General Study Skills & Test Prep Articles

Article / Updated 09-13-2023

When answering an exam question, it’s easy to misread what’s being asked and simply answer it in the wrong way. Your argument may be logical, thoughtful and well researched, but if you aren’t tailoring your response to the question, you stand to lose some serious marks! Below are definitions of some common instruction words. Instruction word What you have to do Analyse Take apart an idea, concept or statement and examine and criticise its sub-parts in detail. You have to be methodical and logical. Assess Describe a topic’s positive and negative aspects and say how useful or successful it is, or consider its contribution to knowledge, events or processes (this is usually about how important something is). Criticise Point out a topic’s mistakes or weaknesses as well as its favourable aspects. Give a balanced answer (this will involve some analysis first). Compare Put items side by side to see their similarities and differences – a balanced (objective) answer is required. Contrast Emphasise the differences between two things. Define Give the meaning of an idea, either a dictionary definition or from an academic authority in your subject of study (technical definition). Describe Give details of processes, properties, events and so on. Discuss Describe, explain, give examples, points for and against, then analyse and evaluate the results. Evaluate Similar to discuss, but with more emphasis on a judgement in the conclusion. Examine Take apart and describe a concept in great detail. Explain Give detailed reasons for an idea, principle or result, situation, attitude and so on. You may need to give some analysis as well. Illustrate Give concrete examples – including figures or diagrams. Illustrate is usually added on to another instruction. Interpret Explain and comment on the subject and make a judgement (evaluation). Justify Give reasons to support a statement – it may be a negative statement, so be careful! List Provide an itemised series of parts, reasons or qualities, possibly in a table. Prove/disprove Provide evidence for or against and demonstrate logical argument and reasoning – you often have to do this for abstract or scientific subjects. Relate Emphasise the links, connections and associations, probably with some analysis. Review Analyse and comment briefly, in organised sequences – sentences, paragraphs or lists – on the main aspects of a subject. State Give the relevant points briefly – you don’t need to make a lengthy discussion or give minor details. Suggest Give possible reasons – analyse, interpret and evaluate. (This is also the verb most commonly used to quote another author.) Summarise or outline Just give the main points, not the details. Trace Give a brief description of the logical or chronological stages of the development of a theory, process, a person’s life and so on. Often used in historical questions.

Article / Updated 07-21-2023

It can be very difficult to get down to studying if your mind wanders or you’re hungry or just plain bored. It’s easy to get distracted by email or Youtube. It can help your concentration if you build in small bribes and treats to break up your studying, provide goals and give you something to look forward to. A few examples of how to treat yourself You know yourself and what can motivate you, but the following list offers a few suggestions that might help you complete a task or work consistently (with coffee/tea or loo breaks included) for a couple of hours. Promise yourself the reward and make sure you deliver. A relaxing bath with scented bath oil, alternatively, do the washing up with lots of lovely suds and hot water to blow bubbles with as well, if you’re short of time. Forty-five minutes in the pub with friends, back in time to get to bed before 11 p.m. A really delicious treat — dark chocolate coated ginger, seaweed peanuts, chewy salami — taking time out to savor whatever you fancy. A quick spot of window-shopping nearby in the early evening, when it’s quiet, to look at that great dress, jacket or pair of shoes. Television break to catch the news for half an hour or watch a favorite soap. Thirty minutes to listen to some favorite music — really listen, not as a background to revision. Fifteen minutes to knead dough with your hands, or rub butter and sugar into flour to make breadcrumbs for crumble. (These can be put in the fridge to bake the next day.) It’s very tactile and relaxing. Half an hour or so to read a chapter of a thriller or other non-revision reading. A foot or shoulder massage to your roommate and get them to return the favor. Time to pet the cat/dog that lives nearby, or any other furry, accessible creature. Ten minutes to stand in front of a window and practice deep breathing, especially on days when you won’t go out till later in the day. Listen to an audio book at bedtime. Being read to conjures up feelings of warmth and security in many people. Make sure you get out every day, even for a short period of time, for a breath of fresh air and scenery. More things to consider Little bribes and treats should include some that appeal to several senses as these can help you relax as well. They will also work as markers or a framework on either side of the studying you are doing and help you remember it. You will also find that you can get more out of the time between breaks than you could if you just carried on working, with no breaks or "bribes." This is where you hit the rule of diminishing returns. You need to spend more time to learn less if you don’t build in breaks and little escapes after an hour or so of concentrated work.

