Digital Learning Tools and Activities

Learning activities provide opportunities for students to interact with content, practice skills, and retrieve information. Learning activities also enhance student engagement. Consider how you define student engagement and what it looks like for different students in different environments. How will you support diverse types of engagement in your course?

When designing learning activities, begin by developing activities for your asynchronous learners, if applicable. Then adopt these activities for synchronous learners, and finally for in-person learners.

Class Activities

If we want our students to be engaged in our teaching, we need to engage them through active learning; while this is true of in-person delivery, it is crucial for flex delivery. Active learning requires students to engage in activities that can lead to deeper learning. Activities range from whole class discussion, group work, think/pair/shares, jigsaws, bookends, one-minute papers and so much more.

When teaching flexibly, deeply consider the choice of active learning strategy by asking yourself the following:

  • What are you hoping to gain, in terms of student learning, with this activity?
  • Which strategies can you leverage to engage students in both the asynchronous and synchronous environment?
  • Which strategies can be effectively used during synchronous time where students may be divided between attending in-class in person or attending remotely?
  • Are there strategies that you could use to have both student groups interacting together, at the same time?
  • How can this activity be re-envisioned with the possibilities and constraints of the educational technology at your disposal?
  • Would a different activity be more suited to the delivery method?
  • Will the investment in the planning and preparation be outweighed by the benefit to student learning?

If you are looking for additional ideas, please consider the variety of active learning strategies  or content, practice and summary activities  outlined on the CTL website.

Some examples of joint in-class/remote activities include:

  • Online polling
    • Kahoot
    • MS Forms
  • Collaborative note taking
    • OneDrive
    • Padlet
  • Brainwriting/brainstorming/ or mind/concept mapping activities
    • Whiteboard
    • Miro

There are many active learning strategies below. These strategies are organized according to participant size. Be sure to check out each section to see how various activities can be conducted in different delivery environments.

Whole Class Active Learning Strategies

Large Group Active Learning Strategies

Small Group Active Learning Strategies

Paired Active Learning Strategies

Individual Active Learning Strategies

Padlet

“An interactive digital wall that can facilitate collaboration. On these walls learners can share posts, audios, videos, links, documents, and images, and learners can comment and react to each other's posts”

Simple, but Versatile

Padlet is a simple tool but versatile tool. It an excellent way to engage learners and have them engage each other. It can be used to engage in brainstorming on a topic or idea, solicit options about a claim, answer a question or series of questions, display student work, engage in peer feedback, share experiences, create exit tickets, engage in icebreakers, KWL prior knowledge board, analyze a quotation, note-taking, watch video and comment, etc. Below are the different digital wall organization options and the benefit of each option for the specific part of a lesson:

Connection Activity

Wall - Pack content in a brick-like layout. It is ideal for pinboards, bookmarking, photo albums, and file sharing where the order of items is not that important.

Shelf - Stack content in a series of columns. It is ideal for categorizing information.

Map - Add content to points on a map. It is ideal for displaying physical locations and information connected to physical locations.

Grid - Arrange content in rows of boxes. It is ideal for digital storytelling, storyboarding, noticeboards, or anything else where you want to put content visually and the order is important.

Content Activity

Map -  Add content to points on a map. It is ideal for displaying physical locations and information connected to physical locations.

Shelf - Stack content in a series of columns. It is ideal for categorizing information.

Canvas - Scatter, group, resize, and connect content in any way. It is ideal for brainstorming, mind maps, org charts, and flowcharts.

Stream - Streamline content in an easy to read, top-to-bottom feed. It is ideal for blog posts, websites, video playlists, lessons, assignments, reports, or anything you'd traditionally use Microsoft Word for.

Timeline - Place content along a horizontal line. It is ideal for organization information chronologically.

Practice and Summary Activities

Wall - Pack content in a brick-like layout. It is ideal for pinboards, bookmarking, photo albums, and file sharing where the order of items is not that important.

Stream - Streamline content in an easy to read, top-to-bottom feed. It is ideal for blog posts, websites, video playlists, lessons, assignments, reports, or anything you'd traditionally use Microsoft Word for.

