Activity
Ongoing engagement, Setting the tone activities
Third Places for Ongoing Community Building
Maha Bali
Creating semi-formal, semi-synchronous spaces outside of class time for students to socialize with each other.
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This video was a recorded interview where Dave Cormier asked Maha Bali to give a recommendation for online learning during the pivot to emergency remote teaching during Covid-19.
Creating semi-formal, semi-synchronous spaces outside of formal class time for students to socialize with each other (and the teacher where possible) to address the socioemotional needs of students.
Building community throughout the semester, addressing socioemotional needs and keeping the pulse of the class as it helps you stay in touch in between classes.
Decide which tool works best for your purposes and your students, and if possible, create the space early in the semester and start using it early on.
A semester-long commitment which involves ups and downs, but on average around 15-30 minutes per day per class of checking notifications on the platform you set up. It depends how active the class are in asking questions and responding to each other’s questions as well.
Although we do not wish to promote any particular commercial tool, Slack is one of the most useful tools for this because it allows for multiple channels, so you can have a channel for school work and questions about assignments, and a separate channel for socialisation, as well as allowing private chats with individual or multiple participants (to reduce your email load!). However, if you are uncomfortable with it (because unfamiliar or because of privacy concerns) here are some other options:
Access to a shared online space.
Do you have any suggestions? Please share them in the comments section below.
This activity is one of a series of activities from Equity Unbound, focused on equitable online community building.Â
Find out moreIntroductory activities
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