1 Tools to Encourage Student-to-Student Interaction
Student-to-Student Interaction
The tools below can be used to give students the opportunity to build community and work together on course assessments. You can click on the title of each to get more information about its functions as well as access job aids and tutorials for using it in your courses.
Canvas Discussions
Canvas discussions can be used to allow students to discuss and collaborate with one another without leaving your course in IU’s learning management system, Canvas. Discussions can be customized to allow students to connect with their entire class or to work in smaller groups on targeted topics and assignments. Students may post and respond to one another using text, audio recordings, or videos.
Inscribe
Like Canvas discussions, Inscribe allows students to interact with one another via text; however, Inscribe offers some additional functionality that may be beneficial for building community amongst your students in an ungraded, less formal setting. Inscribe provides students with an opportunity to post anonymously, which may encourage them to feel comfortable asking questions about the course material that can then be answered by their classmates. Students can also earn badges for their participation and contributions, and instructors can endorse student responses to highlight especially well written or insightful student posts.
Microsoft Teams
Teams is a web-based tool that allows students to communicate via one-on-one or group chat messaging as well as via synchronous video calls. Students can also use Teams to share files and collaborate on shared documents.
VoiceThread
VoiceThread is an asynchronous discussion tool in which students can interact via text, audio recordings, and videos. Instructors can share media, like a video or PowerPoint slide deck, and allow students to make comments and ask questions at the precise moment in the presentation that prompted their comment or question. Students can also leverage VoiceThread to work together on group presentations for class assignments.
Zoom
Zoom is a web conferencing tool that can be used for synchronous meetings and collaboration. Students have access to Zoom just like instructors at IU, so they can use it to meet in real-time with classmates to work on course assignments. Zoom at IU is also integrated with Kaltura, which is a cloud-based video management system. This means that students can use the “record to the cloud” option to record Zoom meetings and have the recording automatically passed to their IU Kaltura account for editing and sharing. In Zoom meetings, students can leverage screen sharing to display and present a slide deck or leverage a Zoom whiteboard for in-meeting collaboration.