I use three different tools to engage with my class, and for my students to engage with each other. One of them is integrated with Canvas, and the other two are standalone apps which don’t require students to create an account. I became aware of them while teaching remotely last year and decided to carry them into this year, due to the value they bring to the class and the increased student connection with each other on class material outside of class.
I explain the usage of these tools during my conversation with Ishrat (video recordings below). Let me know if you have any questions!
The first is Perusall. It is intended for sharing reading and annotation of documents and allows for a depth of discussion to happen before class. We come to class at a higher level of comprehension and readiness to dive into the harder topics. It is integrated with Canvas and only use it for 1-2 readings in the quarter. I upload the case PDF into my class account in Perusall, assign students to reading groups of 6-7 members, and then pepper the document with questions linked to certain passages in the case. This assignment now becomes an asynchronous group reading, thinking and interactive activity. Students can reply to my question, comment or like another student’s comment. I am able to see comments by a particular group, and see the conversations from page to page. The platform allows me to look at the analytics, like a heat map of their submissions (did they do it at the 11th hour), how long did each student spend on the reading, how many comments did they make, etc. All of this helps me in grading the assignment as well as identifying who i want to call in class for further explanation of their comment. I can download the student activity report and quickly identify low activity and reach out to the student if needed. Perusall is available to add to your course via NU Learning Apps: https://learningapps.northwestern.edu/#/app/perusall
Next I want to share is Mural. I find it useful as a virtual whiteboard for group work, either live or asynchronous. Mural is not as unique as Persuall, there are many digital white boarding applications. I like Mural because it is easy for the students to get into the platform using a visitor link which means they don’t need to create an account. It does not connect to Canvas and i just I create a separate Mural for each group. I create a template ahead of time and instruction sticky notes. Students add their comments on sticky notes and organize their thoughts, star ideas shared and build on each other’s thoughts. I ask students to write questions for my guest speaker, which i collect across groups and share with my guest speaker ahead of time. I use this realtime during Zoom in breakouts, where students go to their group board and do live brainstorming. License is free to educators and I use it across all my classes, including Executive Education, local non-profit, etc.
The third one I want to talk about is Teammates. I for years was struggling to find an easy way for my students to give feedback on one another working in teams. I tried paper forms, Google forms but the data did not come out the way I needed it to. Finally I found an application called Teammates, and they make this easy. I do interim peer evaluations and final peer evaluations. I can clone last year’s form or set up new course. I drop in my students names assigned to a group number and their email addresses. I set up the start and end dates of the evaluations and when students should get notified via Teammates to submit an evaluation. I ask 2 questions, 1) give each person on their team including themselves a score for participation and 2) if they have any comments about that student’s participation. Once I set this up, it’s hands off for me and I can monitor the process via the dashboard.