[Air-L] Hybrid discussion-based courses: how to encourage discussion between in-person & digital participants?

[Cory Robinson]

Hi all,

As many of you are facing (and probably mastered!), I will have a hybrid master/PhD discussion-based course. For those that have mastered encouraging participation and discussion between in-person and digital participants, care to share your knowledge? 😊

The course will have approximately 20 in-person students, and 2-4 attending via Zoom.  Students will lead discussion in pairs for 2 of 8 course meetings, with each course meeting covering a different topic within Big Data Ethics. Last year, we ran the course in a classroom of 30 students, all seated at an “O” shaped arrangement of tables, where everyone was able to face and view each student and lecturer in the room. Students had name cards in front of them, and we used a discussion prompt where each had 3 paperclips, using 1 every time they spoke, and needing to use all paperclips by the end of the course meeting (this encouraged conversation from those usually a bit inhibited, and lessened “taking over” the conversation by our more dominant course attendees).

Many thanks in advance – this listserv is a bunch of rockstars!

Best,
Cory
--
Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Communication Design
Linköping University
E: cory.robinson at liu.se<mailto:cory.robinson at liu.se>
http://liu-se.academia.edu/StephenCoryRobinson<http://colostate.academia.edu/StephenCoryRobinson>
Founder, Nordic Privacy Center (nordicprivacy.org<https://nordicprivacy.org/>)