Designing for Interaction Part 1: Student-to-Teacher Interaction in Your Digital Lessons

 This is Part 1 in a three-part series of blog posts on how to design for interaction in your digital lessons. 

Three Types of Interaction 

Online learning does not have to be an isolating experience. As a matter of fact, the online environment can be leveraged to create opportunities for meaningful, personalized, and frequent collaboration and connection. In every digital lesson that I design, I try to incorporate three types of interaction.

• Student-to-Teacher
• Student-to-Student
• Student-to-Content

Let's dive into designing for student-to-teacher interaction!

During Synchronous Instruction

When we think about our live instruction online (or in a socially distanced classroom environment), student-to-teacher interaction is fairly inherent. The thing to remember, especially when delivering instruction through video-conferencing, is to be sure that the interaction is both ways and not simply content delivery from the teacher. 

Prioritize Small Groups

One of the most difficult tasks online is to provide whole group instruction in a synchronous format (it's why I prefer that type of online teaching for individualized or small group instruction). If we are not intentional about ensuring that students are interacting with us as much as we are interacting with them, it is likely that we will lose the attention of many of our students. 

Prioritizing small group live instruction and leveraging asynchronous learning for whole group instruction can help with naturally increasing the amount of two-way teacher and student interaction. It is easy to fall into a lecture style format with 30 muted participants in a Google Meet or Zoom, but a small group will naturally feel more conversational and encourage participation from all students. 

Every Student Responds Techniques

Another strategy is to be intentional about creating opportunities for all students to respond to you during live instruction instead of simply calling on individual students. 

Incorporating these "Every Student Responds" techniques into direct instruction is not a new idea. Many of you facilitate these types of activities in your face-to-face classrooms daily. For example, you may have students participate in a Four Corners routine where they answer questions by moving to one of four corners of the room to indicate their response. However, when we move online (or are forced to stay seated because of social distancing protocols), activities like the Four Corners routine are impossible. 

That is, they are impossible unless you rethink those activities in a digital format! My colleague Amanda Moore has shared a Google Slides template with various Every Student Responds techniques that students can participate in from a distance. Check out the video below for information about this template and access the slides by clicking on the image below the video. 

Slides for Synchronous Interaction - Select the Use Template button at the top right to make your own copy. 

During Asynchronous Instruction

Interaction between the students and the teacher during on-demand or independent online learning is paramount to the success of your asynchronous instruction. High quality student-to-teacher interaction in this space will involve your presence in the content and learning environment and your timely feedback. 

Your Presence

Your presence in the digital learning environment impacts student engagement and motivation, academic achievement, and even has a direct impact on academic integrity. When I refer to your presence, I mean everything from your face in the videos you share, efficient feedback, audio, participation in online discussions, messages, announcements, and more. The research tells us that the closer you are to the learning, the more motivated, engaged, and academically honest your students will be. 

One study from 2015 (Belcher, Hall, Kelley, and Pressey) found that simply interacting with students online more than once per week resulted in higher levels of critical thinking present in their interactions with their classmates.

Some quick tips for increasing your presence online:

• Use a screen recording tool like Loom or Screencastify to record quick instructional videos or videos that do a tour or overview of the lesson. 
• When using videos from YouTube that others have created, leveraging an interactive video tool like EdPuzzle not only allows you to ask students questions and collect data on what they understand from the video, it also allows you to interject audio recordings with your own thoughts. Supplementing the instructional video with your own audio directly connects you to the instruction. 
• Use the announcements and messaging tool within your learning management system, if applicable. Where you can, record video messages instead of relying only on text. 
• Participate in all learning activities in the same way that you would in-person. You would never initiate a discussion in class and then walk out of the room to let the students facilitate it without you. In the same way, your role online is just as critical. 

Feedback

Timely and actionable feedback is a critical component of high quality student-to-teacher interaction. Regular feedback can come in multiple forms:

• Audio and video feedback
• Interaction in online discussion spaces (discussion boards, Flipgrid, Padlet walls, etc.)
• Dialogue with students in collaborative documents
• Feedback on assessments
• Whole class announcements with feedback on collective understanding and performance
• Live conferencing based on asynchronous work
• and more!

As a matter of fact, in the near future, look for a blog post on ideas for scaling up and providing efficient feedback. Stay tuned! 

