The coronavirus pandemic reshaped the educational landscape, disrupting familiar teaching methods. As institutions and educators transitioned to remote platforms, navigating the challenges of online learning became a novel experience. Relying heavily on technology to communicate with students presented problems of online education. Yet, each challenge also offers an opportunity for growth. This article delves into these challenges, providing strategies for optimizing online learning.
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The multifaceted challenge of online learning becomes evident in the shift to online education. Addressing technology shortages and connectivity issues while ensuring an inclusive experience are just some challenges of this intricate journey.
The challenge of online learning often begins with a lack of essential technology that hinders many students and teachers from effectively participating in online education, with some sharing devices or lacking them altogether. Globally, the surge in internet use and digital tool adoption results in problems in online learning, like frequent connection losses and diminished audio-video quality. Amidst these obstacles, educators grapple with creating a cohesive learning environment.
The lack of student engagement consistently tops the list of teaching problems, especially with motivation playing a pivotal role in students' online learning experiences. The essence of student engagement in virtual classrooms lies in its ability to foster student success, primarily driven by the perceived investment and connection from instructors. A genuine sense of care from online educators can elevate the classroom experience, bolstering student persistence and confidence[1].
The sudden shift to platforms reveals the problems of online learning, mainly when dealing with the intricacies of learning management and streaming systems. While a grasp of computer hardware is essential, navigating the myriad online tools – from learning management systems to diverse streaming software – becomes an integral part of the teaching process. However, for many educators and students, mastering these digital tools and overcoming the learning curve remains a significant challenge[2].
Students with learning disabilities often face additional problems with online learning, given the lack of online interpreters tailored to their needs, intensifying the problems of online education they experience. Equal learning opportunities for every student remain a core belief. To uphold this, Kritik meets all accessibility requirements and ensures compliance with all WCAG 2.0 guidelines, consistently refining the platform for greater accessibility.
Transitioning to online teaching posed unique challenges in teaching, with many educators juggling various e-learning tools and managing vast information, all while crafting impactful teaching strategies. Spending up to ten hours on teaching tasks, from streamlining processes to addressing online learning problems, can be daunting. With Kritik, educators save 100+ hours per term on grading, reducing administrative burden due to calibrated peer review and streamlined workflows.
In the digital realm, challenges to online learning often extend beyond curricula, including data infringement and unanticipated cyberattack disruptions. Many students remain unaware of safeguarding their devices, further heightening the vulnerability to these online learning problems. However, Kritik prioritizes data privacy, ensuring strict FERPA compliance and hosting servers exclusively in the US or Canada, tailored to institutional partnerships.
Online education has made learning accessible for all. For professors navigating this digital landscape, consider these strategies to make the transition smoother.
Understanding and conveying priorities can streamline the challenges in online learning. Instead of revisiting basics readily found online, it's vital to address online learning issues, choose the right online teaching tools, and consistently communicate with students. Instructors using Kritik have access to a Help Centre and several instructional guides for students that enable a smooth transition to online teaching.
Setting clear expectations and staying informed about students' potential challenges with online learning, such as technology breakdowns, ensures smoother transitions in this new teaching landscape. Mitigating virtual learning challenges necessitates understanding each student's engagement level. Always be prepared with alternative plans to maintain consistent educational progress[3].
Despite the problems of online learning, such as social distancing hindering student collaboration, it remains essential to promote teamwork that encourages them to sharpen their problem-solving skills. By assigning specific tasks and emphasizing constructive class feedback, an environment conducive to remote collaboration emerges. With Kritik, professors are using team-based learning solutions and other unique activities to address these online learning challenges.
Amid the issues with online learning like Zoom fatigue, ensuring students remain engaged in their education's breadth, depth, and quality becomes paramount. Designing experiential assignments that prompt them to venture out, gather data, or engage in hands-on activities can rekindle their involvement and commitment. Such practical tasks address the challenges of e-learning and offer a tangible way to enrich their educational journey.
Balancing teaching time becomes crucial when navigating the challenges of teaching online, as students might pose numerous queries during office hours. Allocating specific class hours and designating email channels for assignments ensures a streamlined process. Kritik enables a simplified workflow for professors, saving time grading with its precise peer assessment system.
As a professor, there are many ways to make an online class engaging. Some of these include:
If the pandemic has revealed any truth, learning can transpire from any location. Asynchronous education isn't just a passing trend but a testament to accessibility and affordability. The lingering challenge? Ensuring student engagement. Peer assessment emerges as a scalable solution to this very issue.
For further insights on enhancing online teaching, check out how Prof. Kaston Anderson-Carpenter was able to successfully transition their course online and deliver engaging learning experiences.
Asynchronous learning is a teaching methodology whereby learning occurs independently and in different times and spaces. Asynchronous learning often takes place in online learning environments where the instructor sets up a learning path for students to engage with and proceed through at their own pace.
Synchronous learning is learning that occurs for students at the same time and place via live online meetings. This means that students sign in to a virtual learning environment at the same time to engage with one another, and follow the learning path together and with guidance from the instructor.
The discussion around asynchronous and synchronous learning has been accelerated in recent years. New technology and expanded internet access and made learning more accessible than ever before. Students now have an opportunity to sign in to free learning websites to expand their knowledge or to increase their understanding of a particular school topic. Programs and courses have also emerged to supplement or expand in-class learning. For example, students in university may decide to take online courses along with their in-person learning to get exposure to topics beyond their discipline or to speed up their academic progress.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many academic institutions to move to completely remote learning causing schools and professors to look at how they could leverage programs and tools for asynchronous and synchronous learning so that learning could continue at a high level despite students being away from school.
There is a misconception that asynchronous learning requires less effort and strategy to engage students. As Brown and Voltz (2011) explain, “Asynchronous e-learning design requires an understanding of educational pedagogies, multimedia content, resource publication, electronic technologies, and international web standards”. That being said, by making a deliberate effort to address students’ unique learning needs and incorporating engaging and meaningful opportunities for students to engage with one another and course content, asynchronous E-learning can be a rewarding learning experience. Having dynamism in the classroom prepares the students with the transferable skills necessary to be successful, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Professors have adopted creative approaches to engage students through asynchronous learning. Here are a few ways asynchronous learning can be implemented:
Without live lectures or in-person teaching, students miss the scheduled time to engage with course material and ask questions on the spot. By not having this live in-class interaction, students may not feel compelled to ask questions, or they miss hearing the teacher respond to the questions of their classmates. In the end, students are not receiving enough feedback to improve their quality of work.