Article / Updated 07-21-2023

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Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-26-2023

Mind Mapping is a powerful, structured visualisation technique that can dramatically improve clarity, focus, memory, productivity and creativity in all areas of your personal and professional life. Here are some quick tips to get you started with Mind Mapping.

Article / Updated 01-30-2023

Everything worth doing benefits from proper planning, and taking a test is no exception. The last chance a student has to influence the outcome of a test is the night before they take it. Here are ten must-dos to positively affect the outcome of a test. Eat a well-balanced meal It’s a proven fact that what you eat will have an effect on your physical and mental performance. Avoid coffee and doughnuts or pizza and soda the night before a test. Grilled fish with steamed vegetables on the side, mixed fruit for dessert, and caffeine-free beverages throughout would be perfect. Greasy, heavy food can make you lethargic the morning after consumption. No alcoholic beverages of any kind should be consumed. Get your stuff ready for the morning Make sure you have all the materials that you’re taking into the test ready. If a laptop or calculator is allowed, have it on the charger. Have more than one pencil or pen in hand. Pack a bottle of water and/or some candy for the nervous dry-mouth that can set in before an exam. Gather all your stuff together and have it ready to go the night before. Lay out your clothes Choose an outfit that is layered and lay it out before retiring. You won’t have any control over the temperature of the testing area, so be prepared to add or subtract layers so you can be comfortable during the exam. Go for comfort, not style. Review with a buddy Schedule a question-answer review of the testable material with a study buddy early in the evening to test your knowledge of the subject. Use it to identify the areas that need more effort. The review will also help you have confidence in your ability to do well on the test. Visualize a positive outcome Attitude affects test scores. Even with proper planning, too many people hurt their performance on a test because they just know that they're going to fail. Think positively and don’t embrace failure as an outcome. Don’t think that you might fail, know that you will succeed, and your performance will be the better for it. Make a morning pre-test plan List the things you need to do before the test. List everything that needs to happen and make sure there’s enough time to get it all done without creating stress. Don’t try to do too much; now is not the time to try to work in a load of laundry. Set the alarm No-brainer, huh? You’d be surprised how often this happens to well-intentioned people. Check your morning plan and get up early enough not to be rushed. Don’t rely on others to get you up. Exercise before retiring A little light stretching and exercise will help you fall asleep faster and sleep soundly through the night. It also works out the tension you may be carrying after a day of studying and test prep. If you go to bed tense, you may wake up with a backache or headache — definitely not appreciated on the day of a test. Get a good night’s sleep Don’t burn the midnight oil the night before a test. The extra effort put into late-night studying will be offset by reduced mental performance due to lost sleep. It won’t help, so don’t try it. Call it a night and go to bed; your morning will be better for it. Reward yourself Treat yourself right. Remember to schedule a little post-test celebration or other reward for all your hard work preparing for the test. Make it special. After all, you are worth it!

