Classroom Engagement Techniques

I led a discussion with #medicaleducation leaders from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus today at Children's Hospital Colorado. It was a hybrid platform which is fitting for a talk on #AI in medical education. Medical education needs to change- we need to train the next generation and provide them with tools of adaptablity, flexibility, a growth mindset, and to be highly critical and to question dogma and new "certainties" to the same degree. We as medical leaders need to be involved in the safe, ethical, effective, and appropriate use of AI in healthcare and medical education. We can not sit on the sidelines. Here were main points of discussion: 1-AI is here TODAY and it will be used by trainees to improve their own learning. 2-The current generation of medical education leaders need to roll up their sleeves and become learners themselves of AI in order to teach the next generation of clinicians. Old models of education will not work in the current era. I can not say this enough. 3- "AI augmented education" will come in at least 3 main forms: as a teacher that uses platforms that require active, not passive engagement, as a tutor providing individualized 24/7 learning that understands an individual's deficits/learning styles/forgetting curve, and in more collaborative and multi-disciplinary learning teams (time to break down discipline silos). 4- AI, especially large language models that are now publicly available, have democratized data. 5-Specific topic areas: chatbots, gamification, adaptive learning, intelligent tutoring, assessment, research, realistic virtual patients with dynamic and realistic conversations. What did I/we miss today? #UsingWhatWeHaveBetter

Sitting through another online event, nodding along, but not really feeling engaged? I just experienced this feeling last week in an online webinar. There has been trouble with tech, which consumed a lot of time, there was little interaction with the participants, and the wasn’t quite built for everyone in the room. I left feeling disappointed and unmotivated. I've been moderating events, facilitating workshops, and giving trainings now for over 20 years. In this time, I’ve learned that truly engaging and great events are rare. The good part: it is a skill that people can learn. Three takeaways that I share with folks who are just starting out or for those with more experience who could also need a check-in from time to time are the following: Preparation is key. Always keep the audience in mind. And, offer various ways to learn. Preparation: With the goal and purpose in mind you should design the event. From opening with welcoming, sharing the agenda and rules of engagement to delivering the content to closing with a summary and feedback. Do several dry runs, meaning that you go through your whole program without audience or maybe with colleagues who can give constructive feedback. Also consider which tech will be used and test it before using it. Audience: The event is not for you; it’s for the audience. What do you know about the people who are attending? Do the participants know each other? Which questions could you ask to learn about their expectations, needs, and knowledge? You can do that, i.e,. through polls, surveys, or discussions. Be flexible and don’t be scared to adjust the agenda if needed, and communicate why you are doing what you are doing. There have been so many times that I was a participant and I couldn’t follow the instructions, or I didn’t understand what was asked of me. Learning: People learn differently. By offering various ways to learn, engage, and participate, everyone in the room has a chance to achieve the set objectives. It might be useful to make learning and reflection materials accessible prior to, during, and after the event. Some people prefer working alone while others prefer working in groups. Some need to hear, others need to read content. Don't just think about what you like, but educate yourself about what people with different ways of thinking need. And let me be clear. You'll never please everyone in the room. That’s okay. But by following the above-mentioned tips, you can get pretty close. And remember, there is help out there - hello Ellen and team 👋🏾 What is important to you in virtual spaces? What have been good or bad experiences? Do you need help in creating more engaging and inclusive events? Send me a DM. #Facilitation #Workshops #Training #Virtual #SaferSpaces ALT- Text in the comments.

My students' favorite use case for AI isn't generating content. It's creating their own AI tutor. Here are 3 ways my students use AI. ------------------- 1️⃣ INFINITE EXAMPLES → Struggling with something specific? → Upload an example you're struggling with → Ask AI to give practice questions like that. → Keep going... ------------------- 2️⃣ LOW-STAKES PRACTICE No matter what I do, some students will find me scary. Even if... ↳ I'm student-centered ↳ I'm as nice as possible ↳ I engage in honest conversation My students are scared because I have power over them. So, they use AI to... → Role play → Create scenarios → Practice skills over and over ------------------- 3️⃣ ALTERNATE EXPLANATIONS → Miss the professor's explanation? → Or online have the textbook's answer? → Take a picture and upload to Google Gemini. → Ask Gemini to explain it to you. → Don't like the explanation? → Ask for alternate ones. ------------------- Students who know how to build their own AI tutors with a few prompt techniques will have a HUGE advantage.

