Increasing Interaction in an Online Course
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The document discusses various activities and tools that can be used to increase student interaction in online courses. It begins by outlining openers, group work strategies, structured collaborations, content review techniques, and closers. Specific techniques are then described in more detail, such as icebreakers, discussion forums, collaborative documents, and reflective activities. A variety of free and low-cost online tools are presented that can support each element.
Increasing Interaction in an Online Course
- 1. Increasing Student Interaction in Your Online Course Kevin Oliver, NC State University Shaun Kellogg, Sandy Grove Elementary
- 2. Session Description In this presentation, activities to increase student interaction in online courses will be demonstrated--session openers, closers, group brainstorms, content reviews, and more. All activities are supported by free Web 2.0 tools or common online course management systems. While online courses are emphasized, activities are also applicable in face-to-face settings.
- 3. Outline course openers , important to begin developing student relationships, let learners know interaction is valued, introduce students to key tools they'll use during semester group research , strategies to get students working together on a shared research task structured collaborations , xxx content review, practice , xxx course closers , xxx
- 5. Synectics creative thinking strategy involving metaphor and analogy; useful as an ice breaker the teacher saves a group of random photos from the Web that elicit varying reactions (e.g., baby, dog, disaster, wedding, tree, river, ocean, playground, car, police, radio) students are asked to choose one photo that reminds them of an experience they've had in a similar course (e.g., another science course, another online course) students describe the experience and why the selected photo reminds them of it one way to support this activity--store photos as "files" or "media libraries" in a course management system, have students save one, and post their photo/reflection to a forum another way--place photos online in a tool like Voicethread, where students can leave text/oral reflections
- 8. Two Truths and a Lie to help students get to know one another before an online course begins, the teacher creates a discussion forum and ask students to introduce themselves with three facts--two facts should be true and one should be false other students in the class guess which fact is false vary the activity by having each student supply two goals they've accomplished that are true and one that is false (i.e., something they eventually hope to accomplish) the teacher can recognize the students who identified the most false facts/goals, as well as the students who best stymied the class
- 9. Virtual Interview assign each student in class a partner, and ask students to schedule a time when they can talk via a synchronous course tool such as text-chat give students a list of questions to use in interviewing one another (e.g., why they're taking this course, hobbies, talents, favorite foods, ideal career, etc.) students take notes, then create a thread in a class discussion forum to introduce their partner to the class helps students get to know one another and provides a good introduction to both synchronous and asynchronous course tools
- 10. Top Ten List as a play on David Letterman's popular "top ten list," encourage students to post "strategies for success in an online course" to a discussion forum students should reply to the strategies they concur with and explain why that strategy is important the teacher can identify the strategies that were discussed most often to generate a top ten list to share with the class this activity encourages students to think about important strategies for success in online courses at the start of the course, and reinforces the strategies by having peers affirm good habits
- 11. Group Research
- 12. Social Bookmarks have students create new accounts on a social bookmark tool such as del.icio.us give students a list of tags in advance, so as they research assigned topics, they can mark resources they find with a common tag (e.g., eci511_integration) student-saved resources are compiled and can be accessed by the entire group using a URL that references the common tag... http://del.icio.us/tag/eci511_integration
- 13. different users have used the same tag 'eci511_integration' to contribute resources to this list
- 14. Wiki Trails Trailfire is a free Web tool that allows teachers or students to grab a group of Web pages and put them into a "trail" for other users to "walk" through you could, for example, create a trail that takes users to every state park in North Carolina; each park Web site would be called a "mark" on the trail
- 15. Wiki Trails at each mark, the person creating the trail can leave annotations that summarize the current page, or questions that encourage users walking the trail to read and identify specific information on a page commenting allows trails users to answer reflection questions in terms of supporting group research, Trailfire has a feature called "wiki trails" that allows someone like a teacher to set up a trail in advance, check the wiki trail option, and then students can be tasked with contributing "marks" or sites to a shared trail for example... "mark and annotate Web pages that discuss global warming; write reflection questions for your peers"