Article / Updated 04-05-2022

Exams, especially those covering basic maths, can be stressful and frustrating, and not many people enjoy doing them. But jumping through the hoops of an exam doesn’t have to be hard. If you can reach a point where you feel prepared, have a good, solid plan, and know how to relax, exams should hold no fear for you. Know what you’re up against Practising on past papers is one of the most effective ways to prepare for an exam. Past papers give you a great idea of the kinds of questions that come up. Go through some exams from previous years – under your own self-imposed exam conditions if you want – and find out which bits you spend the most time on and where you can improve your understanding. Then focus on those areas for your next few study sessions before you try working on another past paper. Most exam boards let you download past papers from their websites, either free of charge or for a small fee. Some bookshops also sell books of past papers. Or try asking your college tutor if they have any papers you can practise on. Practise the hard parts Try practising slightly harder questions than those you expect to see in the exam, so when you sit the real thing you think ‘Wow, this is easy!’ Don’t beat yourself up over what you can’t do. Just see what you can figure out and applaud yourself for questions you answer correctly. Remember the basics Have you ever watched a football team train? Players spend hours practising short passes, turn-and-sprint, keep-ball and other routines that they’ve done since they could walk. The players haven’t forgotten how to run – they’re just practising what they spend most of their time in a match doing. Try warming up for your study sessions with something you find easy and will use over and over – perhaps some times tables or estimating exercises. Keep your hand in with the basics and you’ll find the more complicated topics easier. Use the final few minutes before your exam If you tend to forget simple things in exams, the crib sheet is your friend. On a piece of paper, write a few key points you need to remember. Then spend the last few minutes before your exam reading the crib sheet over and over again. You can’t take the crib sheet into the exam room, but you can make notes. So, as soon as the examiner tells you to start writing, write down as much of the crib sheet as you can remember. Don’t exhaust yourself In every exam hall, you’ll always see at least one all-nighter zombie – someone who looks like death warmed up and then put back in the fridge, with bags under their eyes and hair like something out of a Tim Burton movie. You can tell at a glance two things about this person: one, they’ve been up all night studying; and two, they won’t do well in the exam, even with their eyes propped open. Before your exam, have a good breakfast and drink enough fluids. Your brain runs on this stuff. Trying to think when you’re hungry, thirsty or tired is like driving on fumes with no oil in the engine and no air in the tyres. No good can come of it. Think positive Your brain can be a bully – but it’s a bully with no substance behind it. If you assert yourself and say ‘Oh yes I can!’ or ‘Get out of my way, brain!’, you can overcome the self-doubt and low confidence that plague most people at some point. Tell yourself ‘I’m smart, I’m capable, and I’m going to show me what I can do.’ You may be surprised how much better you do than when you listen to your inner bully. Have a ritual Having a starting ritual removes much of the worry and stress. You can create your own ritual by thinking about exactly what you’ll do when you sit down for the exam, and in what order. It doesn’t have to be complicated – something as simple as take a deep breath, imagine how great you’ll feel when you get your results, and then start reading the first question would work well. Manage your time The idea is not to spend too long on one question – if the answer doesn’t come out quickly, mark the question with a star and come back to it later. You have limited time in the exam, so spend that time picking up marks you can definitely get before you spend time on marks you may get eventually. Getting to the end of the exam and finding you’ve missed three easy questions because you were looking at one hard one is a calamity. You probably know the feeling of thinking really hard about something for ages, and then giving up, only for the answer to hit you halfway through your walk round the park later on. Leaving a question and coming back to it later can be a really efficient exam technique: as you work on the easier questions, your brain can still work on the harder questions in the background. Guess if you need to If time’s running out and you’ve got a minute to answer the last five multiple-choice questions, you don’t really have time to read the questions, let alone work out the answers. In this situation you have two possible approaches: Miss out the questions and get a guaranteed zero for those questions. Guess the answers and maybe pick up a few points. Maths tests usually aren’t negatively marked, so you don’t lose points for giving a wrong answer. If you guess when you don’t have time or are genuinely stuck, the worst that can happen is that you score no marks for that question.

