We have all experienced the awkwardness of interacting in Zoom by telling someone they are muted when they are talking and clumsily stumbling with “No, you go!” until someone eventually takes the speaking floor. If we had bingo boards for these moments and phrases, we would all be winners by the end of just about any Zoom session.
Interacting in Zoom is similar to interacting in person and yet dissimilar enough that as a facilitator, managing group interactions requires some rethinking of in-person strategies. In in-person conversation, we attend to discursive cues to manage turn-taking. Some cues are quite subtle and are not something we actively think about such as an inbreath, which signals that someone is preparing to speak, and gaze, showing that we should all look at the board or some other common thing or person, for example. With being muted by default and not being able to make eye contact in Zoom, more explicit turn-taking strategies help to more smoothly and quickly determine who is going to speak next. Here are 4 ways you can manage turn-taking in your digital classroom.
Randomize Cold-Calling
Cold-calling and using strategies for randomly but equitably calling on students is nothing revolutionary, and with a little communication with your students ahead of time, cold-calling can be quite effective. With cold-calling, the challenge for the facilitator is equitability of participation. While you may not have a cup of popsicle sticks with their names handy from which to pull, you can rely on other tools to help you manage whose turn is next. The Wheel of Names is user-friendly and takes the pressure off of you as the facilitator to choose the next person. With a simple click of a button, the Wheel will decide for you.
Additionally, you can edit your roster in a spreadsheet to include student names and a column with a participation checkbox or several checkboxes. Once you create a template, simply duplicate the tab in the same workbook, and track each student’s participation throughout the term by checking the box once they have shared out. You can start to call on students who did not yet participate and even invite them to share via chat if they cannot unmute at that moment.
Raise Your Virtual Hand
Another straightforward tool is the virtual raise hand option within Zoom. Taking this tool a step further to manage turn-taking, you can choose as the facilitator who gets to share. For example, if you call for student responses and ask that they raise their virtual hand, you might see several students who raise their hand. You can then acknowledge that so many are ready to share but that due to time constraints there is only enough time to hear from two people, and you are going to choose two students who have spoken up less than the others. This can also reduce some of the nervousness that some students feel when being called on because they have already signaled they are ready to share.
Try Silence
Silence is an incredibly powerful tool that facilitators can use to elicit participation from students. One way you could purposefully use silence is during whole-group debrief. For example, have students work in small groups to analyze a case study or scenario and determine what their approach would be given the same situation and justifications for their chosen approach. During whole-group debrief, let your students know that you want to hear what they have to say and so will stay muted but expect each student to briefly describe the scenario if necessary, share their insights, ask questions, and provide feedback throughout the discussion. Rather than students volleying back to you, the facilitator, and looking to your approval or redirection, you stay muted unless there is something that needs immediate feedback. Otherwise, have the students rely on one another to collaboratively work through the case study. You and your students can also pre-determine any further details for how to participate: should folks raise their hands or spontaneously unmute? Not only does this mirror what is often experienced in the field, but it also increases student talk time and allows students the chance to navigate turn-taking independently. You can up the ante by also taking participation notes or points as discussed above.
The strategies here are simple yet effective in helping you manage turn-taking in your digital classroom. For further reading, check out these resources:
Bannink, A., & Van Dam, J. (2021). Teaching via zoom: Emergent discourse practices and complex footings in the online/offline classroom interface. Languages, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6030148
Reis, R. (n.d.). The socratic method: What it is and how to use it in the classroom. The Socratic Method: What it is and How to Use it in the Classroom | Tomorrow's Professor Postings. Retrieved April 30, 2022, from https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/810
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