In the comments or on Twitter using the hashtag #PerfectBlendBook, share additional ideas for increasing or improving student-to-teacher interaction in your online or blended classroom.

Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 where we will take a look at student-to-student and student-to-content interaction in both synchronous and asynchronous online instruction. 

 

Try This Simple Asynchronous Online Lesson Design Template

We know there is a lot that goes into a high quality asynchronous lesson. If designing online is new to you, you might be feeling overwhelmed right now. That's completely understandable! There are a few things you can focus on to begin with that will have a big impact on the asynchronous learning opportunities you provide your students. 

Check out the following infographic with a four-step on-demand lesson design template. This is not the only way to design an online lesson that students work through at their own pace, but it is one solid example. If you include these four things in your digital lesson, you can be sure that you will have a highly interactive and engaging lesson that will give you valuable data to help you make better use of your live or face-to-face time with students. 

For a full-size PDF version: On-Demand Lesson Template PDF 

Step 1: Introduction

Welcome your students and set expectations. You might even create a video showing students what they are going to be doing for the lesson. These demonstrations are even more helpful right before each activity. Use this time to also activate prior knowledge.

Step 2: Direct Instruction

Create a video lesson. Consider how students will actively engage with the material. 

• Will you include the video in an EdPuzzle and make it interactive? 
• Will you give stop and reflect prompts for students to write down on a piece of paper? 
• How will you know students watched it?

Keep videos under 6 minutes. If you need longer, break up the video into smaller chunks with activities between.

Step 3: Collaboration and Interaction

Create an opportunity for students to work together. Google or Microsoft tools are great for this. You can also leverage tools like Flipgrid, Padlet, or the discussion board. 

Respond to posts, either some individually and/or by addressing the whole class in a video announcement.

Step 4: Independent Reflection and/or Assessment

Create an opportunity for students to independently practice or get private feedback from you that guides their learning. This could be a simple metacognitive activity asking students to reflect on what they understand or what they are struggling with. 

Using This Template

Use the data from asynchronous or on-demand lessons like these to drive your small group instruction. When we intentionally design independent learning experiences to give us data about our students' progression toward mastery plus create opportunities for them to engage with each other in meaningful ways, our ability to effectively teach online or in a blended environment grows. 

If you would like to map out a lesson using this template, either independently or with your team, check out the following Spark Post. Clicking on the image below will take you to a remixable template of an Adobe Spark Post. Select remix this design below the image to get your own editable copy. 

Make your own version of this template at Adobe Spark

Download your finished template as an image and share it on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #PerfectBlendBook. I'd love for you to tag me in your post (@micheeaton) to see what you are planning! 

What to Teach In-Person in a Hybrid Model Part 3: Choosing Your Face-to-Face Learning Activities

This is Part 3 in a three-part series of blog posts on making decisions about what to teach live and in-person while working within a hybrid classroom. Visit the Part 1 post to read about integrating the in-person and online modalities and the Part 2 post to dive into different models of hybrid learning.

Learning Activities for In-Person vs. Online Instruction

As you begin to think about how to best structure your hybrid classroom, based on your content, students, and personal teaching style, the next step is to consider what activities are going to be best suited for in-person instruction. What are the activities that can be easily designed online for flexible student learning? How are you going to prioritize your limited live time with students? 

Here are some ideas:

Possible In-Person Activities

• Hands-on activities
• Experiments
• Answering student questions
• Speaking and listening activities
• Small group instruction
• Socratic Seminar
• Debates
• Critical thinking and problem solving activities
• Conferencing and feedback with students

Possible Online Activities

• Active reading
• Videos
• Problem sets
• Discussion
• Assessment
• Peer feedback and review
• Projects
• Writing
• Reflection

Choosing In-Person Learning Activities based on Content or Curriculum

As I have shared in previous blog posts in this series, what you choose to do online versus in-person could be heavily influenced by the content that you are teaching. For elementary teachers, it may vary from one subject to the next. For secondary teachers, that means your class time may look significantly different from the teacher's down the hall. That's okay! Here are just a couple of examples that might get you brainstorming and reflecting about how to best maximize your in-person time within a hybrid model. 

Special Area Classes or Career Preparation

An art teacher or a culinary arts instructor may find that there are simply some things they have to teach in-person because of the hands-on nature of their content. Other content they teach might be able to happen away from the classroom. For these teachers, they may find themselves in a hybrid model where half of their content is taught from introduction to assessment online and the other half is taught in-person. 

