Don't Waste Our Collective Time: Elluminate Best Practices

Elluminate is the online classroom that we all have to use at BGI. It's a little clumsy but not impossible "to get right." Week after week, I wonder if the one hour we have together in Elluminate will be used effectively or ineffectively. I'm sad to report that it's usually the latter. Part of this problem is technical and for whatever reason, we are still using a platform that has a lot of technical bugs. Another issue, in my humble opinion, is that traditional pedagogical techniques do not translate well to Elluminate (and I care to bet that they don't translate well in a regular classroom anymore because those modalities of learning are so outdated and do not capitalize on the tools we have at our disposal). Here are some Elluminate best practices that Christopher Allen uses in his Social Web for Social Change course. I think the secret to his success in maximizing Elluminate time is a combination of the prep work we do before the class and then after.

1. Assign SHORT relevant online (youtube videos, blogs and articles are good) pre-class readings to be done BEFORE the Elluminate.

     Pro: Gets you ready to discuss the current week's topic in class without burdening you. Also, it enables you to spot any areas you may need to ask questions in. The amount is so manageable that you can read everything an hour before class starts in order to be really fresh. 

     Con: Sometimes this can add too much work to the week. 

2. Spend first few minutes discussing some of the things students produced for the class the week before, share insights and puzzles, give props to good work, quote our work in your slides! 

     Pro: This proves that you care about our work and that you are reading what we write. Also, helps us feel more connected to the rest of the class and allows us to comment and discuss. 

     Con: May cut into "lecture time."

3. Spend a few minutes to call on individuals to summarize the pre-readings. 

    Pro: Shows the readings are meaningful to the course and you can cover and discuss the basics of each article out loud. Also, some of us may not have gotten to read every single article so this is good to get everyone on the same page. 

    Con: It's possible that no one has read the pre-readings. This could be because there was too much assigned or because the connection to the week's topic was not made in the readings and people lost motivation when asking themselves, "why is this relevant?" 

4. Let the pre-reading discussion go into the lecture time: lectures should be short, like 20 to 30 min with comprehensive slides. 

    Pro: A great lecture should expand on the pre-Elluminate readings, not summarize or repeat them. 

    Con: This may be a hard way to do complex topics that should not be over-simplified. But these topics can be expanded upon in the post-class readings. So, it's not necessary to go into crazy depth in class. 

5. End the class with a summary of what is due by the end of the week and the topics of what will be covered next week. 

   Pro: Keeps us in the loop and on track about assignments in case there are any differences or updates. Allows for questions about discrepancies. Helps maintain continuity of the course instead of the class just ending on a random note. 

  Con: Unless prof. is very good with timing, this could make the class go over time.