Providing students with a range of asynchronous online activities can encourage effective engagement with content, whilst learning other life skills such as collaboration, problem solving, leadership and critical thinking.
Take a look at the tips below for some ideas you could put into practice.
We've mentioned online chats and forums on the Peer-to-peer learning page. These can be useful for students to connect and support each other online, but can also be used for asynchronous learning activities. Students could be required to make at least one post (or ask at least one question) to a forum for each topic, for example. If you prefer a more chat-like interface, you could enrol all your students onto a module Teams site. This would also allow you to create private channels for students to discuss in smaller groups.
There are a number of tools that allow you to create your own branching scenario-based exercises, which you can then embed into a Moodle course and allow students to work through asynchronously. These kinds of exercises offers students an element of autonomy or ownership of their learning process, and provides a safe environment in which they can learn from their mistakes and engage in critical reflection.
Branching scenarios enable students to put their theoretical knowledge into practical application and acts as an effective self-assessment activity. Choosing an incorrect option in a scenario quickly highlights skill and knowledge gaps and can improve the learning journey towards the intended outcomes. Scoring can be set per ending or based on points collected through the student’s chosen path, adding to additional gamification element for engagement. Choices may be set to lead to any other node within the interactivity tree structure, making it a flexible resource with multiple outcomes and learning opportunities. Creating rich branching scenario experiences using a combination of video, presentations and text etc. can provide an ongoing learning resource that students re-use over and over.
Branching scenarios can be set up using H5P in Moodle to challenge a student to make a decision and then presenting different outcomes depending on the chosen route.
Digital escape rooms can be an effective strategy to engage students in collaborative problem solving (or individual) whilst also placing a prominent emphasis on assessment for learning. Escape rooms can provide students with an immersive experience with active learning at its core. Students are compelled to engage in decision making, problem solving, critical thinking, negotiation, leadership and many more graduate skills. The initial outlay of time and resource creating a digital escape room challenge is offset by the replicability and recyclable nature of the resource.
Digital escape rooms can be an effective strategy to engage students in collaborative problem solving (or individual) whilst also placing a prominent emphasis on assessment for learning. Escape rooms can provide students with an immersive experience with active learning at its core. Students are compelled to engage in decision making, problem solving, critical thinking, negotiation, leadership and many more graduate skills. The initial outlay of time and resource creating a digital escape room challenge is offset by the replicability and recyclable nature of the resource.
Increase students' engagement with and understanding of a topic by asking them to create their own questions with accompanying feedback. StudentQuiz is an activity that you can add to your Moodle course which allows students to set their own quiz questions. Students can then complete a quiz made up of their selection of the questions that other students have submitted, and can then rate and feed back on the questions. StudentQuiz will then generate a ranking based on how many questions a student has created, how highly they are rated by other students, and how many questions they answer correctly when completing a quiz. For more information, see the .
Use the Moodle to allow students to track their progress in a course. The Moodle course template for modules makes this much more visible to students.
As well as creating your own asynchronous activities, you can include material from external sources such as embedded videos, podcasts, or short online courses (or extracts of them) from . You can even create your own learning pathways on LinkedIn to accompany your modules.
If you are planning a mainly online module or programme, take a look at the??online course, it offers a structured approach to thinking about design as well as ideas for activities. To engage students productively in their learning hours, encourage Directed Independent Learning, see the??online course to see how you might use Directed Independent Learning in practice and guide student learning hours effectively.