World Language

I have spoken with several world language instructors who are taking different approaches to hybrid learning. Some are prioritizing the speaking and listening activities for their in-person instruction while teaching other content like grammar completely online. 

Meanwhile, others are incorporating more of a reteaching model. In this model, most initial instruction happens online (flexibly completed both in-person and remotely), while the teacher spends their in-class time doing whole group or small group reteaching based on the data they receive from the online learning. 

Social Studies

Many of the social studies teachers and elementary teachers I have spoken to have indicated that when teaching social studies, the live time with students for things like discussion, debate, and projects is critical. To prioritize these types of learning activities in the physical classroom, online learning is used as the foundation of the curriculum delivery. 

Math

Math teachers around the country and world were already flipping their classrooms pre-COVID because it gave them the opportunity to work directly with students while they were applying the skills they learned. This flipped classroom model transitions well to a hybrid environment, allowing direct instruction to happen remotely and guided practice to happen in-person. 

A small group model may also work well for math instruction. If the bulk of initial instruction is delivered online both while students are working remotely and in the classroom, teachers can use in-class time to meet with small groups. This small group instruction can be designed based on the data teachers collect from the online learning portion of the class. 

Reading and Writing

So much of reading and writing instruction happens in small groups or through conferencing. To prioritize this time in-person, some direct instruction and independent and collaborative practice must happen online. Like all of the subjects mentioned above, when the online portion is designed intentionally to make learning transparent and to give the teacher data about what the students know and can do, that data can be used to maximize the limited time available in-person with students. 

Final Thoughts

As you make these decisions about how to spend your live time with students, I encourage you to reflect on what your most important function is in the physical classroom and what tasks can be done really well leveraging technology. 

Another question to reflect on might be "Why do you value in-person learning?" What are the things that make physically being in a classroom with students something that is hard to replicate or replace? And how can we align our learning activities to honor our priorities as instructors and the opportunities we want to create for our students, even if we have limited face-to-face time in the class? 

As you begin to experiment with your personal hybrid model, I encourage you to seek out feedback, especially from your students. Ask them to share on a regular basis what is working well, what they wish they could do online, and what isn't working. They will be able to give you some incredibly useful insight about how to adjust your digital lessons. And if you incorporate their ideas, you will likely see boosts in engagement as students see that not only their opinion matters, but it directly impacts what learning looks like for them in the classroom. 

Ultimately, don't be afraid to redesign when necessary. It's not going to be perfect, but we can continue to grow and iterate as we continue to create educational experiences for students that keep learning going no matter the environment. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts about hybrid learning and what is working in your classroom. Share in the comments or on Twitter using the hashtag #PerfectBlendBook. 

What to Teach In-Person in a Hybrid Model Part 2: How to Structure Your Weekly Learning Experiences

This is Part 2 in a three-part series of blog posts on making decisions about what to teach live and in-person while working within a hybrid classroom. Visit the Part 1 post to read about integrating the in-person and online modalities.

Models of Blended Learning Suited for a Hybrid Environment

There are several models of blended learning, but Thomas Arnett of the Clayton Christensen Institute confirms that there are two that stand out above the rest as ideal for a hybrid learning environment. The flipped model and the enriched virtual model are both well-suited for implementation in a hybrid structure.

Excerpt from The Perfect Blend:

Flipped Classroom: The basic premise of flipped learning is that online learning is used as a homework tool, freeing up the teacher during class time to help with student application. The online learning portion of the instruction could be as simple as a video lecture that students watch at home. Students could work through more sophisticated online lessons at home, as well. 

Under the Flipped Classroom Model, instead of spending class time providing basic instruction, teachers are able to essentially replicate themselves. The teachers move the basic instruction online in a carefully crafted assignment and is "present" when the student is learning at home. The teacher then dedicates subsequent in-class time to helping students apply that learning.

Enriched Virtual: The Enriched Virtual Model uses online learning as the primary vehicle for instructional delivery. This method of instruction allows the students to complete the majority of their work outside of a traditional brick-and-mortar setting. Because it is still a blended learning model and not fully online, students are asked to come for face-to-face learning sessions at specific times. Online learning is the primary mode of learning, and the face-to-face opportunities in a brick-and-mortar setting supplement the learning. 

