Oche Gbemi
Interaction between people is one of the many strategies to generate new experiences, discussion, reflection, and ultimately learning. In this article, I recommend some group dynamics that you can put to the test in your virtual courses, through easy-to-use applications.
It is important that when different interactions are carried out between the members of a virtual course, the objectives pursued to develop a dynamic are clear, as well as developing a detailed planning process that allows the involvement of the majority of the members of the course.
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The dynamics in a virtual course can be developed synchronously or asynchronously; it all depends on the characteristics of the course and the participants. The dynamics that I present to you focus on the synchronous interaction of the students of the virtual course.
Synchronous group dynamics help to understand the behavior that people present in a group, which allows generating information that can be useful to the e-tutor to adapt teaching strategies and thus achieve learning in the virtual course.
By having a more direct interaction, the e-tutor can better understand the student’s motivations, the way they reason and learn, the behavior, the level of learning, and the characteristics of the students who participate in the virtual dynamic.
For the student, developing virtual group dynamics in real-time helps them develop their reasoning ability, reinforces their autonomy, helps enhance creativity and imagination, and also greatly enhances social skills.
So that you can apply them directly in your courses, I present in each dynamic the suggested applications that enhance learning.
Table of Contents
Platform games
Objective: memory reinforcement, evaluation of main concepts, use of Tics, g-learning application, social interaction.
Suggested Application: Factile
Detail: Through Factile you can create a “Jeopardy” type game, where students can participate in turns on a board, requiring a value (a frame), from which interactivity appears that must be developed, such as a concept, an opinion, talk about a topic, solve an equation or any type of learning interaction that the e-tutor plans.
In Factile the e-tutor can determine if it is played by teams or by individual students. It is important that you give feedback to each positive or negative answer you make to each frame of the game.
Planning: It is necessary to program the application in advance, in order to have the content that the students will be able to visualize in each frame, the ways of evaluating, the generation of interaction instructions, the scores, and the development logic.
Interaction: Students can interact in real-time through a computer, tablet, or smartphone to play the topics that the e-tutor has decided to program.
Suggestion: To provide the game with more interaction, it is appropriate, in addition to sharing the game, to have a communication platform, such as Skype, Hangouts. It should also be taken into account that the free version of this game has certain limitations, where it is mostly used in the paid version where you have access to more multimedia resources.
By having a communication platform, the e-tutor can see the faces of the participants, their interactions, responses, and more, which makes the interaction more dynamic and fun.
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Written execution of tasks online
Objective: evaluation of main concepts, written expression, teamwork, use of Tics, application of what has been learned.
Suggested app: Google Docs
Detail: Through GoogleDocs, a task is created that must be solved in real-time in writing and in steps between several students of the course; such as solving a financial case study, a math equation, or a reasoning problem.
It is important that the resolution of the task involves several elements or processes, in such a way that it involves the participation of several students, who work in teams and, through the use of Google Docs, develop the processes in real-time in written form.
In Google Docs, the e-tutor can keep track of the different contributions in real-time, in addition to taking advantage of the chat tool to be able to interact with the students.
Planning: In advance, the e-tutor must develop the tasks to be solved, clearly defining the processes that the student must carry out in writing. She must also capture the form of interaction that she will have with the students, the scores, and the formation of teams.
Interaction: Students can interact in real-time using Google Docs, ideally with a Gmail account using a computer, tablet, or smartphone. There is also interaction through the chat of the application itself.
Suggestion: Like the previous dynamic, it is recommended to have a communication platform such as Skype or Hangouts, next to the document where the task is developed, to have a more dynamic level of support and control, especially in large groups.
By having a communication platform, the e-tutor can visualize the interest of the participant, resolve doubts faster, observe the reactions to the task, making the interaction more dynamic.
Dynamic quizzes in real-time
Objective: evaluation of main concepts, individual development, measurement of knowledge, use of ICTs, use of g-learning.
Suggested App: Kahoot
Detail: Through Kahoot, a board is created with evaluations of various kinds, generally multiple-choice questions are generated with multimedia, consisting of videos or photographs that enrich the content.
Students through their electronic devices can view the questions, the support material and then have a reasonable time to answer; at the end, they can view the score and time it took to answer.
In Kahoot, the e-tutor can keep track of the different participations in real-time of each student, a scoring record, and answer time.
Planning: In advance, the e-tutor must develop the various questions that he will ask his students, taking into account the order, the difficulty, the support material that he will provide, and the time to answer.
You must also make the instructions clear so that students know how they will be evaluated and how to use the application.
