In the context of higher education, the ‘reading with reciprocity’ assignment alters the usual assignment in which students write a critical analysis to learn both to identify arguments of another author’s ideas or work, and to evaluate them to avoid fallacies. Instead of criticizing and tearing arguments apart, students doing the ‘reading with reciprocity’ assignment elaborate on the text and see its positive practical implications regardless of the strengths of the arguments or whether they agree or disagree with the author. This enables students to learn more problem-solving skills and to put knowledge and ideas together in a collaborative and horizontal way.

In the ‘reading with reciprocity’ assignment, students shall pick three or four questions among the following to write a 1600-2000 words essay. Only the first question is mandatory to answer, the other ones as optional:

• What is the main purpose of the author and what arguments does she/he make?
• What are the strengths of the text you have read?
• If his/her ideas are implemented, what would be the positive effects on the world?
• What is useful in this text to your own work or future career?
• What can we further elaborate on the text to complement the author’s message?
• Which new arguments could be introduced based on the text?
• How do you imagine collaborating with the author to grapple the problems that he/she is trying to solve?
• What is this author saying that could be useful to your own thinking?
• How could the world benefit from his/her main ideas?

What is a breakout space (or breakout room)?

It is possible to divide a group of conference participants into several smaller groups using so called ‘breakout rooms’. This allows them to interact in smaller groups for a certain period of time. Afterwards all participants ‘automatically’ rejoin the larger virtual conference room. 

How can I prepare a breakout room?

Only moderators may prepare breakout rooms, most likely your lecturers. As a student your are most often a ‘participant’ of a virtual conference room, if not assigned a different role. As a participant you might get ‘invited’ to join a breakout room—you have to accept the invitation to join the room, which basically works the same as the larger virtual conference room, only with less people. By default, here, you will have more ‘rights’ as you switched your ‘role’ from participant to ‘moderator’; so you are able to use more of the functions provided (e.g. share your screen, upload slides, share an external video). 

What is the purpose of a breakout space? 

In teaching, it can enable working in smaller groups. For instance, you’d be able to discuss given questions, document your ideas on your shared notes and prepare to present them in the larger round. Remember to copy everything you need afterwards somewhere else because all your notes will be gone once the time of the breakout room has run out!

What is a screencast?

A screencast is a video of the visual content of your screen. Typically, a screencast also includes audio content, such as the recording of your voice when you give a talk. You are free to include a video feed from a webcam to show you as the person providing the talk.

What is the purpose of a screencast?

At the chair, we ask for screencasts as a form of an asynchronous presentation that can be shared with other students within the course and assessed by the lecturer as part of an examination. Recording a screencast offers a key advantage over a synchronous presentation: you can re-record your presentation if you are not happy with a result of an earlier recording.

How can I prepare a screencast? 

Structure a screencast like you would structure a presentation—consider specifically welcoming your audience, introduction, a main body presenting facts, reasoning, the conclusions you draw and the questions that your argument raises and should be considered in a discussion.
A range of screencast production softwares exists. We recommend OBS – Open Broadcaster Studio, which is free, open source and available across platforms. Free tutorials are available amass. You may consider editing your recording in a video editing software afterwards, to remove disruptions, etc.

What is a MOQ good for?

It is a widely held view that games improve the learning environment and create a better student experience. The MOQ activity is a way both to reinforce the learning capacity of students, and to generate a more dynamic class in the educational process of online modules.

How do instructors create a MOQ?

A MOQ activity can be easily implemented in online higher education. Instructors will generate MOQs through online applications (see, for example, the free plan of Mentimeter). This application allows to create a MOQ using online questions and answers to aggregate a total score and reveal the final winners.

How do students take part in a MOQ?

Students can participate in the MOQ through tablets, mobiles, laptops and desktops which have Internet access.