Group activities can play a key role in knowledge acquisition. However, community building through group interactions in the online classroom can pose a challenge. Join us in this hands-on workshop, where we will explore engaging ways of adapting group activities for the online classroom while promoting community building.
With online education becoming more accessible every day, the need for creating innovative learning experiences is paramount. There is a plethora of learning management systems to choose from and in most cases an oversaturation of online courses and programs. Each academic year more courses are being taught in a hybrid manner or are being adapted for full online delivery. This has forced innovation, pushing instructors out of their comfort zone into designing novel ways of delivering content and adapting on-ground activities. Higher education is now in an eLearning environment where the most engaging and captivating courses will survive. Knowing how to adapt on-ground activities into engaging eLearning exercises can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to group work. Join us in this interactive workshop, where we will demonstrate how to adapt multiple group activities for the online classroom, all while fostering community building.
As instructional designers, the presenters have ample experience designing engaging online learning experiences from traditional face-to-face interactions. They apply best practices to create activities that not only promote community building but standout from the rest. The instructional designers leading this workshop do an exceptional job of collaborating with faculty to provide quality online course design that highlights group interactions in a meaningful way.
This will be a collaborative workshop. The presenters will provide examples of how they have adapted on-ground group work for online delivery following eLearning best practices. This will be followed by an interactive session where attendees will get to implement eLearning best practices and use their creativity and problem-solving skills to adapt different group activities for online instruction.
During the introduction, the presenters will discuss the different challenges of group work and community building in the online classroom. That will be followed by real examples of various group activities the presenters have adapted for the online classroom that have proven effective. Then, the participants will be provided a set of group activities that they will have to adapt for online instruction. Participants will also be given the opportunity of using a group activity that they implement in their on-ground classrooms, or they can use a group activity that they currently have in their online course but would like to improve. After working on this exercise for 10 minutes, all participants will come together to discuss the engaging ways in which they followed best practices, fostered community building, and adapted the group activities for the online classroom. The presenters will then provide feedback on the adaptations and will handout a key takeaways sheet with the most essential points to consider when designing group activities for an online course.
Participants who attend this workshop will be able to identify opportunities for community building in the online classroom through engaging group activities. They will also be able to discuss different methods, benefits, and advantages of community building for online learners. And lastly, participants will be able to adapt group activities for the online classroom following best practices.