Interaction: Students can interact in real-time from their computer, tablet, or smartphone, internet access is necessary, like the rest of the dynamics.
Suggestion: As Kahoot does not have an online communication platform, it is ideal that a communication platform such as Skype or Hangouts is always used as a base, to be able to share instructions, feedback and guide students during the dynamic.
By having a communication platform, the e-tutor can visualize the interest of the participant, can see if the student answers on their own or receives help from someone else, evaluate the reactions of each student to each question and their development in general.
Video comments in real-time
Objective: evaluation of main concepts, written expression, individual development, analysis and comprehension, measurement of knowledge, use of ICTs, explanation of concepts.
Suggested App: YouTube Live
Detail: Through YouTube Live, the e-tutor makes a transmission of video content, to which the students are pending in real-time, then at intervals of time the e-tutor asks questions through the video, and the students answer and they interact via the app’s own text chat.
Students through their devices can view the video of the course, then they can interact through text chat with the e-tutor and other students, to generate learning experiences.
In YouTube Live, the e-tutor can keep track of the participation of their students, in addition to being able to moderate the interactions, to allow everyone to express themselves through chat.
In addition, this dynamic has the enormous advantage that when it is done on YouTube, it allows you to record and generate a video of it, which allows it to be consulted later for content review purposes.
Planning: In advance, the e-tutor must prepare the content that will be transmitted through YouTube, in addition to having a list of the interactions that he will have with his students, the rules of participation in the chat, the evaluations, and scores.
Interaction: Students can interact in real-time from their computer, tablet, or smartphone via text and video chat. It is recommended to have a strong connection to take better advantage of real-time dynamics.
Tip: To enrich the experience, it is advisable to use a visual communication tool such as Hangouts. It is important to take into account the internet bandwidth and the quality of the devices, so as not to slow down the transmission of the video with the communication application.
(As of this writing, Hangouts can no longer be used to stream in conjunction with Youtube, instead, a separate encoder must be used)
For this case, a voice-only communication platform is suggested, so as not to consume bandwidth.
The e-tutor can visualize through the comments on YouTube, the level of learning of the students, their reasoning, writing, analysis, and comprehension capacity of the different topics that they decide to transmit by video.
Shared online whiteboard
Objective: evaluation of main concepts, written expression, individual development, measurement of knowledge, visual explanation, use of Tics, explanation of concepts.
Suggested App: NoteBookCast
Detail: Through NoteBookCast, the e-tutor can interact with his students on a virtual whiteboard where he can diagram, draw and capture different ideas, concepts, or examples, accompanied by a text chat.
This dynamic is ideal for explaining concepts that require visualization, such as the development of a mathematical equation, the drawing of figures in design courses, or the generation of diagrams in real-time.
Students can use a computer or a tablet to be able to visualize what the e-tutor writes on the board as if they were looking at drywall, only in this case virtually.
In NoteBook Cast, students can also draw to have a better interaction with other classmates or with the e-tutor. The virtual whiteboard allows you to have a record of each interaction, it can be diagrammed with a mouse or computer pointer or on a tablet with your finger or pointer.
Planning: In advance, the e-tutor must prepare the content that he will diagram on the board and the interaction that he wishes with his group, such as the graphic resolution by steps, to mention an example.
In addition, you must define the order of participation of your students to prevent everyone from writing at the same time and create chaos in the dynamics.
It is also important to plan how you will assess each student’s participation and the rules for using the chat.
For this dynamic, it is suggested that the e-tutor have the availability of a tablet or digital table for drawing since it facilitates the creation of diagrams and the explanation in general.
Interaction: Students can interact in real-time from their computer, tablet, or smartphone using their device’s pointer and text chat. It is not recommended to access the application form very small screens, since this makes it difficult to clearly layout on the virtual whiteboard.
Suggestion: As if it were drywall, oral communication is important to explain what is diagrammed and the tasks desired by the e-tutor, so it is ideal to use an oral or visual communication tool such as Hangouts or Skype.
In this case, it is advisable that students access the communication platform and NoteBookCast through a desktop or laptop computer, due to the ease of managing various applications.
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The e-tutor can visualize through the interactions on the whiteboard and the chat comments, he can know the level of learning of his students, the diagramming capacity in technical classes, or conceptual expression.
As you have read, there are many applications that enrich group dynamics in real-time, they all require good planning so that they meet their learning objectives.
It is recommended in each dynamic, to create a video explaining the use of the application, the instructions of the dynamic, the form of evaluation, and the order of communication so that these tools can be fully exploited.
