Designing Interaction with Interactive Technology

When teaching with technology, a variety of ways to present and interact with course content can keep students engaged and focused on the topics within a course. Interactions often occur in a unidirectional or bi-directional manner going from the course to the student, or from the student to the course instructor. With interactive technology, there are techniques, tools, and strategies that can provide opportunities for learning activities to occur in a multi-directional manner.

Why, When, and Where Should I Use Interactive Technology?

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Why?

Engagement

Including interactive and multimedia materials in online courses helps attract students' attention, sustain engagement as well as appeal to diverse learners and learning preferences. 

Learner-Centred

Blended and online learning technologies have increased the quality, diversity, and accessibility of courses and programs for students.  Shifting to a learner-centered course design not only improves student experiences and outcomes, but instructors are able to transfer the blended/online pedagogical strategies back to their face-to-face teaching practice.

Digital Literacies

Media-rich and interactive learning design help students develop digital literacy skills useful for the real world and workplaces. When students are creating and contributing to the collection of interactive media resources, they are developing their digital skills, fluencies, and competencies. Over time, and with much critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis, this learning can lead to enriching their digital literacies.

Universal Design for Learners (UDL)

The use of interactivity and different media in online courses reduces media-specific barriers for some learners. It also increases the opportunities for all learners to develop a wider range of expression in a media-rich world.

 

Interactive Technology and Active Learning

Active learning strategies are key to online and hybrid learning and can be supported by the use of interactive technology that presents information in a more dynamic and interactive way. Focus on how learning outcomes can be best achieved when choosing a particular technology to implement into your course.

Learning strategies can be adapted and adopted for the online and hybrid contexts to engage students with sit and talk activities, or where students need to get up and move to accomplish the learning engagements. While many active learning strategies originate from physical, face-to-face classrooms, there are options and alternatives for online contexts. 

Recommended Resources

  • UBC - Active Learning Wiki: Includes what it is, why you use it, learning considerations, and practical guides for active learning strategies such as jigsaws; note sharing; student-generated test questions; value line; and reflective journals.
  • Active Learning Strategies Links to an external site. (University of Berkley): Includes strategies like Think, Pair, Share; quick write; turn and talk; polling; group quiz; jigsaws; sorting strips; pause and think; gallery walk; fishbowl and four corners.
  • Active Learning Strategies Links to an external site. (University of Waterloo): Includes ideas like mitten discussion; sticky note clustering; dotmocracy; brainstorming; crowdsourcing; one-minute reflections; and structured debates.

If you would like to explore customized options for your teaching, contact the ETS at ets.educ@ubc.ca to set up a 1-on-1 consultation with a learning designer or learning technologist.

 

What Tools Can I Use?

Some UBC-licensed tools to consider integrating in your course:

  • H5P (Interactive elements created outside of Canvas then embedded into a page)
  • Camtasia
  • Qualtrics
  • Quizzes in Canvas
  • Wordpress (Individual student blogs)
  • Wiki (Course-specific wiki sites. Example: ETEC 510 Design Wiki)

The next few pages explore in more detail how some of these tools can be used in your course.