How can my students become active co-creators instead of a passive audience?
Documentation from Lunch ‘n’ Learn October 20, 2021
Canvas, Zoom and Mentimeter can all mean for a more interactive learning environment. The team of educational developers at the E-learning management object guide through some of the aspects. Here is the documentation (video, in Swedish, and links) from the Lunch ‘n’ Learn webinar on making the students active co-creators.
About the webinar
Regardless of whether the students are on-site with the teacher in a room or in other locations, there is a need to interact with each other and the material. During the webinar, we take part in ways to work with "icebreakers", shared documents, discussions and activities in Canvas, social presence in Zoom, Mentimeter and planning of activities with a meeting plan. The webinar ended with an open forum (not recorded).
The webinar is in Swedish.
Start early with elements that require activity
The presentation commenced with an "icebreaker" where the participants answered, "What do you teach?" in the tool Mentimeter, using their phones. The answers popped up in a shared space in the meeting and created an image of the participants attending. The arrangement effectively lays the foundation for participation and the discussion climate early in the course or during the session.
Chit-chat online as well
During meetings with students (such as lectures or seminars), it is wise to make conversation 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the session ends. It can be done by, for example, opening the meeting room/locale a little before the appointed time and closing it a little after. It can take some time to get used to, both as a teacher and a student, but it can give a lot to interaction and participation. In Zoom, you can adjust your settings for the meeting room so that others can enter the meeting without the host being there.
The participants also got to respond to a poll in Zoom and look at how to structure a discussion in Canvas.
Save your powers - work and plan together
It can take time when you plan for new activities and arrangements for a course or a meeting. Use the "Web Meeting Plan" to get an overview of assignments and time estimations. It is a document that can work as a support for the planning. The plan makes it easier to distribute work and to co-create with colleagues.
During the discussion, a question on assigning breakout rooms arose. The participants reached the recommendation to be clear about what is expected by the students before the meeting. Then they know that there will be a segment of interaction during the meeting, where everyone needs to participate actively. It is also good to have shorter breakout sessions, so students don’t disappear. Make sure to let the students get used to this type of recurring element of the course.
Other comments were not to be afraid to dialogue with the students, but instead ask them what they are thinking about different segments. Collect the comments in direct relation to the meeting.
Table of contents for the video
Please note that the videos are in Swedish.
Here is a list of links that serve as a table of contents for the recording. Click on the link for the part you want to watch. When you get to KTH Play, click on the play button, and the video will start in the right place. All links lead to KTH Play.
04:05 How we create a flipped activity with a shared document in Canvas
06:30 How we can use Discussions and Group Discussions to increase the student interaction
13:06 How to promote the social presence with the use of Zoom
20:38 How to use Mentimeter to engage our students
20:42 Web Meeting Plan for preparing meetings
Presenters
Oliver Andersson (Research engineer/Educational developer, Digital learning, ITM, KTH)
Tove Kvarnmalm Kjellberg (Research engineer/Educational developer, Digital learning, ITM, KTH)