Article / Updated 10-28-2021

What makes online education unique for younger learners? After all, it can’t be the same as online education for college students, can it? In the next few sections, we consider safety issues, extra parental involvement, synchronous meetings, and the need to work offline. Safety concerns with children We won’t kid you: Having children learn online is a reason for parents and guardians to be concerned about their safety. For starters, children tend to trust everyone and may not have the same sense of boundaries that adults do. Plus, creeps on the internet prey on children. In the interest of avoiding hysteria, we want to frame some of these concerns with the positive solutions that online schools have put in place: Online education must be supervised by adults. In the next section, we discuss enhanced parental involvement, and one of the primary reasons for this is to monitor what children do online, where they go, and with whom they communicate. Online programs must be password protected with limited access. Institutions establish protocols so that only the students and their adult supervisors can log in to the learning space. Coursework is conducted within that space so that a child has no need to interact with anyone else online. Educators who work with children online must pass stringent background checks. In the same way that teachers in brick-and-mortar schools must be blemish-free, online institutions ensure that their faculty are likewise squeaky clean. Aside from addressing adults who prey on children, anyone with children online must also be aware of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the act of a child embarrassing, threatening, or harassing another child through online tools, such as email, instant messaging, social networks, and public discussion forums. With adult learners, the same behavior is possible and disconcerting, but children need to be afforded special protection. (As soon as adults become involved, the language changes to cyberstalking or cyberharassment.) Schools help children understand what is acceptable communication with their classmates and encourage those who experience bullying to report it swiftly. Policies and procedures guide schools in addressing offenders and determining an appropriate punishment. If your child decides to study online, here are some pointers to keep in mind: Talk to your child about expectations. If your child is going to learn or play online, you should talk as a family about rules for engaging online. For example, in Kevin’s family, parents control their son’s contacts list, and their son can engage only with people on that list. Parents also require login and passwords to all accounts, and no new accounts can be created without their permission. Beware of false identities. One form of cyberbullying is tricking a person. A student may believe they are communicating with a friend when in fact it’s a false identity. Help your child discern when and what to disclose online. Personal information should be off limits. Monitor social networking. Classmates naturally form interpersonal relationships online. Your student may want to communicate with their classmates via email or social networking spaces like Facebook. However, these activities should be monitored by an adult. In other words, if your kid has a Facebook account, make sure you can see what’s going on. Report inappropriate activity. If another child posts embarrassing or harassing statements or images, report this to the school officials immediately. It may be out of the range of their ability to discipline, but noting the behavior can have a significant impact on stopping it. Then again, online schools know the types of behaviors that should be further reported to the police. For example, consider reporting to the police if personal information is involved in a threat against your child. You may hesitate, thinking that the incident is minor, but it’s best to let the police sort it out. Don’t immediately delete the offending messages. The authorities may need to see them. Whatever you do, don’t retaliate with the same kinds of threats or harmful messages. Getting involved in a verbal tit-for-tat will only result in your child being accused of being a cyberbully. Teach your child to walk away from the computer and cool down before reporting such an incident. Block bullies. By all means, block communication with cyberbullies. Email programs and instant message software, such as Yahoo! Messenger, allow you to do this. For more information about cyberbullying, consult one of these sites: Stomp Out Bullying, the National Crime Prevention Council's site on cyberbullying, or the U.S. government’s Stop Bullying site. Enhanced parental involvement In K-12 schools, parent-teacher communication is getting better, with electronic grade books and online learning portals that support the face-to-face classroom. However, direct communication between parent and teacher around specific areas in which a student needs to improve can be difficult based on schedules, student-to-teacher ratios, and communication preferences. Parental involvement is completely different with virtual schools. If you follow any of the virtual