Get the conversation started. Professor Kinsley mentions, “Adapting from having taught in the live classroom and moving into a digital space, I have found the silence to be deafening.” To counter the silence and engage students, Kinsley begins class by setting up a poll that is usually framed as a non-graded pop quiz related to the asynchronous work or the weekly reading. The poll not only provides valuable insights about student understanding, but it also serves as a platform for conversation to revolve around. Additionally, Kinsley is known to unmute his entire class and his students know he isn’t afraid to cold call on them if conversation lulls. The employment of polling, unmuting, and cold calling has helped students initiate dialogue on their own, and allows Kinsley to act more as a facilitator.
Step back and make space. Professor Kinsley feels “the video platform lends itself to people feeling like they are always talking to me and answering my questions,” so he has relied on gallery view and facilitation skills to create a more well rounded session. Being in gallery view means students can look around the room at all of their peers instead of a single larger face in speaker view. Additionally, whenever a student directs a question to Professor Kinsley, he redirects it to the class and after practice and repetition, students have begun direction questions and comments to their peers on their own.
Provide routine expectations. Engaging students in the digital classroom means providing a space where they are comfortable in speaking and sharing. “Some people are comfortable on stage while some are more comfortable in a conference room,” which is why Professor Kinsely provides different settings in which students can participate. Each week, students can anticipate polls, conversation in the main session, breakout rooms once or twice, and reporting back to the larger group. While these aren’t the only tools he uses, Kinsley does maintain this basic routine allowing students to master interacting with the tools and in various environments.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your input!