Remote learning, hyflex or hybrid, or in-person courses have multiple hurdles but all have the same challenge: how do we get students to engage with material deeply and meaningfully?
A collaborative annotation tool that turns solitary reading assignments into engaging collective learning activities, Perusall was developed at Harvard by Eric Mazur, Gary King, Brian Lukoff, and Kelly Miller. This free tool allows instructors to digitally assign readings, videos, and podcasts to students, who then collaboratively engage with the content through the social annotation tools within the platform.
Perusall brings the power of social interaction and AI to web-based course materials. Students read, watch, listen, and interact with the content - and each other - in a safe and secure course environment. Instructors can join interactions and review students’ questions and comments at any time. With its automatic scoring capability and Learning Management System (LMS) integration, Perusall’s reporting and fully automatic grading mean instructors know that reading assignments are completed. Students' pre-class work can inform class lectures. Perusall’s power to engage students in content provides plenty of opportunities for instructors to see online peer interaction as they comment and discuss course materials.
Now, what if you could take that engagement into an asynchronous environment? iClicker is ready for the challenge!
Upvoted comments, incisive questions, and Perusall’s “confusion reports” provide sources for great iClicker questions for your entire class. Take a question that one of your Perusall groups posed and present it to the whole class to answer. Share an upvoted comment and see what the whole class thinks about that idea. Or find that hidden gem, the comment that didn’t get a great deal of Perusall traffic, and open up a new area of discussion in class using it as an iClicker question.
With iClicker’s student engagement system, you can use PowerPointⓇ slides, websites, documents, or anything you choose to put on screen; or you can ask a question verbally just like you have in class before. iClicker gives you the flexibility to get your students’ input on follow-up questions with no advance preparation required. With 5 available question types, you can ask your question your way. All of your students have a voice with every iClicker question!
What if your course is 100% online with no class meetings? With the new Assignments feature, iClicker can be used for asynchronous course activities, too. Take those same Perusall moments and include them in an iClicker Assignment for students to complete in a time window you choose. The question types you have in a synchronous session are also available for your Assignments and are automatically graded with the responses you choose.
All of your iClicker activities seamlessly integrate with your LMS so, like Perusall, grading is a breeze! Review student responses, adjust grades and attendance, and manage enrollment in the iClicker instructor website, and then send the information to your LMS with the push of a button.
Ease of use and powerful impact is imperative for instructors who use more technology than ever before. With Perusall and iClicker, you can spend more time engaging with students, ensuring their learning experience is deeper and long-lasting, whether in-person or miles apart.
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