Engaging your audience is key to delivery of any kind of information and never more important than in learning and teaching. In a physical space we get a lot from our own intuition, this may be through eye contact or other subtle gestures. In an online space this can be more challenging. So putting subtleties to one side, Active Learning, whereby teaching strives to involve students in the learning process more directly than other methods, is known to lead to greater student engagement, learning and equity in the class group. To support this approach we have purchased site licenses for two tools, Mentimeter and Padlet, which have active learning at their core. These tools and accompanying support will be made available shortly.
Mentimeter – An audience response system
Mentimeter is an audience response system which allows you to pose questions during a live session and then display the answers back to the students through various visualisations. This can be used as diagnostic tool to understand the level of knowledge in the group, to get feedback and opinions, to let students steer a session where they may choose a recap in certain areas or for fun trivia questions to use as ice breakers and bring in gamification. Audience response systems are particularly powerful for large cohorts where less confident students have the opportunity to make their voice heard.
Mentimeter has been chosen for its ease of use and range of features which have made it a popular choice among staff over recent years. With the licensed versions there’s no longer any limits on number of presentations or questions, it can be delivered through a browser or PowerPoint and is easy for students to interact with from mobile devices.
Going forward, Mentimeter will be the primary supported audience response system and will replace Turningpoint. For further information about the tool visit the Mentimeter website.
Padlet – For collaboration and co-creation
Padlet works like an online sheet of paper where individuals and groups can post text, images, videos and also vote, comments and rate on each other contributions. A range of different Padlet ‘boards’ are available to prompt different sorts of activities, whether it’s developing ideas, organising resources or creating timelines, the visual design of Padlet makes it fun to use and quick to communicate ideas. Padlet may be used with large cohorts or setup for students to use in group tasks from break-out rooms, or can just as easily be used asynchronously.
We gain a number of benefits with the licensed version but the headlines are that the number of Padlet boards is unlimited and the size of files that can be uploaded is increased.
Padlet has been used by staff here for a number of years but if you’re not familiar with the tool you can check out some of the Padlet videos on Youtube to get an idea.
Updates on the availability and support for these tools will be announced in the coming weeks but if you have any questions then get in touch with the FLIE team via your Faculty Learning Technologist or contact firstname.lastname@example.org if you are enquiring from a Professional Service.