Interactive Learning in Online Classes

How our instructors innovate teaching-learning dynamics in online classrooms

Whether it’s in a Zoom university lecture, Skype business conference, or Teams work project – many will have experienced the so-called ‘online fatigue’ working virtually day by day in the past year. The switch to online learning may be challenging, but that doesn’t mean online learning has to be tiring or linear. We at ActiLingua took this as an opportunity to innovate online learning while also making it enjoyable! Here are some ways our teachers shake things up in their online classrooms:

Encourage discussions with Mentimeter

When there’s an interesting discussion topic, we use Mentimeter to get a first impression of everyone’s thoughts. With a smartphone and QR-code, students can react to discussion questions by inputting short answers or themes they feel are important. Students can also react to statements by positioning themselves on an agreement scale. The answers are often anonymous, and the visual summary of everyone’s thoughts often starts great discussions!

Collaboration in Breakout Rooms

Group work is also possible in so-called Breakout Rooms, as if they would be working with their classroom friends! This is a great online feature for small group discussions, or to work on an activity with a partner. Compared to group work in the classroom where everyone can always be heard, Breakout Rooms also offer some privacy to work at your own pace.

Real-time feedback with GoogleDocs

Our teachers also make use of GoogleDocs for writing and grammar exercises. This is a very handy tool that allows you to work with a partner on writing activities even though they may be in a different country than you! It also allows you to ask questions as you’re working on an exercise and to receive feedback in real-time. Students can also save their online document if they wish to keep a record of their work.

Media resources for immersed learning

Many have experienced listening activities in classrooms where they simply could not acoustically hear what was said. With the many different media resources our teachers use, you not only get to hear in high quality but can also pause at your own leisure! From dialogues and videoclips, to podcasts and documentaries, students learn on many topics and in different formats. The materials used also include Austrian resources, so students are familiarised with the German spoken in Austria.

Topic engagement with Padlet

Interactive activities in which participants engage with a topic are also possible with a tool called Padlet! This is much like in a classroom where students brainstorm on a whiteboard, or a conference where participants share their thoughts on a topic using a pinboard with post-it notes. These posts will often start conversations on a topic and is also used for shorter writing activities.

Find all information about ActiLingua Live Online German Courses!