Five ways you can use Docs to shake up your end-of-semester lesson plans
By Amber Foster, Ph.D. – November 9, 2020
In the early days of the shift to online instruction, it could feel like I was being bombarded with technology. At every pedagogy seminar or conference, I’d be introduced to dozens of new tools and apps. I tested many of them with zealous optimism, convinced that, if I just had the right tool, all the challenges of remote instruction would melt away. Of course, that didn’t happen, because it was never about the technology—as we all know by now, it was about the teaching.
Again and again, I found myself going back to Google Docs, the most basic and well-known collaborative word processing software out there. It was easy to use, even for less tech-savvy students. In my Writing and Critical Reasoning classes, Docs is the simplest and most effective way to get all my students working together during a Zoom lesson.
Yet the simplicity of Google Docs belies its versatility. You can do a lot with Docs, as I hope the five approaches below will demonstrate. These approaches are intentionally interdisciplinary and adaptable to varied learning environments, and I hope you find them helpful in shaking things up in these final weeks of the semester.
Approach #1. Playing Jeopardy
Jeopardy is a classic for a reason—it’s a fun way to review exam material, and students love a little friendly competition. In my classes, I’ve used the table feature on Docs to create a simple Jeopardy board, quizzing students on course content. If you want a snazzier-looking game board, here is a Jeopardy template licensed under Creative Commons that can be adapted for classroom use (credit to Eric Curts). To make the game even more student centered, you can have groups create their own Jeopardy boards and play another group.
Approach #2. Making a Commonplace Book
Commonplace books were popularized in the Early Modern period. Like an analog Tumblr or Pinterest, they served as a place to copy down and save remedies, recipes, pithy quotations—anything went.
Today, using Docs, commonplace books can also function as a study tool. For example, I have a colleague who keeps a running Google Doc throughout the semester. Students paste in quotes they liked from the readings, and other students can respond, link in other texts, or chat with each other in the margin comments. The function of this commonplace book is not unlike a digital annotation tool, but it has the benefit of not being rooted to a particular online text. Instead, the Doc becomes a site to make connections between various texts and share ideas, images, and links with other students in the class.
Approach #3: Taking Interactive Notes
If you are planning to hold a review session for final exams, you may want to consider having students work in small groups on Docs to take simultaneous notes. Students often do this unasked during large lectures, collaborating and chatting in the margin comments. In this way, students reduce the chance of missing, or misunderstanding, a key point from the lecture. Having “study buddies” can also build community in remote learning environments, as students are encouraged to work together to review course material before an exam.
Approach #4: Voting
Whenever you’re going over the answers to a written activity, you can use Docs to have everyone place their responses in a table and then vote on which answer is the strongest. For example, I’ll have students write “driving questions,” or brainstorming questions, for their papers. All the driving questions go in a table, and students vote for the most compelling question by putting an asterisk next to their choice. Here’s a sample from one of my past iterations of this activity, for a Health and Healing thematic of Writing and Critical Reasoning (Writing 150):
This sort of activity could be adapted to many fields—in essence, any activity which requires all students provide an expository response. I make a point of only going over the best responses (not the worst); this keeps the atmosphere positive, while allowing students with less proficient answers to self-assess and revise.
Approach #5: Making an Annotated Bibliography
Another useful study tool is to have your students work in groups to create annotated bibliographies. They could do this using course texts (for the purposes of review), or texts they intend to use for research projects or papers. These bibliographies could be posted to Blackboard as a collaborative reference document. In addition, the bibliographies can be used to reinforce the importance of correct citation format, as student groups can be tasked with correcting each other’s citations.