, it is not uncommon for faculty to find themselves suddenly facilitating online classes. They might be asked to lead online discussions through synchronous tools such as Adobe Connect, Blackboard Collaborate, and Big Blue Button to name a few of the tools available. Asynchronous, text-based discussions remain common likely due to temporal and spatial flexibility.
Those new to online facilitation might feel that the online environment is one of disembodiment offering few contextual or physical cues that instructors traditionally rely upon in face-to-face classrooms in order to determine comprehension, prior knowledge, and attentiveness. Some instructors might feel a sense of isolation because they cannot see and, therefore, feel they cannot get to know their students well enough to anticipate their needs.
Some scholars suggest that online learning offers a more egalitarian environment where learners can interact unimpeded by issues of race, nationality, gender, and social status; others suggest that the online environment is simply another modality. I take the position that online modalities offer an array of social cues. Walther (1996) proposes that participants in mediated environments form impressions of one another much as they would in face-to-face environments, but that it takes longer to generate and collect observations. He argued that online interaction can even become hyperpersonal?leading to greater intimacy as individuals employ additional techniques to plan, contemplate, edit, and project identities of self and others (Chayko, 2008, Henderson & Gilding, 2004; Merchant, 2006, Walther, 1996). Furthermore, anticipation of future interaction has been found in some longitudinal studies to prompt “communicators to seek more information about one another, to act more friendly, and to cooperate in negotiations” (Walther, 1996, p. 12).
Beyond the notion of the hyperpersonal, we might also see students actively shaping their identities based on what they would like to project. Walther et. al. (2006) propose that, in the absence of visual cues in online interactions, people will actively select aspects to present, taking more time to compose their messages. In return, those who receive these messages will develop “idealized attributions of their online partners” (p. 637).
And, humans are never disembodied. In any given online class, students and facilitators are tapping on keyboards, speaking into microphones, snapping pictures, and sharing videos. They are using their fingers, voices, ears, eyes and minds to manipulate the technologies that surround them. They are situated within physical contexts; they have been socialized in physical contexts. And, they bring their situatedness, their prior knowledge, with them into their online interactions. As online facilitators, we need to harness the tools at our disposal in order to get to know our students. We need to learn how to read online cues. Our students also need opportunities to share their prior knowledge and express who they are outside ofandin relation to their instructors and fellow online classmates.
To this end, I am going to start sharing and collecting what I am calling “identity accelerators”. These are activities that can be used in a variety of online contexts. I would like to invite anyone out there in the world to share ideas on how to increase engagement and identity development in online teaching and learning environments.
And, I am always looking for ideas and collaborators. Send ideas.
References & related materials:
Chayko, M. (2008). Portable communities: The dynamics of online and mobile connectedness. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Henderson, S., & Gilding, M. (2004). “I”ve never clicked this much with anyone in my life’: Trust, and hyperpersonal communication in online friendship. New Media & Society, 6(4), 487–506.
Koole, M. (2010). The Web of Identity: Selfhood and Belonging in Online Learning Networks. In The 7th International Conference on Networked Learning (Vol. Aalborg, D). Retrieved from http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/
Koole, M., & Parchoma, G. (2013). The web of Identity: A model of digital identity formation in networked learning environments. In S. Warburton & S. Hatzipanagos (Eds.), Digital identity and social media (1st ed., pp. 14–28). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-1915-9.ch002
Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 32(1), 3–43.
Walther , J. B., Loh, T., Granka, L. (2005). Let me count the ways: The interchange or verbal and nonverbal cues in computer-mediated and face-to-face affinity. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 24 (2005), pp. 36–65. Retrieved from: http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/hdbk_nonverbalcomm/n24.xml
Thanks to my Twitter buddies, I was notified of this rather excellent resource. In this handout, Richard Byrne shares some excellent ideas for teachers who wish to use video in the classroom. He outlines the following types of video projects:
