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Click here to go to Kahoot Quiz! https://create.kahoot.it/share/teach-with-slides/a3bb5db2-e813-47c8-8509-e541da0fa8e8

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Online Shaping is Reshaping Higher Education 

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Online Shaping is Reshaping Higher Education 

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Two years ago, as COVID-19 caused campuses to close, some institutions were able to shift their students to already robust online learning programs. But many other colleges and universities scrambled to build online education curricula from scratch. Students and faculty often found themselves logging onto Zoom or other platforms for the first time, with little knowledge of how to navigate a new world of virtual learning.

"When the pandemic hit, it was a provocation, as well as a demand for innovation," said Caroline Levander, the vice president for global and digital strategy at Rice University in Houston, during a recent webinar on the future of online learning hosted by U.S. News & World Report.

While the changes were challenging for many, faculty members at Rice and elsewhere embraced the new opportunities that online learning offered. Levander shared an example of a Rice physics professor, Jason Hafner, who capitalized on the virtual environment to find compelling new ways to teach concepts to students.

"He had been innovating with online delivery in our non-credit offerings before the pandemic," said Levander. But once COVID-19 spread, Hafner moved beyond the walls of his classroom and took advantage of Rice's physical campus to enhance his teaching with video-recorded experiments conducted outside of normal class times. For example, in one lesson, he climbed atop a rock edifice in Rice's engineering quad to drop two equally sized spheres - one made of aluminum and the other of steel - to demonstrate that they would fall with the same acceleration despite their different densities.

Now, many educators are reassessing how virtual learning can further enhance the student experience by offering greater flexibility than in-class options, particularly for hybrid and all-virtual instruction models. During the early days of the pandemic, "people stood up Zoom classrooms" and "they put a lot of video lectures up online," said Jeff Borden, the chief academic officer for D2L, a company that creates online learning software. "That's fine. That was important to get people through." Now, however, Borden stressed, colleges and universities have the opportunity to move beyond these makeshift models. They can work to build more durable online learning platforms that meet the needs of a range of learners who must access coursework at different times and in different formats to suit their particular goals and lifestyles.

While a four-year college education can be thought of as a default for many, there are a lot of people for whom "that's not the right path," said Borden. In fact, some students may be looking simply to gain credentials or to upskill, rather than get traditional degrees. "There are tens of millions of other people in our society who have needs that are other than that, who have desires that are different than that," Borden noted. Online learning now enables older students, working adults, people from nontraditional backgrounds and those who might be neurodiverse to access content more easily than ever before, Borden added.

The multitude of options also extends to graduate and professional schools, many of which have rolled out fully or partially online programs in recent years. In fact, applicants to Rice's fully online master's degree program are "much more diverse in every way than students who apply to the residential counterpart," Levander said, because access is made easier and more compatible to students who may be juggling work and family obligations.

"The nice thing about online education is that it can actually escape geographical boundaries," said Don Kilburn, the CEO of UMass Online, which has offerings across the five University of Massachusetts schools. Kilburn agreed with his fellow panelists that online learning models play a critical role in broadening access. He also emphasized the potential added benefit of lessening the financial burden on students, since online programs can often cost a fraction of in-person ones. "Part of accessibility is affordability," he said. "I do think there are ways to actually deliver fully online programs that have a lower cost structure and may actually reduce the cost of education significantly."

Part of serving the needs of those who choose to attend classes online means understanding why they do so and how their needs differ from those who choose traditional, in-person options, said Nancy Gonzales, the executive vice president and university provost at Arizona State University, whose online programs will reach approximately 84,000 students this year.

Many online students choose to take fewer courses at a time and may take semesters off to accommodate other aspects of their lives like taking care of children or work responsibilities - part of why the flexibility of online learning is so appealing, Gonzales said. "We've been trying to really try to understand what is the cadence of attendance and how do we meet the needs of students, because they are a very different population," said Gonzales.

At the same time, for Gonzales, part of what makes an online education model successful is providing students with comparable support and services to what they might receive through in-person instruction. Such services might range from financial aid counseling to ensuring that students can interact with their peers on discussion boards, in order to ensure that interactions with classmates are not lost when attending class online.

But the promise of online education, the panelists agreed, is great. "I think we are just at the beginning of the digital transformation," said Kilburn. "I can't tell you when, but at some point you will see a revolution in education like you will in everything else."

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How Online Learning Is Reshaping Higher Education

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As the pandemic eases, many institutions are realizing that properly planned online platforms will allow them to better serve all students, including nontraditional learners.

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Virtual Field Trip You Tube Video: Washington, DC The City of US

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Virtual Field Trip You Tube Video: Washington, DC The City of US

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The City of U.S. - A Virtual Field Trip to Washington, D.C.

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22 best virtual field trips for culture, education, entertainment, art, travel

In the third grade, my class took an overnight field trip to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. From the trip, my strongest memory is when I was chosen from the class to help churn butter. I can recall the humid spring air and my sympathies for the labor of colonial women as my small arms struggled to turn the heavy wooden crank attached to a barrel containing what seemed like an incredible amount of cream.

While this may seem a small moment in the landscape of my schooling, the physical interaction with the recreated historic environment was meaningful to me. The emotional connection engaged a memory and a type of learning that has lingered for many years.

What are some of your strongest memories of school field trips? And where would you like to take a field trip now if physical limitations were lifted? With virtual reality (VR), the days of crowded school buses and lost or forged permission slips may be limited.

Technology and the use of virtual reality in education now allow students and learners to travel around the world and across time in virtual spaces. This article will provide an overview of some of the best virtual field trips you can take, how to access the technology and explain some of the benefits whether it is for education or just entertainment.

Virtual Field Trips - Overview

With virtual field trips, classrooms or individual learners can obtain technology as a doorway to enter a predesigned virtual space. VR simulates three-dimensional environments through virtual sounds and images. These environments can replicate parts of the present world, an environment from the past, or something newly imagined.

Benefits - VR field trips can take learners across time and space. Hence, the benefits of VR learning, and virtual field trips, can range from financial and logistical to emotional, cultural, social and intellectual aspects.

Budget-friendly - For many educational institutions, schools, home schools and individual students, money is an issue. High costs of tuition and oftentimes dwindling school budgets can limit options. While the costs of VR technology and applications vary, they are likely significantly less costly than in-person field trips.

Logistics - Organizationally, the process is simpler and more efficient than traditional field trips. And, as mentioned, VR offers options that just would not be otherwise available to visit, such as historic moments and places.

Learning - Virtual field trips and unique engagements help aid learning. Eliciting emotions and engaging with stimulants can help connect with memory prompts ¹ in our brains, supporting a more meaningful learning process.

Best Virtual Field Trips and 360° VR movies

What are some of the best virtual field trips available right now? The following list suggests some great options to help to learn through visiting cities, countries or virtual theme parks, viewing natural wonders, exploring space and museums or engaging with science.

The technologies and platforms explored here vary; some are fully immersive, and others are partially immersive. Keep reading to see which VR field trips are suitable for you.

Best Virtual Field Trips - Travel

1. Visit Japan

Japan boasts one of the oldest cultures of the world, merging tradition and modernity. With VR goggles, such as Google Cardboard and platforms including YouTube, you can engage with a movie to offer an immersive trip to connect with Japanese customs.

