Sharing content with students and presenting
- Slideshow presentations – most webinar platforms allow a teacher to share presentation files directly in the form of a PDF or PowerPoint, or by sharing their screen or applications. Share Content in Microsoft Teams
- Video clips – short video clips can be powerful for provoking discussion, but due to limitations of attendee internet connections, this doesn’t always result in good experiences. However, short clips may be suitable for sharing. Most platforms give the option to share computer audio when sharing content. Alternatively, you might want to post a link in the chat for students to watch for a few minutes and then return to your session.
- Webcam feeds – Having a webcam lets students see you and – where appropriate – one another as well, helping foster a community in the cohort by letting them see your expressions and body language. It can be more engaging to see you speak than it is to hear you over PowerPoint slides.
Interactive tasks and collaborative exercises
- Whiteboards: These can be engaging tools that allow learners to collaborate, for instance through collective contributions in which all attendees are able to participate.
- Collect terms, write in other languages, mark components on a map or image. These also make great warm-up and icebreaker activities for early sessions.
- Collect terms, write in other languages, mark components on a map or image. These also make great warm-up and icebreaker activities for early sessions.
- Chat: give your attendees a question or scenario and ask them to share their answer or opinion using the chat function. This is great for peer learning and starting group discussions. Extract key points or trends as you read their replies and consider inviting individuals onto microphone to build on their contribution in more detail.
- After a breakout group activity: Invite representatives of each group to feed back to the class on what their group discussed. They might want to share any documents they were working on or simply speak for a couple of minutes. Promote them to a presenter role to share files and control slide orders if necessary. Support Students to Engage with Breakout Groups.
Guidance:
- Whiteboard in Teams Meetings
- Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams
- Manage attendee permissions in Teams Meetings | Promoting attendees to Presenter roles
Collecting responses and posing questions to students:
Microsoft Teams: Enable Microsoft Forms when setting up a meeting to use polling. See: Polling in Microsoft Teams
What other apps could I use to pose questions with my students?
Many teachers engage their students by ‘breaking up’ their presentation with activities that involve full class participation in the forms of voting, multiple choice questions and small competitive questioning activities. This allows you to gauge the level of understanding of your students, identify gaps in knowledge or understanding, whilst also facilitating an active learning session rather than a passive experience.
As in face-to-face teaching, there are many student response apps that can be used online to engage your students. See the student response apps toolkit page for a summary of approved examples.