school links, you will quickly note that every institution requires greater parental involvement than traditional schools. Parents have access to everything: grades, feedback, and lessons. Adults who supervise at home are given various monikers by online schools — parent/guardian, home facilitator, and onsite instructional support, to name a few — but their roles are the same. The need for enhanced parental support stems from the age and abilities of the learner. Here are a few examples of the roles parents must play when their child attends school online: Because most information is delivered by way of text online, the only way to survive in an online course is to read. That’s impossible for the average 6-year-old! Adults serve as readers. Few children are as self-motivated and disciplined as they need to be for online learning. Adults serve as watchdogs and taskmasters. Because an online teacher may not see the whole family situation, routine communication becomes more important. Teachers schedule weekly or monthly communication with parents or supervisors, depending on the age of the learner and the structure of the school. Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School has an interesting way of communicating parental expectations in its course catalog: It tells parents how much time and effort should go into their supporting role based on the grade level of the learner. For example, home facilitators with children in second grade are expected to assist the child 90 to 100 percent of the time that the child is working on material. In other words, if you have a second-grader, you’ll probably need to teach the material and watch your child do assigned tasks. You can’t expect a 7-year-old to read the computer screen and know what to do independently. As the child progresses academically, the amount of assistance decreases. By the time a student is in Grade 12 and takes more ownership of the learning process, the adult should be active no more than 1 to 10 percent of the time and not at all instructionally. Instead, the adult’s role shifts toward holding the student accountable while continuing to provide motivation and support. Any decent virtual school for kids requires parental involvement! Schools tell you this using some of the main links on their web pages — for example, a Parents tab or a link to parental involvement. It shouldn’t be a secret. If it seems obscure, look at another school. More real-time opportunities The world of online education for children is more synchronous than their adult counterparts’ experience (in other words, it takes place in real time more frequently). Students may be expected to participate in online meetings daily, weekly, or monthly. These synchronous meetings with instructors and other students reinforce the subject matter, build strong community bonds, and, generally, keep learners on task. Even schools that follow a self-paced model for curriculum usually back up their courses with regular synchronous meetings. Synchronous meetings typically use web conferencing software and call together multiple students in a class. These meetings can be a lot of fun! The teacher may present new information or reinforce what the students are studying. They can ask and answer questions about content or assignments. Perhaps the greatest value of the synchronous meetings is the feeling of interpersonal connection between the student and teacher, which is still vital in virtual education for children. The figure shows what a synchronous interface may look like for an online K-12 course. Don’t forget that the telephone is a synchronous tool, too! Teachers often call students to monitor progress and talk about what’s happening in class. The need to work offline Surprisingly, not all online education happens online. Although adults can work offline, such work is especially important for younger learners. Young learners need time away from the computer to accomplish academic tasks that involve the following: Textbooks and workbooks: Can you imagine learning to print numbers without having a pencil and paper in hand? Some early academic tasks have to be done away from the computer screen. Further, at the point when children learn to read for information (around fourth grade), they begin to access materials like books and periodicals offline. Almost every virtual school uses textbooks. Flashy media may be available online to explain concepts, but online education for young learners also involves print materials. Old-fashioned, hands-on learning: Curricula for young learners includes hands-on opportunities to experiment with concepts. For example, a child in an earth science class may be provided with rock samples to examine and evaluate. Or, the child may be asked to collect leaf samples for a botany unit. Exploring one’s natural curiosity is part of learning, and good online curricula requires students to go out in the world and find these key relationships. When you’re researching online schools, ask how much learning occurs online versus offline. If a program seems especially off balance with no adequate explanation, consider looking at a different school. Kids need balance.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

