Introduction

What Is This Book?

In 2019, Glendale Community College’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement (CTLE) bought supplies and created several “Active Learning Kits” full of items and accompanying ideas for in-class active learning activities. Faculty could stop by the CTLE, grab an item and an idea sheet, use them in class and then return them for someone else to use. These kits were popular with faculty and well-used.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and with it, the Great Pivot to Remote Teaching. We worked hard during the Spring to help our faculty successfully transition to a remote, synchronous teaching modality, which we refer to as Live Online. And during the Fall, we adapted our Active Learning Kit for the Live Online teaching environment. We proudly present our Active Learning Kit: Engaging Ideas for Live Online Instruction.

A word on accessibility and hyperlinks…

Some of the activities, web apps, and tools described in this book may not be fully accessible to students with disabilities. If you have a student in your class who requires an accommodation, please evaluate our suggestions with those needs in mind. Also, please understand that the hyperlinks we provide to web apps and technical guides are subject to change. We hope you will use the Make a Suggestion page to tell us about any broken links so we can find a replacement and keep this book updated and useful.

What Is in This Book?

Inside, you’ll find many ideas you can use to enliven your synchronous online class meetings with active learning activities. We have organized them into two parts:

1. Web Apps: This part contains teaching ideas for web-based applications you can use with your students for active learning during your class meetings.
2. Videoconference Tool Features: This part contains teaching ideas for using the built-in features of Google Meet, Webex Meetings, and Zoom for active learning during your class meetings.

In each chapter of this book, you will find the following sections:

Description

The Description section briefly describes the web app or videoconference tool feature.

Uses

Different broad Uses of the web app or videoconference tool feature are listed in a yellow sidebar (see the example to the right). You’ll find specific ideas for each listed use in the Teaching Ideas section.

Teaching Ideas

The Teaching Ideas section is a bulleted list of active learning ideas for using the web app or videoconference tool feature. These ideas loosely flow by use type in the order shown in the Uses sidebar.

How to Use

The How to Use section provides a basic overview of how to use the web app or videoconference tool feature.

Tools

In the Web Apps part of this book, the Tools section lists apps and, their hyperlinks, specific information about the app. In the Videoconference Tool Features part of this book, the Tools section lists specifics about the feature in Google Meet, Webex Meetings, and Zoom. We also provide Technical Guides (see the example to the right) for each tool.

How to Navigate This Book

To navigate the book, select the Contents menu, and click the + (plus) next to one of the two parts to expand the chapter list. Select a chapter to start reading. You can also use the Previous and Next links in the footer area when reading this book on the web, or flip through as you normally would in your reading app if you’ve downloaded the eBook.