- 17. Buddy System to reduce the sense of isolation inherent in many online courses, particularly those with an over-abundance of self-directed activities, adopt a "buddy system" pair students with a partner at the beginning of the course and embed recurring activities that require partner conversation via chat or instant messaging partners can complete joint assignments, or peer review one another's work before submission partners can develop review questions or virtual flash cards to help each other prepare for a quiz (see quizlet) partners can be encouraged to dialogue beyond course assignments (e.g., exchange e-greeting cards)
- 18. Six Thinking Hats do you have difficulty fostering conversation in online discussion boards? consider using Edward Debono's Six Thinking Hats strategy useful for open-ended discussions on topics that require analysis from varying angles, good prep for debate (e.g., health care, school choice, pollution, energy) create six separate threads in a discussion forum and assign students to one thread--each group has a different focus reuse hats during the semester and rotate students through different hats, so they get a feel for the varying angles white hat (information)--state facts objectively, look at details and information, generate questions red hat (feelings)--think with your emotions, intuitions, and feelings, without the need to justify or substantiate a point of view
- 19. Six Thinking Hats black hat (judgment)--think seriously and cautiously, play devil's advocate and ask questions that may expose weaknesses in a proposal yellow hat (benefits), lend support to an idea or solution path, optimistically state reasons why an idea may work, be constructive green hat (creativity), challenge convention and look for alternatives, be creative, think laterally blue (metacognition), overview perspective; evaluate which perspectives were most productive (white, red, black, yellow, or green)
- 20. Dear Abby create a Dear Abby discussion forum in your online course that allows students to post problems they may be having with a particular concept or assignment assign a few new students to the role of Abby each week and have them respond directly to any peer questions encourage other students in class to confirm "Abby's" suggestions or provide alternative suggestions make contributions to the forum a part of your "participation" grade
- 21. Formal Invites do you ever schedule optional synchronous sessions with your online students using tools like Wimba Pronto and Elluminate? how often do all of your students show up for these evening or after-school sessions? consider sending your students personal and inviting electronic invitations to encourage participation in your synchronous study sessions request an RSVP, so students know you are tracking who will and will not attend the visual chunking of students in "yes" and "no" RSVP categories may provide some peer pressure to attend, particularly if only a few students are missing the event tools like Evite are free and can help with RSVP tracking
- 23. Do You See What I Think? in a course that involves processes and procedures, put students in groups of two have one student prepare a written description of a process and share it with their partner via email the second student takes the written description and uses a Web-based diagramming tool to turn the process into a visual (e.g., diagram, flowchart) (see Gliffy) the second student posts the written description and a link to their "shared" diagram on a class discussion forum repeat the steps with the second student providing the written description for another process
- 24. Link in the Blanks the teacher or student posts summary text corresponding to a course topic on a course discussion board the paragraph includes blanks that other students must fill-in the blanks are not filled-in with text responses, however, they are filled-in with URLs to Web sites students can fill-in the blanks with URLs to regular Web sites, or they can be encouraged to fill-in the blanks with URLs to their own Web-based elaborations (see, xtranormal video editor, audiopal audio editor, sketchcast drawing recorder, toondoo comic creator)
- 25. Mind Mapping a mind map contains a central main concept that is built on with branches to related information numerous online tools are now available to support groups building mind maps collaboratively on a given topic (see, mindmeister) teachers can have students create a mind map from scratch starting with only a central topic, or they can start students off with a skeletal map that has a few ideas for students to build on
- 26. Course Closers
- 27. Time Capsule create a discussion forum and ask students to leave notes for future students about what they should know to successfully complete the online course the suggestions provide students with an opportunity to reflect on what they did well and not so well during the semester, and should give the teacher some good insights into how they can improve their teaching of the course suggestions can be shared with future students
- 28. Resources
- 29. Resources some of the activities in this presentation were drawn from paper-back books you can purchase to learn more: Bonk, C. J., & Zhang, K. (2008). Empowering online learning: 100+ activities for reading, reflecting, displaying, and doing . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Collison, G., Elbaum, B., Haavind, S., & Tinker, R. (2000). Facilitating online learning: Effective strategies for moderators . Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing. Iverson, K. M. (2005). E-learning games . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.