Shelf - Stack content in a series of columns. It is ideal for categorizing information.

Timeline - Place content along a horizontal line. It is ideal for organization information chronologically.

Canvas - Scatter, group, resize, and connect content in any way. It is ideal for brainstorming, mind maps, org charts, and flowcharts.

Grid - Arrange content in rows of boxes. It is ideal for digital storytelling, storyboarding, noticeboards, or anything else where you want to put content visually and the order is important.

How to Create a Padlet:

How to Join a Padlet:

References

How to use map format. (2019, September 12). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN1MPPg_A1A

The Padlet Timeline format. (2019, December 19). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJHm8eYZFys

Sese, C. (2021, August 4). How do I create a padlet? Padlet Help. https://padlet.helpdocs.io/l/en/get-started/how-do-i-create-a-padlet

Sese, C. (2021b, August 18). How do I join a padlet? Padlet Help. https://padlet.helpdocs.io/l/en/get-started/join-a-padlet

The basics for Educators. (2020, April 17). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPhyFiJ3LNQ

Miro

“Miro provides an engaging, intuitive, in-person collaboration experience with multiple options for real-time or asynchronous teamwork on an online whiteboard.”

More Than a Whiteboard

Miro offers a wide variety of templates to support different activities. Below are categories and most popular templates with some simple ways of using them during your lessons.

Brainstorming and Ideation

The brainstorming and ideation templates can be used as connection and practice activities. They can support idea development, connections between ideas, reflection on prior knowledge, opinion, etc.

  • Mind Map
  • Concept Map
  • KWL Chart
  • Stickie Packs

Mapping and Diagramming

Mapping and diagramming templates can help instructors know if students understand connections between ideas and concepts, visualize student thinking and critical thinking, and engage in compare activities.

  • Fishbone Diagram
  • Stakeholder Map
  • Venn Diagram
  • Strategy Map
  • Workflow
  • Flow Chart

Reflection and Opinion

Reflection and opinion templates allow learners to interact, express their opinions, reflect on their learning and experiences, think critically about material, and assess the next steps in their learning journey.

  • Icebreaker
  • Dot Voting
  • Meeting Reflection
  • Likert Scale
  • Quick Retrospective
  • Start, Stop, Continue
  • Retrospective 4 Ls
  • Bullseye Diagram
  • 5 Whys

How to Use a Miro Board:

References

Getting Started with Miro. (2020, March 23). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pULLAEmhSho

Miro Whiteboard - Participants Quick Start Guide. (2020, December 31). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbde_j3CbYo

Kahoot!

“Make instruction more engaging remotely and in class, improve student outcomes and attendance, and collaborate with colleagues on learning content.”

Fun Formative Feedback

Host formative feedback that both online students and F2F students (with a mobile device) can take part in to support feedback loops in your classes. Below are the various options that Kahoot! offers.

Connection Activity

  • Poll
  • Word Cloud
  • Brainstorming
  • Open Ended

Content Activity

  • Present Information Slide

Practice and Summary Activities

  • Quiz
  • True and False
  • Puzzle
  • Word Cloud
  • Open Ended
  • Brainstorming

How to Use Kahoot!

References

How to create a Kahoot - tutorial. (2019, August 1). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJgZZQcsSPk&t=8s

How to Create and Host Your First Kahoot Game. (2020, October 5). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXIOcSefGmw

Microsoft OneDrive

“One place for everything in your life”

Store, Share, Collaborate

OneDrive can support efficiency as well as collaboration in a flexible course. It is cloud storage for Microsoft files, but it is more than this. With OneDrive you can share files, collaborate on files in real time, and access those files from any device that has internet capabilities.

