Interactive Live Sessions

An initial quick task needs to get students doing the thing they will need to do, in the tool they will be doing it. So, if you need them to use the chat in a live session, get them to use it now with a no stakes question, with the expectation that everyone contributes. You can introduce other tools later in the session too, this is more of a general orientation to the space.

Ideas

• Live session tool: Add to the chat three emoji which sum up your day so far. You can also use one of the activities in our Learn-the-Tool Mingle.
• Padlet: Describe the view from where you are now, or add an image to show us
• Mentimeter Word Cloud: Tell us one thing that you think you know about [insert relevant topic here].

An initial social task helps students work out who else is in the session, and feel like they are connected. How you do this depends on your cohort and how well they already know each other, but even for those who have met before, these small chances to connect are really important.

Ideas

• In sessions that can include breakout rooms, create rooms for groups of 2-5 so students can do one of the below:
  • Share why they picked their course
  • Find 2-3 things they have in common
  • Chat about their favourite books, films or shows
  • Do any other activity in our Online Mingle Toolkit
• In large sessions, ask them to:
  • Raise their hands in the live session tool to indicate their preference between cafes or picnics, cakes or ice cream, etc, or
  • Describe the last film they watched using only emoji.

Developing a shared online etiquette with students is a fantastic exercise. This could include things like how and when to ask questions, how quickly they can expect a response, or more sensitive issues like whether cameras should be on or off. Try listing a set of expectations or behaviours and asking students to rank or upvote them to see what they think is most important (this could be done in a Padlet, Mentimeter, or in the chat).

It could be that you agree to...

• Participate actively in small group breakout rooms, either via the chat, microphone or camera. (If you don’t know what to contribute, try summarising the points so far, or even just show you agree with an emoji in the chat).
• Write down questions but save them until the end. Alternatively, write questions in the chat as they come to mind.
• Maintain a professional and inclusive approach – avoid using language which is inappropriate, or which may be offensive to others.
• Try to make sure the setting you’re in is ok for you to turn on your camera if you choose to – you might want to move personal pictures or other items out of shot, for example.
• Respect that some people can’t have their cameras or microphones on for good reasons.
• Turn cameras on in small group breakout rooms unless there is a good reason not to, at least for some of the time. You could even aim for a percentage of cameras on (40-50%, for example), and try to self-regulate as a group to maintain that level.
• Give activities a go, even if they feel difficult, or you’re not sure you’re doing it ‘right’.
• Disagree with the point, not the person – online, especially in a chat, it’s easy for things to feel like a personal attack.

As you move to the more discipline specific part of the session, it’s good to allow students time to gather their thoughts independently. The topic or prompt for this task should directly relate to the next activity. This is a good thing to do before the start of breakout groups too, so that students can feel prepared with something to say.

Ideas

• Freewriting: students are given one or two minutes to put pen to paper and just keep writing in response to a prompt. For example, “this session is about [topic], what comes to mind when you think about it?” “What do you know/ don’t know/ like/dislike about [x]? What they are writing doesn't need to be correct, useful or important, and they won’t need to share this with anyone.
• Crazy 8s: ask students to divide a piece of paper (physical or digital) into eight squares or sections. They then add one idea to each section, in response to a prompt. They need to fill all eight squares, even if they have to resort to things they don’t think are good ideas!
• Polling: ask students how confident they feel in the knowledge or skills that will be addressed in the session. Apart from setting the scene, these may help you understand where to focus the session. You could also ask this again in the end to see if they feel more confident then. You can use Mentimeter for this.

  

This is a collaborative activity, which can help build students’ communication and team working skills. Find a problem, discussion topic, or reading/media resource with several different dimensions, sections or aspects. Students work in small groups on one aspect of the "puzzle", so that when they all feed back together, a whole picture emerges.

Steps

1. Break your chosen topic/ problem into sub-topics, reading sections, possible solutions.
2. Create student groups for each of these subtopics - these can be set by you, or students can self-select into them.
3. Students move to breakout rooms to discuss/analyse their group topic, and come up with solutions, considerations, or key points. This may include posting to a shared document.
4. Optional: The groups change in the middle of the activity, so each student is now in a group with students belonging to a different group, to share views with each other and spot any potential issues or crossovers. They can then change back to the initial groups for a few minutes to share any important information before the next step.
5. The groups then report back to the whole class. By the end of the activity, a task is completed, a problem is solved or a topic is analysed. The results can be put into a shared resource, such as a document or Padlet.