You can explore natural sites, such as Sagano Bamboo Forest Road, and live the city life with trend-setting fashion and lifestyle in the Shibuya area of Tokyo. This VR field trip also includes Sumo wrestling, Kabuki theatrical dance and how Japan embraces technology.

Visit Japan is one of the most popular and best virtual field trips for anyone interested in culture, new experiences and, of course, Japan.

2. 360° Cities

Passionate about travel and photography? 360 Degree Cities offers panoramic views of some of the world's most beautiful and historic cities and sites. The online platform is a collection of VR photography and video so the viewer can feel as though they are traveling around the world.

Whether you want to explore underwater coral reefs or the Nuñez neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, it's available online now at no cost.

Best Virtual Field Trips - Cultural Sites

3. The Great Wall

Largely regarded as one of the world's wonders, the engineering and cultural significance of the Great Wall of China is profound. With a history dating more than 2,000 years and a physical presence covering thousands of miles of northern China, the Great Wall is a great option for a VR field trip.

The China Guide offers guided virtual tours of the landmark with panoramic views and the option to ask questions. This could be among the most exciting and best virtual field trips for those who are physically or financially unable to visit China at the moment.

4. Buckingham Palace

The home to the United Kingdom royals since 1837, and home to the present Queen, Buckingham Palace is one of the main attractions in the city of London, England.

There are several virtual tours to explore inside the palace, which has 775 rooms. You'll get to virtually walk through the Grand Staircase, the Throne Room, the White Drawing Room, and the Blue Drawing Room.

Using a computer or tablet, you can feely access full-circle views of the elaborate rooms, decorated with rich tapestries, historic portraits, and ornate architectural detail.

Whether you are a fan of the drama on the Netflix series "The Crown", a history buff, or just looking for an interesting way to spend an afternoon, these virtual tours provide a glimpse into the life of the past and present monarchs.

5. Vatican

Did you know the Vatican was hosting up to six million visitors ² each year? Visits were getting so crowded that there were safety concerns ³, including guests fainting or the threat of stampedes. What is one great way to avoid the crowd? Take a virtual field trip tour.

Available free online are 360-degree tours of fifteen different areas of the massive walled area. For example, you can tour the Sistine Chapel ⁴ which houses the iconic ceiling painted by Renaissance artist Michelangelo.

The learning motivations for visiting the Vatican include religion, art and architecture and history. Whether viewed as part of a religious class or group, to inform a history project or simply for personal reasons, these online resources offer a wealth of information.

Best Virtual Field Trips - Museums and Arts

6. British Museum

Museums are a popular in-person choice for field trips, but now VR provides new and unique options. For example, the British Museum and Google Cultural Institute have collaborated to create the interactive Museum of the World. Users can virtually move across time to explore diverse museum relics accompanied by curator insights.

Moving across time and world regions, users can view, read and hear about unique items representing human history, art and culture. Particularly as more schooling moves online and virtual learning, these tools can increase accessibility to artifacts and information across physical barriers. One of the best virtual field trips to explore a famous museum.

7. Louvre Museum

The Louvre in Paris, France is the largest museum in the world ⁵. There is so much art to take in, it's not possible to cover it all in one day; some estimate it would take 100 days ⁶ to see it all! Luckily, there is a logistically easier option: virtual tours.

The museum's galleries and exhibitions are accessible online in the form of virtual tours, which allow users to self-navigate through images and accompanying information from inside the Louvre.

8. National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art provides resources for virtual and online learning including a virtual field trip option, online art analysis and school curriculum activities.

The museum provides 50 videos for virtual children's tours ⁷, exploring works of arts, people and places from across history and the museum's diverse collection. With videos for iconic artists including van Gogh and Monet, the videos offer a supportive tool for primary school children learning in classrooms, at home or in social settings at no cost.

9. Google Arts & Culture

Google Arts and Culture is an online resource suitable to take virtual field trips and allows users to access games, works of art, museum exhibitions, music and more.

Some of the best virtual field trips include touring Stonehenge, England, Pumapunku, Bolivia or visiting the Surfing Museum in Australia. Through downloading additional applications, you can engage in augmented reality to view galleries of famed artists' works.

Google Arts and Culture is distinctive in its diversity and cooperation with other institutions.

Best Virtual Field Trips - Nature and Science

10. Visit a Finnish Forest

With climate change accelerating, environmental stewardship and sustainability are now more important than perhaps ever before. One way to foster environmental care may be to help individuals connect and learn about natural environments.

UPM Forest Life provides virtual field trips through the forests of Finland. With captivating images and engaging sounds, users navigate the landscape, learning about different species and forest professionals along the way.

Each visit is customizable, and learning can be catered to interests.

Responsible and sustainable forest management is key to our personal and planetary wellbeing. This free resource is a great option for helping to ground vast concepts, such as sustainable agriculture and climate change while allowing children or adult learners to engage with a new environment.

11. Farm Food

How much do you know about where your food comes from? If you're similar to large portions of the population, the answer is probably not a lot. Considering food is an absolutely vital element of our lives, having a foundational knowledge of how and where what goes on our dinner plates is produced is an important part of human and environmental health.

Through Farm Food, you can virtually tour Canadian farms, ranging from apple orchards to dairy cow farms. Each tour offers panoramic views accompanied by educational facts.

As mentioned, farm tours are great for those keen to learn more about physical health and environmental systems. Whether an agricultural student, an aspiring chef or just curious, these tours might be worth checking out.

12. National Aquarium

Keen on aquatic life? If so, consider an online virtual field trip to the National Aquarium. Using your mouse, you can virtually walk through the aquarium and zoom in on interesting sites and scenes.

Notable attractions include sea turtles, alligators and species from the Amazon River. The resource is available online at no cost, making it a largely accessible option.

Virtual Field Trips - Space

13. Stellarium

Many of us aren't lucky enough to live in locations with clear night skies and great views of the stars. If this is the case for you, or if you'd additional information to accompany your stargazing, check out Stellarium. Offering a website, software and a mobile app, Stellarium is an open-source and no-cost planetarium.

You can view constellations and write down your observations to share with fellow enthusiasts. The mobile app provides an extensive catalog of all deep-sky objects, comets, planets and their satellites, and more.

The Stellarium software shows users a realistic night sky in 3D, as seen with the naked eye, binoculars, or a telescope. This is among the best virtual field trips to explore space.

Best Virtual Field Trips - Education

14. VR Trips through Arizona State University

Arizona State University has created a variety of virtual field trips (VFTs) for use by high school and college students on a variety of topics, from science to history based on real expeditions from scientific researchers.

Some of the field trips are adaptive, allowing varying experiences and tailored input. This allows each user to have an immersive and individualized virtual field trip. Using Google Cardboard, students can visit a variety of places ⁸ including ancient lake environments, Hawaii, Grand Canyon, Teotihuacan in Mexico or the Red Rocks on Mars.

These VFTs are a great option for high school, college or virtual classrooms, particularly those who may have newly adapted to at-home learning.

15. Virtual Field Trips - ORG

virtualfieldtrips.org is an educational platform that hosts a range of videos covering various topics from social studies, science and geography to nature, civilization and languages.

