Tools of Engagement

For the Classroom

• Using Clickers (Personal Response Systems) to Facilitate Active Learning in the Classroom
  Clickers allow instructors to assess students’ understanding of the subject matter, receive immediate feedback and reinforcement for what is being learned, get shy and under-prepared students to participate, poll students’ opinions and preferences instantly, observe student misconceptions, and encourage peer instruction.

• Improving In-Class Discussion with Blackboard
  Use principles of priming, integrating and reinforcing to improve in-class discussions. Use Blackboard as a tool to support these principles.

• Videoconferencing: Expanding the Boundaries of the Classroom
  In this section you will find a basic introduction for using broadcast technology to videoconference class sessions to students at various locations. Additionally, various resources are provided for instructors thinking about, or already, implementing videoconferencing into their curriculum.

• Technology and the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education
  (NOTE: This link will open in a new browser tab or window)
  This document discusses how technology can be used to successfully support the "Seven Principles of Good Practice" as defined by the American Association for Higher Education. The first principle is "Good Practice Encourages Contacts Between Students and Faculty" with a discussion of how technology can be used to improve this communication.

Online Resources

• Online Discussions with Blackboard (PDF 324K )
  Many experts on student-centered online learning agree that the discussion board is the place where some of the most important learning can happen. As teachers and facilitators, we have to find ways to support students in "driving" that learning.


• Managing Your Online Discussion: Advice from a UO Teacher
  Regardless of the format you choose, a successful online discussion requires that an appropriate amount of structure be maintained throughout the term. This advice comes from Jennifer Freyd (Psychology), who has been using listservs in her classes for years and is equally applicable to discussin forums on Blackboard.

• Managing Groups (PDF 633K )
  Well-designed and supported student learning teams – or, just plain groups -- can make a world of difference in the quality of the learning climate in your classroom. Likewise, poorly designed and unsupported learning teams can seem like a colossal waste of time – both to you and to your students.

• And Action! Promote Problem-Solving with Web-based Action Mazes
  Quandary (NOTE: This link will open in a new browser tab or window)
  is an application for creating Web-based Action Mazes. An Action Maze is a kind of interactive case-study; the user is presented with a situation, and a number of choices as to a course of action to deal with it. On choosing one of the options, the resulting situation is then presented, again with a set of options. Working through this branching tree is like negotiating a maze, hence the name "Action Maze".