Think back to middle school (if it isn’t too painful to remember those days!). Did you ever complete a homework assignment and forget to take it to school and turn it in? The same thing can happen online; you do the work and forget to submit it. In this article, we review several methods for getting your homework to the instructor. These include uploads, email attachments, and Submit buttons. We also provide some pointers for turning in any kind of assignment. Where did you store that file? Sometimes files end up in random places. Before you log in to submit an assignment, make sure you know where it sits on your computer (or in what cloud). Did you put the final version in OneDrive? Is it a Google Docs document? Is it on your desktop? Figure that out first. Attachments! Uploading papers and projects Some learning management systems use a feature whereby students upload assignments. Different from email, this feature lets you put the document in only one place, and you don’t need to know the instructor’s address. The instructor retrieves your document, downloads it, and reads it. They may then comment on it and add a score to the grade book, all within the same tool. If there’s a secret to using this feature, it’s knowing how to upload and hitting the Submit button until you receive confirmation. In most systems, you look for a button labeled Add a File or Upload. This prompts you to browse your computer to find the file. (See why knowing where you stored it is important?) Usually, you click Open after you identify the file you want and then click Submit. The next screen you see should be a confirmation that the file has been uploaded. This figure shows what this looks like from the Student view in Canvas. If your instructor doesn’t have this tool available, they may ask you to attach your work to an email. This process works the same as attaching photos to send to your dear cousin Ted. You find the Attachment icon (usually a paper clip), browse for the file, and upload. The uploading skill seems to be universal, whether you’re attaching a document to an email or a discussion board posting. Some learning management systems connect to your Microsoft 365 or Google file structure, so you may be able to upload files from there. Post, Emily! Submitting discussion posts When you have a discussion question to post or respond to, the magic words change slightly: Compose: Look for this button if you need to start a new discussion, one that isn’t attached to anyone else’s idea. Reply: Use this button when you want to respond to something another person wrote. Here’s a super tip: Copy and paste one or two lines from the original text (delete the rest) so that you can quote the first author and focus your comments. Post: After you have composed or replied, you must remember to hit Post or Submit. Otherwise, your great ideas don’t appear on the discussion board. The Submit button on quizzes and tests Your teachers probably told you this when you were younger: Check your work before you turn in the test. Make sure you answered every question. Technology has an interesting way of forcing you to do this with online quizzes and tests. It’s called the Submit button. In some cases, you’ll be given additional options such as Save without Submitting, Submit Page, and Submit All and Finish. All of these make you think twice and check your work! Tips for submitting any assignment Whether you’re working with papers, projects, discussion posts, quizzes, or tests, consider the following general pointers: Submit early, have a backup plan, and keep a copy. Here’s why these are important: Submit early, when possible, in case of problems: What if you plan to submit your assignment at 11:56 p.m. on the night it’s due by midnight and the whole system crashes or your hard drive freezes? You don’t have a lot of time to remedy that situation. A safer bet is to submit your work during normal working hours, well before you need to. That way, if you encounter a problem, you’re more likely to contact a real-life tech support person who can assist you. Attach to email when technology fails: Still on the 11:56 p.m. track? When all else fails, send the same assignment as an attachment to an email to your instructor. Include a polite note explaining that the system wasn’t cooperating and that you wanted to be sure to get the assignment turned in, one way or another. This shows good problem-solving skills. Keep a copy: Always, always keep copies of your work for the term of the course. You never know when you might need them. It’s common for the system to freeze up when you’re trying to submit a great discussion post (always when you’ve written something worthy of a Pulitzer), so if you first compose in a word processor and then copy and paste to the discussion area, you’re safe in knowing that you have the original text. Should there be any question, you can find the file and resubmit it.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