Address this challenge by providing other means for students to receive immediate feedback, such as through peer assessment. Additionally, ensure students have outlets and regular opportunities to ask questions and clarify their understanding and make sure students have exposure to the questions raised by their peers. Online discussion boards or class communities are another way students can share their perspectives and the teacher can respond in the group when questions arise.
Asynchronous learning that is completely independent means students won’t have an opportunity to learn from their peers and interact with them. Peer learning, when students learn from each other, is a powerful way to enhance student learning. Without opportunities to engage in peer learning and interact with their classmates, students may be unmotivated or disengaged from their learning. Peer-to-peer learning has shown stellar outcomes to student mental health, particularly through the pandemic.
Address this challenge by providing opportunities for students to work together and share in their learning with one another. This can mean having students complete an activity in groups, have students discuss their learning, or a topic covered in a course, or engaging in peer assessment to provide feedback on one another’s work.
Asynchronous online learning will be well received by students who prefer to work independently and at their own pace. However, for students who require more guidance, structure and interactions, it can be challenging to keep them motivated.
Address this challenge by providing guidelines and checkpoints to ensure students who require structure are supported. Students who are able to work well independently will also appreciate the checkpoints as a way to get feedback and improve their work. These checkpoints may be referred to as staged learning, or scaffolded learning.
“By logging on at a self-determined time of readiness, learners also will be more focused on task-specific learning behaviour; moreover, because interactions within the group are not in real time, students have the opportunity to absorb and consider information before responding. This type of experiential learning leads to more effective learning” (Li, Greenberg, & Nicholls, 2007).
With asynchronous online learning, students are able to learn at their own pace. For many students this may be prioritizing commitments, and completing their studies around other schedules. Students often have responsibilities beyond their academics, including jobs, family obligations and caretaking of family members. Learning asynchronously, supports individuals given the complexities of life.
The fact that asynchronous learning can be done at any time and from any location, internet connection permitting, means it is a more accessible form of learning than in-person, or even synchronous live learning. Students can be halfway around the world taking a course with students in different time zones. Additionally, as previously mentioned, students with other life commitments can be accommodated through asynchronous learning. With asynchronous learning, learning can take place at the convenient time for the individual students (Marble et al., 2016).
By providing learners with an opportunity to learn at their own pace while ensuring greater accessibility, educators and institutions reduce social barriers, or social determinants. Social determinants are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, learn, work and age. Asynchronous learning meets the student where and when it is most convenient for them. Allowing for student autonomy and flexibility in course and assessment delivery creates a more fair and equitable learning environment.
Understanding the benefits and challenges of asynchronous learning helps to effectively incorporate it into future online teaching plans. There's no denying that asynchronous learning can be beneficial, but there are constraints to consider before adopting any asynchronous learning strategies.
Asynchronous remote learning is a powerful approach for making learning resources more accessible, however, for some students, that lack of interactivity is a problem. There are ways to address these challenges within your class including interactive learning activities, peer learning and regular check ins. Additionally, asynchronous e-learning resources, without immediate instructor or technical support, must be self-explanatory in nature and intuitive to use (Sinclair et. al, 2017).
Technology, such as Kritik, can make asynchronous learning a seamless experience for professor and student alike, while building students’ critical thinking and soft skills. Not only that, but “when educators complement in-class time with asynchronous learning opportunities, they can create a community-focused collaborative space for personalized learning experiences” (Stafford, 2011). When asynchronous learning is used in combination with synchronous classes, such as with peer assessment through Kritik, professors can enable more meaningful and engaging discussions and class time interactions.
Building a safe and collaborative class environment can be the difference between a student excelling and a student struggling.
It won’t happen overnight, or in one lesson, but a safe and collaborative class can be nurtured and developed consistently over time. Some students feel comfortable contributing and interacting with their peers from the beginning, but for some, interacting takes time. Achieving comfort with class interaction is well worth the time and effort required to overcome apprehension.
To feel safe and comfortable collaborating, instructors must ensure students grasp the objective and learning goals of each project. These aspects may need to be presented in multiple ways to connect to the diverse learning needs of students. This could mean sharing assignment instructions through written form, rubric, and orally during the in-class time. When students are connected to and reflect on the purpose and objective of the activity, they have a chance to participate in their own unique manner (Curtis & Lawson, 2019).
One of the most important factors in building this positive environment, whether online or in person, is trust. When students trust each other, they are more willing to share information and solutions. They will also be more engaged when working as a team.
Trust must be developed by both the professor and by the students themselves. This means removing assessment bias, valuing all feedback, questions and opinions, providing opportunities for students to share their unique perspectives and provide meaningful feedback that demonstrates care and concern for students’ academic success and personal well-being.
Technical difficulties are unavoidable in a digital world. There are few things more frustrating than the wi-fi going down mid-sentence or in the middle of a lesson or group work session. That being said, it is important to approach the digital classroom with an understanding of these types of challenges so that students do not have added stress for elements out of their control (Campo, 1993)
It is also important to realize students differ in terms of the technology and workspace they have available to them. It’s important to address this early on in a supportive way, so students know their work quality and classroom interactions are what is most important and not the type of monitor or computer they are using (Dytham, 2017).
Students in an online learning environment often have varying struggles and competing commitments outside of the course. Some students have moved out for the first time, some are working part-time jobs, and others are balancing a full degree with family obligations at home. (Kumi-Yeboah, 2018). Whatever is going on, these unique experiences are a great opportunity to infuse diverse thoughts and opinions into course material.
It is common for students to feel less connected to their classmates and the course material through digital learning, however, there are ways to remedy this. Instructors should make it clear early on what they expect from their students in terms of participation and involvement. In addition to setting the expectations, it is important to explain why participation and engagement in the course material are necessary to get the most out of the course.
Rather than focusing on the limitations of online learning, acknowledge the challenges and reflect on the gains from this type of virtual environment, including developing a skillset with virtual programs, and preparing for a work environment students may experience after graduation. Online learning also allows flexibility for students, and in many cases, it can bring individuals together from a wider geographic area (Oliveira et al., 2019)
Peer assessment and peer learning using the AI-driven Kritik platform is an effective way to build trust in a safe and collaborative class environment. Kritik features, including anonymous peer assessment, team-based learning, and class discussion address these concerns and help engage students in their learning while developing the ever-important soft skills and critical thinking skills.
