#35 - Run a teaching event with a main speaker and breakout spaces
- Include student collaboration, peer-learning and creativity in online sessions.
- Manage potentially complex interactions and workflows by setting up the online environment in advance.
- Students can work collaboratively on documents, presentations etc. in their breakout channels, and then show them in the main channel.
Enhancement goals addressed: Flexible learning | Distance learning | Scaffolded collaboration | Blended learning |
Tools and how to get support: Microsoft Teams | Blackboard Collaborate Ultra
Solution overview
This aims to replicate flexible teaching methods increasingly used in class. This recipe can work entirely online, or in a blended approach with face-to-face and online. You might start with a plenary session, all in the same virtual room (video, audio or just text), and then breakout into teams in separate rooms. The teams might collaboratively work on a document or presentation as they discuss. They then bring their work back to the whole class in a wrap-up session. Microsoft Teams is especially good when this collaborative working is required.
Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is an alternative system designed for more flexibly organising online teaching, with an easy to use interface for including polls, and for creating breakout spaces. You can assign membership of breakout spaces, or create different spaces for different topics, and allow the students to move between them.
Teams is more appropriate if you are running a series of sessions with the same group of students, especially if you want them to collaborate outside of the timetabled sessions.
Process
- Teams is available to every member of the university, and you can also invite external people to join as guests.
- Find out more about Teams by following the link in the tools section below.
- Create a Team for your students, and add them in as members.
- Set up channels for each of the breakout groups. You could make these breakout groups private to specified members.
- You can set up online meetings in the channels, or let the students do that themselves.
- If you want to use Blackboard Collaborate, contact AV Services.