I'm Taking it With Me: Tools and techniques to keep

After teaching remotely for a full academic year, instructors' toolkits for creating scaffolded lessons and engaging students online have grown.  Not only have we been introduced to new tools and techniques, we have come to really embrace some of them!  We may ask ourselves, how we ever taught without them or why we didn't try that activity sooner.  The Tip of the Day staff recently asked instructors to share their perspective on which tools or techniques they plan to keep using in their instruction -- whether in-person in a classroom, asynchronous online, or remote via video-conferencing.  Here are a few of their ideas:

Canvas quizzes prior to class session

Over the past year, Spanish Director of Language Instruction, Mandy Menke, has asked students to complete simple Canvas quizzes based on the assigned reading.  Each quiz ended with prompts for students to tell her what questions they still had or what they wanted to discuss in person.  As Mandy says:

It gave me great insight into what my students were thinking, understanding, connecting, questioning, etc., and it helped me to plan and structure classes to better meet their needs."  In addition, "It held them accountable and supported some basic understandings (Correct answers were always available for T/F questions, multiple choice questions, etc.).

Online submission of assignments through Canvas

For instructors who until this past year regularly received student essays on paper and graded them by hand, switching to online submissions and digital grading has been an adjustment.  German instructor Ari Hoptman, however, has found a silver lining, in that he needn't worry too much about his penmanship anymore!  In addition to being able to read his comments, students also have an accurate record of which assignments they have submitted and whether the instructor has graded it yet.

Using Jamboard to practice vocabulary 

The number of Tip of the Day posts about Jamboard is an indication of how popular this online collaborative whiteboard tool has become. Dutch instructor Jenneke Oosterhoff reports:

Jamboard is a great tool to practice vocabulary in particular, but it can also be used for expressing opinion, practicing grammar, anything really. It's especially handy because you can use a picture as the background and have students use sticky notes to name items in the picture or say something about what is happening in the picture.

Students like it too, because it is so interactive and they can use it to review vocabulary independently later on.

Synchronous collaborative work in Google Docs or Jamboard

In situations where it is difficult to gauge the progress or accuracy of each group during a class activity, using one, common editable document, such as a Google Doc or Jamboard, has been a game-changer for German instructor Ginny Steinhagen. 

Students use these collaborative documents to practice grammar or to answer questions about a reading or listening assignment.  For Ginny, it means that "When they are working, I can monitor their progress and have a good sense of how much time they need, and I can raise questions to help them self-correct mistakes."  

Thanks to all the instructors who shared their ideas with us for this post.  As you wrap-up the semester and reflect on your own teaching practices, we hope you too have something good from this year to take with you into the future.