Dale Reed

How can we effectively engage students in active learning and peer instruction within the constraints of an online environment?  I believe learning is consequential: in other words, learning that matters in the real world is socially constructed.

Dale Reed  |  | Clinical Professor | Fall 2020 | Department of Computer Science

Consequential Learning is Socially Constructed Heading link

How can we effectively engage students in active learning and peer instruction within the constraints of an online environment?  I believe learning is consequential: that is, learning that matters in the real world is socially constructed.  Feedback from both peer student voices as well as faculty voices helps guide novice learners towards concepts that are most helpful in creating chunks of knowledge.

Polls of my own students suggest that across the full range of students, synchronous instruction is more effective and desirable than asynchronous instruction.  I initially despaired of being able to get my students to engage with each other online, but I was given hope when I discovered the (free!) online professional development offered by Theresa Wills from George Mason University.  Curated sets of Google slides are set up that are editable by the whole class.  Breakout groups are set up in Zoom, and students are allowed to move in and out of rooms.  Each Zoom breakout room has a corresponding Google slide (or two) where that group captures their work.  This work is viewable by the whole class and provides a collaboration canvas that students can use to then report out to the entire class.  Examples of this can be seen in my CS 100 class this semester, where the online schedule has links to all the collaboration documents used in the class sessions this semester.  Accommodations are made in each class for students who have audio/video issues or can’t make it to class, giving them an asynchronous option, though by far the majority of students this semester have elected to participate synchronously.

Dale Reed
Clinical Professor
Department of Computer Science