Students must focus on multiple tasks throughout the day, and all the moreso when they are juggling newly learned software and tools just to attend classes. This means they can have a lot on their mind when they join a class on Zoom, and may find it hard to focus on the actual content of the class, as opposed to the process of being present. Instructors can help guide students into a better frame of mind for learning by creating and sharing an agenda for each class session.
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When students don’t have to spend their energy wondering what will happen during class, what will be covered, and what they need to prepare for, they can free up some of their cognitive load—and relax a bit. It is even more helpful to share the agenda ahead of time.
There are many options for sharing agendas. They can be written up as content pages in Canvas, and added to the week’s Module. They can be included in a start-of-week Announcement. Agendas can be added to lecture slides or created as a separate Google document and shared in the Zoom chat. Instructors should go over the agenda briefly at the beginning of class and allow students to keep access to previous agendas, so that they can review weekly topics and learning activities. This will give students more context and help them make sense of the class’ progression. It is also a good idea to provide students with a list of items they may want to have on hand such as lecture slides, handouts/worksheets, or textbook chapters.
Below is a sample agenda. Only the Duration and Activity would go into an agenda to be shared with students, but it can be very helpful to jot down a few notes to yourself about what you intend to accomplish with each item. Such notes might go in your slide deck notes area or your class notes.
| Duration | Activity | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | Warm-up Activity | Engage students right away with an activity to activate their prior knowledge about the day’s topic. This could be an image to analyze or a problem or question that gets students thinking about what they already know about the topic. This will help students focus on the upcoming lesson and mentally prepare for class. |
| 5 minutes | Poll | You can use the Zoom polling tool or iClicker Cloud to ask a question about the upcoming mini-lecture to bring relevance to the topic, determine previous knowledge, and uncover misconceptions. |
| 15 minutes | Mini-lecture | Student feedback indicates that spending the majority of a Zoom session lecturing is not engaging, but it’s very useful to synthesize the complex content from readings, videos, or pre-class activities. Summarizing and addressing an online discussion, for example, helps connect asynchronous discussions to course content and lets students know the instructor reads and values the ideas that emerge from the discussion forum. |
| 20 minutes | Group Work | Small group discussion or analysis is a good way to let students process any lecture content, especially if you ask the groups to address the poll question you asked before the lecture. |
| 5 minutes | Break | We all get Zoom fatigue and everyone needs a break if the Zoom session will be over 30 minutes or so. Students can relax if they know there will be a break coming because they won’t have to worry about missing important information during an ad hoc dash for the kitchen or bathroom. |
| 20 minutes | Group(s) Report Out | If (some) groups will report out, ask each group to appoint a representative to summarize the main points of their discussion verbally, in chat, or on a Google Document. This is a good way to use a report Doc in large classes, especially, since Docs only allow 50 editors at a time. |
| 5 minutes | Exit Ticket | Bring class full circle with an exit ticket or reflection activity. These can be submitted as a Canvas Quiz(Survey) or ungraded Assignment. If you make these due before the end of class, it helps ensure all students will submit something. |
| 5 minutes | Class Ends - Debrief Reflection due | Decide what time class will officially end and when the reflection activity is due. Clear up misconceptions that were presented during class. Summarize the day’s activities, set up expectations for follow-up activities, and end class. |
Some days there won’t be enough time to complete all the agenda items, and just as with in-person teaching, instructors may need to make adjustments along the way. But providing students with an outline for class can become part of a familiar welcome each day, one that helps reduce anxiety and guides students to focus on the day’s lesson.
If you’d like to discuss how to make the best use of an agenda for your particular courses, please feel free to reach out to [email protected]. We’ll be happy to help!
