Today's Cool Tool: FlipGrid

by Beth Ritter-Guth (Associate Dean of Online Learning and Educational Technology)

Text based discussion boards are very useful, but they don't always create a sense of community among students. Recent studies show that students do better in courses where the student feels connected to the faculty member and to the students. One free tool that can help foster community is FlipGrid (http://flipgrid.com) This visual discussion board allows the professor to post a short video prompt and students can respond with short video responses. I've used this tool in the teaching of online American Romantics, American Realism & Naturalism, and Technical Writing. On course evaluations, and overwhelming number of students have indicated that this tool was their favorite. Resources for Further Study: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Oshea3/publication/323546351_Older_online_and_first_Recommendations_for_retention_and_success/links/5a9d1b88a6fdcc3cbacda331/Older-online-and-first-Recommendations-for-retention-and-success.pdf https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/advancing-social-presence-community-and-cognition-through-online-discussions/200150