Active and Interactive Learning

It is tempting to fall into the habit of thinking that you have to use a lot of complicated online tools to provide opportunities for meaningful active learning. You can provide meaningful interaction with quite basic tools as long as they are well-structured and clearly support students in reaching learning outcomes.

Consider the Experience

While there are obviously arguments to be made in favor of some tools over others, it is more effective to first consider the experience you are trying to create for the student.

What do you want the student to know and be able to do at the end of this activity?
What is an appropriate and logical way to provide the student with an opportunity to practice this?
In what ways can you add dynamic elements to the experience?
Did you build in tools and activities that will allow all learners to participate and access the instructional material?

Consider leveraging the tools built into Canvas such as Discussions (including recording video/audio directly into a discussion post), Group Spaces, Collaborations, or Synchronous Meetings in Zoom or MS Teams. A great student learning experience can be designed within a simple environment and there is something to be said for not over-thinking or over-developing.

Other Interactive Tools

If you find that Canvas-native tools are not sufficient to create a robust active learning experience for your students, you can explore third-party tools. When considering adding tools, please remember that while bells and whistles can deliver a better learning experience, they don’t automatically deliver a better learning experience. Always ask yourself, how is this tool supporting the student's learning experience?

You'll see mention of lack of LTI support as a drawback on several tools listed. Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is a standard that allows a sort of “plug-and-play” integration of learning tools with learning management systems. It provides standard ways of launching a 3rd-party learning tool from inside Canvas, providing information to the learning tool about which student from which course is accessing it, and, where appropriate, allowing the learning tool to send a grade back to the Canvas Gradebook. The main thing to remember is that tools without LTI support can't pass grades back to Canvas so if you want to count work your students did in that tool as part of their grade you'll need to add the grades to the Gradebook. If you have a larger class, these tools may be better suited to practice activities and other ungraded exploration. Note that LTIs cannot be integrated to the WCU Canvas instance without being reviewed and approved for privacy, NC State Law alignment, security, and alignment with IT and university policy. To request an integration, you can start a project request with IT by submitting a project request at https://go.wcu.edu/itproject.

Supported by WCU

WCU-supported tools are integrated with Canvas, documented in our Knowledge Base, and Help Desk staff can assist students and faculty 24/7 when they have questions.

Zoom (videoconferencing, video capture, and screen capture)

Pros – Integration with Canvas; HD quality video; allows up to 100 simultaneous video participants in normal mode, up to 1000 in webinar mode; full-featured apps for iOS and Android; ability to mix computers, mobile devices, and video conferencing rooms in one meeting; simple recording of sessions; full-featured collaborative whiteboards and screen sharing; breakout rooms.

Cons – Chat is not persistent and is not properly synced with video.

Accessibility – Still some issues with color contrast and video user interface

See the KB on Zoom

Panopto

Pros - Integration with Canvas; Direct video link from the Rich Content Editor in Pages; Unlimited video and audio storage; In-Browser Video Capture; Desktop recorder; Basic, in-browser editor; Detects viewer device and internet speed and adapts streaming; Allows faculty to see viewing analytics.

Cons - Video editor is basic and not equipped for long videos.

See the KB on Panopto

PollEverywhere

Pros - Single-sign on for faculty and staff; newest version of software integrates new question types. Encourages engagement and knowledge checks.

Cons - None significant

Office365 (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, surveys/forms)

Pros - Seamless integration with Canvas; works directly in Canvas' Rich Content Editor. Allows for student-generated documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoints, and other types of student-generated work offered through use of Office software.

Cons - None significant

What about social media services?

Social media services such as Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter provide a wide array of tools that faculty can leverage for student activities and interactions. However, before you incorporate social media into your course, there are some things you need to consider.

Are you prepared to support students if they have technology issues?
If you want students to post publicly as part of an assignment, do you have a way for them to post under an alias or anonymously if they prefer? FERPA rules govern the release of student information to third parties, which include social media sites. For more information, see Is Your Use of Social Media FERPA Compliant?
Copyright and intellectual property policies may also need to be considered depending on the content of the assignment.

For more information, consult University Policy 72, which outlines the WCU FERPA policy.