Maha Bali

Equity Unbound and community building
American University in Cairo, Egypt

Maha Bali, PhD, is Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, where she has been a faculty developer since 2003. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Sheffield, UK. She is the co-director of Virtually Connecting and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound, and is an advisory board member of OneHE and the Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange project. She tweets @bali_maha and blogs at https://blog.mahabali.me.

Develop your teaching with Maha Bali
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Conversation Cafe
by Maha Bali, Mia Zamora, Autumm Caines
Engage everyone in making sense of profound challenges. Use to address difficult or confusing topics.
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Create a Fake Photo Group Assignment
by Maha Bali
This fun activity helps students learn new skills while taking a small step towards building community.
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Third Places for Ongoing Community Building
by Maha Bali
Creating semi-formal, semi-synchronous spaces outside of class time for students to socialize with each other.
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Asynchronous & Synchronous Introductions
by Mia Zamora, Maha Bali
Discover three creative ways students can introduce themselves at the beginning of the semester.
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Estimate Workload
by Maha Bali
Useful tools for estimating workloads and adjusting your plans accordingly.
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Two-Minute Paper
by Maha Bali
This is a great activity for capturing students’ learning, and helping the teacher to understand what students need to know more of, and what they enjoyed in class.
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Live, Love, Learn and Leave a Legacy
by Maha Bali
This is a reflective activity that can be done at the beginning of a semester to help students set their academic goals.
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Spiral Journal
by Maha Bali, Mia Zamora
Promote focus and reflection while allowing individuals to compose responses thoughtfully and calmly in writing.
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Wheel of Life for Student Self-Help
by Maha Bali
The Wheel of Life provides a snapshot of your wellbeing and the level of satisfaction in your current circumstances.
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Cognitive / Exam Wrappers for Metacognition
by Maha Bali
Help students reflect on their exam/assessment performance in order to improve future performance in your course.
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Trauma-Informed Pedagogy & How is Your Heart?
by Mays Imad, Maha Bali
How to help students thrive in class in times of trauma.
Video discussion
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PowerPoint Karaoke
by Maha Bali, Jasmina Najjar, Hoda Mostafa
Engage students in improv presenting, and enhance oral presentation skills in a light and humorous way.
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Tips For Increasing Engagement In Discussions
by Maha Bali
A collection of top tips for educators to engage their students in discussion in any modality.
Top Tips
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Purpose to Practice
by Maha Bali
Use the Purpose to Practice structure with students to co-develop community guidelines for the class.
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Gratitude Journal
by Maha Bali, Nadine Aboulmagd, Hoda Mostafa, Azza Awwad
Support students' wellbeing by suggesting a daily or periodic practice of gratitude, promote radical self-compassion.
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Fast Friends
by Maha Bali
This is a great warming-up activity that helps to build close connections between students.
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While We Wait
by Jasmina Najjar, Maha Bali
Make use of the 5-10 minutes before class time or if you give a break in the middle of class.
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About Video Conferencing
by Maha Bali, Autumm Caines
Addressing many of the questions you might have about video conferencing.
Guide
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15% solutions
by Maha Bali, Jasmina Najjar
This collaborative activity encourages students to discover and focus on what each person has the freedom and resources to do now.
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Start / Stop / Continue
by Maha Bali
Use this activity to help students to reflect on what's working for them and how to identify actions that can be taken to make improvements.
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TRIZ
by Maha Bali
TRIZ can stop counterproductive activities and behaviours to make space for innovation. Try it out!
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Teaching Ethics with Theatre of the Oppressed and Liberating Structures 
by Maha Bali
Engage everyone in making sense of profound challenges. Use to address difficult or confusing topics.
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Survey Students Early in the Semester: Pre-Course Survey
by Maha Bali
Use a pre-course survey to get to know your students early on in the semester.
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Alternative Approaches to Grading
by Maha Bali, Mia Zamora, Jasmina Najjar, Laura Gibbs, Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh, Arley Cruthers
Consider different approaches to grading and how they can affect the classroom atmosphere and more!
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Online Facilitation Refresher
by Flower Darby, Leigh Graves Wolf, Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Virna Rossi, Maha Bali, Autumm Caines, Mia Zamora
Getting back into the swing of online facilitation? This learning path takes you through the top tips, tools and advice offered by OneHE experts over the last year.
Learning path
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Wild Tea / Mad Tea Party
by Maha Bali
This activity promotes small group intimacy and collaboration, making a large group session feel interactive.
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Teach-in Against Surveillance event
by Maha Bali
The purpose of this video is for educators to know about some of the dangers/harms of online proctoring/surveillance technology.
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Share Music and Create a Class Playlist
by Maha Bali
Help students share something about themselves, musical tastes, while building community as they speak about their musical choices.
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Torrey Trust's Technology is Not the Solution to Cheating
by Maha Bali
This is a useful infographic for thinking through how to build trust and reduce cheating in your courses - recognising that technology will not solve your problems. 
Infographic
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Ice Cream / Broccoli: Reflection on Enjoyment and Value
by Maha Bali
Use this activity to structure students' reflections at the end of class or semester.
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Simple Metacognitive Activities
by Maha Bali
Some simple questions that can help students develop their metacognitive learning skills.
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Theatre of the Oppressed: Image Theatre
by Maha Bali, Alex Fink, Tina Pippin, Sarita Shukla
To invite students to use their bodies to represent, collaboratively, an image of something that is worth discussing.
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Thick Greetings
by Maha Bali, Mia Zamora, Autumm Caines, Laura Gibbs, Rebecca J. Hogue
Try out a slower and more deliberate opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves.
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Roses, Thorns, and Buds 
by Maha Bali
This activity could be used as a warm-up or reflective activity at the end of a class.
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Four Ideas for Checking In
by Maha Bali, Mia Zamora
Ideas for checking in with your students at the beginning of any class.
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Critical Uncertainties
by Autumm Caines, Maha Bali
Engage everyone in making sense of profound challenges. Use to address difficult or confusing topics.
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Sailboat Retrospective for Reflection
by Maha Bali
Use this reflective activity to bring students together to talk about their experiences at the end of a project.
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Community Building
by Maha Bali, Mia Zamora, Autumm Caines
Equity Unbound present strategies for creating communities built on principles of equity and care that produce learning spaces in which all students can flourish.
Learning path
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Appreciative Interviews
by Maha Bali, Autumm Caines, Mia Zamora
This activity will help students prepare for working in groups by discovering and building on the roots of their successes.
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Checking in with GIF, Emoji or Meme
by Maha Bali
A fun and quick way to check in or end a class with your students.
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Share an Object From Home
by Maha Bali
This is a simple icebreaker activity that encourages students to share something about themselves.
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Ikigai: Help Students Find Their Purpose
by Maha Bali
This is a reflective activity that helps students to focus on their strengths and passions, and what they can do to make a positive impact on the world.
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Loglines
by Maha Bali
A fun, text-based way to warm up or cool down a session or topic.
Resource
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Troika Consulting - Adaptation for Class Community Building
by Maha Bali, Mia Zamora, Autumm Caines
Get students used to supporting each other without always turning to an 'expert' for solutions.
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Self-Assessment Tool for Social Justice in Teaching
by Maha Bali
Gauge your level of competence and comfort in the themes of gender-consciousness, interculturalism, and community, both in their individual pedagogical practices and wider academic engagements.
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