If you’re struggling to find ways to reach and engage students at this time, Sibme is prepared to help. Right now, we’re extending free licensing to any school or district that wants to connect staff and students in our fully-integrated web and mobile platform. For many students, a phone might be the only way they can access the Internet, so our mobile apps are a crucial part of your instructional strategy. Whether your plan is to live stream video to students, make recordings available, or simply curate online resources, Sibme can help.
Don’t require in-person viewing
Video conferencing has made significant strides over the last few years, but there are still many opportunities for something to go wrong. If the only way students will be able to participate in your class is by joining a scheduled web-conference, you’re setting yourself up to leave at least a few students out. If you do choose to hold a live web-conference, record it and share the video to a Huddle so students can watch on-demand, ask questions using time-stamped comments, and continue to interact with each other after the live web conference is over. Or you can enable Huddle Conferences to save yourself the extra step. Web conferences from Zoom started through Huddle Conferences are recorded and uploaded to Huddles automatically!
Differentiate
Different students need different ways to consume and respond to learning materials online. For some students, video and audio might be problematic. For others, too much text can be a problem. And asking for a written response in discussion feeds is going to be difficult for some students. Allow students to respond to and consume materials with video, audio, image, and text, just the way you would in a classroom. If you’re using Sibme videos, students can use audio-comments to respond with spoken words instead of typed. Or they can draw responses, snap a photo with their phone, and share it as a video comment attachment or as an artifact in a Huddle. And don’t be afraid to ask students to record video responses and share them to Huddles. This is a great way for students to respond with a different medium and give them a chance to see one another during this time of social distancing!
Your inbox can be your friend or your foe
Emailing resources back and forth to parents and students can cause inbox overload. Storing all resources and content in a Sibme Huddle makes it easy to organize resources in a secure environment that can be accessed from any web-connected device. But email still has some use. If you’re trying to keep track of when students and parents ask questions, submit assignments, and participate in discussions, Sibme email notifications can be a good way to know when you’ll need to access new updates to your Huddle.
Titles matter
When creating virtual content for your class, make sure it’s easy for students and parents to know which content they need, and when they need it. Consider including dates in your file titles so they’re easy to sort and access.
Assessment Huddles for students
Most of you are familiar with Coaching and Collaboration Huddles, but many of you might not know that there is a third kind of Huddle available for you to use with students. In Assessment Huddles, you can create required submissions for students. They’ll be able to see any resources or videos you share into the Huddle, and will be able to share into the Huddle themselves, but students won’t see one another’s submissions in the huddles. This helps you manage student privacy concerns while easily managing student work. Don’t let the word “Assessment” throw you off, these Huddles can be used for a variety of student submission types, and they don’t even have to be graded.
