Using word clouds to engage students with concepts
Word clouds are amazing tools that help to provide insight into student understanding, student thoughts and if used right, can be great conversation starters and help “visual learners process reading assignments” (Fuglei, 2020). Word maps are colourful arrangements of words in response to a thought-provoking question. There are many online services that offer to develop word maps for free. Mentimeter is one such service that we prefered to use.
Word maps aren’t just a collection of words entered, they make commonly used words or phrases in larger fonts, or darker colours too. We have found word maps to be exceptionally helpful in engaging students to visually see and reflect on a topic that we may have just debated or discussed in class. It is also quite exciting to use as most learning Management Systems such as Moodle allows for the Mentimeter to be added directly to the Moodle site for students to view the Word Clouds live. When teaching students about system analysis and design, for instance, we once used the Mentimeter Word Cloud (see Fig. 3) and got students to record words they could think about with each concept. This was in response to student confusion between the two concepts – that of analysis and design with it came to first year computer science students.
During the lecture, as part of the conversation, we asked students to use the Mentimeter and join in the exercise. As the word clouds formed, we shared the clouds on the screen during a live class and asked students to see what was being written which led to discussions about the difference between system analysis and design. This not only helped students visualize the concepts but also prompted memory and added to the level of cognitive engagement from previous lessons on the topics, leading to revision of the topics and allowing the educators to gauge overall understanding and preparedness of topic in class for students.
Employing Padlets for class discussions and collaborations
Students feel isolated when they are engaging in remote learning. Remote classes can often seem like one-sided, archaic forms of “lectures” dumping information onto students.
Using technology is always a great way to introduce collaborative learning both in a traditional classroom and even online (Resta and Laferrière, 2007). In fact, we used Resta and Laferriere’s Instructional Motive Model (2007) to understand the complexity of using technology in collaborative learning which focus primarily on four areas
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collaboration skills and knowledge creation
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engagement in knowledge creation
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cognitive performance
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flexibility of time and space
We found Padlet, an online, free service that acts as a cork-board in the virtual space to help in contributing to all four instructional motives. Padlet is a multimedia service that allows live interaction between student-peers and between students and teachers.
It allows not only text, but videos, images, flow-charts etc. to be posted on what looks like a cork board and invites collaboration easily and effectively online. Likewise, university managed learning management systems such as Moodle allows the code to be embedded directly into it so students are continuously engaged on familiar ground when using these tools.
Using the Beltran-Martin model (2019) (based on the Resta and Laferriere (2007) - see below), we were able to successfully use Padlets to design collaborative activities around subjects such as discussions, gathering answers to questions, brainstorming sessions for research, asking what students found to be easiest topic and hardest for each lecture, creating live question banks, even allowing for students to create their own portfolios online for their projects (adding research, links, images, articles for projects) and so on. These are summarized in Fig. 4 below. For example, for a first-year information system subject (that taught students the basics of information systems, steps to developing software by analysing existing systems and designing proposed solutions), we asked students to research and answer questions pertaining to concepts taught in the class and applied to a real-world example (see Fig. 5).
As a graded activity, students were able to work on tasks, discuss with peers and write down their findings, then further discuss the answers in the live tutorials. This allowed for students to join in knowledge creation, cognitive performance and gave them flexibility of time and space. Padlet also allowed the educators to download the student feedback either as a PDF or an excel sheet to be graded at a later stage.
Padlet allows for different formats to be used to set up an activity, from a cork board post to canvas (with connected posts), to location on maps, to timelines, even conversations. With the ease of adding images, links and videos, a Padlet activity can allow students to choose a format of engagement that aligns with their learning styles. Using this technology saw a marked reduction in stress and anxiety over assessments in the subject, and increased student overall engagement.
Adopting Flipgrid to increase accessibility and inclusiveness
A major issue with remote teaching has been the ability to provide equal opportunity for all students to participate, engage and interact. While the traditional digital divide concept has always been about those who have access to technology and those who lack it, especially during the emergency distance learning, the term has taken a new meaning. We had students who were not in-country anymore, stuck outside their institutions, in their own countries during the lockdown; or students who came from conservative moral backgrounds and could not use their webcams or even mics during live classes; or students who lived in shared spaces and could not use their webcams or mics to join in class discussions, answer questions and so on.