You will need

• Breakout rooms set up for each sub group.
• You might want a shared collaborative document, such as a Padlet board for each group or a sharable Office 365 Word or PowerPoint document for the whole class with a specific page dedicated to each sub topic. The links to these should be available throughout the task, for example posted into the main session chat, with clear instructions.

A structured debate can add a competitive element to a collaborative discussion, which can really help with motivation and team bonding. Debates are also of course a good way for students to strengthen their critical thinking and public speaking skills, improve their arguments, listening skills, ability to see different perspectives, and confidence.

Steps

1. Choose a topic and relevant but diverse opinions by experts, including those who disagree with conventional wisdom. It helps to prepare students in advance with resources that explain these, but this can also be done in the session.
2. Assign students to groups for each of the opinions or ask students to choose the opinion they would like to defend.
3. Each group recaps, or reads/watches, their resource and talks about it to understand and decide on their main arguments. It's useful to get them to take notes in a common resource, like a Padlet or shared document.
4. The groups report back to the whole class, with a representative from each group presenting the arguments, which are then included into a single shared resource (eg a Padlet/shared document).
5. The activity ends with a vote about which group made the best case, regardless of whether or not they agreed with their points. Mentimeter, in session polls or a Microsoft Form can be used for this. Alternatively, students can vote via the ‘hands up’ function in Collaborate or Teams.

You will need

• Breakout rooms set up for each sub group.
• If you decide to ask students to self-select their groups, a Padlet board can be useful. Set up a Padlet with each argument as a title and ask students to put their name under the one they want to defend – you may need an upper limit of students per group. Alternatively, you can use a shared document with a table. It might be helpful to provide this ahead of the session, so you know who is in each group before the session starts.
• You may want to set up a shared Padlet/document for each group to use for note taking, and then a whole-group shared Padlet/document to collate the final arguments.
• For the end vote, if you want to use a polling tool, you can use which ever you usually would do with your students - you can set up a poll in Teams or Collaborate, or use a Mentimeter or TurningPoint poll, a Padlet board, or a MS Form.

Role-playing can encourage students to use their discipline knowledge, while at the same time enhancing their communication skills, help them see different perspectives and safely explore and prepare for a potential real-life scenario. It can also be a good way to get students talking, as they aren’t being themselves but playing a character.

Steps

1. Before the session, create a real-life scenario or problem (eg mock trial, patient diagnosis) and different real-world roles.
   1. As well as the bigger picture, also prepare prompts and provocations relevant to the scenario. This could be a sudden development in the story, a new piece of evidence that has come to light, a different point of view that may not have been apparent.
   2. For each role, consider factors like that person’s background, opinions, and goals.
2. Once in the session, split students into breakout rooms. In each room each student will play one of the pre-defined roles. You can assign them directly, let students choose freely, or tell them how to divide up the roles (eg in alphabetical order).
3. Students will discuss/play out the problem/scenario, each according to their role.
4. Every 5-10 minutes, post a prompt or provocation, to provoke reactions, help the conversations unfold and the student to further explore their different roles.

You will need

• Pre-prepared scenario and role descriptions in a format you can share easily with the students – a shared PowerPoint document could work well.
• Breakout rooms set up for each group, unless your group is small enough to be able to work all together.

Through collaboration with their peers, students will consolidate their understanding of a topic by trying to create good questions for others. This activity works best when you’ve already covered a topic in some depth, for example at the end of a week of learning, or after an asynchronous activity (a reading, or pre-recorded lecture, for example). However, you can run this as a standalone session to get students talking, if you choose a subject which you think they will already know something about.

Steps

1. Explain how the activity will work – student groups will create questions for another group to answer. Give them tips on what makes a good question.
2. Divide students into breakout rooms, and let them know how much time they have to complete the task.
3. Each group needs to come up with a set of quiz questions that helps to check understanding on a key point or topic from the session. Ask them to read the questions through before they finish, to make sure they are clear.
4. Everyone comes back to the main room and the questions sets are shared. This can be done in a number of ways, for example posted on a Padlet board.
5. The groups are assigned a different group’s question set (e.g. Each group gets questions from the previous group number – Group 4 gets Group 3’s set) and reconvene to answer them (e.g. commenting in the Padlet).
6. After the session, you could add the best questions to a question bank in Blackboard, or to a Mentimeter quiz, for students to practice with asynchronously.

You will need

• One or many topics which students can create questions around – it helps to give them something to work with, like a text, or notes on the subject, as a starting point.
• Breakout rooms for each group.
• A central place for students to be able to share their questions, like a Padlet board. Or, some way for them to share the questions with you, like via a private chat (this is possible in both Teams and Collaborate).
• As a follow up, you might want to create a question bank from the best submissions, either via Blackboard, or Mentimeter.

