Teacher Interactivity Tools
Having online office hours and/or virtual communication protocols is a great way to ensure teacher presence and interactivity. There are several tools to use for this in Canvas LMS. Here is a list of some with links to the tool sites within Canvas:
Conferences allow you to upload files (ppt, word, pdf, etc.), access to a digital whiteboard as well as video and audio features.
Scheduler is part of the Calendar in Canvas. It allows faculty to create blocks of time that students can sign up for, which can help to better manage face-to-face or online hours.
Chat provides a way to conduct real time conversations with history. This feature can be used for online discussions that will allow students to go back and review material after the conversation has ended.
In Canvas
There are a number of commercial solutions to holding office hours online. A few of the more popular options are as follows.
Google Hangouts (limited to 10-15 people) offers free video conferencing
Skype (professional, associated fee) offers screen sharing and group calls with a limited number of people
join.me offers screen and multimedia sharing as well as group conferencing
Other Options
Core Tips
Integrate real-time interaction
Since online environments usually work asynchronously, the lag in response time reduces the momentum of a back-and-forth discussion. To deal with this, you can integrate real-time interaction into your online course through web-conferencing applications and different ways to interact synchronously via office hours, small group discussions, whole class discussions, and study groups.
Provide opportunities for out-of-assessment interaction
Too often, online environments focus only on interactions that relate to direct learning tasks. This means that learners lose out on critical social learning opportunities and venues to create and/or participate in a globally supportive learning community.
Such interactions can be facilitated
via in house options within learning management systems or outside LMS options using social networks.
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