Promote debate and inquiry in class, across different mediums. This can include written discussion boards, public speaking opportunities, small group live discussion and peer feedback. It is through open and honest dialogue students can engage more deeply with course material and expand their worldview through conversation with their peers. Whether through anonymous and bias-free peer assessment or through open discussion, Kritik fosters open and constructive dialogue.
While we may be well-intentioned, it can be difficult to omit our personal biases from our work, our conversations. Assessment bias can occur with the type of assignment, how the assignment is asked, and the examples provided in the assignment. Assessment can also occur through the professor or peer interactions. One effective way to address assessment bias is to incorporate anonymous peer assessment. When students provide feedback to each other without knowing whose work they have in front of them, they are more likely to focus on providing critical and motivational feedback. Additionally, students will feel more comfortable providing genuine assessments to their peers when they know it is anonymous.
Inquiry-based learning not only is a powerful learning strategy, but it is an effective way to engage students and demonstrate appreciation and value for students’ individual interests and perspectives. By providing freedom and agency over what and how students demonstrate their knowledge, students will feel empowered to incorporate their unique perspectives, and opinions. This not only leads to a more welcoming and safe class environment, but it can expand the learning for the entire class when they have exposure to diverse viewpoints.
It is critical instructors check in on their students to understand how they are doing, and what challenges may be occurring. Check-ins help students understand their instructor cares and appreciates their input. Not every student will be willing to share feedback in a class or 1:1 setting, so it’s important to provide different ways to receive the feedback. For example, emails, surveys, scheduled meetings, and class discussions can all be used to conduct check-ins (Colin, 2003).
Peer learning and peer assessment are effective ways to develop safe and collaborative learning environments. Peer learning provides agency to each student for their learning. They become the teacher, with the supervision of their actual instructor, and are required to think critically about their own work and the work of their peers. The benefits to peer assessment are endless, for instructors and students alike.
Safe learning spaces empower students to reach their full potential. They encourage students to step out of their comfort zone and take a leadership role in their own learning.
As humans, when we look back at our most memorable learning and life moments, we gravitate to the feelings and emotions those moments evoked and not on the experiences themselves. With this in mind, it is critical our learning environments allow students to approach course material and interactions in a positive, safe and collaborative way.
Kritik helps professors facilitate peer assessment and peer learning with these exact principles in mind. With Kritik, professors increase student engagement, develop critical thinking and soft skills, and enable students to take more control over their learning.
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Delivering information in a manner that is clear, concise and insightful while providing an audience with great learning opportunities are important components for successful presentations. Today, presentation skills are a basic requirement of every field, and students must practise and aim for mastery in preparation for the workplace. It is integral to students’ academic and career success to learn how to properly present and demonstrate their knowledge while ensuring that their peers are well engaged in the material. Apart from solely providing information, presentations should stimulate interactive learning through a pleasing audio and visual experience for the audience.
Having students do presentations on a regular basis is an effective way of learning by teaching which is proven to improve knowledge retention and overall comprehension. Not only that, but students get to practice their research, communication and leadership skills. Furthermore, presentations enable students to develop their creativity by implementing innovative ways of adding value to their peers’ education in a way that captures their attention and interests.
Presentations provide learning benefits to both the presenter and the audience. In order to extrapolate these benefits, the experience must be authentic and well-delivered. This blog post will show you how to do just that!
Students must learn how to use PowerPoint presentations to create a visual representation of the information that is being shared with the rest of the group. Being well-versed in the software allows for more impactful information delivery. Students can add high-quality images, diagrams and highlight the important elements of their research in bullet points. This allows students to present both qualitative and quantitative information in a digestible manner. [1]
One of the most common mistakes many presenters make is to under or overestimate their target audience. Students should thoroughly research their audience to understand where they stand and draft an engaging presentation accordingly. Presenters must question themselves about what their audience may already be aware of and what new information can the presenter share with them. To eliminate confusion, conducting a brief question and answer session where the presenter can address all the points of concern throughout the presentation can be helpful to keep everyone on the same page and allow the audience to absorb the content more thoroughly.
Most academic presentations have a specified time allotted for each student to showcase his/her work. Students must prepare the material for their presentation, keeping it relevant to the time they have been given. If you're writing your presentation out, 2 minutes per double-spaced page is a good rule of thumb to follow. Make sure you don’t have over 7 double-spaced pages of material for a fifteen-minute talk. [2]
Most students who drift away from their central point of focus in the presentation are seen with long ineffective presentations that bore your audience. Keeping the presentation short and to the point helps outline your presentation's purpose and highlights prominent aspects of the topic.
Students must understand the essence behind presenting in front of others. It is essential to capture an audience’s attention and share your knowledge with them. Having an impactful opening sentence/slide at the beginning of your presentation prevents the rapid deterioration of your audience’s attention which is common in presentations that feel irrelevant, confusing or generic right from the start.
Lastly, with good preparation, a student must have enough practice to present their work with confidence and in an organized manner. Students must be comfortable with their material and slides and practice their presentation both alone and in front of an audience. One can also practice using a laser pointer or props if they will use them during the presentation.
Keep in mind that you and your research are the stars of the show, and therefore one must avoid adding any unnecessary information or images that will take the attention away from your work. Practicing in front of a mirror allows students to assess their body language and how it compliments what they are saying in their presentation. [3]
Irrespective of the presentation quality in front of an audience, the way it is being presented also impacts the target audience. Specific mediums play a significant role in setting the dynamics with the audience. Different platforms that students can use to give a presentation are as follows:
A popular way of presenting in front of an audience includes using a creative slideshow that aids your audience’s greater attention towards you. This also allows a visual representation of both qualitative and quantitative data. This medium allows you to observe your audience’s changing expressions towards your slides and respond accordingly to effectively solidify their learning by complimenting what they see on the screen with verbalized information. It is highly recommended for informative presentations.
Living in a digitally advanced era, individuals commonly conduct presentations online. Remote learning today encourages individuals to update their learning style and even present their knowledge in a technologically advanced manner. Video conferencing allows students to present anywhere and participate in the class. With different third-party apps like Zoom and Google Meet, students can also share their screen and share a PPT while they speak.
A simple way to present in front of an audience is to speak to them as is. In this type of presentation, your own body language and dressing play a vital role in setting the right dynamics from the very beginning of your presentation. It is important to start with a creative, open line and remain audibly clear for the audience to understand. It is highly recommended for persuasive presentations.
