Category: Workshop

On November 10^th 2021, the CIC hosted a workshop through the EWP’s Teacher Talk series on strategies and technologies for pandemic classrooms. As part of this workshop, we shared tools that can be integrated into EWP/IWP courses to promote active learning, especially in masked classroom environments.

As we wrap up Fall Quarter and begin thinking forward to Winter, here are a few tech tools and class practices that you might consider building into your next course. Some of these technologies are less common in our classrooms, while others are familiar hits that we wanted to recontextualize in light of their accessibility features and their potential to generate student engagement. These technologies were recommended based, in part, on our experiences with masked classrooms this quarter; however, we think it’s even more important for you to reflect on your own experience in pandemic classrooms—both this quarter and online—when considering these tools. What worked for you, and what could have been more successful? What would you like engagement to look like for your next course? What would you like technology to accomplish in your course, and how will you assess if your technology practices are meeting students’ needs?

1. Google Suite: Google Slides

While Google Slides is a familiar tool used by many instructors in the EWP, we wanted to highlight a few of its functions that could be useful in pandemic classrooms:

• Live Questions Feature
  
  Google Slides’ live questions feature allows students to ask questions through their electronic devices using a private code. As the instructor, you can see these questions as they’re submitted, as well as project questions onto the presentation to raise to the whole class.
  
• Automatic Live Captions
  
  Google Slides can also generate live captions for your lecture as you speak. This can be a useful tool both for recording asynchronous materials and for instructors who are particularly concerned with masked communication, perhaps because of a student accommodation need. This feature does require being near a microphone, and may best suit instructors who stand by a podium while teaching or folks (like me!) who carry their tablet around as they teach. Microsoft PP 365 has a similar live caption feature.

• Visual context + supplementary info
  
  True for any slideshow, slides are useful for providing additional context for your lecture and helping students follow along with the lesson, which can be even more difficult in masked classrooms. Consider having more text or images than you might in a maskless classroom! Students are more likely to need additional visual cues.

2. Google Suite: Google Docs

Another popular Google Suite application, Google Docs can acts as shared spaces for students to engage course materials and each other online. You may already use Google Docs for sign up sheets or handouts, but you might consider bringing the tool into your lesson plan, where it can be useful for:

• Group Annotations
• Collaborative Class Notes
• Group Share-Outs or Activity Notetaking

3. Google Jamboard

Google Jamboard is an online whiteboard tool. If you’re worried about calling students up to physical whiteboards and causing crowding, this is an excellent replacement that you can project while students participate at their seats. On Google Jamboard you can also upload images that can then be drawn, written, and sticky-noted on. Great for visual analysis activities!

Check out Jamboard’s About Page to learn more. 

4. Canvas: Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is a great interactive learning tool that’s most well known for its live online polling, but can be also used for activities like surveys, Q&As, quizzes, word clouds, and more. Poll Everywhere is very versatile for masked classrooms; you can generate and project live feeds of student responses, and there are tools for gauging student understanding and soliciting student feedback. Poll Everywhere can be integrated into your Canvas course as well.

To get started with Poll Everywhere, check out UW IT‘s information page!

5. Canvas: Hypothesis

Hypothesis is a collaborative annotation tool that can be integrated into your Canvas course. With Hypothesis, you can assign readings to the whole course or to groups, and students can annotate course readings collaboratively, share comments, and reply to each other’s comments with text, links, images, and video. Hypothesis annotations work well for both asynchronous activities (especially useful for if your course is hybrid or if you need to move online!) and also for in-class annotation activities. Hypothesis is also fully integrated with SpeedGrader.

6. Canvas: Video/Media Discussion Posts OR Flipgrid

Using media or video comments in discussion threads became a popular way to build community during remote learning, but it remains a useful tool in our current teaching environment. You might consider, for example, bringing back video introductions on Canvas at the start of the quarter for a more personal introduction where students will be able to see everyone’s unmasked faces.

For instructors who prefer not to use Canvas in their courses, Flipgrid offers a Canvas alternative that similarly allows for students to have video-based discussion threads.

7. Reclipped Video Annotation Tool

With Reclipped, you and students can highlight, annotate, and share timestamped moments from videos. Another useful group annotation tool, Reclipped makes responding to video content much easier, and again makes space for students who feel less comfortable during in-class discussions to participate. Reclipped also doesn’t require any video downloads and can be used to annotate YouTube videos as well as uploaded materials.

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Returning to in-person teaching has been, in many ways, a process of trial and error; similarly, integrating technology in the classroom can be seen as an experiment! New tech can be tricky and involves planning and preparation, as well as negotiating with students and getting their feedback. If you’re interested in using more technology in your classroom, we recommend picking only one or two new tools to try based on your teaching style and course content. The CIC AD and the rest of the EWP staff are here to support you in facilitating, practicing, and framing this!

If you’re looking for further resources on the topic of active learning in pandemic classrooms, a recording of the CIC workshop and presentation materials have been made available for EWP instructors here! I also recommend Columbia’s CTL’s “From Online to Face-to-Face–Keeping What Works” and their resource on collaborative learning, both of which were helpful in developing this resource page.

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