Reconstructing a successful class that was meant to be in-person to fit the new online format can be challenging and intimidating. Someone who has tackled this task and found great success, according to his students, is Dr. Charles Patterson, Professor of Spanish at Western Washington University. Through his phenomenal organization, the frequent use of breakout rooms, and finding creative online tools to replace in-person activities, students report feeling little difference between his in-person and online classes.
Organizing online classes
- Identifying objectives for the class:
- Think about what activities will work best for achieving these.
- Consider the relative importance of each learning objective and how much time we can afford to spend on it.
- Think about what can be taught effectively by presenting information myself, and what requires group work.
What is a good amount of breakout rooms?
- For Charles Patterson 2 or 3 breakout rooms per class period tends to be best.
- With little or no group work, it’s hard for students to maintain interest and intention.
- With too much group work, students miss out on important concepts that they can’t learn from their classmates.
“I love how breakout room activities allow students to get to know each other and feel connected even if they live in isolation. I’ve been very pleased to see the communities that have come out of my online classes.”
Examples of in-person activities adjusted to fit an online format:
- In in-person classes, try assigning different tasks to each group and then have everyone come back together and report.
- Instead of writing or drawing on the chalkboard or on paper try using:
- Google Docs – You are able to create tabs in your document, so each group can go straight to its own section and work. (See Google Docs as a Tool for Student Engagement)
- Google Slides-Using the same tactic, but with individual slides instead of tabs, Google Slides allows multiple different breakout rooms to work on individual slides they are able to share with the class. (See Google Slides as a Tool for Classroom Discussion)
- At the end of the activity, you are able to share the document with the share screen option for everyone to comment on.
- Instead of writing or drawing on the chalkboard or on paper try using:
Content taken from an interview with Charles Patterson, PhD, Professor of Spanish at Western Washington University in Modern and Classical Languages.