Remote learning has gained much popularity in recent years, and the pandemic also made it clear for teachers to start adopting various teaching methods and strategies that complement online learning. [4] Educators have started coming up with innovative methods to conduct online classes and encourage their students to participate through class presentations. There are a bunch of ways a student can present in online classes, including:
Your laptop or computer device’s camera can be used to get face to face with your audience. Different platforms like Zoom, Google Meet and Skype can be used to connect with a group of students online and give a live presentation. In such presentations, students need to find a neutral background with minimal disturbance so that their audience does not get distracted during the presentation and focuses on what the presenter has to say. These presentations can be taken to another level as the presenter can also share their screen and support their words with facts, figures and diagrams on their screen.
For this, you must find a quiet place to conduct a presentation with minimum background noise as it can create a lot of chaos during your presentation. As much as possible, students should use good quality headphones with a microphone that only picks up close-range sounds to eliminate further noise from being heard by the audience. It is also highly recommended that students consider dressing appropriately to appear professional in front of their peers.
With multiple screen recording options, you can record a complete video clip and add written or oral narrations for your audience. An advantage of this setting is that it allows students to edit their presentations and share the best quality results. With pre-recorded videos, you cannot answer live questions therefore, you must cover the topic comprehensively. A complete breakdown of detailed concepts through step-by-step presentations is recommended for a better understanding of the audience.
In this type of presentation, the recorded file is viewed later by the audience. This allows greater access to a wider audience with no time constraints. This is ideal for students who have anxiety and fear public speaking as they can easily keep taking takes until they have the perfect one. However, the audience cannot immediately ask any questions related to the presentations and they have to go through leaving a comment or email and wait for a response. [5]
Presentations are an effective way of developing several skills that are required for professional growth and academic success. By presenting, students learn by teaching which is an efficient way of consolidating knowledge. Given that presentations play a key role in providing students great learning opportunities, it is important to consider the platform wherein students can present their knowledge and interact with one another. With Kritik, students have the ability to present individually or work with teammates and present as a group. The added benefit of Kritik’s peer-evaluation in presentations is that students can provide structured, professional feedback to the presenter(s) using effective, customized rubrics. Students can upload multiple files of various formats such as audio, video and PPT slides which ensures that students can still deliver information in a manner that is interactive and informative despite the remote learning environment. Here at Kritik, we closely work with hundreds of professors who put an emphasis on developing students’ presentation skills. Kritik provides a great platform for an audience to not just listen but to also provide regular constructive criticism back to the presenter. By using Kritik, your students are empowered to become better presenters through an interactive platform that focuses on rubric-based assessments to facilit
Nowadays, educators are encouraging students to interact with and review each other’s work. The transition to online learning has accelerated the use of peer feedback in various levels of education and programs. This is beneficial to students’ learning process as it helps them engage with their peers and course content multiple times at a deeper level.
Peer feedback refers to the motivational and critical response from students that aims to enhance their productivity, quality of work, and knowledge retention. It is worth mentioning that peer feedback should be considered as a professional assessment by students and not personal criticism. This blog post will enable its readers to understand the actual gist of peer feedback, its advantages for students and how instructors can motivate their students who receive negative feedback from their peers.
Peer feedback refers to the comments and suggestions that students receive from each other in a class. In other words, peer feedback is also known as peer response, peer critiquing, peer review, peer evaluation and peer grading. It is a collaborative activity wherein students are encouraged to read, converse, and provide their thoughts and opinions on other students’ work to enhance their learning through scaffolding (Kuyyogsuy, 2019).
In this interactive learning, students communicate task-related information and data to their peers which are synthesized to enhance students’ self-reflection and academic performance (Huisman et al, 2019; Lui et al, 2001). Proven by research, constructive criticism from someone of the same age or position helps students to be more receptive to the different perspectives compared to when feedback is provided by an authoritative figure. Not to discount the constructive criticism from professors and experts, peer-to-peer feedback is an excellent complementary method for sharing and creating knowledge.
Improve Student Learning
Peer feedback gives students the responsibility to share their skills and expertise with each other. Apart from instilling new knowledge to their peers, the process of providing feedback encourages students to engage in the course content multiple times which improves information retention
Reduce Feedback Turnaround Time
In the traditional pedagogical approach in which only instructors provide feedback to students, it often becomes difficult for instructors to deliver meaningful feedback quickly and frequently. This delay in feedback can limit the students’ ability to improve as the relevance or significance of the recommendations decay over time. However, with peer feedback, students are empowered to receive quick, quality assessments on their work that add diverse perspectives to their learning which can be incorporated into their final assignments in a timely manner.
Improve Students’ Critical Thinking Skills
Peer feedback helps students develop their critical and analytical thinking skills. They are empowered to diagnose various problems and identify their peers’ strengths and weaknesses that engage the Prefrontal Cortex part of their brain which is responsible for higher-order thinking. Furthermore, students become more self-aware of their writing skills as they constantly provide critical and constructive remarks in a manner that professional, helpful and motivational.
Acquire New Knowledge
Students significantly learn from the multiple feedback they receive from their peers. It helps students become aware of various viable methodologies for solving problems. Moreover, peers who ask relevant complex questions as part of their feedback encourages students to acquire more knowledge in order to provide a detailed answer.
Improve Self-Reflection and Collaboration
Peer feedback allows students to gain a better understanding of their own work. This prevents students from overestimating and underestimating their skills and abilities. Collaborative assessment that involves peer feedback encourages students to move away from depending on educators as the sole source of feedback to an autonomous system in which each student contributes to each other’s knowledge and learning process.
What students need to know - It is essential to understand how constant feedback that is perceived as negative or poor can affect a student’s motivation to perform at ideal levels. This learning process allows students to differentiate negative criticism from positive ones which enables them to understand how to professionally react to the latter. This knowledge is essential to students’ personal, academic and professional growth as they learn to keep an open mind and be considerate of all perspectives without being biased to their emotions.
What educators need to know - Educators who observe students with consistent poor feedback can monitor their progress from time to time and help them in improving by offering additional mentoring. They must encourage students to take criticism in a professional manner as part of their preparation for the world outside the educational institution.
How Instructors Can Motivate Students?
Peer feedback helps instructors foster students’ personal, academic and professional growth as they evaluate their own and their peers’ learning progress. In this reciprocal process of providing and receiving peer feedback, students are encouraged to ask questions, share information and expertise, identify challenges, and provide diverse strategies that jointly work to improve students’ mastery over the course or subject.