However, most of them are not free, and teachers, schools, homeschooling parents will need to sign up for a subscription plan giving access to all of the platform's content including videos, quizzes, and learning resources.

Virtual Field Trips - Theme Parks

16. Disney World

Using a VR headset or a smartphone and virtual headset, you can visit Disney World in a whole new way. You can navigate the attractions, choosing which direction to go, as you virtually go through the theme park.

Whether you're a longtime Disney lover who wants to revisit sites filled with memories, or you've never been and are longing for a vacation, consider exploring Virtual Disney World.

Virtual Field Trips - Access Requirement

All virtual field trips require some technology. For the panoramic tours or videos, a computer, tablet or smartphone will suffice. For field trips using VR, you may need additional tools, such as Google Cardboard or a VR headset.

Some VR field trips also require additional downloads, such as applications or software. And while many are no cost, some have fees, and these are worth noting and comparing with your budget and needs.

Choosing The Best Virtual Field Trips

Once you know some of your options and have taken the time to explore more, the next step is choosing the best virtual field trips suitable for your project, goals or audience.

Key factors - The decision should take into consideration several elements. Is this trip for a group or an individual? If choosing for a group, try to ensure there are different elements that would appeal to diverse interests. And consider how the virtual field trip aligns with the already established class curriculum and group knowledge.

Age - Age group is another key consideration. While an art museum is an option that spans across generational interests, the presentation of the trip and accompanying information will differ greatly between third and tenth-graders.

Logistics - Maybe the virtual field trips are for a family or group of friends. Consider logistics such as time, materials and cost needed, and how the trip will appeal to everyone.

The decision can also be informed by first identifying the learning goal or intended knowledge outcome. What do you want to learn? How will those VR field trips facilitate that learning?

There are many options available, and here are a few additional resources to help you choose a trip: School Library Journal ⁹, Mobile Permissions ¹⁰ and Virtual Field Trips ¹¹.

Best Virtual Field Trips 2023 - Conclusion

Virtual field trips have benefits for both students and educators ¹². For students, these trips are inclusive environments that can be used to build confidence and new skills.

For educators, there are logistical advantages to considering implementing virtual field trips as a teaching method including lower cost and the ability to customize learning.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, travel options can be disrupted. With technology, there is a new world of experiences and opportunities. How will you use virtual field trips in your learning?

Best Virtual Field Trips 2023
Travel Cultural Sites Museums and Arts

British Museum

Louvre Museum

National Gallery of Art

Google Arts & Culture

Nature and Science

Visit a Finnish Forest

Farm Food

National Aquarium

Atlanta Zoo

Space Education

VR Trips through Arizona State University

Safety Driving

Visit Arctic

Theme Parks
Other best virtual field trips to consider

What are the best virtual field trips 2023? There are so many out there and it is impossible to list all of them. Please add more suggestions in the comments below.

Words: Mary Carenbauer

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Best Virtual Field Trips 2023 - Kids & Adults | courselounge

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23 best virtual field trips to explore culture and art, travel the world, understand science, or to have fun. For enthusiasts, homeschools, virtual classrooms.

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Assignments: Various types of Assignments

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Assignments: Various types of Assignments

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10 Types of Assignments in Online Degree Programs

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Students may respond to recorded video lectures, participate in discussion boards and write traditional research papers.

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Tech tools that boost student engagement through competition and interaction

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Digital tools that promote interaction and competition in class can have notable benefits to learning, as Yuyang Zhao explains, based on her use of quizzes

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Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs

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Group work has long been a source of friction between students and instructors. At their worst, team projects force high-achieving students to compensate for those less willing to put in effort. At their best, they foster productive collaboration and idea sharing among future professionals.

Online courses add another layer of considerations for instructors. Students might be too far apart to meet in person, or too busy with other life commitments to schedule remote meetings. The impulse to lean on higher-achieving members of a group might be exacerbated by not having to face frustrated teammates in person.

"Group projects can be really great, and they can be a disaster," said Vickie Cook, executive director of the Center for Teaching, Learning & Service at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "The most important thing is that they have a purpose. They're very organized. Faculty and students have the same understanding of what the group project needs to accomplish and steps along the way to get there."

Faced with these challenges, instructors have adapted old strategies and formulated new ones for group projects in online settings. Some instructors say implementing these strategies takes up more time than a comparable assignment in a face-to-face course; others aren't as convinced of the extra workload.

Instructors who assign group projects to online students see their efforts not as a burden, but as a tool to help students learn and form relationships -- just as they might face-to-face.
Unique Challenges
Instructors say many of the fundamental characteristics of a successful group project online are consistent with what works face-to-face. There are some key differences, however.

At the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, instructors warn students about group projects at the beginning of the semester, rather than springing something unexpected on them.

"They're online students; they typically have a lot going on in their lives, they're full-time employees," said Alisha DeWalt, associate campus dean. "We want it to be an efficient project that's really driven to mastery of learning outcomes."

Online students in marketing communication management at Florida Gulf Coast University have to present case studies as groups in order to critically analyze the kinds of content they'll create in their careers. Ludmilla Wells, associate professor of marketing, has over the years worked hard to put constraints on sources she expects students to mine when preparing their projects.

Because online students have the entire internet at their fingertips whenever their mind is on the course, they're sometimes overwhelmed when searching for information. Wells provides students with "key points of entry" for information: magazines like AdAge and Business Week, aggregators like Smart Post and Media Brief. She also lays out specific expectations for the final product in writing (see image).

"At the graduate level, nobody works alone," Wells said. "You're a representative of your department in the firm, you're an entrepreneur working for a chamber of commerce. You're still working as collective in one fashion or another. This gives them an opportunity to bring what they are very interested in or they're very good at to the team."

In person, instructors can allow students to work on group projects during class time, which gives them a window into how the students are doing. No such opportunities are available in an online class, which means instructors have to build in opportunities to see projects at various stages of completion, said Cook, who helps online instructors (and face-to-face ones) at Springfield strategize group project assignments.

Establishing learning objectives early goes a long way toward mitigating students' frustrations with having to work in teams and concerns about collaborating with students they don't have access to in person, according to Cook.

"I don't think any of us like busywork. Students especially don't like group work because it's difficult to schedule or because one group member pulls more weight, one group member pulls less weight," Cook said. "Having that clarity of purpose puts you on a single field."
Assigning Groups or Letting Them Form Organically
Forcing students to work together can introduce students to new perspectives and lead to healthy collaboration. It can also backfire if students don't get along or their work styles aren't compatible. Online, that dynamic can be heightened because students are operating with only a limited understanding of their fellow students' personalities and behaviors.

In her marketing courses at Florida Gulf Coast, Wells splits the difference. She lets students choose their team members for the case study project but assigns groups for discussion threads that take place throughout the semester.

Students in her course likely already know each other a bit from previous courses in the M.B.A. program. They're also more likely to pick people with whom they share common interests or have compatible work schedules, Wells said.

That last point plays a major role in the success or failure of a group project in an online class. According to Cook, one professor at Springfield creates a communication plan with students -- posting everyone's detailed weekly schedules, swapping Skype IDs and cell phone numbers, establishing tasks for individual team members that will add up to a complete assignment.