Your Interaction with Students in Each Model

Adapted from a chart originally made by McKinsey & Company, I recreated this visual for a recent presentation to hybrid teachers in my district. This chart showcases where interaction with students happens in each of the models, with in-person and remote there for comparison. 

The slides template I used for the presentation was created by Slidesgo, including images from Freepik.

As you can see in the chart, the flipped model essentially flips the homework model on its head, allowing for initial instruction to happen online while students are home. The enriched virtual model gives a bit more flexibility over what happens at home, since the foundation of the learning is in an online environment. 

The model you choose will be based heavily on your teaching style and your course curriculum. What works for one teacher may not work well for another. As you read in Part 1, the first step is to really reflect on your role in the classroom and what is best-served as live instruction for your particular context.

Suggested Ways to Structure Your Hybrid Classroom within These Two Models

Here are just some of the ways you might structure your course throughout the week to effectively blend instruction while students are physically in the classroom only a few days a week. 

• Flipped: Design all new instruction through online lessons. When students are in-person, use that time for active practice. 
• Different Content: Prioritize some content for in person and other content to be learned online. This model works if you have some flexibility over when each of the learning objectives could be taught throughout the week (if it's okay that some students would learn certain content at the beginning of the week while the other half of the class learns it at the end of the week). 
• Same Content: If online learning is the foundation for instruction delivery, students at home could be learning the same content as the students who are physically in class. Everyone is moving through the same online material at the same time, regardless of environment. The teacher would use the in-person time to meet in small groups for more focused instruction. Work that was not completed in class would turn into homework. 
• Weekly Flexibility: Instead of daily online lessons when students are home, all students could be given more flexibility to complete a week's worth of online learning at their own pace throughout the week. The teacher would supplement that instruction when the students were face-to-face, either providing whole group instruction or allowing the students to work online while she pulls small groups or conferences with students. 
• Reteaching: This structure would put the bulk of new instruction, guided practice, and assessment online, similar to the "same content" structure above. The teacher would use data from that online instruction to identify gaps in understanding and to focus on either whole group and/or small group reteaching of material in class. 

What structure makes the most sense for your classroom? Are there additional ways to organize your weekly instruction not listed here that you could share? Use the comments feature below to share your ideas or share on Twitter using the hashtag #PerfectBlendBook. 

Stay tuned for Part 3 where will take a look at instructional activities well-suited for in-person instruction within a hybrid model. 

What to Teach In-Person in a Hybrid Model Part 1: Integrating Modalities

This is Part 1 in a three-part series of blog posts on making decisions about what to teach live and in-person while working within a hybrid classroom. 

Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels

For teachers working within a hybrid model of blended learning right now (students spending part of the week in person and part of the week at home working online to minimize class sizes), the task of teaching in this new environment can feel daunting. I understand the overwhelming feeling of having to be a good full-time in-person instructor while simultaneously being a good full-time online instructor.

However, if we think holistically about the hybrid experience for our students, we can integrate the two modalities to work together instead of against each other. When we do this, we can begin to think about our role as a hybrid teacher as one job and not two disparate and equally time-consuming positions.
So, how do we choose what is online and what is taught in person to maximize our time as teachers and to optimize the learning experience for students?

Our Opportunity

The first step is acknowledging that this can be done well. I have been so inspired by the many teachers I have spoken to who are starting to see success and looking forward to taking what they have learned in this environment with them to their future post-pandemic classroom. Before we were all forced to teach within the constraints of a pandemic, several schools and classrooms experienced success with various blended learning models, including some hybrid options. Teachers across the country explored blended learning as a way to improve academic outcomes for students. There are a lot of examples and case studies to support this type of model to improve learning when implemented with intentionality.

If you are interested in some of these case studies, I encourage you to explore the Evergreen Education Group and the Christensen Institute's collection of case studies and profiles on blended learning successes in K-12 institutions. These districts and schools all demonstrated increased test scores and graduation rates attributed to the redesign of their programs using blended learning.

Proof Points: Blended Learning Success in School Districts

I want to first remind you that our work with students now, even with the challenges we face teaching during a global pandemic, doesn't have to be subpar. As a matter of fact, there are some things you can put in place now that you might find works better for students. We can adapt these practices and continue to use them when we are operating at capacity again. We all have so much to learn, and it can feel like we are building the plane while it is in the air so-to-speak, but we at least know this learning will help us improve the educational experience for our students moving forward.

