Everyone is on Slack right now. Including me, as I write this blog! Oh, you aren’t? I’ll do my best to help you make the leap! What is Slack anyway, and what makes it different from, say, the AOL Chatrooms of yore? And even if it is special, how can you effectively use it in classrooms? It’s time to Level Up Immersive Conversation Using Slack! In Part 1 of this series, we talked about Yellowdig as an online social media platform that lives in your Canvas course fully equipped for online asynchronous discussion and immersion synchronous discussion. It has auto-grading capabilities and can help learners organize thoughts about the course around major themes. Its gamification features ensure learners stay on topic and contribute consistent and quality posts and replies. Slack is different from Yellowdig, but can also be used to enhance your classes. Here are some of the major features of Slack. Independent workspace , Slack is not a Canvas embedded tool. It’s an independent workspace for...

When I work with faculty that teach immersion (students in the classroom) many of them are worried that if they teach online or hybrid they will lose what they feel is the cornerstone of the classroom experience: collaborative discussion. And it’s true, for many years we’ve been constrained by a model created in old-style internet forums using threads and responses. At first, they were exciting (maybe), but for many of us they’ve grown stale and the conversations contrived….or non-existent. But we shouldn’t abandon hope that online asynchronous discussion is possible and important. If anything, the rise of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Discord have shown us that not only are many of our students capable of meaningful asynchronous interaction, but a large part of their social existence depends on it. So why don’t we have meaningful conversations in our own asynchronous classroom discussions? Why do students “go behind our backs” to create a Discord? (Will they please let...

Do you often feel frustrated with the way discussions in your online course end up? Is everyone repeating the same thing? Are you reading essays in discussion forums, rather than genuine conversations about the topic? Consider changing your mindset and approach to course discussions through a new discussion pedagogy, that leads to authentic course conversations! Three ASU instructional designers, Abigail Smith , Steven Maierson , and Sarah Prosory , teamed up for a recent webinar to review where we are at with current online course discussion boards, the typical pedagogy that goes along with them, and why it is inadequate. Then they shared a new approach and tool to make discussions become authentic conversations that lead to better student engagement. Where We Are With Course Discussions Let's face it, online discussions are not the same as face-to-face discussions in a classroom. We hear often that "the magic is gone" in online discussions, and they are not interesting ...

Combining the C.R.E.A.T.E .method with an online annotation and discussion tool like Perusall can empower students to confidently participate in conversations and amplify more voices in the classroom. Together they may lead to deeper knowledge building and synthesis among communities of learners. Reading primary research literature is an important skill for understanding the generation and evaluation of ideas in the Life and Social Sciences. Typically as students advance into their upper division coursework, interactions with primary literature outside of curated textbooks become more common. Analysis of these papers can help students understand “who does science, how and why” (Hoskins, Lapatto, and Stevens, 2011) . However, for many students reading primary literature can be intimidating and confusing. Scientific research may seem like a recipe to which some have access and others do not. They may also feel like they are unable to ask questions or criticize the work being done by ...

Are you looking to make your course readings more engaging?  Are you looking for improved ways for your students to collaborate and learn together? Consider using the tool Perusall , now available for all ASU courses. Perusall is a collaborative annotation tool for readings that allows for discussion, comments, and questions as students are learning the content. It’s a great way to promote active learning through on-topic peer collaboration, to make readings more engaging (and ensure that students logged in and read the material), and address student confusion quickly and easily. For hybrid courses, consider asking your students to read, annotate, and discuss your learning materials before coming to class so you can collect everyone’s thoughts and take it a step deeper in-person. For fully-online courses, you can use Perusall to have authentic discussions around the content with the ability to ask and answer questions as students are learning the material similar to how a stu...

As we move to remote instruction for in-person classes, there have been a lot of resources shared for what to do, how best to do it, and ways to make things easier for all during this transition. We've pulled the most frequently accessed resources below, as well as ones that you may not have seen yet. Hopefully this will help you feel better prepared for the upcoming weeks. School of Life Sciences faculty and teaching assistants: please feel free to reach out to us by email or Slack in The College workspace, channel #sols-teaching-support . Faculty and Student Remote Websites The main website to visit for all things remote instruction is hosted by the Provost , and is a collaboration from the University Technology Office (UTO) and instructional designers and professionals from around campus. Be sure to visit it often, as it gets updated to reflect the best information to support you teaching remotely. Also, there is a website you can share with students that will help them with...

Our October webinar was hosted by Jen Mansfield and Andrew Salcido, who joined us from the Fulton School of Engineering at ASU. Both shared that future engineers need to be able to engage constructively with peers - be it in a room full of fellow students or in a online setting! To address this fundamental skill, learning activities are purposely designed to foster thoughtful conversations across the engineering curriculum. click on slide The first part of the webinar focused on creating quality online discussions for courses with small and large enrollment. Helpful strategies that were shared include: (a) engaging prompts; (b) providing structure & roles; and (c) setting expectations. In addition, the audience shared a few examples from different subject areas, such as engineering and history. The second part of the webinar focus on 'Tips & Trick' for Canvas, ASU's new LMS. Instructors and students can now subscribe to and participate in discussions i...