The most impactful change I’ve made in my classroom over the past few years is a simple exercise that came out of my work in #engineering education assessment.   At the start of each class period, I spend 1 minute discussing our #learning goals for class that day.   On our course website, I put these goals at the top of the page for each class to remind students what they should be able to do having followed the class, done the practice problems, and read the book.   When writing these goals, I keep the following in mind: 👩🏻🏫  What do my #students need to take with them from this class? 🌏  What fundamental knowledge should they learn, and how does this relate to the real-world? 👩🏻🔬 What is the “action” I want them to do? I try to state goals in a Bloom’s taxonomy framework where their knowledge gains are hierarchical in terms of their ability to do something.   How has doing this helped my students? 🙋🏻♀️ They ask more focused questions during class that show engagement with the goals and material. 👩🏻🎓 They know the goals of their studying and have a sense of mastery when it comes to exam time.   How has this helped me as an #instructor? 🙄 I don’t need to answer that “what’s on the test” question anymore. I point them to the learning goals. 🫶 When they’re stressed, I can better target what information is unclear by asking them “do you know how to do…?” and help them focus on that material. 🧐 It forces me to craft lectures and activities that align with our goals, rather than just what’s in a textbook, making my class more engaging and streamlining material presentation. If we're going to assess students' learning, we need to "write our own exam" by determining what they should know at the end of a course. Why not share this information with them? By letting students know the goals of the course - and thus what we're assessing them on - we empower them. This in no way tells them "how" to get an A. They still have to do the hard work of learning. But it helps them focus their studying efforts and benchmark their attainment.

Here are 12 free tips to get more participation in your next training session You're asked to deliver a training but are anxious about a face full of stares and nooooooooooooobody talking. You can likely almost feel the sweat forming already. Here's a laundry list of ideas that will get your participants engaged and participating in your session. Pick and choose the ones that make sense for your material. ✅ Push as much housekeeping as possible to pre-class communications so you get to audience participation as quickly as possible ✅ Have participants interview each other for intros - prompt them to ask one specific question related to topic ✅ Plot-twist: have interview partners from above introduce the other person - just don't tell them this until after they've chatted ✅ Ask what specific skills or ideas they are hoping to learn/take away from the class - have everybody share ✅ Ask what is the biggest frustration the audience has with the topic - let them share without responding ✅ After you explain the agenda ask them to write down 3 to 5 specific ways this material will help, make their roles more effective, etc - debrief & discuss ✅ Launch a game/activity/hands-on skills demonstration as close to start of session as possible ✅ Ask audience "when is the last time you did (thing related to topic)? How did it go" ✅ Lean heavily into Socratic delivery ✅ If participants don't answer right away, take a reaaaaaalllly long sip of your coffee/beverage - let the silence prompt someone to speak ✅ If someone asks a question reply with "if you had to guess....." and prompt them to attempt answering ✅ If someone asks a question turn to the group and ask, "what do you all think about this"? Bonus 13th tip: Tell them their experiences and thoughts have value and they're expected to participate Which one of these interested you most? What would you add?

Can we reverse the process where students avoid learning by using AI tools, and instead have them train a model on a specific domain or topic? Teaching is the best way to learn and maybe we could have students teach an LLM? As I researched this idea, I found a similar initiative that worked with custom software built at Vanderbilt, called 'Betty's brain' . Not sure if anyone has tried this with LLM's in class yet, but this is exactly what I am getting at. Another trend that informed this idea is the proliferation of firms providing capabilities to provide human feedback to improve LLM’s. One of the biggest firms in the space is Scale, which provides services to OpenAI to help improve the output from ChatGPT and such. So when you give a ‘thumbs down’ to a chatGPT response, some poor college student contracted by Outlier AI, which gets business from Scale AI, might land up with your conversation a couple days later. How do I know? my kids are training the models on outlierAI :). Perhaps we could leverage the protocols these firms use to train the models in class? The final score for the class or module could then be based on the performance of their AI model, assessed through automatic benchmarking by a more advanced language model. The instructor would only need to train this smarter model or could use the most advanced general purpose model and create the bench marking questions and answers. We constrain the capability of the LLM that students have been given, host it in a controlled environment so they cannot just dump an entire PDF textbook into it or feed it unlimited text for context. For starters we can stick to text based models and not include vision enabled models. They are encouraged to use external AI tools to ask questions, get answers, and synthesize the knowledge and then train their individual LLM. Another interesting spin could be if they are expected to create a knowledge graph from the readings they are given or other external sources and then use that along with the LLM. The instructor would most likely use a flipped classroom model and perhaps could continue as earlier with some in class group problem solving/discussions. As the students learn the foundations of a topic, they could get feedback from other students testing their model or perhaps another advanced LLM, so as to replicate scaffolding. We could have some kind of instructor/TA in the loop as well. Students reflect on their training process and document it. Each LLM instance for a student could be a docker container that could be used to create multiple instances in a cloud provider. We would use an open source LLM, so there are no licensing costs and no data leakage issues. By training their AIs, students gain insights into learning with AI as a collaborator and gives them skills that they can use to learn any topic and also prepares them for the workplace. What do you think?

