Effective Student Conversations During An Online Class

Tufts Community of Online Learning and Teaching (COLT) offers this presentation and discussion by Professor Ron Lasser

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Success is having students engage in meaningful conversation during an online class. The problem is getting them to do just that. Utilizing the game of telephone provides a distraction and facilitates students conversations. It allows them to engage in effective articulation and expression in getting ideas across to others.

Offering students different topics and starting with a few sentences about each topic provided by the instructor, students write their half- to three-quarters-of-a-page response, selecting what most interested or impacted them, and upload to Canvas. The following week, the next student builds on the last student’s submission, reflects on their interest, and writes and submits their contribution. The process continues.

Learning about the interest of the next student and their reason for selecting that thread provides a relaxed and safe environment helping enhance active listening skills. This approach engenders serious discussion, interesting questions, and laughing at misconceptions and misunderstandings. It also exposes bias, highlights importance and differences, and fosters learning.

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