Students collaborate with peers to answer questions, in order to better understand the session's topic and potentially resolve misunderstandings. Remaining misunderstandings can be resolved by discussing the answers with the class at the end. You can see these slides from Ecology as an example.

Steps

1. Before the session, create questions for your students on a set topic. It may be best to choose a difficult topic, or one often misunderstood by students. Also decide which tool they will use to answer the questions. We recommend Mentimeter for mostly closed questions (where the possible answers are specific and/or short and Padlet for mostly open questions. If there is a limited number of groups and the answers are short, students could alternatively enter them in the live session's chat.
2. After you introduce the task, divide students into breakout rooms. Let them know how much time they have to decide on the answers, and when and how they should submit their answers. Depending on the tool and question, you may want them to submit all at the same time, so they don't influence each other.
3. Each group will discuss the questions and either post the answers as a group (via a representative) as they are agreed (if in Mentimeter, for example) or write them in their breakout room chat or a shared document, so they have it ready to post when the time comes. Asking the group to assign a ‘lead’, a note taker and a reporter here will help.
4. Once the answer(s) are submitted, students need to be able to see what other groups answered. You can give the groups another chance to reconsider their answers and change them, if they have seen an answer that might have changed their minds.
5. When the final answers have been posted, identify differences between answers to draw out misunderstanding or discussion. You could ask group representatives to explain why they chose them, but remember that not everyone will be happy speaking in a group setting. If applicable, you could ask students to vote ofor what they consider to be the right answer, or the best argued one, or a good point, even if it's not correct.
6. At the end of the activity, ensure the correct answers (assuming there are explicitly correct ones) and relevant considerations are clear to students.

You will need

• A set of questions in Mentimeter and/or Padlet. If you use media, ensure there is a text description for images/ audio and that videos have captions (or text descriptions if there is no audio).
• Breakout rooms for each group.

• Think-pair-share, for smaller cohorts: Each student thinks about a topic/problem by themselves, then discuss it in 1:1 breakout rooms with a peer, then key points are shared with the whole group.
• Team based learning

Protecting the space

• Keep the tone friendly and personal: use individual’s names, and model the kind of tone you’d like to see.
• Set expectations at the beginning. Explain about tone, length of posts in the chat/Padlet/etc, how students can indicate they want to contribute (eg by raising their hand in the live session tool) and how you will manage contributions. You can also model this in your own contributions and interactions.
• Enact take-down policies efficiently.
• Flag contributions that you feel show students who are at risk, or which cause concern. This would usually be to the Unit Director, or to the appropriate university support, for example Wellbeing Services.

Prompting

• Revive flagging conversations or start discussions in a quiet breakout room or shared document.
• ‘Nudge’ contributions to get attention to them, either by pointing them out verbally during the live session, ‘liking’ or ‘rating’ them, or leaving short replies.
• Ask open questions, to which there is no right answer and you cannot answer just ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Encouraging

• Find good examples of contributions and posts, specifically recognise what has been done well.
• Reward effort and contribution over content: particularly early on when students may need more encouragement to get started.
• Encourage students to reply to each other by doing the same yourself.

Guiding and modelling

• Ensure you keep conversations on track or point out when they’ve wandered off topic.
• Answer technical questions promptly: not understanding the technology can be a significant barrier.

Synthesising and challenging

• Help students recognise the learning that is going on in the discussion, and prompt them to move on to higher level thinking skills, if appropriate.
• Give the students a chance to moderate a discussion. Moderator roles can include synthesising and summarising discussions, making connections between posts, encouraging interaction, answering simple questions, and feeding back questions or common themes to the lecturer. Moderators working in pairs is good practice, as moderating alone can be intimidating and time consuming. This can be especially helpful in large sessions.

Whichever platform you are using there are some strategies which can help breakout group activities to run as smoothly as possible and maintain engagement. Here are ten tips, as well as some examples of simple tools which can help with collaboration. You can also see students' expectations of breakout rooms.

1. Ask good questions and give clear instructions

Students may leave breakout rooms or be silent when questions are too difficult, too easy, uninteresting, closed or don’t connect with them personally. Fire students up with imaginative questions, which are clear, and invite them to contribute. Examples of good questions following some short session input might be: what big idea struck you/was new to you in the session so far and why; what theory or idea are you less convinced by; and if you had one question to ask me, what would it be? Students can compare notes and be ready to put an answer to each question in the chat on their return. Give clear task instructions with expected outputs, and make sure these instructions are visible throughout the activity eg through a shared document.

