Shark tank

• Require each group to develop an idea, brand, logo, product, features etc. and a marketing strategy for how they approach a group task.
• Synchronous/Asynchronous: Require the students to present their idea in front of the ‘sharks’ (judges). The winning team can get a project extension or any other form of appreciation.

Synthesis

• Prepare a discussion activity that can help students to synthesize course concepts through prior knowledge and learning experiences. The discussions can include questions such as “How can this idea be combined with ________ to create a more complete or comprehensive understanding of _________?”
• Synchronous: Ask the students to discuss the question in small teams or breakout rooms and later present their synthesis in the large group.
• Asynchronous: The students can work asynchronously in their teams and later present their findings in a large group.

Concept specific soundtrack

• Ask the group to think about songs that use specific concepts in your course subject. Example: Money by Pink Floyd, Taxman by Beatles etc. Encourage them to analyze the lyrics of the song, which relate to the concepts, why they think they relate to the topic assigned. Ask them to share the same with the rest of the groups.
• Discuss the same as above and elaborate upon the concepts behind the song’s lyrics.

Creating course concept maps

• Ask the groups of students to collectively map out a concept about the course using collaborative online tools like Google Slides, Docs, or Zoom whiteboard. Ask the group members to share their concepts with the class.
• Use these ideas to explain the details of the course to the students.

Assigning roles

• Assign roles to students for content-related assignments where students can enact specific roles of a source searcher, theoretician, summarizer, moderator, and starter.
• Promotes student engagement and collaborative learning through role-playing.

3C + Q method

• Ask the students to follow the 3C + Q approach, 3 Cs refer to compliment (compliment a person on his specific post), comment (comment on something meaningful that was written) and connect (a textual connection between text-text, text-self, text-world etc.) and finally, the Q refers to question (ask a specific question about what has been written).
• This method keeps the conversation flowing while students learn how to appreciate each other and question others respectfully.