Students who perceive feedback as negative criticism should understand how to react professionally through self-reflection which is a skill that can be developed by constantly being exposed to peer feedback. Additionally, instructors are encouraged to help students identify their own strengths and weaknesses which enables students to have an open mind when receiving multiple perspectives.
Through Kritik, peers and educators work symbiotically to help students prepare for their future academic and professional endeavours.
In light of the mass transition to online learning caused by the pandemic, academia has experienced major obstacles and dilemmas regarding instructional strategies and assessment procedures in remote environments. From a professor’s perspective, administering quizzes and exams have never been more concerning given the absence of supervision from authority and the increased possibilities of students colluding online for answers and information.
Monitoring students in large classes to prevent cheating can be cumbersome already in face-to-face environments and now that students have 24/7 access to the internet and their devices, students acquiring information online during exams is essentially inevitable.
Furthering the problem, many education institutions have adopted proctoring software as a preventive measure and a response to online cheating. In April last year, approximately 54% of institutions have expressed that they were administering digitally proctored assessments by actively restricting computer activities and recording audio and video through third-party platforms.
However, despite the good intentions behind these software, the community is polarized on the legality and ethicality of putting students under digital surveillance. When the technology was approved last year by multiple institutions, a widespread backlash from students was expressed. Many of whom voiced their strong opinions with petitions to cancel the use of such technology pertaining to its invasive nature of nonconsensual data collection and sharing. Using such tools clearly eliminates online cheating as every activity, even webcam data, is stored and analyzed. However, the majority of the community is just finding that the risks of exploitation and data leak far exceed the benefits.
Implementing such software also introduces inequalities to the education space as the tools rely on facial recognition and behaviour analysis technology which has been studied to be racially biased (Stark, 2019). A single miscalculation by the system could cause a student to be locked out of the exam thereby instilling unwanted discomfort and stress in students. While it may detect cheaters and prevent academic misconduct, the softwares could also impair student performance and increase academic parities between students of different learning styles and anxiety levels.
It may seem that there is no hope in online learning given the increased possibilities of students cheating. However, as Jesse Stommel, an Executive Director of Hybrid Pedagogy and Senior Lecturer in Digital Studies emphasizes, “cheating is a pedagogical issue, not a technological one”.
Online learning can be just as effective as in-person classes and can even facilitate the same instructional strategies and assessment procedures with the right tools and platform. Thus, instead of focusing on the limitations of online assessments, cheating as a whole and the factors encouraging it should be addressed. One of which is the nature of administering multiple choice-based exams that tests students’ memorization skills under closed book environments.
These types of assessments focus on lower-order thinking and are very susceptible to cheating as answers can be easily circulated between students. Furthermore, closed book assessments, specifically memorization-based exams have been found to provide little significance in improved knowledge retention and retrieval compared to open book counterparts (Rummer et al., 2019). On top of that, these exams are ineffective in assessing students knowledge and abilities as it completely ignores students’ problem solving and critical thinking skills which are more indicative of students’ overall academic progress.
That said, given the abundance of insightful information on the internet, students should not be discouraged to use technology as a complementary tool that can enhance their learning experience and outcome. Of course, multiple choice-based exams and the likes of should be discouraged first in order to see the benefits of technology and eliminate forms of online cheating. Transitioning from lower-order to higher-order thinking-based assessments such as written assignments and group projects enables students to find any available information to them and appropriately synthesize data to form intelligent conclusions. Through this process, students are empowered to use problem-solving and critical thinking skills which are integral for quality education and improving academic performance.
By switching over to proven effective teaching approaches such as team-based learning and peer-grading which enable higher-order thinking, not only do students learn at a deeper level but professors’ concerns regarding cheating are addressed and significantly reduced. In the end, conducting and managing online courses require not only the right tools and software but also the right pedagogies to facilitate effective knowledge creation while preventing academic misconduct.
The start of a new semester. That time of the year often met with mixed emotions for all the students - kindergarten to higher education. The sadness of the summer coming to its inevitable end, to the excitement of getting back to school and reconnecting with colleagues. Under normal circumstances, this time of year would be pretty routine for most students and educators; unfortunately, these aren’t normal circumstances. As the world continues to navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important for educators to be well prepared to teach their course content effectively in remote learning environments. In particular, with Zoom taking over as the primary resource for online classrooms, understanding how to use it effectively will be a vital component to whether educators can provide a successful learning experience for their students.
Here are some tips to ensure you and your students have an effective & engaging learning experience while online.
After social distancing with friends and family for the past few months, the last thing students want when they attend their online classes is to only be staring at lecture notes the whole time. While it can be very useful to use Zoom’s Screen Sharing feature to present slides or other documents, it is equally important to keep your camera on and to speak as if you were face-to-face with the class. This helps create a more comfortable classroom environment and a personal connection with your students and will help keep them better engaged. In a survey we conducted this past June, nearly 70% of students agreed that the most challenging part of transitioning to online courses was the inability for face-to-face interactions with their college instructors and professors.
A useful tip for both in-person and online lectures is to let your students break into small groups for discussions every once in a while. Zoom’s Breakout Room feature allows you to assign students into groups for a brief time period so that they can discuss different topics together. In a study done by the University of Central Florida, they found that student participation is higher in small-group discussions, as well as the student’s ability to perceive learning outcomes [1]. These breakout sessions also serve as an opportunity to implement team-based learning (TBL) into your classroom. TBL will help keep your lectures dynamic so that students stay engaged, and is more effective than traditional forms of learning as it also offers opportunities for students to have insightful conversations and to hear new perspectives.
While students may not be able to raise their hands during the class session to get your attention anymore, that doesn’t mean they should stop asking questions. To avoid any interruptions or confusion, allow your students to post their questions or comments on a discussion board during the lecture. Zoom’s chat feature is a useful tool, but it can be difficult to monitor while teaching, especially with larger classrooms. By using Kritik’s discussion feature in tandem with your Zoom lectures, you will be able to not only communicate with your students directly, but also keep track of the discussions that students are having with one another.
Should your course be asynchronous or synchronous? Every student learns differently, and it is important for educators to consider these differences when developing learning materials. Live lectures are great for synchronous learners who prefer a little more routine and organization. They can attend Zoom classes as scheduled and learn the content at the pace it was intended. However, for asynchronous learners, a routine might make learning more difficult as they prefer to work at their own pace. A great way to accommodate both types of learners is by recording your lectures using the Screen Record feature on Zoom. This grants students the freedom to choose whether to attend lectures during the scheduled class time or to watch the recordings at a later time. Recorded lectures are also a useful study tool and can help the students a lot as they can be re-watched to help students to get a better understanding of the topics covered or if they missed anything during the live lecture.