On the other hand, dividing up the work too much can mean students aren't really working together as groups, according to Darin Kapanjie, academic director of the online M.B.A. program at Temple University. It's easy for him to trace a disjointed final product back to an approach that minimized group interaction, he said.

Assigning groups can be a fraught exercise, though -- made more difficult by not meeting students in person. Steve Greenlaw, a professor of economics at the University of Mary Washington, likes to avoid grouping freshmen together because he wants new students to benefit from the wisdom of their older peers.

At first he tried to create groups with a mix of older and younger students, but he discovered that older adults found the younger students' schedules and social media communication preferences untenable. Now he groups adults together, with the occasional exception.

"Sometimes when I have a group that is really struggling with the content or with getting in, I try to put an adult student who I know personally into that group to help stabilize things," Greenlaw said. "That works pretty well."

During group projects in his classes, Gregg Ramsay, professor of computer applications at Pace University, assigns one person in each group to serve as "project manager" -- a liaison between the group and the instructor, required to share twice per week an update on the group's progress.

Ramsay's students in groups are required to meet weekly on Blackboard Collaborate; if students miss the meeting, they can be "divorced" from the group and receive a failing grade for the project. Never in his 19 years of teaching online has this happened, Ramsay said. He believes online courses don't make group projects unfeasible -- quite the opposite.

"I've had a lot of success with them," Ramsay said more generally of group projects in online courses. "I've never had any significant issues, and over the years I've been able to design the projects where the students take responsibility for completing their part of the project."
Grading as a Whole or Individually
In key respects, instructors consider group projects in online courses no different from similar assignments in person.

Assigning a single grade to a group of students can mean rewarding underperforming students for letting their peers complete most of the work, or marking down students who tried their best for a project that didn't come together.
IDL Tip
Several instructors interviewed for this story said they urge students to complete their group project work on Google Docs. Not only can students easily collaborate simultaneously on writing and research, but professors can easily look at the revision history to get a sense of whether students participated in equal amounts.

At the Chicago School, students do some of that work for the instructor, according to DeWalt. After finishing a project, students fill out a report on their own performance and that of their colleagues. Knowing they'll be evaluated this way keeps online students engaged when they might be tempted to drift.

At Springfield, most faculty members in online courses give individual participation grades and a final group grade. Greenlaw, on the other hand, prefers for students to be responsible for the entire final product. Particularly in an introductory course, he doesn't see the need to split hairs about how students acquired knowledge.

"Whether they figured it out on their own or whether they were taught by someone else in the group fundamentally doesn't matter to me at this level," Greenlaw said.
Why Do It At All?
Cook believes faculty members do spend more time constructing and executing group assignments than they would for more straightforward individual assignments. But students learn valuable skills in communication and group dynamics that will serve them well beyond the course. Their field of choice will likely require group work -- and it's plausible that some of it might face logistical challenges like the ones presented in an online course.

Greenlaw thinks the workload is the same, and the workload is worthwhile for the same reason online as face-to-face.

"One of the things that I try to do is provide the same amount of interactivity in the teaching and learning online as I do face-to-face," Greenlaw said. "I think that's how learning happens best."

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Group projects in online classes create connections and challenge instructors

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Group projects might seem more daunting in an online format, but instructors say they've found ways to foster collaboration and avoid logistical roadblocks.

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Misc strategies to make your online lessons more interactive

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Misc strategies to make your online lessons more interactive

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Top 5 Apps to Make Virtual Lesson Interactive

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Assignments: 27 Interactive Online Assignment Ideas

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Assignments: 27 Interactive Online Assignment Ideas

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When you are teaching students online it can sometimes be difficult to find engaging assignments for Students. This article will look at some ways you can make your assignments more interactive and engaging to provide better quality training.
Here are 27 Interactive Assignments you can use to engage students online:

1. Group Audio Chat

2. Interview a Professional

3. Participate in Forum Discussions

4. Attend Online Industry Seminars

5. Online Whiteboard Brainstorming

6. Group Concept Mapping

7. Live Group Google Docs

8. Sourceforge or GitHub

9. Creating a Podcast

10. Starting a Youtube Channel

11. Use Quora or Reddit

12. Create a LinkedIn Profile

13. Build a Website

14. Use Simulation Software

15. Research Companies In Industry

16. Research Latest Technology

17. Participate in Social Media

18. Explore Mobile Apps

19. Vendor Certification

20. Create Training Videos

21. Local Work Experience

22. Do a Job on a Freelancing Website

23. Compete in an Online Competition

24. Contact an Industry Professional

25. Attend a Conference

26. Record Real World Event

27. Record Completing Task

There are some great ideas to spice up your online training as individuals or groups but now let's dig in deeper and review how these can be assignments for online students.
Group Audio Chat

Having Students meet in an Audio only or Audio and Video chat that they record as team meetings, or mock-up business meetings, or act out scenarios is a great assignment method. It shows to the teacher the engagement of each student and what they have learned.

There are a lot of software solutions you can use to host a free video conference. The most noteworthy apps commonly used are

Each option has its advantages and disadvantages. Make sure you choose one that fits your requirements. Before making a decision try the demo version of each software to give you a better understanding of whether it meets your needs. Zoom allows for 40 mins meetings for free which is all students would need to record their session in most cases.

Interview a Professional

Who can tell you more about a job than an expert? An interview that the student records with their phone is a great assignment for them not only to meet real professionals but also to learn more about the job they are training for. Students can start the assignment by locating a professional on LinkedIn and politely asking for an interview for their studies. They can then submit as part 2 of the assignment their question list. And finally the recorded interview.

Here is an article with a list of questions students could potentially ask their industry professional:

Participate in Forum Discussions

Forum discussions are a great way of sharing ideas and increasing student engagement. You can mark students on their involvement in your forums or industry forums. There are various methods to increase students' participation in online discussions. This type of activity gives students the opportunity to discuss their ideas with other students or industry professionals.

During forum discussions, students get to create and enhance their social relationships with other students. This decreases the feeling of isolation when they have friends in the class they can ask questions of for social learning.

Attend Online Industry Seminars

Businesses of all types are putting on marketing and technical webinars of every subject you can think of. You can not visit a website these days without someone offering one to you. These are great places for students to get exposure to the real industry and interact with potential future industry peers.

They can chat with other participants and ask questions of the industry experts in each area. For their assignment, you can get them to write a report or record the session using screencasting software showing their engagement. These are a great learning tool for students to gain exposure to their future industry.

Online Whiteboard Brainstorming

With so many online whiteboard tools available why not have an assignment for your students to work in teams on a shared whiteboard and brainstorm their group assignments. This always makes for a good part 1 of the assignment to show group engagement. They can submit the resulting image to you. You can also use an online whiteboard during online courses. If you do not know what whiteboard to use for your online course you should take a look at the 7 best online whiteboards.

A whiteboard brainstorming session is a great opportunity for your students. It gives them the chance to combine their ideas and be more creative.

As well as online whiteboards there are also online software tools specifically for brainstorming like StormBoard which can be found on their website.

