Collaboration & digital posters

A classroom that directs students to cluster in small groups can be a great environment for collaborative learning.  When one member of our team points out this feature of the active learning classrooms, many instructors ask for examples of activities or inquire about the availability of tools that foster collaboration in the classroom.  Reasonable requests!  

The intention here is to provide an initial example/suggestion that aligns well with something already happening on the UWEC campus: research posters.

Student researcher Emily Anderson presents
results at UWEC's CERCA event

The campus community already embraces collaboration on a regular basis.  Undergraduate students collaborating with faculty on academic research, for example, is something that UWEC prides itself on (rightfully so!) with an annual event highlighting the 200+ collaborative projects that have taken place over the academic year.  The majority of the researchers share their process and findings with others through... posters.  

Why not have students create posters for class projects too?  An instructor that inquires about this possibility is often reminded of the cost of printing posters as a deterrent.  Not all posters have to be printed!  The creation of a digital poster is an available alternative.  Here are two options:

• Utilize the existing PowerPoint template offered by Learning and Technology Services (LTS)
• See this webpage for info on accessing the poster template as well as tips.

• Explore a web-based option like Glogster EDU


• Like a PowerPoint slide, a "glog" allows for images, text, video, etc.  Different templates are available, including more than one timeline layout and one for a historical biography.
• A glog is designed to be shared online and can be accessed with a link or embedded into a webpage.  
• For those interested in learning how to use Glogster, this YouTube video provides a helpful overview of the account setup and creation process.
• Note: I am in the process of creating an example glog; another post coming soon with some additional insights about the process and potential for group work.

Students can present the digital poster in class or share them online.  For in-class presentations, sharing the poster via the room's main projector screen is one option that will work in most classrooms on campus.  The active learning classrooms, however, do provide a second set of options; the monitor(s) attached to each pod can be used to present the digital posters - with each group presenting their own poster and the audience moving about the room, or one group's digital poster being featured on the pod screen(s) and/or the main projector screen.

Is PowerPoint compatible with active learning?

In my previous post, I noted the fact that our faculty members are at different points in the transition to teaching in active learning classrooms.  A number are accustomed to utilizing PowerPoint in some shape or form during class meetings and would prefer to get some mileage out of those existing materials.  So, this begs the question... is there a place for PowerPoint in an active learning classroom?

The second week of the semester delivered an unexpected blow for one of the active learning classrooms: the teacher station was down.  Inoperable.  Five back-to-back classes were scheduled for that room on that day, and the instructors managed to turn a frustrating situation into a series of productive experiments.  For one, if the PowerPoint is not projected onto the main screens and controlled from the teacher station, then what alternatives might be available?  One option, given the setup of the rooms, is to ask the groups to pull up the file - from email, D2L, or a shared folder - on the monitor stationed at each of the pods.  Now each group, instead of the instructor, is responsible for advancing the slides.  Here are a few observations from instructors embracing this approach:

• The students are more engaged since they are responsible for moving the presentation forward.
• A quick glance around the room allows the instructor to see if a group appears to be stuck or is behind in the presentation.
• This feedback can be used to inform or re-evaluate the pace of the presentation.
• This may offer a natural break/pause for questions, clarification, or a check for comprehension.

Here is a slightly advanced twist that is simple to execute: insert a blank slide or two into the PowerPoint presentation.  When the presentation reaches the blank slide, the groups are asked to get to work on constructing what would be best to include there.  Summary?  Transition to the next topic?  Compare and contrast?  Discussion question?  So many possibilities!  And all from a blank PowerPoint slide or two - an easy modification to an existing presentation, that is for sure.  (Thank you to Louisa Rice for this example.)

A quick Google search turns up some additional ideas for utilizing PowerPoint in an active learning setting:

• Twelve strategies for active learning with PowerPoint from the University of Minnesota
• Ideas for guiding active learning with PowerPoint handouts, also from the University of Minnesota
• PowerPoint templates for Jeopardy and Twenty Questions from Oregon State University

How do you use PowerPoint for active learning?  If you have an idea or an example, we'd love to hear about it.

Use of class time in an active learning classroom

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is facilitating a Community of Practice series for active learning instructors this semester.  The meetings provide an opportunity for the instructors to get together to discuss activity ideas, students working in groups, classroom challenges, strategies for student engagement - plus anything else that comes up.

Our series kicked off last week with a group of instructors who are currently teaching in the new Centennial Hall active learning classrooms.  To get the conversation started, I threw out the question I wanted to be sure the group had time to discuss:

Student "pods" in one of Centennial Hall's
active learning classrooms

What is happening in the active learning classroom that is different from what typically happens in a traditional classroom?

The instructors all settled on an important observation as the starting point for this discussion... the students and what they are working on in their groups (pods) is the focus.  This is certainly a change from a lecture hall where the instructor, and what is happening at the front of the classroom, is the focal point.  All agreed that this shift necessitates change in the way the class period is structured; this has been documented elsewhere by other campuses with active learning spaces (see this discussion from the U of M, for example), but a discovery of any kind always resonates a bit more when it hits closer to home.

The transition to teaching in an active learning classroom is likely to be easier for instructors who frequently ask students to work in groups compared with those who primarily focus on delivering content through lecture since the setup of the active learning rooms lends itself better to group work.  Each of the instructors present for our first meeting acknowledged the need to work with the classroom environment; trying to continue on with in-class content delivery through lecture in one of these active learning spaces is likely to be a losing battle since students' focus is not on the instructor.

This transition takes time, and each instructor is at a different point in the transition process.  One of the participating instructors, Erin Devlin, taught one day per week in an active learning classroom during the fall semester, and, as a result, she has already developed a handful of in-class activities that work well for this type of classroom environment.  For others, this is the first semester that they have had an opportunity to teach in a space that is conducive to group work (a lecture hall with stadium seating and fixed chairs presents certain hurdles for students working in groups!), so it will take time to develop ideas for utilizing the new space.  A series of ideas and examples will be shared in future posts in an effort to help with this process.