How to use OneDrive

References

Beginner’s Guide to OneDrive for Windows - UPDATED Tutorial. (2019, June 24). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkf1p1Y6rFQ

Top 10 Microsoft OneDrive Tips & Tricks. (2021, January 26). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkvvohqgHlE

Microsoft. (2019, February 7). Collaborate in OneDrive. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/collaborate-in-onedrive-586df57b-fdae-439c-ae5b-71cbe5bb0d4c

Mentimeter

“Create interactive presentations & meetings, wherever you are. Use live polls, quizzes, word clouds, Q&As and more to get real-time input - regardless if you’re remote, hybrid or face-to-face"

Increased Engagement

Mentimeter is an excellent tool to solicit engagement and ensure that students are thinking about the material. It allows you to build connection activities, content activities, and practice activities in a PowerPoint like format (how it doesn’t have the same level of customization as PowerPoint). The following are some of the activities that you can create with Mentimeter.

Activities

  • Multiple Choice
  • Word Cloud
  • Open Ended
  • Scales
  • Ranking
  • Q&A
  • Select Answer
  • Type Answer
  • 100 Points
  • 2x2 Grid
  • Who will win
  • Pin on Image

Content

  • Headin
  • Paragraph
  • Bullets
  • Image
  • Video
  • Big
  • Quote
  • Number

How to use Mentimeter

References

How to get the most out of the Free Account - Recorded webinar. (2020, October 2). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_vS1_t-IVk

Mentimeter Tutorial - Create your first Mentimeter presentation. (2019, October 1). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd0fAenuAnw

H5P

“Create, share, reuse and modify HTML5 content.”

Interactivity by Design

Build interactives and embed them in DC Connect to increase student engagement with course materials. Below are the various H5P tools categorized by lesson section.

Connection Activity Tools

  • Interactive book – create courses, books or tests
  • Guess the answer – create an image with a question-and-answer button
  • Interactive Video – create videos enriched with interactions

Content Activity Tools

  • Course Presentation – create a presentation with interactive slides
  • Branching Scenario – create dilemmas and self-paced learning
  • Accordion – create vertically stacked expandable items
  • Collage – create a collage of multiple images
  • Image juxtaposition – create interactive images
  • Timeline – create a timeline of events with multimedia
  • Virtual tour – create interactive 360 environments
  • Image Slider – easily create an image slider

Practice and Summary Activity Tools

  • Arithmetic quiz – create time-based arithmetic quizzes
  • Dialog Cards – create text-based turning cards
  • Drag and drop – create drag and drop tasks with images
  • Drag the words – create text-based drag and drop tasks
  • Fill in the Blanks – create a task with missing words in a text
  • Find Multiple Hotspots / Find the hotspot – Create hotspots for users to find
  • Flashcards – create stylish and modern flashcards
  • Image hotspots – Create an image with multiple info hotspots
  • Image pairing – drag and drop images matching game
  • Image sequencing – place images in the correct order
  • Mark the words – create a task where users highlight words
  • Advanced Fill in the Blanks – Fill in the missing words
  • Memory Game – create the classic image pairing game
  • Quiz – create a sequence of various question types
  • Speak the words – Answer a question using your voice
  • Speak the words set – a series of questions answered by speech
  • Multiple Choice
  • True and False Question
  • Questionnaire

How to create and use an H5P

References

Creating interactive content in H5P Studio. (2020, May 1). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br8dvAtB58w

Visio

(This is only available for PC Users)

“Visio is the ultimate tool for diagramming. Create easy-to-understand visuals with confidence. Choose from dozens of premade templates, starter diagrams, and stencils available in the Visio desktop and web app.”

Visualizing Data

Present information visually, have students make connections between information visually, organize through flowcharts, create interior design layouts, floor plans, calendars, Gantt charts, basic electrical drawings, block diagrams, brainstorming diagrams, cross-functional flow charts, and so much more.

How to get Visio on Your Computer

Contact the IT Service Desk to have it enabled for your computer.

How to use Visio

References

Microsoft Visio - Tutorial for Beginners [+General Overview]*. (2016, August 18). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b09dKHvu4-4&list=RDCMUCqKRlX8Pi6xg-lAAzkt3wfA&start_radio=1&t=25s

How to use Microsoft Visio. (2020, November 4). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN32Sl7PH8Q