The upcoming school term is going to present many challenges for both students and educators, so it is important to be well prepared to navigate these challenges. Regardless of what strategies you decide to implement into your online classroom, remember that the engagement of your students is what will ultimately determine the success of your methods. As such, choosing the right technologies to use will be crucial not only to your own teaching experience, but also the effectiveness of your students’ learning experience.
It makes a huge difference in how the first day of class is spent by the teacher. A day that is stressful both for the students and the faculty. No class period is more critical to forming students’ attitudes towards learning than the first day of the term. As the first days give way to the first weeks of school, keep these tips in mind;
1. Introduction of yourself and your students in the first class meeting. Try learning the students' names later on.
2. Communicate your goals and class ethics, this is especially important for first year students
3. Student engagement: Students are scared to make a bad first impression, so many prefer staying quiet. Use ice breakers to help them get to know each other and get comfortable.
4. Provide them with your contact information: mention office hours, office phone number, and your time of availability.
5. Course overview: Let them know the syllabus, course material, and group work. Sometimes the enrolment changes in the next weeks, so its better to hand them over in written form.
6. Create a connection: Share your story of entry into the field, ask questions about their prior knowledge
7. Carry out creative first day learning activities based on their background knowledge.
No matter how many measures are put in place to eliminate academic dishonesty, the sad truth is that at least 1 student will always be willing to bend the rules. Cheating can come in the form of plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, or students looking things up while taking the exam [1]; these problem-areas are magnified with online quizzes and examinations.
Not all online students behave with academic integrity and those who do can even be put to the test if they haven't studied enough or not properly understand the course material and the online courses per se.
Below are some of the measures higher education instructors may take to prevent cheaters in their online classes.
For starters, the following guideline will ensure students are aware of what is considered academic dishonesty and the consequences for it.
Define what cheating looks like, students often engage in academic misconduct because they do not know what constitutes cheating [2].
According to Cluskey Jr. et al [3], there are 8 Online Exam Control Procedures (OECPS) that can be put into place to thwart cheating in online exams. Let’s take a look at them further:
During the sudden transition to online learning as a result of COVID, many professors began scrambling to figure out how to conduct their planned final examinations online. As we can see in the OECPS, there is a lot to consider in exam development and so some professors have opted to avoid that hassle entirely.
By designing take-home assignments that encourage students to think critically about class material and using higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) like creating, evaluating, and analyzing, students learn to be resourceful and are more engaged with the material. Using Kritik, you can also time each phase to only be a certain length which takes care of OECPS 1, 2, and 5, and then in the later phases, students will evaluate each other's work, using another one of the HOTS, which increases their understanding of the material while simultaneously decreasing instructor time spent grading. Dr. Nina Palmo at the University of Texas used Kritik to replace her final exam with Kritik activities.
Students cheat in face-to-face, physical classroom, how much more in online classes? The online environment in higher education seems to aggravate student cheating. For this, instructors need to align their test questions in assignments and assessment activities to this online learning experience. Instructors are encouraged to provide students with lower-stake supported opportunities. This helps develop and practice students’ skills, critical thinking, knowledge, and ability in their online courses.
Try to replace exams in courses with low-stakes quizzes – a lot of them which are worth cheating. Digital learning allows students to be open book to many tools giving them access to large question banks. This makes technology, especially mobile devices, a foe that turns students into cheaters.
It is significant in an online environment to establish a sense of belongingness among the students. This will make them feel part of the learning management system in higher education. Their learning experience will not just merely about requirements and rules associated with academic dishonesty. It is also about the online course and assignments.
Student cheating may be obvious in remote learning, yet it can be prevented with some viable measures presented above.
Colleges & Universities quickly shuttered their doors back in March as the COVID Pandemic swept across the globe. This forces professors to teach their courses online.
Many believed a break from school would have resulted in a burst of academic research. This was the case of Sir Isaac Newton in 1665 who developed his best theories while Cambridge was forced to close due to an outbreak of the plague in London. However, it turned out to not be the case. Maybe Newton was lucky as he did not have children to take care of or learn how to have your own schedule for office hours with Google Calendar. He may not have responded to the queries students are sending their professors today. questions may. in fact, be in dozens if not hundreds. This serves as students' attempt to navigate learning remotely.
Online teaching has blurred the lines between work and home for many professors. Those who have kids are forced to home-sit as their children’s schools/daycares also remain shuttered. With budget cuts, professors are faced with fewer TA's to help grade and assist students in large classes.
For some professors, the technology-learning curve has proven to be stressful. Educational technology is now the name of the game to get a good learning experience. This may include Zoom classes, email queries, and scheduling online 1:1 is a lot to learn in a short period. Learning resources and means like g suite, webcam, video calls, and video conferencing are significant in this time of crisis.
So, where are all these taking you as an educator? How will you be able to deal with this new normal brought by the pandemic?
Here are a few tips to help you prepare for a fall semester of online or hybrid of online & in-person learning. These will help you remain at your best for your students in this new learning environment.
Every educator wants to “show up” for their students, but with in-person classes on hold for the time being, that is proving to be a much more daunting task. Previously, students would interact with their educators before, after, or during class to have any of their questions answered, with online learning, those queries have been channeled to emails. You can spend your entire night responding to emails, but rather, it may be more prudent to set aside a block of time to respond to email queries from students. Couple that by setting a clear expectation to students on when they can expect a response from you on their emails, will help to limit the number of queries you receive. So, schedule your time & set clear expectations so students know what timeline a response may incur.
Over 60% of students surveyed say the hardest part of adjusting to online learning has been the lack of face to face interactions with their fellow students. Can we extrapolate that up to professors as well? Faculty members are not just individuals to bounce new research ideas off of, for many educators, they are friends and sources of understanding. Set aside some time to check in with your fellow faculty members, particularly early academics. Pre-COVID, 64% of PhD Candidates experienced feelings of loneliness and isolation. We all have a role to play to ensure each member in our department is healthy and doing ok.
It’s important to realize that we cannot necessarily check everything off of our to-do lists in the timelines we prescribed ourselves – and that’s ok. Sometimes it is ok to not do anything at all – if possible, take a break from your work, recharge, and come back to class feeling recharged and energized.
