How many hours each week do you spend on creating, sharing, monitoring, evaluating and providing feedback on student activities? One survey found teachers average more than 10 hours weekly on planning and grading, and another study reported that about a third of teachers spend at least 2 hours daily on pre- and post-instruction activities. It is not uncommon for teachers to spend hours searching through edtech tools to customize and differentiate for individual student needs. An easy-to-use platform for teachers to handle the entire loop from creation to feedback can be the answer to saving time and energy.
1. Create digital lessons from a library
Finding user-friendly online platforms to create projects and activities is crucial in our classrooms. And while you want students to enjoy getting practice, it’s also important for them to receive immediate feedback. When choosing your content creation tool, the ultimate goal is to design engaging, interactive exercises that expand and augment student learning while allowing teachers to swiftly access data and provide timely, insightful feedback.
“When we have access to tools that enable us to bring in a variety of learning experiences, without the overwhelm of navigating to different sites, it saves valuable time for class interactions and more activities together,” says Rachelle Dené Poth, author and consultant at THRIVEinEDU.
A curated activity library is a fundamental tool in this process. The BookWidgets Library offers more than 40 templates and allows teachers to create and then save lessons that are not only interactive and engaging but also connect with their students in a variety of ways.
Research shows that “students who effectively interacted with learning activities in a course have better results.” So how do they achieve this? Identify the intended learning outcome and create activities around it. Teachers must ask, “What is the most important part I want my students to know, do or value?”
2. Incorporate auto-grading
When adding interactive questions to formative or summative assignments, feedback is important. Activities that are graded automatically allow real-time feedback for students and save precious time for teachers. In a BookWidgets activity, most question types are automatically graded. You can immediately provide students with the correct answer, ensuring timely feedback. For questions that need a manual check, you can provide a rationale so students can compare their answers with your example.
Other options include providing auto-feedback messages based on a specific score, only showing students whether the answer is correct or incorrect and allowing students to correct their mistakes. There’s a feedback option for every teacher—and every student!
Check out this sample worksheet, which outlines the various question types.
3. Integrate with your LMS for lesson sharing
One great thing about sharing your lesson content via an LMS integration is the feedback loop. This allows teachers to review and return students' work inside the LMS, where their grades also are synced. BookWidgets offers a Google Classroom add-on integration, a simple way to modify instruction for the ideal learner fit. Teachers can share a complete digital course effectively and efficiently.
Research shows “the right materials at the right time for the right learners… yield the right results.” That’s why sharing your digital lesson content inside your trusted learning management system is important for teachers and students. Students are already familiar with the LMS and don’t have to learn how to browse different websites for various lesson activities for additional teachers. Besides integrating lessons into Google Classroom, you can also integrate with Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Moodle, Schoology, Blackboard, ItsLearning and Brightspace.
4. Monitor students in real time and provide instant feedback
Once we have produced and distributed content, we need to keep an eye on what our students are doing. In a typical setting, we can move around our classroom. But what about in a remote or hybrid environment? What if you want to see what your students are doing on those screens in the traditional classroom? Integrating student monitoring tools occasionally calls for using a different platform.
Real-time live monitoring is one click away with BookWidgets and your LMS integration. The teacher can support struggling students while also motivating speedy learners. Take a look at live monitoring in action.
5. Leverage a data dashboard
With a reporting dashboard integration, teachers can use data to accurately assess student learning and close the feedback loop. With BookWidgets, most question types have automatic grading, making it simple to view, evaluate and work with the rich data in the reporting dashboard. Educators can apply this knowledge, guiding students toward the intended learning goal by providing feedback and encouragement.
Bring It All Together
As classroom educators, we are true problem solvers. We are motivated by our desire to engage students in meaningful work, but we also strive to alleviate stress and wasted energy by creating classroom rituals and routines.
By using the BookWidgets total loop from content creation to evaluation, engaging activities for students of all ages can be included in your classroom. Providing opportunities to think laterally and linearly helps learners progress to the next steps in their learning. That makes it possible to enhance teaching and learning, emphasizing critical thinking, increasing motivation, communicating effectively and providing room for creativity.
Finding the ideal tool for you and your students might be daunting with so many available options. With BookWidgets in your tech toolbox, you can keep learning objectives and learner needs in mind while providing the most effective experience for you and your students.
