- \n
- Synchronous<\/strong>: warm up or extended activity in VOIP (Skype, Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, etc.) or Twitter.<\/li>\n
- Asynchronous<\/strong>: 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.\u00a0 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
Preparation<\/h2>\n
- \n
- 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.<\/li>\n
- Set up a \u201cbreakout room\u201d for the class or the groups (if using a synchronous modality).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
Teacher demonstration<\/h2>\n
- \n
- “I am thinking of a concept<\/u> in the field of program evaluation [for example].”<\/li>\n
- “Your task, as a group, is to ask questions in order to determine what concept is.”<\/li>\n
- Explain the rules and strategies:\n
- \n
- “You may ask ‘yes\/no’ type questions.”<\/li>\n
- “You may use the \u201c20 Questions Room\u201d to strategize; I won\u2019t peek. (If using VOIP breakout rooms.”<\/li>\n
- “A general strategy: ask about general categories first. For example, is it a thing? Is it a process? Etc.”<\/li>\n
- “You can only ask 20 questions.”<\/li>\n
- “The team who guesses correctly thinks of the next concept (for extended activities).”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Ask the group (or one of the groups) to start.<\/li>\n
- The teacher answer only \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d\u2014regardless of the question form. The students pick up immediately<\/em> how to formulate their questions. (Note that this is an excellent exercise for ESL\/EFL students learning about question formats.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
Comments<\/h2>\n
I used this activity last night during a synchronous discussion with some graduate students studying program evaluation. Since I didn\u2019t 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 \u201cprogram\u201d. 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! \u00a0They need to choose something do-able.) Anyways, I recommend that you choose the concept(s) strategically: something relevant and important to the subsequent discussion. \u00a0The students appeared highly engaged.<\/p>\n
Rating: 4.5 stars\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
- “I am thinking of a concept<\/u> in the field of program evaluation [for example].”<\/li>\n
- Asynchronous<\/strong>: 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.\u00a0 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"star_rating_full\"](\"http:\/\/kooleady.ca\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/star_rating_full.png\")
<\/a><\/td>\n![\"star_rating_half\"](\"http:\/\/kooleady.ca\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/star_rating_half.png\")
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