Group Concept Mapping

Nothing helps students understand a topic more than trying to map out the key concepts. Whether you get them to do this on their own to show individual understanding or in groups to allow them to socially learn from each other, it is a great idea.

There is a great online tool students can use for free and save their work online for 6 months with MudMap.

For some other great tools they can use check out this article:
ARTICLE: Concept Mapping Tools
Live Group Google Docs

While most people probably already know this one it is still worth mentioning. The ability of a group of students to edit the same document at the same time and talk with others on group audio chat or text chat is extremely engaging. If you have not tried this yet get someone to do it with you by downloading Google Docs or using it in a web browser from your https://drive.google.com account.

Sourceforge or GitHub

If you are running IT training courses the ability for your students to create a code, document, or file repository that does versioning is a useful industry skill. Not only can the students create their own repository they could also join another open-source team to help them with their documentation, planning, or coding. This is not only something they can not only show proof of as an assignment but something they can put on their resume.

Sourceforge and Github are two of the most commonly used online hosting solutions when it comes to storing project files and source code for distributed projects. Either is fine for your online class but try both and see which one you think your students would prefer.

Sourceforge is the best option if you want to develop an open-source project that involves an application targeting the end-user. On the other hand, you should use GitHub if you are planning on creating a project that comprises a collection of packages.

To learn more about the different aspects of the two source code hosting solutions click here.

Creating a Podcast

We often think of using Podcasts for disseminating information to large groups of people in an audio format. Have you ever thought of using it as a student assignment? Why not have the student start a podcast where they show what they have learned at each stage of the training?

They can record a quick session on their phone or and they can show their creativity by editing the audio if they want or getting in guest speakers or even just discussing it with another student from the class. This is a great way for students to show competence especially for those with poor written skills.

Starting a Youtube Channel

While Google is currently the number one search tool on the internet the next generation is using YouTube as their first search tool. So if this is the case why not give them an assignment that is creating a Youtube channel and uploading some content. Whether they do this in groups or alone they will learn many skills along the way that they will probably use in their working career.

This is a great way for them to start feeling comfortable on camera in certain industries or for creating screencasts of them using their computers for any task. Maybe showing you how to use a piece of software. Maybe the channel hosts all of their assignment submissions for the whole subject?

Use Quora or Reddit

Quora and Reddit are two of the most commonly used forums worldwide. You can find a lot of interesting content by searching for a certain subject.

The fact that these platforms contain tons of professionals with various areas of expertise opens up new ideas your students can research for assignments. I know the information on there is neither quantitative or qualitative but it is great for expanding what students think on a topic.

Your students will benefit from different approaches to concepts. They can read multiple points of view. This way, they will get a better understanding of the subject.

Create a LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is the working professional social media with their resumes linked to their accounts. Setting assignments to create a profile, or if they have a profile to connect to industry professionals, join industry groups, or even join company groups is a great opportunity for them.

This allows them to start their own networks and engage in the industries they will be part of. It is also a great way to find a Mentor to guide them through their career. Obviously you have to be careful depending on the age of your students and do this only with students old enough and with their parents' permission if required.

There are various benefits of a LinkedIn profile for a student. If you want to learn more or inform your students about why they should open up a LinkedIn account go to LinkedIn for Students.

Build a Website

More and more websites appear online every day. You can ask your students to create a website that explains the concepts you are teaching them. Say you are teaching physics. Your students can create a free website that shows how physics is related to everyday life.

Another great example of using a website during your online course is to ask your students to create an online portfolio. This works well for all students but even more so for students that need a portfolio of work like those in photography, videography, or creative writing.

This is not difficult for them to do with a free WordPress website they can literally have up in minutes.

Use Simulation Software

To recreate a real situation you can make use of simulation software. There are various domains that can benefit from simulation software solutions. This type of assignment allows students to test out their hypotheses in a semi real-world scenario.

This type of application is commonly used in:

MatLab - Mathematics

For example, to recreate possible situations in terms of statistics, you can ask your students to use MatLab.

MatLab integrates visualization, computation, and programming of mathematical notation into a high-performance simulation tool. This would not be used for early math but for Years 10 and up you could definitely look at using this or for including into adult learning classes.

SimScale - Physics

If you are planning on simulating fluid dynamics, you should use SimScale in the Cloud. In the Cloud just means it is hosted for your online.

It can conduct graphical and numerical simulations of fluid dynamics. It is generally used for quick optimization of different systems, as well as overall improvements.

Your students can create different situations that involve fluids. They will understand how physics affects fluid dynamics. Moreover, they will be able to see in-depth stats of various liquids getting in contact with other materials.

Comsol Multiphysics - Chemistry and Physics

This software solution is definitely one of the best in terms of simulation apps. It offers finite element analysis as well as a multiphysics feature. It allows its users to simulate physic-based events. Additionally, it can provide effective simulations of chemical applications.

Among the most noteworthy multiphysics components that Comsol can handle are

This software is easy to integrate into your students' assignments. It will help them to understand different components of physics. For example, they will be able to learn about movement and kinetic energy using graphic simulations.

Research Companies In Industry

I have personally interviewed students in Mock Interview sessions and hired many people over the years and one of the biggest issues they have is not knowing the industry they are part of or the company they are applying to.

To help online students understand the industry they are part of you can get them to research online the top 10 companies in their industry. If they are in an Arts related field may be the Top 10 Museums or if they are in Finance may be the Top 100 shares in the market.

They can look at the current news and events related to that company and who it is run by as well as the products and services they might offer or the artwork they have.

Research Latest Technology

As well as knowing their industry, knowing the current and future technology gets them ready for their first job and shows them the gaps in their knowledge. If you combine this with the previous assignment type as Part 2 then they would already know the companies to research their latest products and services.

Looking at the latest industry trends which most people call Mega Trends if they are international in nature will add the scope to their research. Technology is a huge part of most industries these days and whether it is a new type of paint or a new type of building material every industry has them. These technologies are not just related to the Information Technology sectors.

For students this type of assignment is a research online one or if you want to make it more engaging see if they can contact someone from the business or organization that will do an online interview with them discussing this topic.

Participate in Social Media

Social media is a part of our everyday life so we should integrate it into the online learning process. You can use social media platforms in various ways to create interactive assignments for your online classes.

Introduce them to Market Influencers

Introduce them to Current Trends

Allow them to engage in Relevant Discussions

Keep up with Current Industry News

Understand the role of Social Media in Business

Inspire them with new topics

Engaging in Social Media for students can::

These types of assignments will encourage them to engage with their industry peers and learn from them. Whether it is on LinkedIn, Quora, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, or Facebook they will have a community of people to bounce ideas off. They can then print to PDF the resultant conversations to use in their assignments.

Social media is a great way of developing communication skills. Using social platforms, your students can observe patterns that appear and understand what is trending. For instance, they can predict future trends by taking a closer look at the articles posted on social media. The trends depend on a lot of factors such as people's interest, overall feedback on a certain subject, and the number of posts on a topic.

Explore Mobile Apps

Mobile apps are a great idea when it comes to online teaching. Mobile devices have become an effective learning tool with extended uses in both online courses and real-world learning. You can use the applications as part of your delivery content, to do assignments in or for students to research the tools related to the course you are teaching.

