Three Learning Activities to Engage Students in Your Remote Course

Last March when classes were swiftly moved to the remote environment, many of us had little time to adapt. In hopes to engage our students in this new environment, we implemented tried and true active learning techniques such as polling questions in Zoom, small group discussions in breakout rooms, or adding quiz questions to lecture videos using Drexel Streams. But, almost a year later, and having spent more hours than we care to think about on Zoom, we better understand both how important it is to actively engage students in class and also how challenging it can be. If you are looking for a few new ideas to try, check out these three learning activities that can be adapted to fit a wide range of courses and disciplines in the remote classroom.

Annotation Discussions

One way to facilitate discussions about course readings is to have students annotate directly in the article or textbook chapter that they are assigned. While it is common to see students annotating their textbooks or hard copies of readings, they may not be taking notes as readily online. Even so, students aren’t typically collaborating on these notes with their peers or sharing them with the instructor. Facilitating this type of text-based discussion offers a new way for students to participate in class and increases their accountability for engaging with the course readings. Annotation discussions can be effective to use both in asynchronous courses or as a change from traditional oral discussion in synchronous classes.

To create the space for an annotation discussion, simply copy the text you want students to discuss into a shared document (Google Doc, Office 365) and check the privacy settings to make sure anyone with the link can comment on the document. If you are looking to add some more bells and whistles to the discussion, you may want to explore the free versions of Perusall or Hypothesis. Once you have created your document, students can use it to ask questions, make comments, take notes, and discuss concepts right within the reading. You can also give students more specific guidelines. For example, you might ask them to identify a writing technique in the text, define an unfamiliar word, add a real-world example of a concept or highlight a concept they don't understand. You can also add your own annotations to the text with questions at specific points where you want students to respond.

Lecture Bingo

Most faculty are familiar with the game of Bingo but may not have considered using it in their teaching, let alone in an online course. However, Bingo can be a great way to engage students, encourage them to use course terminology, and hold their attention in a synchronous class session. To facilitate lecture Bingo in your class, first create and send each student a custom Bingo card with key terms from a reading, case study, or upcoming lecture prior to the start of class. Ask them to have their Bingo card printed or available on-screen during class. Throughout the lecture, as you and students discuss course content, encourage students to use and define the terms on their Bingo card. If a student correctly uses and defines a term on their bingo card, it is marked off. When a student has five squares in a row marked, they declare “Bingo!”

The first few students to get a Bingo can be awarded a prize. This may be something little like earning an extra point for a participation grade, selecting a song to play during the next break, or even getting an extra day's grace time on an upcoming assignment.

Pass the Problem

Pass the problem is a small group activity that can be used in a variety of disciplines and contexts. In this activity, groups of 3-5 students are assigned to work on a different problem, part of a problem, or case study together in a small group. Once an allotted amount of time has passed, they are instructed to “pass the problem” to a new small group. The new group is then instructed to review, correct, or advance the first group’s solution.

This is a great activity to get students working together on problem solving, but depending on the problem and prompts, it can also help students better understand a process, identify mistakes, or dig deeper into discussions. It may also provide students with an opportunity to share and receive feedback on their work.

To implement pass the problem in a synchronous online course, you will first need to create a different problem, case, or discussion question for each small group to work on and add each to a separate document (Google Doc, Office 365). Don’t forget to make sure the privacy settings on each document allow anyone with a link to the document to edit it. Then, paste a link to each document within your slides or in the chat to share with all students during class. Prior to sending students to breakout rooms, assign each group to work on a different problem in the document. Let them know the order of problems that you want them to solve (i.e. when I send a message to “pass the problem” the group working on problem 1 will move to problem 2, problem 2 to problem 3, and so on). Depending on the questions you are asking, problems can be passed only once or continued until discussion has been exhausted.

If you are looking for more creative ways to engage students online check out this list of elearning activities and templates.