Students are surrounded by technology and may need help utilizing it in the classroom. Fortunately, many tools are designed to facilitate student understanding and engagement.
For example, online discussion forums allow students to ask questions anonymously and receive feedback from teachers or peers. In addition, collaborative tools can help students complete assignments together.
Online Discussions
Online discussions are a powerful tool for fostering student engagement. They can help students develop their speaking, listening and writing skills while allowing them to engage with a topic outside the classroom. This dialogue allows for a deeper understanding of a subject and can lead to transformative learning experiences.
Discussions are often less intimidating than raising your hand and speaking in front of the class, making them a great place for introverted students to express their thoughts. They also allow for a more democratic exchange of ideas, as each student can contribute to the conversation regardless of their physical location. However, instructors should be aware of the potential for discussions to become unfocused or unproductive. Setting clear expectations for participation in the online discussion space is also important.
To foster student response, instructors should consider grouping students into smaller discussion groups that remain the same for several weeks. This will encourage students to build relationships and support one another as they explore the topic of interest.
Interactive Quizzes
One of the easiest ways to engage students is to include fun quizzes and games in class. These can be used to assess student understanding and can help identify knowledge gaps that need to be addressed through further teaching or additional resources.
When creating interactive quizzes, you can choose from various question formats. For example, sequence quizzes are great for establishing a timeline or arranging several items in ascending/descending order. At the same time, hotspot questions ask learners to select a specific area of an image as their answer. These question types are more visual and can engage students more than the traditional multiple-choice format.
You can also make your quizzes more interactive by adding automated feedback. This can be a simple message saying “Well done” or, even better, providing comments on incorrect answers that direct learners to review relevant content. Outgrow’s quiz builder makes this easy by allowing you to preview how your quiz looks on both laptop and mobile devices. It’s a great way to see how your students will interact with your quizzes before you publish and share them.
Learning Platforms
Learning platforms are digital spaces or portals that offer educational content and resources. They are like a one-stop shop for learning, containing everything students might need to complete their studies—from videos and notes to previous assignments, quizzes, and more.
Both teachers and students can use these technology tools for the classroom. Generally speaking, they are differentiated from LMSs (Learning Management Systems) because the former is a user-facing environment. At the same time, the latter focuses on back-end features like course creation and grading.
Popular learning platforms cater to different industries and training needs, from tactical courses on how to use software to highly specialized expert-led sessions on digital transformation.
. Unlike different computer platform types, these platforms focus more on higher education and favor long-form lessons and discussions rather than bite-sized training.
Attendance Apps
Attendance apps are a powerful tool that can help teachers save time and money. They also eliminate the need for manual attendance tracking and help teachers stay organized and focused on classroom activities.
An attendance app can also help students save time by eliminating the need for roll calls and providing timely reminders to arrive on campus. This can help improve student punctuality and reduce class disruptions. In addition, it can help students focus on learning by making it easier to track their progress throughout the semester.
To use the attendance app, click on it in your course menu and follow the instructions to enable it. Then you can start taking attendance directly from your Dashboard or by swiping on the Group Classes screen.
The app also has a check-out session that can be used to verify the absence of students at the end of class by linking this session to a previous Check-In session. Once the student is checked out, it will compare both sessions and mark the user present if they are present in both sessions.
Digital Portfolios
Digital portfolios are a powerful learning and assessment tool that supports multimodal learning & expression, increases student engagement with content and improve metacognition. In addition, they also help students build their self-publishing skills and a sense of agency in the learning process.
When using a digital portfolio platform, teachers should make sure it allows for distinguishing between process and product work. This could be done using tags or categories or involve a more manual approach, such as moving an initial blog entry from a “process” category to a more “finished” artifact.
Educators should also ensure the platform provides room for creativity and that students can customize their workspace to reflect who they are as learners. In addition, digital portfolios can be used to show students they can achieve goals that were once deemed impossible. This can bolster students’ motivation to progress academically and in other pursuits. Students can also use their digital portfolios to share their progress with families, which can be a great way to reinforce and celebrate student achievement.