Learning activity

Introduction to course syllabus – Comprehension exercise

Give guidance to students as they review your course syllabus

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Pedagogy

Flipped classroom

Learning outcome

Knowledge uptake

Prep time

Low (<10 min)

Activity type

Learning Activity

Why this learning activity?

Learning activities targeting high-order skills like this one can help you activate students more effectively. This learning activity will help you with:

Peer interaction

Students will enhance their communication skills by interacting with assigned peers, fostering a sense of familiarity and connection within the course.

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Feedback and engagement

Students will practice giving and receiving constructive feedback through the open discussion platform, improving their critical thinking and collaborative skills.

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Sense of belonging

By participating in peer matching and discussions, students will build a sense of belonging and community within the course, which is a predictor of student success.

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Activity setup

Activity steps Activity goals Tools used In this activity

Introduction to course syllabus – Comprehension exercise

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Activity steps

1. Read instructions: Go through the instructions to understand the activity requirements. Note any guidelines or criteria.‍

2. Annotate multimedia: Engage with the provided multimedia material, which could be a document, video, audio, or image. Use the annotation tools to highlight, comment, and respond to specific sections or topics as directed. These annotations help you and your peers discuss and understand the material better.‍

3. Reflect on the material: Reflect on what you learned from the material. Write about how the annotations and discussions influenced your understanding and any questions or thoughts you have.

Learning Activities Used

Interactive Document

Student-Content engagement to stimulate student success

Comprehension

Develop critical thinking via guided reading comprehension

In this activity

Getting students acquainted with the syllabus before the course begins ensures that students are aware of what the outcomes are for the course, as well as what they can expect in regards to activities, formative and summative assessments.

Uploading it in a comprehension enables students to highlight parts of the syllabus that may not make sense to them, that they have questions about, and enable collaboration between students from the outset.

You can add a document, such as your syllabus, where you can thereafter add:
- Students can annotate the text and attribute it to one of the chosen topics you’ve defined as a teacher.
- Require a summary per category of annotations the student has added.
Reflection
- Encourage students to reflect on their main take aways
- What do they look forward to in the semester, what will the challenges be, and where do they feel their strengths will shine?