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Peer Interaction Tools


Best Practices


  • Decide what type of interaction you want students to have and use that to guide your choice of tools
  • Limit your course to one or two tools, so students can focus on the content, not learning how to use each tool
  • Using UAA Core Tools increases the chance that students will use the tool in other courses, so only use external tools if there is a compelling pedagogical reason
  • Introduce each tool with a low-stakes assignment to let students practice using it
  • Plan how to make activities fully accessible as you design them

Peer Interaction Tools


  • Canvas Tools
    You can assign student interaction via Canvas tools, most commonly Discussions. Discussions let users post and reply to messages, creating a common repository. Discussions are organized by forum, with multiple students creating and replying to threads within each forum. They emphasize peer interaction.
  • Microsoft Office 365 (Including Teams)

    Office 365 is a productivity tool for ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ students, faculty, and staff. Students can share files via OneDrive and edit using the Office Online versions of MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. Unlike Google Apps, only one user at a time can edit files. The programs’ downloadable desktop versions have more features than the web versions.

    Office 365 includes Teams, a chat-based platform that classes can use to incorporate social media style discussions on a UA-password-protected tool.

Resources


  • , Chickering & Gamson, 1987
  • , Moore 1989
  • , UDL CAST