For example, if you are teaching physical fitness online then you can use a mobile app that tracks your students' workout habits. These types of apps also let you analyze the results.

Tasks that can be assigned to your students can integrate mobile apps very well. For example, if you are running an online course about photo edit, you can ask your students to find out what the best mobile photo editing app is.

And finally, if you are running a course about computer programming you can get them to code and test their code in the many apps that allow for this. The resulting code could then be submitted to your Learning Management Systems (LMS).

Vendor Certification

Obtaining a vendor certification is a tricky yet useful activity for any student in lots of different areas like IT, Project Management, Industrial Automation, Continuous Improvement, Reporting, and many other fields.

The course material can align with the Vendor Certification and can either have assignments based on that material with exams to suit. Alternately you can have them passing their Vendor Certification as the pass for the subject. There are heaps of universities that already do this method.
Pearson Vue Prometric
List of Exams on Prometric
List of Exams on Pearcon Vue
The easiest way to see most of these certifications is to look at the testing centers:
Spice Up Your eLearning With A Screencast
There are heaps of other vendor certification for pretty much every form of software on computers so just check the vendor website.

Create Training Videos

To prove they know a subject they can always take a video on their phone to explain how to do the task in the real world. There are heaps of stands for your mobile phones from ones for the bench to ones on stands. You could also use a GoPro or equivalent.

As part 1 to the assignment, they can submit their topic and list of instructions, and Part 2 of the assignment could be the actual training video. Whether you get them to do post-production on the video is completely up to you. That basically just means use Windows Maker or a program like that to edit the video after recording.

If they are going to record what they are doing on their computer screen then check out this article:

Local Work Experience

Even though Vocational Training has been doing this for years you could always organize with a local professional some work experience. During that work experience, they could submit their own assignment like baking a complex cake or welding something or even making a small software application.

If you are doing this in conjunction with a small business it could solve a problem that small business or non-profit has and they provide feedback on the result as well as you marking it.

Do a Job on a Freelancing Website

There are various freelancing websites worldwide and your students can try to develop their skills by doing a job on one of them.

The most commonly used freelancing websites are:

Ask your students to create an account on any of these websites and do a job to improve their skills. Apart from using the skills you have taught them they will also make some pocket money. This activity might open up new career paths for them or at least expose them to how the contracting industry works.

Whether the job they get paid to do succeeds or fails they will get invaluable knowledge on how to deal with customers. How to perform that particular task and also what the quality and expectations are for work in that industry.
NOTE: Make sure your students are eligible to enter
Compete in an Online Competition

Competitions are always interesting regardless of your students' age. They will definitely be interested in participating in online contests. If you are trying to get a bit of competition going there is nothing like industry professionals judging student competitions. If you can't find one online how about making one?

Examples of competition areas:

There are a lot of different online competitions available in different areas. It is a great idea to find one contest that is suitable for the subject you are teaching and ask your students to join. They will work hard, being motivated by either the awards or the competitive spirit.

There are heaps of student competition websites and here are a couple:
https://studentcompetitions.com/competitions
https://www.weareteachers.com/student-contests-competitions/

Contact an Industry Professional

It used to be very hard to contact industry professionals and it used to take a phone book and heaps of phone calls. Now with LinkedIn, you can give the students a script to follow and they can contact heaps of Industry Professionals either locally or Internationally in any company.

Obviously, if your students are under the legal age you would work with a parent or with yourself to contact the industry professional. But it is never too early to start creating an industry network of people you can have as mentors or to ask for advice or to help you with a project.

Due to this being so simple now you really have no excuse to not include it in every course your teach.

Attend A Conference

Submitting a review or article on even recording an industry event in their field of study is great for students to expose themselves to the breadth of the industry. Whether they go with their parents or if old enough on their own. Looking at events that are on at your local convention center or with your local industry groups and introducing themselves get them to engage on a whole new level.

It starts to teach them real-world skills that are taught by professionals in their industry and keep up to date with what is happening in their local area and country. Seeing all the vendors during breaks and visiting their stands opens up whole new worlds for them.

There are conferences on everything from sewing to samurai swords and you just need to look at which ones suit your audience. With Covid-19 most of them have gone online as well. So since now, they have proven to themselves how to do this there will likely be way more done this way.

Here is an article on some creative conferences you could have students visit:

Record Real World Event

Every day in every town in the world you there are things happening from space launches to recording a local chef cooking a meal. With a video camera in every pocket, the student can get into the world local to them and record something actually happening.

Whether they write a report on it or a detailed set of instructions to go with the video or narrate it like a sports commentator. There are heaps of creative and engaging ways to get students to learn in this way. They can also play around the video after it has been created to make it more professional or fun.

Record Completing Task

Recording themselves while completing certain tasks you have assigned is a great idea for your students. A video recording can be rewind back and forth as many times as you need. Whether you are a student or a teacher it is a great idea to have video proof of your task completion.

This works well for every type of class and thinking of how you can add more video recording to your classes will only make it more engaging for students.

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27 Interactive Assignment Ideas For Online Students | Master Teaching Online

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When you are teaching students online it can sometimes be difficult to find engaging assignments for Students. This article will look at some ways you...

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Every online course seems to have some component of a discussion board, but what will YOU do to make your stand out?

This URL has some simple guidelines to enrich to discussion experience.

While I was "TA'ing", I would post a "metaphor of the week" that I'd ask the students to respond to.

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3 minute read

Data from our 2022 Voice of the Online Learner report shows that 77% of learners reported they decided on the online modality before any other factor. As the demand for online offerings increases, it is important for faculty to deliver well-designed and engaging courses to meet their student's needs.

In online courses, students have been shown to demonstrate more positive attitudes and greater levels of performance when discussion boards are highly interactive. To ensure we, as faculty, connect with our students and deliver quality online learning experiences, we must re-think the ways we can engage with them to increase their level of participation so that students can reap all of the benefits of elearning.

Nine simple ways to increase student engagement in online discussion forums:

Participate in the "Student Lounge":

Respond to all student introductions. Post your own introduction and talk about both your personal and professional background. Your students will model how you relate to them. Follow-up on all questions - either privately or publicly.

Attach Photos, Images, Videos, Tweets, Links, etc ,:

If you really want to make your online course stand out from competition, use media to illustrate a point, create more conversation, inject humor, or just for fun. When using personalized videos, ensure you look into the camera to appear that you are making eye contact. Record videos using your webcam, smartphone, etc., and upload the files to YouTube, Vimeo, screencast.com, or use a service like VoiceThread. Encourage your students to do the same.

Read All the Posts:

Students who read all their fellow students' postings consistently get higher grades, so you should do the same. You don't have to respond to all posts - that may stifle a real discussion. Instead, give students the "space" to respond to each other.

Res pond to Students with a Question, Affirmation, or Feedback:

To replicate on-campus learning experiences online, respond frequently to your students individually - whether it's private or public. This shows that you value them and allows you to identify at-risk students. Highlight the good points your students have made. Your interaction encourages students to post more often and stay engaged.

Ask Questions and Challenge Your Students to Think:

Discussions are driven by questions - so ask. Guide your students to go deeper and think critically about the subject matter outside of what is provided in the course materials.