Upon some research, we came across Flipgrid, an online free-to-use video sharing tool that is classroom friendly. This technology allows students to make short videos easily, sometimes even without the need to create an account! “Flipgrid is a response system that allows students to explain or show their learning using video” (Clark, 2020). The technology allows students to provide responses, present their ideas even if they have missed a live class or been unable to connect or not allowed to use a webcam during class. We successfully used Flipgrid for our ethics course as well as more technical courses. Students have used the service to prepare short videos explaining their ideas and solutions to entrepreneurial pitches, ethical role plays replicating a courtroom debate on intellectual property, system design problems, issues of system analysis and more.
Flipgrid has levels of privacy that allows a teacher to set it up as per class requirements. The video formatting is easy with a host of features such as editing, trimming, adding audio, taking selfies and more, and allows students to “hide” their faces by blurring them or placing “smiley” on them if students are conscious (see Fig. 6). Flipgrid also allowed authors to set up student “comment” so they could reply or “like” each other’s work.
Kahoot! – gamifying assessments and activities
Despite efforts, it is sometimes still difficult to reach all students attending a class, particularly when teaching a technical course. One way to bring “class” feeling into a virtual class is to use gamification. Gamification is when game elements are used in non-game contexts that increases participation, excitement, engagement, and healthy competition (Lee & Hammer, 2011; Smith, 2014; Packt, 2019).
Kahoot! is a gaming tool for classrooms that we have been using regularly in our subjects. A free service online, it allows teachers to set up fun quizzes using various formats such as MCQs, T/F and so on. The platform presents the quizzes as games, awarding points to students’ answers based on correctness and speed at which they answer. We are able to control the question text, any images and even the length of time and points for each question.
Designing a Kahoot! is easy but not always straightforward. It is important to realise the idea of such a game isn’t necessarily to test really difficult concepts, although it can definitely be used for that too.
Kahoot! allows teachers to set it up as a live game competition that can be shared with a live class or as a challenge for each student to try at their own pace. When administering a Kahoot! we do not just let the game be played by students; we dawn the role of a game-show-host with commentaries, jokes, laughs, and sometimes stunts to make the game a “live” experience. Calling students who are getting answers right, encouraging students who are falling behind are some of the ways we have found we can keep all students’ interests in the game. We used Kahoot! not just as a quiz that was graded, but also as a recap tool at the end of a lesson and as a personalized learning tool for students to go back and access and try out again and again as revision. In addition the application provided analytics such as which questions were least answered, which questions were most answered, which students had difficulty answering, etc. (see Fig. 7). This helped students develop confidence in the knowledge they learned and made it less likely that they would look elsewhere for answers.
Instructional videos
To ensure students were aware of how to use the technologies we introduced as part of learning or assessment with instructional videos of all technologies or teaching techniques and assessments that we designed, used or implemented in our classrooms. Simple videos made and uploaded to a private YouTube channel and then made available through Learning Management Systems (LMS) seemed to decrease students’ anxiety over using the various teaching tools and participating in the assessments that we introduced.
Videos on netiquettes, how to engage with lectures online, how asynchronous assessments work, how to upload assignments using LMS database, Mentimeter, Padlet, Flipgrid were some of the instructional videos created to support the techniques on the online platforms.
Industry-based assessments
One of the proactive approaches to instilling integrity values into students and fostering a culture of integrity beyond a course is producing creative assessments that help push students to higher thinking. These assessments give them confidence in their knowledge application and provide them with satisfaction of knowing they can apply the knowledge in real world settings. This set of educator-developed assessments allowed students to be the knowledge content creators and assisted the academics to select formats of assessment that tested their knowledge in the best possible way. Upon researching and studying teaching methods and theories, these educators designed and conceptualized two programs using Collaborative Learning theory and the Experiential Learning Theory.
Collaborative learning theory involves student-student (peer) interactions that allow for greater learning/deeper thinking, better communication, leadership/ team management and spirit (Vygotsky, 1962), while experiential learning theory emphasizes the role of “experience” in the learning process (Kolb, 1984). In fact, experiential learning theory is sometimes considered as Problem-Based learning which calls for students to be central to their own learning process.