What We Know It's Not

So let's start with taking a look at what we know our hybrid structure shouldn't be. Katherine McEldoon, PhD and Emily Schneider, PhD share the two approaches to hybrid learning that we should avoid in their article 7 Tips from Research for Effective Hybrid Teaching. When we do have some in-person time with students, we don't want to create a learning experience that is simply your normal course translated to an online course. We also don't want to just recreate our normal course in the live time we have with students while adding online components. 

This image was taken from a presentation I did with our junior high and high school staff. The slides template I used for the presentation was created by Slidesgo, including images from Freepik.

It's Not Your Normal Course Translated Online

To meet the needs of both students at home and in your classroom concurrently, you might be tempted to run your class like an online course. Students at home work through online lessons while their peers in class also work through online lessons. In this scenario, you would function almost entirely as an online teacher, overseeing work completion of the students physically in your classroom at any given time. 

While we can absolutely create incredible learning experiences for online students, and that is the right environment for some students, it doesn't leverage the face-to-face time you are afforded in this hybrid model adequately. Having time in person with students is a gift. 

When we think about the many functions we serve as a teacher, there are certain things that are best done by a live teacher (whether that is live online or live in-person). Stop and reflect about the many jobs you do in the classroom. Which ones can only a trained professional do? Which ones require high levels of human connection? Those are the things we should be doing during our live time with students. 

Additionally, when we don't leverage the live time we have with students, we miss an opportunity for relationship and community building. Again, while this can be done online, one of the strengths of the physical classroom is the way in which we can connect with each other in real-time. 

Right now students are living through a pandemic and dealing with the implications of that. They are trying to process and live with the trauma caused by the issues of racism that our country is currently facing and has historically always faced. They are being bombarded with the stress and political rhetoric of an election year. All of this plus the additional stressors and trauma that our students may be facing at any other time means there has never been a more important time for us to be building relationships with students and focusing on social emotional learning.

Extensive research shows the importance of relationships. Specifically we know that strong relationships in schools reduce risk factors for our students. We need to keep this in mind as we prioritize our time live with students. How are you making decisions about what is taught in person that helps build connections and community? 

It's Not Your Normal Course with Online Components

If we don't feel comfortable with creating learning experiences online, we might also be tempted to try and fit all of our instruction into the limited live time we have with students while giving online homework to complete on the days students are working remotely. This model doesn't work best in a hybrid environment for a couple of reasons. 

If we don't shift our thinking to see both in-person and at-home learning time as opportunities for instruction, we will never get through our entire curriculum for the semester or the year. This mindset limits what we consider "real" instruction to 2-3 days a week without leveraging the potential for online learning to provide students with equally as effective instructional experiences. 

Additionally, when we try to fit all of our content delivery into limited time, we can often default to all direct instruction being in-person. This can lead to a lecture-based face-to-face learning model. Similar to the thoughts from earlier, if we really sit down and reflect on the most important role we take on as a teacher, lecture with quiet students listening is probably not at the top of the list. Our hybrid model should reflect this. 

Two Equal Parts of the Whole

Photo by August de Richelieu from Pexels

Ultimately, neither modality of learning should exist within a vacuum. To do that, we have to consider what is best done in-person versus online and what needs to be done in real-time versus what students can do with flexibility over time and pace. To find success within a hybrid model, both modes of instruction must be viewed as equally important. 

Share your ideas in the comments below or on Twitter using the hashtag #PerfectBlendBook. What is working well for you in terms of your in-person instruction within a hybrid environment? What are you prioritizing for your live face-to-face time with students?

Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 where we will dive deeper into models and structures to implement as you optimize your in-person instructional time with students. 

My #1 Piece of Advice for Elementary Online Teachers

As we are all navigating uncharted waters this school year, as a former second grade teacher, I am getting a lot of questions from elementary teachers. How do you create rich online learning experiences for students who are new to technology? 

While there are lots of things we could consider, the number one piece of advice I have centers around choosing the technology tools that we use to design our lessons. Watch the following video for some tips around balancing all of those technology tools available with our youngest scholars. 

Bonus: While this video is directed at elementary teachers, the advice is the same for secondary teachers, as well.