If a Discussion Is Lagging, Try Re-Framing the Question:

"Flipping" the question, or restating it using different terms, can help students understand the discussion better. If nothing seems to work, you may want to replace the question totally, or simply ask the question: "We seem to have some difficulty with this question, why do you think that is?"

Always Watch Your Online Tone:

Qualify your tone if necessary. Avoid the overuse of exclamation points! NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS. Emoticons and symbols add value to the conversation when implemented sparingly. You incorporate humor, images, and frame your responses and statements for students to better understand you.

Affirm Your Students Whenever Possible:

Affirm (but don't flatter) your students collectively and individually, with recognition of what they brought to the discussion. The affirmation may even be part of the framing you use to then ask them a question or encourage them to go deeper.

Don't Be Afraid to Ask Students How a Particular Discussion Is Working:

Periodically ask your students what's good (or bad) about a particular discussion. How is it working/or not working for them? What could be improved? When you ask, be sure to acknowledge and act on their comments if needed.

Utilizing the above tips as you implement an online discussion will go a long way in student relationship management, increasing your presence, and encouraging creative thinking in the online classroom. For more best practices in engaging online learning environments , such as better utilizing media or increasing faculty-student engagement online, visit our Resources page.

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9 Student Engagement Strategies for Online Discussion Forums

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See how faculty can in increase their presence and encourage creative thinking in the online classroom with these 10 tips for online discussion forums.

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Not soliciting ya'll to join a cult, but the "cult of pedagogy" has a plethora of engaging discussion strategies. Modify as you see fit to meet the unique online environment.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
When I worked with student teachers on developing effective lesson plans, one thing I always asked them to revise was the phrase "We will discuss."
We will discuss the video. We will discuss the story. We will discuss our results.
Every time I saw it in a lesson plan, I would add a note: "What format will you use? What questions will you ask? How will you ensure that all students participate?" I was pretty sure that We will discuss actually meant the teacher would do most of the talking; He would throw out a couple of questions like "So what did you think about the video?" or "What was the theme of the story?" and a few students would respond, resulting in something that looked like a discussion, but was ultimately just a conversation between the teacher and a handful of extroverted students; a classic case of Fisheye Teaching.

The problem wasn't them; in most of the classrooms where they'd sat as students, that's exactly what a class discussion looked like. They didn't know any other "formats." I have only ever been familiar with a few myself. But when teachers began contacting me recently asking for a more comprehensive list, I knew it was time to do some serious research.

So here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging. If you've struggled to find effective ways to develop students' speaking and listening skills, this is your lucky day.

I've separated the strategies into three groups. The first batch contains the higher-prep strategies, formats that require teachers to do some planning or gathering of materials ahead of time. Next come the low-prep strategies, which can be used on the fly when you have a few extra minutes or just want your students to get more active. Note that these are not strict categories; it's certainly possible to simplify or add more meat to any of these structures and still make them work. The last group is the ongoing strategies. These are smaller techniques that can be integrated with other instructional strategies and don't really stand alone. For each strategy, you'll find a list of other names it sometimes goes by, a description of its basic structure, and an explanation of variations that exist, if any. To watch each strategy in action, click on its name and a new window will open with a video that demonstrates it.

Enjoy!
a.k.a. Chat Stations
Basic Structure: Stations or posters are set up around the classroom, on the walls or on tables. Small groups of students travel from station to station together, performing some kind of task or responding to a prompt, either of which will result in a conversation.

Variations: Some Gallery Walks stay true to the term gallery, where groups of students create informative posters, then act as tour guides or docents, giving other students a short presentation about their poster and conducting a Q&A about it. In Starr Sackstein's high school classroom, her stations consisted of video tutorials created by the students themselves. Before I knew the term Gallery Walk, I shared a strategy similar to it called Chat Stations, where the teacher prepares discussion prompts or content-related tasks and sets them up around the room for students to visit in small groups.
a.k.a. Values Continuum, Forced Debate, Physical Barometer, This or That
Basic Structure: A statement that has two possible responses-agree or disagree-is read out loud. Depending on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students move to one side of the room or the other. From that spot, students take turns defending their positions.

Variations: Often a Philosophical Chairs debate will be based around a text or group of texts students have read ahead of time; students are required to cite textual evidence to support their claims and usually hold the texts in their hands during the discussion. Some teachers set up one hot seat to represent each side, and students must take turns in the seat. In less formal variations (which require less prep), a teacher may simply read provocative statements students are likely to disagree on, and a debate can occur spontaneously without a text to refer to (I call this variation This or That in my classroom icebreakers post). Teachers may also opt to offer a continuum of choices, ranging from "Strongly Agree" on one side of the room, all the way to "Strongly Disagree" on the other, and have students place themselves along that continuum based on the strength of their convictions.

Basic Structure: Students are divided into 4 groups. Three of these groups are assigned to represent specific points of view. Members of the fourth group are designated as "provocateurs," tasked with making sure the discussion keeps going and stays challenging. One person from each group (the "speaker") sits in a desk facing speakers from the other groups, so they form a square in the center of the room. Behind each speaker, the remaining group members are seated: two right behind the speaker, then three behind them, and so on, forming a kind of triangle. From above, this would look like a pinwheel. The four speakers introduce and discuss questions they prepared ahead of time (this preparation is done with their groups). After some time passes, new students rotate from the seats behind the speaker into the center seats and continue the conversation.

Variations: When high school English teacher Sarah Brown Wessling introduced this strategy in the featured video (click Pinwheel Discussion above), she used it as a device for talking about literature, where each group represented a different author, plus one provocateur group. But in the comments that follow the video, Wessling adds that she also uses the strategy with non-fiction, where students represent authors of different non-fiction texts or are assigned to take on different perspectives about an issue.
a.k.a. Socratic Circles
Basic Structure: Students prepare by reading a text or group of texts and writing some higher-order discussion questions about the text. On seminar day, students sit in a circle and an introductory, open-ended question is posed by the teacher or student discussion leader. From there, students continue the conversation, prompting one another to support their claims with textual evidence. There is no particular order to how students speak, but they are encouraged to respectfully share the floor with others. Discussion is meant to happen naturally and students do not need to raise their hands to speak. This overview of Socratic Seminar from the website Facing History and Ourselves provides a list of appropriate questions, plus more information about how to prepare for a seminar.

Variations: If students are beginners, the teacher may write the discussion questions, or the question creation can be a joint effort. For larger classes, teachers may need to set up seminars in more of a fishbowl-like arrangement, dividing students into one inner circle that will participate in the discussion, and one outer circle that silently observes, takes notes, and may eventually trade places with those in the inner circle, sometimes all at once, and sometimes by "tapping in" as the urge strikes them.
a.k.a. Affinity Diagramming
Basic Structure: Give students a broad question or problem that is likely to result in lots of different ideas, such as "What were the impacts of the Great Depression?" or "What literary works should every person read?" Have students generate responses by writing ideas on post-it notes (one idea per note) and placing them in no particular arrangement on a wall, whiteboard, or chart paper. Once lots of ideas have been generated, have students begin grouping them into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss why the ideas fit within them, how the categories relate to one another, and so on.