The pandemic is a daunting time for all of us, but particularly your students. Uncertainty about jobs, the quality of their education, and financial constraints all bleed into their psyche each day.
Students are looking to you as a source of inspiration and energy. If you feel depleted and unmotivated, how do you think that projects on your students? Remote teaching is not an easy task. Care for yourself first, and your students will be better for it.
While based at home, you will still be able to maintain a work-life balance. This is doable and possible if you are willing to make boundaries between them. Since online learning is the new norm like google classroom, learn how to cope with it. There are some ways to make this possible.
First, set separate areas for fun and work. This makes it easier to have a transition from your teaching work mode to your home mode. You will have equal time for your work and your personal life.
Second, never use your teaching computer during your free time. It is significant to have separate areas and tools for work life and private life. Give equal time to your work and for fun.
Third, go out for a walk after teaching your students. Go cycling is an alternative activity as well as exercise. Move your body and keep yourself up for health.
Fourth, make some plans for your after-work free time. Set a specific time to leave your desk to spend time with your family. A quick walk outside your house would also be a great idea just to ensure that you are getting a life.
With the new remote learning set-up, you need to adjust your time. Invest more time in setting up academic systems that will save you time. In this scenario, the procedures and routines in a virtual classroom are automated. This gives you focus on both teaching and learning.
The automated systems will help simplify your workload in the coming months or years. Show your students how exactly you would want them to submit their schoolwork. This will save you from responding or messaging to several emails of the same queries.
You can keep work-life balance while giving students online learning. Be generous and have yourself compassion to teach online. Psychologists recommend online teachers to make plans for physical activities. Make your body move and make it a daily habit.
Acknowledge the stress that any work can give you. Tell your students or your family members what you really feel. Try to discuss stress with them and let them rate their stress level and ease your own.
Also, take note of the fact that you are not alone. Remember, it is us against coronavirus. Stress levels will only get higher when people compete against each other. Work together instead. You can do this by regulating your emotions.
As educators, you need to figure out how to have a balanced life since teaching is a challenging job. Yes, there are obstacles in your career but you must respect your time. Acknowledge your impact on education. It may be difficult at first but switching off from electronics after work hours is relevant.
Meanwhile, you need to make priorities and your health should be on top of it. Exercise and any physical activities will help you deal and cope with education-associated issues. You still have friends outside of school. They are stress relievers as well. Set schedules and make time to bond with them as you have a flexible schedule now. Dinner dates and outings would not be a waste of time, isn’t it?
There is so much more after your online class. So, go and have a life not just work.
Learning how to have a work-life balance as an educator online can really be tough. However, it is critical for survival. But with the strategies and tips provided above, you can make sure that your career in teaching is also lasting, healthy other than impactful. Make use of these guidelines and the next time you know it, you are enjoying your job while being at home.
Get a life while teaching from the comfort of your home. Have a work-life balance let us be your guide.
Amidst Covid-19 pandemic, higher education now heightens online programs and courses. Online learning seems not an easy endeavor not just for instructors but for students as well. There is a need to heighten student engagement. This could mean a flock of online learners in this type of learning environment that needs retention of students’ focus on eLearning. So, here are some engagement strategies educators in higher ed can do to improve online student engagement.
While lectures are becoming more interactive for student learning and engagement, often times this isn't extended to the time between online classes. Unfortunately, more than 20% of students are described as disengaged throughout the term. Historically, student engagement focuses on positive behaviours, creating a sense of belonging and increasing achievement for students.
Increasing student engagement means to:
When students are viewed as thinkers, knowledge is generated through collaborative efforts that encourage students to be curious while learning in an online environment. This can be achieved by providing a mechanism for assessing the learning quality of the students through cognitive activities at a higher level of the learning process.
Incorporating both peer-to-peer evaluation and feedback-on-feedback can further enhance student’s higher-order critical thinking and comprehension of course material and coursework beyond the traditional classroom. As students complete assignments, they have a greater opportunity to understand and comprehend the task at hand. Through peer evaluation, they have the chance to analyze existing or newly found knowledge which in return will increase their curiosity. The application can be seen through the feedback students will provide on one another's evaluations. Here, students will have the opportunity to engage with their peers through a virtual classroom community outside of class in real-time.
The concept of the Flipped Classroom Model (FCM) is that basic content instruction is introduced before class and strengthened in class with the support of peers and teachers in a collaborative environment. This pedagogy has been adopted by several professors and now with the implementation of technology and social media, specifically multi-media resources, this can become even easier.
Using Kritik to create open discussions or to create questions that tackle real-world problems will encourage inquiry-based learning from students. Whether it be watching video lectures and conferencing, conducting research, or designing or performing experiments students will be actively engaged while completing learning activities. Team-based learning is also encouraged as students can receive immediate feedback before debating or completing group work in class.
Including various types of activities can make FCM can enable professors to have students learn while building out course content. For example, instructors may ask students to read a chapter of the book, put on a "teacher hat" and create a question out of the content of those readings that can be used for quizzes and exams.
Additionally, since the FCM places great emphasis on autonomous learning for students, learning assessment and student progress can be a concern. To integrate flexible assessment methods that allow for a comprehensive investigation of teaching and learning, rubric-based assessment offers a great solution. A great online teaching and learning solution that implements the pedagogy of Bloom's taxonomy is Kritik's peer assessment software. Given that Kritik allows students to evaluate and receive feedback on these evaluations, additional feedback can help steer students in the right direction.
Online instructors should consider social media to spice up online courses and engage their students in learning. When used properly, social platforms help establish a classroom community among students and instructors.
Online education gives instructors various ways to communicate with their students. Discussion posts, discussion forums, and other group discussions are just among the avenues for student interaction. Instant messaging, home page announcements, and embedded video and audio are now the norm. In fact, online instructors now create explanatory screencast videos as they are inexpensive and easy.
Heighten student engagement to give students a better, if not the best, learning experience outside the traditional classroom.
Cumulative assignments can be transformed into smaller segments of peer evaluation that will ultimately help your students produce a higher quality final assignment.
Start by segmenting the steps necessary to creating the final assignment, and creating activities foreach portion. For example, in a research paper, assign:
Benefits: By dividing up final assignments into more digestible activities, students will receive rich feedback for every portion of their assignment, over the course of the term. Not only does this help them with content creation, but it also helps them stay afloat in terms of making final assignment deadlines.