As you find out in the following discussion, you can use quite a few web-based tools to collaborate and communicate with your online learning group. These tools are often external to your learning management system. Many of these tools are free for public use. The key is to either use tools that are simple to learn or use only tools that every member of the group is already familiar with. Trying to learn a new tool in the middle of a group project can be frustrating and can distract you from completing the project on time. Document collaboration Suppose you and your fellow group members are asked to produce a written document such as an essay. In the “old” days, one person would write something and forward the document to all other group members. Then everyone would provide feedback and send back their comments individually. The originator would have to open several documents and do the best job possible of combining the input of the others. No longer is this necessary, thanks to collaborative tools such as Google Docs and Microsoft 365. These web based tools allow multiple people to contribute to the same document. In a group-project situation, this means that you can collaborate on the same document at the same time as your fellow group members. The file is created by one of the group members who shares a link to the other group members with permission to edit the document. As a group member, you click on the link and are taken directly to the document, where you can start editing. Depending on the privacy setting determined by the original document creator, you may be required to log in with your account or create a new account with that service in order to access the document. Technology has come a long way where applications on the web look almost exactly the same as they do when installed directly on your computer. Therefore, when you get to the shared document via your web browser, it looks and feels just like a common word processing, spreadsheet, or presentation program. It doesn’t matter what software you have on your individual machines, because everything is handled online! Each of you can edit and download a copy. Eventually, one of you can save a final copy and turn it in for your assignment or link your instructor and class to the page. Online document sharing can be used for group projects, company policy documents, and much more. In some corporate setups, you may have access to a product from Microsoft called SharePoint. If you have access and are working on an online learning course in your company’s learning management system, SharePoint may be the best choice for you because you’re probably already using it for work. One of the more common online document sharing applications on the web right now is Google Docs. With Google Docs, you can collaboratively create a word processing document, spreadsheet, presentation, or web form. This free service gives a document originator the ability to invite others to edit the document. The following figure shows a document created using Google Docs. For your essay assignment, one group member or the instructor would start the document. Then that person would invite the other group members to view the document as collaborators in order to provide them the permission needed to edit the document. Based on your group’s organizational meeting, the editor might add headings to the document as a way of visually dividing it into pieces. Group members would then go in and begin filling in the blanks as they completed their research. Web conferencing If your group decides to meet synchronously, a few tools are available to help facilitate the process. Consider the following variables when choosing a synchronous tool: Availability: Don’t spend extra time looking for tools if your course provides them for you. For example, one institution Kevin teaches for provides each class with a virtual office space via Microsoft Teams. Students can access this space 24/7 from directly inside their virtual course. Functionality: Some tools are limited as to which features they offer. For example, the telephone provides voice communication, but you can’t share documents via the phone. FaceTime allows iPhone users to call, talk, and share videos with each other. However, this is limited to iPhone users only. If you have an iPhone, you cannot FaceTime with someone who has an Android phone. Plus, it may not be the best tool for sharing screens and collaborating. Other, more multi-modal tools, such as Zoom, provide interactive features that allow users to share voice, text, presentations, whiteboards, each other's computer screens, and more. Choose your tools according to what you need, or learn to work around your chosen tool’s limits. Cost: These tools can be quite expensive for large-scale use. Luckily these days, many tools have free versions; they may have some limitations compared to their paid versions, but work just fine for short, small-group meetings. For example, Zoom offers a free version of its Meeting tool that allows you to access almost all of its collaboration features. The limitations of this tool are that meetings are limited to 40 minutes and cannot be recorded to the Zoom server in the cloud. You must record locally and find alternative ways to share those video recordings with others for playback. Three available synchronous communication tools are Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet: Zoom is what we call a multimodal web conferencing tool. Multimodal refers to the user’s ability to interact using a variety of methods. For example, Zoom allows users to interact using voice, chat, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and more. The free version of Zoom allows you to meet with up to 100 participants for 40 minutes. The free version also allows you to record to your local computer so that you can later share the archive with members who may have missed the meeting or need a recap. To efficiently use this tool, one group member needs to have a Zoom account. The individual with the account schedules a meeting and invites the group members via email. Group members receive a participant link in their email that they click on to join the meeting. This figure illustrates a conference call using Zoom. Once connected, the group can use the voice and video features to see and hear each other. One member of the group can also share their screen so the group can work collaboratively to create a document or presentation or another type of project. If you’re not in the creation stage yet, it’s also a good idea to share the agenda with everyone and have someone take notes during the meeting and then make the notes available in a place where everyone can access them. Microsoft Teams is a tool, similar to Zoom, that provides unlimited chat, video calling, file sharing, and 10 gigabytes of storage to share and collaborate on documents. Participants use the same process for accessing meetings as they do with Zoom. At least one member of the group must have a Microsoft 365 account. That person schedules the meeting and sends out the invitation to their peers. Teams is fully integrated into Microsoft 365, and participants can seamlessly share Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files with participants. This can be helpful if your group is needing to collectively contribute to an essay or develop a slideshow in order to give a group presentation. This figure illustrates a Teams meeting with group members collaborating to build a PowerPoint file. Google Meet is the synchronous conferencing tool built into Google Suite. Like the other tools, one person must have a Google account and invite the other participants. If your school already uses Google Suite for email and document storage, you may as well use Meet. Imagine having a meeting with your voice, but co-editing a document! This figure shows a meeting in Meet. For conferencing tools such as Zoom, users need a microphone and speakers. We recommend a combination headset-with-microphone. A camera is optional, but it can give a more personal touch to the distant meeting experience. If you have ever attended an online meeting, you know that the discussion can get out of hand quickly. People may unintentionally talk over each other, or there may be so many chats that you can’t keep up with them. To help reduce this chaos, web conferencing tools assign different roles and permissions to different people. For the most part, there are three different roles: the meeting host, cohosts, and participants or attendees: The host is the person who schedules the meeting and sends out the invitation link. Often, this is the chairperson of a committee or the group leader. This person has more permissions during the meeting to help control the chaos. They also have the ability to turn features on and off as needed. For example, the host can determine the people attendees can chat with: everyone, only the host, or no one. This allows them to present information without interruption and then turn on the chat feature when there’s a natural pause in the presentation. They can also turn on and off the ability for participants to turn on video, talk, share screens, write on the screen, and more. Cohosts are participants who the host assigns to help during the session. Cohosts can perform most of the same tasks as the host. A host might assign participants to cohost when hosting large meetings in order to ensure a more seamless experience for the attendees. In peer group situations, a host might assign all team members the cohost role to provide an equitable experience. Participants and attendees join a meeting with limited responsibilities and are able to participate based on the permissions sent by the host. For most smaller group meetings, features are not restricted. Tools like Zoom, Teams and Meet can take a little time to learn how to use, especially as the meeting host. The good news is that most product vendors provide tutorial videos and documents on how to use the tool as both a host and a participant. So, keep this in mind when choosing a tool, and look for support options before making a final decision.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

