Asynchronous interactions allow students to join and participate in class activities on their own schedule (though usually by a deadline). Digital tools and platforms that are supported by Middlebury ITS and that serve as great spaces for asynchronous collaboration are listed underneath the table below. The table offers examples of asynchronous learning activities that can be implemented using these digital tools.
| Activity Type | Implementation Ideas |
|---|---|
| Lecture | Record a video of your lecture using Panopto. With Panopto, you can capture video of slides or other desktop items you want to show. Panopto videos can be embedded into Canvas so that students can watch them inside Canvas. |
| Class discussion | Use Canvas’ Discussion Board to host a discussion that takes place over a few days. We suggest setting a deadline for students to answer the discussion prompt, and a second deadline for when the back and forth discussion ends. |
| Oral presentation | Ask students to record a screen capture video of themselves giving a presentation using Panopto, and then share the video in Canvas or upload to a Google Drive or OneDrive folder. |
| Fast recall | Create a quiz that is auto-graded (multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, true and false, matching, etc) |
| Peer feedback | Create a Canvas Discussion Board in which students write or upload their assignment. Peers are assigned to give feedback via the comments. Or, use the suggestion and comment feature in Google Docs or use a tool like Voicethread to add student (and your) voice to feedback. Consider using the RISE rubric to structure peer feedback. |
| Gallery-style sharing of work | Create a Discussion Board in Canvas in which each student posts their work, or a Canvas Page that is editable by students and professors on which students paste a link to their work outside of Canvas. |
| Journal / blogging | Have students create a Google doc and share the link with the professor. If the journal is meant to be shared with the class, create a Canvas Page with a list of student names hyperlinked to individual docs.
Or, assign journal entries by adding prompts as Assignments in Canvas, with due-dates if needed. You can also use Middlebury’s WordPress blogging platform, sites.middlebury.edu, to encourage student reflection and writing. |
| Video-based asynchronous interactions | FlipGrid allows students to record videos to a shared Grid. We encourage you to delete student work on this platform at the end of the semester. |
Canvas
Canvas is Middlebury’s learning
Google Apps for EDU
Middlebury Google Apps is a suite of web-based Google services such as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and more. All Middlebury faculty, staff and students have access to Google Apps
Microsoft Teams
With Microsoft Teams, you can chat via video, audio, or text, share files, and much more.
MiddCreate
With MiddCreate, faculty, staff, and students can create online websites and spaces for writing, self-expression, professional, academic, or creative portfolios, and more. MiddCreate is Middlebury’s open web design project, based
Panopto
Panopto is a video and audio storage service that allows you to upload, edit, store and share video and audio files with varying levels of privacy settings. Panopto
Poll Everywhere
With Poll Everywhere, a
Scalar
Scalar is a free, open source authoring and publishing platform that’s designed to make it easy for authors to write long-form, born-digital scholarship online. Scalar enables users to assemble media from multiple sources and
Slack
Slack is a free messaging app that offers a space for text and audio chat, as well as sharing tools and files. Users can create different channels focused