2. Allow time for students to gather their thoughts

Breakout rooms can be quite scary and strange, being whizzed away from the comfort and anonymity of the plenary, having been tasked to discuss something which you may not have had time to digest. That’s why the opening question in most breakout rooms is "so what are we supposed to be discussing?" followed by some fumbling around for the question or task. To avoid this, before they join their groups set the question/task, set a time limit, and ask students to put pen to paper and do some freewriting individually to gather their thoughts in response to the task. Explain why you are doing it this way round. While the students are gathering their thoughts individually, you can be setting up groups / preparing for the breakout.

3. Assign roles

It can help for each breakout room to have assigned roles eg a note-taker, a time-keeper, a lead or chair and a spokesperson. Ask students to agree these roles as soon as the breakout starts and rotate them each session.

4. Be realistic and clear with timings

Think about the time needed for the task you are setting. Add in some time for them to say hello, get started, and work out what they are doing. Give clear timings, and make sure they know what to do when the time is up.

5. Have a consistent approach

Set out how things will work eg if you will be moving around groups or how students can contact you if they want to ask you a question. Agree an etiquette approach amongst students that can run throughout all the sessions.

6. Icebreaker

Start with an easy icebreaker task, which gets students chatting. The idea of this is purely for students to get to know who’s in the group, get familiar with the feeling of being in a breakout group, etc. Keep it simple and try to do this regularly, even every session if you can, not just the first online session for the group.

7. Think about who is in each group

It’s great to randomise groups at the start of your course but think whether it’s beneficial to keep these groups the same throughout the run of it. Students can develop relationships with their peers and feel more confident in their environment if they are working with the same people each time.

8. Provide a way for students to check they understand what they should be doing

Use shared documents or collaborative spaces for tasks, where you keep instructions and where students can see what other groups are doing during a breakout session. You can also monitor these, eg to identify questions.

9. Reporting back

Make sure students know how they will be expected to report back on their activity. If roles have been assigned, as suggested above, this could be via the spokesperson or note-taker. Reporting back could be via the shared document or the chat. Vary the way you report back so that it is not always verbal into the plenary. Some students find this daunting, so use written as well as oral means. The chat is effective for getting a quick sense check of how discussion has gone in groups. You could ask groups to preface in the chat, eg. Group 1: …

10. Observing activity in breakout rooms

It can be awkward jumping into a breakout room conversation. If you plan to do this let students know in advance. Consider using a designated chat/communication channel with students so they can ask questions without you being in the room. Again if you ask them to use a shared document to make notes and indicate completion of tasks this can help you to keep track of how they are doing without necessarily having to jump into the room.

Tools that can help with breakout room collaboration

You can see tool suggestions for specific activities above, but if you are looking to create your own activity, the tools below are easy to set up and share and help students collaborate:

• Padlet board(s) - Students add ideas around a pre-prepared area by group name, so they can see all the ideas from other groups. Or, each group has their own Padlet board, linked to from a shared document, so they can visit other Padlets if they want to see what’s being done in other groups.
• Shared PowerPoint - prepare the slides in advance. You could include a slide with instructions, and a slide for each group to work on, which includes their task and a space for them to make notes.
• Shared Word document.

Chat

• To make it easier to manage you might have dedicated chat time during a session (you can switch the chat on and off as many times as you want) , or allow questions at any point but review them at certain points. You could also ask students to use the raise hands feature, then ask a student with their hand up to post a question in the chat.
  • In Collaborate large sessions chat is initially disabled, so you need to re-enable it once you are in the session (under My settings – session settings).
• If it is possible for you to run a session with one or more colleagues, one of you could act as “chat wrangler”, monitoring questions, responses or comments in the chat and flagging key themes / questions for you to respond to. You could also consider having a rota of student chat wranglers who take turns each session.

Group work

• Group Collaborate spaces are available for any groups in Blackboard. You could start a session with everyone together, then ask them to leave the large session and join group Collaborate spaces for a group activity, then re-join the whole cohort session later. Allow time for students to leave and join.
• Ask students to create shared documents to collaborate with those in their group, for example in Word or Powerpoint. At points in the session when you want them to work together tell them to access their shared document. Comments can be added within the document or they may chat using Teams chat or another chat tool of their choice such as WhatsApp or Messenger

Student presenters

Although participant audio/video is turned off in large sessions, in Collaborate you can temporarily promote one or more students to presenter role eg so they can share audio/video or their screen eg to feed back on their group work.

Consider asynchronous options

• Does this need to be a large online session? Might the learning outcomes be better achieved by looking at asynchronous options?
• Can the live session refer to, or be followed up by an asynchronous activity, such as a forum?