Students absorb an abundance of content through weekly readings, but they cannot fully exercise this until in-class discussions or during their exams. You can transform this into opportunities for students to retain this information and extend their learning through peer evaluations.
Per each weekly reading, you can assign quick, frequent activities such as:
Benefits:Giving students activities that are relevant to assigned readings increases content retention by also enabling students to immediately apply concepts that they have learned. Open discussions and questions about the readings are now also established, therefore adding more depth to the content assigned. This method capitalizes on enriching pre-existing content.
Homework questions are also a great repository for peer evaluation content. Not only can students evaluate solutions to questions, but they can also investigate and build on their peer’s thought process.
Assign activities per set of homework questions, and ask students to clearly outline their thought processes, formulas, and diagrams for peer review. Be sure to share solutions to the questions with the class as soon the deadline is terminated.
Benefits:This method is a great example of automated grading and feedback. When students are given the solution to a problem set, as well as visibility into the deliberation by their peers, they are equipped with the ultimate tools for peer evaluation. Homework questions are typically straightforward, therefore leaving very little room for student error or misjudgment.
In-class teaching methods are easily transferable to Kritik. The beauty of using Kritik for labs and in-class activities is that you can reap the benefits of the concise timing of the activity scheduler, and prolong the discussion far after class time.
Set the deadline for creation shortly after the lab or in-class activity is done. The creation phase can be used to submit lab results or findings done in class. The evaluation and feedback stage are used as a discussion board for the different conclusions that your students have made through their findings.
Benefits:The instructions of labs and in-class methods are consistent among all students who have attended. As a result, students can share and compare the thoughts and outcomes that were produced in the same session. This allows for them to gather the bigger picture, rather than focusing on a singular experience.
Kritik offers four activity templates that are explicitly designed with the structure of Bloom’s Taxonomy. These are only suggestive templates, and may be customized. Each template accompanied with sample instructions, objectives and rubrics.
Our activity templates focus on three highest levels of cogitative thinking fromBloom's Taxonomy; Analysis, Evaluation, and Creation
This template asks students to formulate a higher order thinking question based on reading comprehension. This activity aims to evaluate the question’s Richness, Complexity, Scope, and Relevance.
This template prompts students to write an argumentative essay based on a controversial opinion/subject. The rubric criteria includes: Clarity ofThoughts, Accuracy, Creative and Critical Thinking, Source and Evidence.
Students are asked to teach content to their peers in a way that promotes higher content retention among their peers. Students are evaluated based onOrganization, Relevance, Clarity, and Knowledge of Content.
This template asks students to communicate course content in a creative way, (i.e. through illustration, infographic item, summary table, short video, animation, or anything that will help convey the message faster or make it more engaging than the plain text). Students are evaluated by Organization, Knowledge, Text and Readability, Creativity and VisualAids.
COVID's impact on education has been far reaching - institutions hurriedly shut their doors and students were forced to continue their studies online. With many institutions remaining closed in the Fall, or adopting a hybrid on-campus & online learning mix, students are unsure if they will partake in classes come September.
We asked students their plans for the Fall semester, their opinions on online learning and what institutions need to do today to improve online learning to ensure students return to campus.
Download and read our free report today.
Cumulative assignments can be broken down into smaller segments of peer evaluation. This process is known as scaffolding and will ultimately help your students produce a higher quality final assignment.
Start by segmenting the steps necessary to creating the final assignment, and creating activities for each portion. For example, in a research paper, assign:
Benefits: By dividing up final assignments into more digestible activities, students will receive rich feedback for every portion of their assignment, over the course of the term. Not only does this help them with content creation, but it also helps them stay afloat in terms of making finalassignment deadlines.
Students absorb an abundance of content through weekly readings, but they cannot fully exercise this until class or during their exams. You can transform this into opportunities for students to retain this information and extend their learning through peer evaluations.
Per each weekly reading, you can assign quick, frequent activities such as:
Benefits: Giving students activities that are relevant to assigned readings increases content retention by also enabling students to immediately apply concepts that they have learned. Open discussions and questions about the readings are now also established, therefore adding more depth to the content assigned. This method capitalizes on enriching pre-existing content.
Homework questions are also a great repository for peer evaluation content. Not only can students evaluate solutions to questions, but they can also investigate and build on their peer’s thought process.
Assign activities per set of homework questions, and ask students to clearly outline their thought processes, formulas, and diagrams for peer review. Be sure to share solutions to the questions with the class as soon the deadline is terminated.
Benefits: This method is a great example of automated grading and feedback. When students are given the solution to a problem set, as well as visibility into the deliberation by their peers, they are equipped with the ultimate tools for peer evaluation. Homework questions are typically straightforward, therefore leaving very little room for student error or misjudgment.
In-class teaching methods are easily transferable to Kritik. The beauty of using Kritik for labs and in-class activities is that you can reap the benefits of the concise timing of the activity scheduler, and prolong the discussion far after class time. Check out how Dr. Patricia Chow-Fraser from McMaster University conducts labs online through Kritik!
Set the deadline for creation shortly after the lab or in-class activity is done. The creation phase can be used to submit lab results or findings done in class. The evaluation and feedback stage are used as a discussion board for the different conclusions that your students have made through their findings.
Benefits: The instructions of labs and in-class methods are consistent among all students who have attended. As a result, students can share and compare the thoughts and outcomes that were produced in the same session. This allows for them to gather the bigger picture, rather than focusing on a singular experience.
Kritik offers four activity templates that are explicitly designed with the structure of Bloom’s Taxonomy. These are only suggestive templates, and may be customized. Each template accompanied with sample instructions, objectives and rubrics.
Our activity templates focus on three highest levels of cogitative thinking from Bloom's Taxonomy; Analysis, Evaluation, and Creation
This template asks students to formulate a higher order thinking question based on reading comprehension. This activity aims to evaluate the question’s Richness, Complexity, Scope, and Relevance.
This template prompts students to write an argumentative essay based on a controversial opinion/subject. The rubric criteria includes: Clarity of Thoughts, Accuracy, Creative and Critical Thinking, Source and Evidence.
Students are asked to teach content to their peers in a way that promotes higher content retention among their peers. Students are evaluated based on Organization, Relevance, Clarity, and Knowledge of Content.
This template asks students to communicate course content in a creative way, (i.e. through illustration, info graphic item, summary table, short video, animation, or anything that will help convey the message faster or make it more engaging than the plain text). Students are evaluated by Organization, Knowledge, Text and Readability, Creativity and Visual Aids.