Some instructors describe discussion as the heart and soul of online learning. For academic courses that require participation, there’s little doubt that discussion is a cornerstone. In this article, we look at why discussion is important, how discussions are organized, and how you can determine what’s expected of you to succeed in online discussions. Why you’re asked to discuss No doubt you’ve heard the expression “Practice makes perfect.” It makes perfect sense if you’re studying keyboarding skills or French pronunciation, but seeing how this works is a little more difficult when you’re studying a subject like economics or world literature. Furthermore, in an online course, it’s impossible for the instructor to see learners practicing, right? Not so! Online discussion is one of the methods instructors use to witness your learning. Here’s why: Discussion shows you are reading. When you answer a discussion question and refer to your assigned readings or textbook, you demonstrate to the instructor that you’re actually reading the material. Discussion shows your ability to think critically. Many instructors want you to take the content and break it down, analyze it, put it back together in a way that is meaningful, and add an interpretation of how this works in the real world. This is critical thinking! When you participate in discussion, you show your ability to think critically. Discussion helps you learn better. It’s not enough to read, cite, and move on. Instructors want you to personalize and internalize the information. In fact, this is one of the ways adults learn better and faster. Others benefit from discussion, too. In the constructivist classroom, everyone wins when you take a topic and develop it fully. When you add your insights and interpretations, the rest of the class is able to consider whether they agree or disagree and, most importantly, why. Discussions organized in different ways Discussion is a conversation that occurs online and requires more than one person. For example, John puts forth an idea to which Chris responds with an example supporting his idea. Others join in the conversation, too. Sally suggests an alternative view to what John has written with an additional reference to the literature. Pat asks a question for clarification, forcing John to find another way to explain his original idea. All of this gets rolled together for a more complete understanding of the content. By the time the discussion runs its course, the readers and authors have looked at the subject matter more thoroughly because of the diversity of views. Depending on the learning management software, you may see your conversations displayed as small pieces connected to one another in a couple of ways: chronologically or threaded. Each piece comes from an individual speaker and is a piece of written text, or post: Chronological posts: The posts may be connected in a linear fashion, following one another in chronological order. This figure shows what this looks like. Threaded posts: A threaded discussion displays the conversation in a different graphical fashion: When you look at the display, you’re better able to see how ideas connect to one another. The dates may seem out of order, but not if you follow the conversation as if it were in outline form. Text that’s indented is directly related to the post above it. This figure shows a threaded discussion. Does it matter whether your software shows the discussion in threaded or chronological fashion? Not really. What matters is that conversations are occurring between learners and that you can follow these conversations. Many learning management systems allow you to change how you view discussions. You control whether you see them in threaded or unthreaded fashion according to your settings. If you have this option, play around with the settings until you find the system that works best for you. Discussion requirements Each instructor has their own expectations regarding discussion and participation. You may find these expectations in several places: The syllabus: Chances are good that the instructor lists discussion as a component of your grade in the syllabus. They may say something like this: “Participates in discussion by posting an initial statement and responding to two other peers each week.” Read those statements carefully to determine what is expected. The instructions: You most likely have a page in your course that describes what you should do in the discussion area; you should be able to find a link to this page from the course’s main page. The questions you’re expected to answer may be listed there. Often this is where the instructor reminds you of how much to write and how to post. For example, you may read, “Answer one of the following questions in 300 to 500 words. Be sure to reference one of our assigned readings. Before the close of the module, respond to two of your fellow students’ posts.” The grading scheme and rubric: These items may be on a separate page within your course, or they may be woven into either the syllabus or the instructions. The grading scheme is the overall plan for how you are graded. A rubric spells out what counts in an individual assignment. For example, a rubric may state that you need an on-time post of 300 to 500 words with proper citation, and you must respond to two peers. Avoid overposting Overposting can occur in two manners: writing too much and responding too frequently. Both have consequences. Writing too much: When your instructor asks for 300 to 500 words and you submit a three-page essay, you have overposted! The result is that your classmates won’t read through your ideas, and no one will want to discuss them. You may be penalized for overwriting, too. Before posting, count your words. You can do this in Microsoft Word by looking at the bottom of the document. Toward the left side you will see page x of y and then the number of words. You can also find this information by choosing File-->Info (or Properties) from the menu at the top. You may need to isolate (highlight) the paragraph you want counted. In Google Docs, choose Tools-->Word Count from the top menu bar. Responding too frequently: You don’t need to respond to everyone’s posts. When your instructor asks for a minimum of two responses to others, they may be hoping for four or five, but not 15 or 20! Think of this in terms of the face-to-face classroom. How do you react to a student who has something to say to everyone’s comments? Doesn’t that person seem to be an attention-seeker? After a while, aren’t the ideas a little self-serving? Do learners begin to roll their eyes when the commenter opens their mouth? The same happens when learners overpost. However, in the world of online education, you can choose to avoid reading what those who overpost have to say. This is not always a good thing. We like to encourage good discussion with quality posts. Think of contributing 10 percent of the comments. Discussions can grow exponentially, and you don’t want to be the person whose posts no one reads because you’re too prolific.