by Ayelet Israeli (November 19, 2020)
Ensuring active student participation is challenging in any classroom situation. But this year’s move to predominantly online teaching has presented unique difficulties (and opportunities) for educators when it comes to encouraging participation virtually—and evaluating students’ contributions.
Fairly assessing class participation involves making sure you are offering equal speaking opportunities for all students, including the more reserved or introverted ones.
Use Chat to Get More Voices Involved
Chat windows can be very distracting and difficult to manage, especially if you’re trying to monitor chat while lecturing or leading a discussion. However, I’ve found you can make chat work in your favor by being directive.
For example, pose a question and tell students to think for a few seconds before posting a response in the chat. You can grade those answers as they are, or you can use the responses to set up a warm call.
I’ve also heard from colleagues who start class by asking a question of the day, which they add to the chat for students to answer; then they refer back to it later in the class for discussion.
When used correctly, chat can be a way to view all the “thought bubbles” of your students at a moment in time. To keep it manageable, you can keep the chat function off and turn it on only at particular moments when you are ready to post a question for open conversation. You can even ask students to type their answer in the chat and hit enter at the same time, so everything comes in all at once and everyone can skim the answers together while you highlight responses and set up warm calls.
It’s up to you how much you choose to count these responses in terms of the participation grade. But chat does offer you the opportunity to keep students engaged and figure out where they stand with the material.
Quickly Assess Understanding with Polls
You can use polls to check in with students and assess whether they are reaching a shared level of understanding. For example, I have colleagues who pose a true-or-false question at the beginning of class that draws from the previous lesson. At least some of the students usually get the question wrong, which then leads to a discussion of what people are still struggling with. Polls allow you to make sure that every student is showing up mentally and has an opinion.
You can also use polls to spark debate among students of differing opinions, who might not otherwise speak up unless prompted.
Review how to use Polls in GMeet and Zoom here:
- GMeet – You can also watch a live demonstration by enrolling in our GWorkspace course
- Zoom
Assign Assessable Group Projects
I split the class into smaller groups using breakout rooms and give out specific assignments to each. Since I can’t monitor every group, I make sure to be very clear about what the goal of the assignment is. I create a shared document in Google Slides or Office 365, then assign each group to a slide with a question listed on it. This ensures that students actually do the assignment they’re supposed to do, and it also allows me to check on the progress in each room by monitoring the slides. I can see that breakout room one is already filling out their slide while room two hasn’t typed anything, which means they’re probably still discussing it.
The advantage of giving assignments in smaller groups is that students are more likely to talk to each other, giving everyone a chance to speak. When we come back to the full class, I have a whole slide deck with each of the different groups’ views and opinions, which is a helpful learning and grading tool. I typically don’t let groups choose the presenter. Instead, I say, “OK, Student A, why don’t you present what group five came up with?” This allows me to push the people that I want to hear from.
I’ve found that students come back from breakout rooms energized and reengaged after talking to each other and arguing their opinions in the smaller groups. It’s fun for them. It’s up to the instructor whether or not to grade all of the different teams; I sometimes only grade the ones that I called on to present. But having that shared document or some kind of deliverable is crucial.
Grading: Be Considerate and Make Your Expectations Clear
It’s worth repeating: To grade participation fairly, it’s important that all students feel they have an equal opportunity to contribute. The methods I’ve shared here allow me to bring in students who are quieter. I keep in front of me a list of my students’ first names in alphabetical order and I mark it as people participate. I track who already spoke and who I want to hear from, so I can make sure to call on those students. Rather than relying on raised hands—with which you pick the quickest student, leaving out those who take a little longer to think—I can pick a student on my list.
I usually don’t grade every individual comment a student types in. But if I call on a student because of something they wrote, or if they wrote something exceptional, then I do take that into consideration while grading participation. I think it’s important to make it very clear to students what you’re grading and what you’re not grading so there are no misconceptions.
And while there is a limit to what we can do when we teach online, we should also be aware of all of the difficulties students might be having. I wouldn’t just give a student that didn’t vote in a poll a zero. Maybe they’ve been trying but they’re having connection issues, or they’ve been taking care of a child for the entire class, or maybe they are anxious. It’s still a pandemic. A little compassion goes a long way.
