Teaching and learning with technology can enhance any class, whether delivered on-campus or online. Getting students meaningfully involved with technology through student digital projects can be a creative way to approach assignments, allowing students to communicate with words, images, multimedia or other tools to achieve a deeper learning experience. Digital student projects can also increase student interest and engagement in their own learning, and can be a particularly effective way to approach writing in all disciplines.
View the recording “Digital Projects for Greater Student Engagement” webinar co-hosted Bret Maney, Assistant Professor, English.
The Why of Digital Projects by Susan Ko, Faculty Development Consultant, Office of Online Education
The How of Digital Projects by Naliza Sadik, Educational Technologist | Instructional Designer, Office of Online Education
Faculty Experience with Digital Projects by Bret Maney, Assistant Professor, English.
You can also view the webinar presentation slides and read the overview of the webinar below - prepared by Susan Ko, Faculty Development Consultant, Office of Online Education.
Getting students meaningfully involved with technology through student digital projects can be a creative way to approach assignments, allowing students to communicate with words, images, multimedia or other tools to achieve a deeper learning experience. Digital student projects can also increase student interest and engagement in their own learning, and can be a particularly effective way to approach writing in all disciplines. It can also provide, when appropriate, an opportunity for public-facing assignments. Finally, it provides instructors with a creative way to assess student work.
Diverse types of digital projects are possible, including
- Individual blogs, video or audio presentations
- Small group presentations
- Capturing visits to external places or interviews with people
- Curation projects, with commentary or analysis
- For f2f and hybrid classes, can divide up an assignment between online and f2f
Guidance is needed for digital projects, including clear instructions, information about any special software or external sites, and for anything public-facing, alerts about audience, privacy issues, and how long student work posted on a site will persist
There are platforms and software supported by Lehman like discussion forums and blogs in Blackboard, VoiceThread, or those supported by CUNY like the CUNY Academic Commons.
Blackboard blogs and discussion can support reflective activities and build community. Such activities may be graded or ungraded. VoiceThread allows one to extend classroom conversations through text, voice, or video, and students can create presentations and comment on those of others. Small group presentations can also be implemented in VoiceThread.
The CUNY Academic Commons is a free venue on which to create digital projects, and sites created there can be open or private. Not supported but easy to use are such curation and annotation sites as Hypothes.is and Scoop.It
Dr. Bret Maney shared with us how he uses digital projects in his English literature courses to go beyond the usual instructor to student circuit of teaching and learning. He used the mapping software, Carto, and the CUNY Academic Commons to allow students to create blogs that linked to maps of New York literary history. Dr. Maney also mentioned instructors making use of tools commonly used by students, like Instagram, for staging student digital projects, as exemplified by Dr. Gabrielle Kappes in her English literature class. Digital projects are able enhance engagement by exploring the idea of different audiences for work, and by giving student projects a specific purpose and meaning. They may also provide a sense of greater permanence for student work. Some students have even used such digital portfolios to provide a record of their accomplishments.
Mapping New York Literary History Project by Prof. Maney - Learn more about project and view the students’ projects.
Critics and Cartographers in the Classroom: Using CARTO and WordPress to Build a Digital Public Writing Project by Prof. Maney - Read this article for a more in-depth discussion of this project, including assignment sheets.
Blackboard Discussions - Learn more about Blackboard Discussions including to how to respond to discussions, grade discussions, etc.
Blogs - Explore the blog tool in Blackboard.
VoiceThread - Learn more about this interactive tool including instructions on how to set-up VoiceThread in your course.
CUNY Academic Commons - Explore the Commons and learn how to create course sites and groups.
Hypothes.is - Learn more about how to use the social annotation tool.
Scoop.it - Find guidelines on how to use the curation tool.