The aim with the two programs was to invoke curiosity in the students, provide guided discovery opportunities through mentorship and hopefully result in their critical thinking about problems and solving them (Bates, 2019). The details of the programs and how they were modified to adapt to remote delivery are explained below.
ReBitVlogs
One author and their subject coordinator conceptualized and implemented a student program called ReBitVlogs – Responsible Business and IT Use Video Blogs program (ReBitVlogs, 2020). The program aimed to initiate, enhance and engage students on responsible business and ethics of the information age across campuses. As an innovative platform that was initiated to engage students in discussions on pressing responsible business and technology-use issues, ReBitVlogs is a link between students and academics with industry experts, government and non-government officials, creating an environment of awareness, facilitating dialogue towards a sustainable, responsible future.
Originally initiated in 2017, the program grew to now be in its 10th iteration. It was really useful during the pandemic for students to come “face-to-face” with industrial experts online. Upon selecting a theme, the first part of the program is to run a story-telling competition through posters. Winning teams are then invited to join industry experts in a panel discussion to continue the conversation. During the emergency distance learning, the program continued with online storytelling and poster competitions. Students were encouraged to find creative ways to present their “stories”. Electronically designed posters using simple Word or Powerpoint to using Adobe Illustrator and even online tools such as PiktoCharts and Canva.com, students got creative and produced fascinating stories around chosen topics.
Going virtual helped make the online panel discussion (Majlis) international with experts from Australia, Turkey, USA and Europe taking part in the discussions and engaging with the students. Invited industry experts found the students to be highly engaged and well researched. Students were excited to participate either as panelists or as audience. Audience got to use Twitter to ask questions live to the panelists which were showcased on Twitter Fall (see Fig. 8). The projects reported zero cases of plagiarism.
WISP: real world innovative solutions to real world problems
In teaching the importance and methods of system analysis and design for Computer Science students, educators conceptualized WISP – real world innovative solutions to real world problems (WISP, 2020), a program that invited the university’s alumni to join a “Human Library” (Human Library Organization, 2000) as mentors to help first year students understand how the real world works, what kind of solutions are expected and how important these skills are that are taught so early in their degree. This “library” of human experts and mentors were accessible to the teams taking the subject for the duration of the program. Teams were then able to “book” experts from the library on “loan”, much like a book from a physical library, for a small period of time based on level of expertise and time the human experts were able to dedicate. The human library has been built upon partnership with industry experts and companies through the university’s Alumni Relations Office and Marketing Department.
The program deliverables included:
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Student-initiated and proposed solutions that are approved and appreciated by industry experts
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Possible on-the-job training opportunities for excelling students
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Possible short-term internships with partnering industry experts and/or their network for excelling students
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Corporate Social Responsibility opportunities for industry partners
Student teams were matched with Human Library experts for mentoring programs, and ultimately teams presented their “pitch” to the judges/experts, convincing them of the proposed solution as “the” solution for the problem identified.
This is yet another program that utilized the virtual platform to connect students to their peers and to mentors, reducing their anxiety and stress, to focus their attention on engagement with subject content, knowledge creation, collaboration and enhance their overall learning experience that is expected to help them throughout their degree program, well beyond the subject (see Fig. 9). The projects reported zero cases of plagiarism.
Using online debates to enhance peer interactions and engagements
Some of the authors within the medical field were forced to transform their usual debate-based learning activities as online activity. Although it was perceived by the academic as “mission impossible”, using online learning tools such as Microsoft-Teams, Zoom, and WebEx, these debate-based activities have been successfully delivered. The number of participants for these activities differed amongst institutions, ranging from 35 to 255 participants. For larger participant numbers, WebEx was found to be better suited. Also, many platforms allowed devising small discussions by splitting the participants into different groups in a timely fashion and then rejoining them to report back in a plenary session. Most important observation of using a web platform for debate-based learning was the enhanced student contributions. Those students who were usually silent during face-to-face delivery, were commenting and taking part in the discussions.
Others simply wrote their opinion and observation onto the discussion board which were picked up by the conducting academics and addressed. In fact, this is another unexpected positive outcome from emergency online learning.