There are some gold tips here, thank you for sharing it!
I have one question about the exercises dynamics, that I’m still polishing myself. What tools/approaches did you use?
Personally, I’ve used Zoom in the past, with breakout rooms of 3-4 people. There were mix feelings. Some students loved their group dynamics to solve the exercise together. Some felt overwhelmed, or ‘forced’ to talk when didn’t feel comfortable to. (awkward)
I’m now exploring using Discord instead for the exercises part only. Create multiple voice channels, for people to collaborate and ask for help only if they need/want to. It’s also easier for me to jump around and stream voice for everyone at the same time when needed. The flow is more fluid than zoom. It’s also easier to quickly share code snippets.
For this particular workshop, we just had everyone work on exercises individually while hanging out in the main session room. The conference-hosting tool we were using (Hopin) didn't have an easy way to do breakout rooms. Plus we had hundreds of participants at a time, so smaller breakout rooms might have been a bit more challenging to manage.
In an ideal world though, I think it would be great to provide options for students to choose what works best for them. So if they want to work with others in a small group, have an option for breakout rooms. Or if they want to work alone, leave them in the main room, where they can work quietly by themselves. (Unless you're specifically trying to teach them how to work in groups, in which case it's more about setting expectations for why group work is important.) It's a bit more challenging logistically, especially with large audiences, but that way every student can get what they need.
I'm still a bit of a Discord newbie, but I like the idea of voice channels! It sounds like a good way to let students opt into the experience they're looking for. From an accessibility perspective, I'm wondering if voice channels have options for text as well? Or maybe there could also be separate text channels for some groups? If you try it out, I'd be interested to hear how it goes! :)
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There are some gold tips here, thank you for sharing it!
I have one question about the exercises dynamics, that I’m still polishing myself. What tools/approaches did you use?
Personally, I’ve used Zoom in the past, with breakout rooms of 3-4 people. There were mix feelings. Some students loved their group dynamics to solve the exercise together. Some felt overwhelmed, or ‘forced’ to talk when didn’t feel comfortable to. (awkward)
I’m now exploring using Discord instead for the exercises part only. Create multiple voice channels, for people to collaborate and ask for help only if they need/want to. It’s also easier for me to jump around and stream voice for everyone at the same time when needed. The flow is more fluid than zoom. It’s also easier to quickly share code snippets.
What about you? :)
That's a great question, thanks for asking!
For this particular workshop, we just had everyone work on exercises individually while hanging out in the main session room. The conference-hosting tool we were using (Hopin) didn't have an easy way to do breakout rooms. Plus we had hundreds of participants at a time, so smaller breakout rooms might have been a bit more challenging to manage.
In an ideal world though, I think it would be great to provide options for students to choose what works best for them. So if they want to work with others in a small group, have an option for breakout rooms. Or if they want to work alone, leave them in the main room, where they can work quietly by themselves. (Unless you're specifically trying to teach them how to work in groups, in which case it's more about setting expectations for why group work is important.) It's a bit more challenging logistically, especially with large audiences, but that way every student can get what they need.
I'm still a bit of a Discord newbie, but I like the idea of voice channels! It sounds like a good way to let students opt into the experience they're looking for. From an accessibility perspective, I'm wondering if voice channels have options for text as well? Or maybe there could also be separate text channels for some groups? If you try it out, I'd be interested to hear how it goes! :)