Variations: Some teachers have students do much of this exercise-recording their ideas and arranging them into categories- without talking at first. In other variations, participants are asked to re-combine the ideas into new, different categories after the first round of organization occurs. Often, this activity serves as a good pre-writing exercise, after which students will write some kind of analysis or position paper.
a.k.a. Speed Dating
Basic Structure: Students form two circles, one inside circle and one outside circle. Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside; they face each other. The teacher poses a question to the whole group and pairs discuss their responses with each other. Then the teacher signals students to rotate: Students on the outside circle move one space to the right so they are standing in front of a new person (or sitting, as they are in the video). Now the teacher poses a new question, and the process is repeated.

Variations: Instead of two circles, students could also form two straight lines facing one another. Instead of "rotating" to switch partners, one line just slides over one spot, and the leftover person on the end comes around to the beginning of the line. Some teachers use this strategy to have students teach one piece of content to their fellow students, making it less of a discussion strategy and more of a peer teaching format. In fact, many of these protocols could be used for peer teaching as well.

Basic Structure: Another great idea from Sarah Brown Wessling, this is a small-group discussion strategy that gives students exposure to more of their peers' ideas and prevents the stagnation that can happen when a group doesn't happen to have the right chemistry. Students are placed into a few groups of 4-6 students each and are given a discussion question to talk about. After sufficient time has passed for the discussion to develop, one or two students from each group rotate to a different group, while the other group members remain where they are. Once in their new group, they will discuss a different, but related question, and they may also share some of the key points from their last group's conversation. For the next rotation, students who have not rotated before may be chosen to move, resulting in groups that are continually evolving.

Basic Structure: Two students sit facing each other in the center of the room; the remaining students sit in a circle around them. The two central students have a conversation based on a pre-determined topic and often using specific skills the class is practicing (such as asking follow-up questions, paraphrasing, or elaborating on another person's point). Students on the outside observe, take notes, or perform some other discussion-related task assigned by the teacher.

Variations: One variation of this strategy allows students in the outer circle to trade places with those in the fishbowl, doing kind of a relay-style discussion, or they may periodically "coach" the fishbowl talkers from the sidelines. Teachers may also opt to have students in the outside circle grade the participants' conversation with a rubric, then give feedback on what they saw in a debriefing afterward, as mentioned in the featured video.

Basic Structure: One student assumes the role of a book character, significant figure in history, or concept (such as a tornado, an animal, or the Titanic). Sitting in front of the rest of the class, the student responds to classmates' questions while staying in character in that role.

Variations: Give more students the opportunity to be in the hot seat while increasing everyone's participation by having students do hot seat discussions in small groups, where one person per group acts as the "character" and three or four others ask them questions. In another variation, several students could form a panel of different characters, taking questions from the class all together and interacting with one another like guests on a TV talk show.
a.k.a. Pyramid Discussion
Basic Structure: Students begin in pairs, responding to a discussion question only with a single partner. After each person has had a chance to share their ideas, the pair joins another pair, creating a group of four. Pairs share their ideas with the pair they just joined. Next, groups of four join together to form groups of eight, and so on, until the whole class is joined up in one large discussion.

Variations: This structure could simply be used to share ideas on a topic, or students could be required to reach consensus every time they join up with a new group.

Whereas the other formats in this list have a distinct shape-specific activities you do with students-the strategies in this section are more like plug-ins, working discussion into other instructional activities and improving the quality and reach of existing conversations.

One of the limitations of discussion is that rich, face-to-face conversations can only happen when all parties are available, so we're limited to the time we have in class. With a tool like Voxer, those limitations disappear. Like a private voice mailbox that you set up with just one person or a group (but SOOOO much easier), Voxer allows users to have conversations at whatever time is most convenient for each participant. So a group of four students can "discuss" a topic from 3pm until bedtime-asynchronously-each member contributing whenever they have a moment, and if the teacher makes herself part of the group, she can listen in, offer feedback, or contribute her own discussion points. Voxer is also invaluable for collaborating on projects and for having one-on-one discussions with students, parents, and your own colleagues. Like many other educators, Peter DeWitt took a while to really understand the potential of Voxer, but in this EdWeek piece, he explains what turned him around.

A backchannel is a conversation that happens right alongside another activity. The first time I saw a backchannel in action was at my first unconference: While those of us in the audience listened to presenters and watched a few short video clips, a separate screen was up beside the main screen, projecting something called TodaysMeet (update: TodaysMeet has shut down. Use YoTeach! instead.) It looked a lot like those chat rooms from back in the day, basically a blank screen where people would contribute a few lines of text, the lines stacking up one after the other, no other bells or whistles. Anyone in the room could participate in this conversation on their phone, laptop, or tablet, asking questions, offering commentary, and sharing links to related resources without ever interrupting the flow of the presentations. This kind of tool allows for a completely silent discussion, one that doesn't have to move at a super-fast pace, and it gives students who may be reluctant to speak up or who process their thoughts more slowly a chance to fully contribute. For a deeper discussion of how this kind of tool can be used, read this thoughtful overview of using backchannel discussions in the classroom by Edutopia's Beth Holland.
a.k.a. Accountable Talk
Talk moves are sentence frames we supply to our students that help them express ideas and interact with one another in respectful, academically appropriate ways. From kindergarten all the way through college, students can benefit from explicit instruction in the skills of summarizing another person's argument before presenting an alternate view, asking clarifying questions, and expressing agreement or partial agreement with the stance of another participant. Talk moves can be incorporated into any of the other discussion formats listed here.

Whole Brain Teaching is a set of teaching and classroom management methods that has grown in popularity over the past 10 years. One of WBT's foundational techniques is Teach-OK, a peer teaching strategy that begins with the teacher spending a few minutes introducing a concept to the class. Next, the teacher says Teach!, the class responds with Okay!, and pairs of students take turns re-teaching the concept to each other. It's a bit like think-pair-share, but it's faster-paced, it focuses more on re-teaching than general sharing, and students are encouraged to use gestures to animate their discussion. Although WBT is most popular in elementary schools, this featured video shows the creator of WBT, Chris Biffle, using it quite successfully with college students. I have also used Teach-OK with college students, and most of my students said they were happy for a change from the sit-and-listen they were used to in college classrooms.

An oldie but a goodie, think-pair-share can be used any time you want to plug interactivity into a lesson: Simply have students think about their response to a question, form a pair with another person, discuss their response, then share it with the larger group. Because I feel this strategy has so many uses and can be way more powerful than we give it credit for, I devoted a whole post to think-pair-share; everything you need to know about it is right there.

TWO MORE YOU'LL LOVE

Since writing this post, I have learned about two more discussion strategies that teachers are finding to be incredibly effective and powerful for getting students to talk, especially about books and other texts:

This protocol has students come up with their own Thoughts, lingering Questions, and Epiphanies from an assigned reading. Teachers who have used this method say it has generated some of the richest conversations they have ever heard from students!

This strategy places students into one-on-one conversations, getting them to learn each others' names better and create a track record of what they talked about. Excellent for classes where you want to assess for discussion and help students get more comfortable with each other.

So what else do you have? I would like to think this is a pretty complete list, but I'm sure more strategies are out there. If you use a discussion strategy that's not mentioned here, please share it below.

Come back for more.
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The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies

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Here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.