Building Community at a Distance

Reinventing In-Class Discussion
Resources from Beyond the Classroom


The sudden shift to online delivery in March created a vacuum that stressed the bonds of community and collective responsibility that unite our in-person classes. Students and faculty alike reported feelings of alienation from one another and from the course material. The shift away from face-to-face meetings has deeper consequences than simply the loss of in-class lecture and discussion time. We lose the casual interactions with our students that let them check in with us about how they’re doing, and let us get a sense for how they’re doing, emotionally as well as academically. Below are some suggestions from faculty for how we can rebuild those pathways of communication for online teaching.

Reinventing In-Class Discussion

Some faculty report success transforming what might traditionally have been individual assignments into group activities, giving students the opportunity to reclaim some of the lost sense of classroom camaraderie. Students are very vocal about their enthusiasm for group projects as replacements for high-stakes exams; while this approach may not be possible for all courses, we should all give some thought to how we might integrate more group activities into our courses.

Breakout groups in Zoom largely proved successful both from a faculty and student perspective, provided groups were not too big. Some students requested to be placed in the same groups each time, and here’s how to do that in advance. Some faculty reported challenges resulting from the fact that Zoom breakout rooms are “hermetically sealed” compared to in-class groups where faculty can monitor more than one at a time. Having small deliverables (e.g. short writing assignments or problem-solving activities) often addressed these challenges and helped keep student engagement consistent from one group to another.

Several faculty reported that group projects were popular with students and, as substitutes for exams, resulted in fewer academic integrity violations. Group homeworks and quizzes were likewise often successful.

  • Guide from Kansas State University on novel quiz structures (collaborative, “flipped classroom,” etc.)
  • Check out this page from the University of Iowa on advantages and guidelines for constructing group quizzes. Benefits include lowering student anxiety and promoting reflective learning.
  • Collaboration can even be extended to bigger assessments like exams. Some faculty use two-stage exams where students first take the exam alone, and then repeat it while working with another student or two for a smaller proportion of points. Others have reported success with having students complete the entirety of some assessments in pairs. One benefit suggested is that this approach may limit the temptation to violate the academic integrity code.

Canvas discussion forums are a quick and easy way for students to contribute to the course. Highly structured requirements like “you must post once each week by Tuesday and respond to two other posts by Thursday” are clear for students and easy to grade, but many faculty report challenges creating spontaneous, highly engaged discussion using such frameworks.

Students seem to prefer platforms that are closer in form to social media, and faculty report more free-flowing discussion on those platforms (at the cost of grading convenience). Standout favorites are Slack and Perusall. Slack allows you to create custom discussion channels where your students can easily exchange comments and you can respond to questions.

Perusall is more complex: it is a tool for collaborative PDF annotation where students can post questions or comments on a reading and respond to one another. It’s great for seminars where students typically do close readings, and students from all disciplines can use it to mark up journal articles. On the faculty side, Perusall offers a nice set of analytics tools, like noting the passages where students asked the most questions in a “confusion report.” It’s also integrated with our installation of Canvas, making grading and feedback for students easy. Many faculty have become enthusiastic Perusall supporters over the last few months – give it a try! Here’s an introduction to Perusall from the University of Waterloo, and an in-depth look at its applications in the classroom from Gary King at Harvard.

Flipgrid may take us further out of our comfort zones, but is popular with students, as it provides a way of replacing written discussion responses with short video responses. Instructors and students collaborate to create topical “grids” of short videos, which can include student video responses to other students’ videos. However, FERPA compliance is still a work in progress.

Resources from beyond the classroom

During a typical semester, most of us probably do not think much about what our students are doing outside of class time – clubs, Residential Life programming, Career Development workshops, and other co-curricular programs. These organizations have continued to provide a wealth of activities for students since the March shift online, many getting hundreds of student participants. These organizations are a vital part of students’ lifeline back to the university in this disconnected time.

They don’t have to remain outside the classroom. As you search for ways to engage your students virtually, consider how you might use the available resources.

  • Starting with more familiar institutions, the Johnson Museum and the Botanic Gardens have piloted online visit opportunities, and are glad to work with faculty to share their collections with students online.
  • Student & Campus Life have put together a great set of resources for engaging virtually with your students. They have suggestions for cultural opportunities like virtual museum visits, well-being resources like meditation and birdwatching, and opportunities for professional development and community service. Take a look at their resources and imagine how you might integrate them into your course.
  • Student and Campus Life groups like the LGBT Resource Center provide a host of informational sessions, mentoring opportunities, and discussions. If you’re teaching a course that engages ideas of identity and belonging, consider getting in touch with them to see if your students could benefit from attending some of these events as part of your course.

Teaming up with existing co-curricular organizations is a win-win: you can utilize existing structures and programming rather than having to build all your online encounters from the ground up, and your students will appreciate the links between your class and the broader campus community they are part of.

Lectures and interviews with faculty from other institutions, guest artists, and other guest speakers were successfully incorporated into courses across the curriculum. You might also consider reaching beyond the classroom to industry, incorporating talks and interviews with Cornell alumni in relevant extramural positions, Ithaca business owners, etc. Video or podcast interviews with people outside Cornell can help to build up the sense of community so many of us – faculty and students alike – have missed since the March shift.

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