Many of us have experienced this: We give a presentation and when we are done, we open it up for questions. Moments of awkward silence follow. Eventually, a few questions trickle in. Embarrassment avoided. But we know: active audience engagement looks different. Much of my work with clients revolves around designing engaging, highly interactive workshops, trainings, panel discussions, and presentations. I just stumbled upon a short article by Joe Murphy, CCEP (see link), sharing an effective technique he uses to get participants involved during presentations or trainings. The beauty of it: It is very easy to apply, doesn’t require props of any kind, and suitable both for in-person and virtual settings. The technique in brief: 1) After a short introduction of yourself and your topic, ask participants to turn to a neighbor or two. Ask them to introduce themselves and share what they hope to get out of this session. 2) As you finish your presentation and move into the discussion part, ask participants again to turn to a neighbor and discuss: What was presented that you have questions about? What is your perspective on the topic? 3) After a few minutes, harvest discussion topics from the group. Why is this simple technique effective? 1) The presentation becomes more user-centered. It allows the presenter to be responsive to the interests of the audience and conveys to the audience that they and their perspectives are valued. 2) The exercise loosens participants’ tongue. As they speak to each other, they rehearse what they have to say, boosting their confidence to speak up in the larger audience. 3) People are much more satisfied with a session where they were able to contribute and felt heard. The best techniques are sometimes very simple. I hope you will find Joe’s technique as useful as I did. I am curious to hear: What techniques can you recommend for designing more engaging sessions? Please share in the comments. #facilitation #uxdesign #ethicsandcompliance https://lnkd.in/eivNaqZB

I used to struggle connecting with my students. I knew that was the most important part of my job. So I found a better way. I hope you find it as useful as I did. It's the R.E.L.A.T.E framework. Don't skip any step. It's a package deal. R - Recognize individuality Every student is different. Notice their strengths, weaknesses, and interests. If you don't understand them, you can't reach them. E - Empathize with them What might they be experiencing? Don't just assume. Dig and find out. Teaching isn't just about academics. L - Listen to them Find out what they're going through. Understand why they might be disengaged. When you care you become someone they trust. A - Affirm their feelings Identify their concerns. Explain why their feelings are valid. Make sure they see you understand them. A few moments can make them feel seen and respected. T - Teach human skills It's not all about academics. Teach them empathy, responsibility, resilience. Validate their need to learn these skills. This helps them trust your guidance. E - Ensure regular feedback Address any concerns they have about their performance. Provide constructive feedback (hint: use AI). Encourage them to do better. When students see you put in effort They will reciprocate. This framework has been a game-changer for me. I hope it does the same for you.

“Engagement is the key to unlocking the full potential of your college experience. In the classroom, interaction and participation are not just requirements; they are pathways to deeper understanding, collaboration, and personal growth.” ✍️ Students (from other classes) often tell me that they have never had an interaction class in their life. Last week, I hosted a friendly competition in my Introduction to Computer Science I & II classes with 5 teams consisting 5-6 students competing against each other to write code on the whiteboard🤺 To my surprise, students ranging from the most boisterous to most shy all ran to the board to gain points for their team. Ties were settle in a 1 on 1 single round Rock, Paper Scissors match in front of the class which caused several uproars when the shyest of students bested their opponents 🪨📃✂️😂. Yelling switch every couple seconds forcing students to explain their thought process, existing code while reiterating the problem as quickly as possible to best other teams 🏆 It was absolutely amazing! 🤩 The laughs, the incentives, loopholes, etc., was so engrossing that students from other classes came in and wanted to participated (which I allowed) and it caused healthy chaos, rivalry, and fostered dire teamwork 🤝🥳 Now, you may ask why do this in college classes. Well, after 2.5 years of COVID-19 quarantining restrictions, the notions of active interaction and participation were taken away—crucial factors to develop necessary soft skills. Active participation fosters a dynamic learning environment where ideas are exchanged, perspectives are broadened, and critical thinking skills are honed. It allows you to connect with classmates and professors, building a network that can support you throughout your academic and professional journey. I hope to keep fostering inclusive and immersive environments for students moving forward ✨ Don’t underestimate the power of your voice in the classroom. Your insights and contributions are valuable, not just to your own learning but to the learning of others around you. So, raise your hand, ask questions, share your thoughts, and embrace the opportunity to engage fully in your college education. Your future self will thank you for it 💫 PS: I know you all said to tag you if I made a LinkedIn post but there were over 50 students that participated in this activity, and that’s a lot of tagging 😅 so maybe another time! #Engagement #ClassroomParticipation #CollegeExperience

The biggest barrier in education isn't kids 'cheating' with AI - it's helping teachers learn to teach with it. 🍎 This summer, I've been working alongside students and teachers, listening and learning. Many conversations focus on "preventing cheating," but I think we're approaching this wrong. Students are naturally curious and resourceful - that's a strength we can build on. The real opportunity lies with educators: helping them feel confident and supported as they explore new ways to engage students through AI integration. This transition is crucial because it removes the stigma around AI use and transforms it into educational opportunity to work with AI as a thought partner - a skill that will be essential for graduating students. 🎯 That's why Eric Howe and I created "The AI Lesson Architect," a Custom GPT designed to help teachers create lesson plans that thoughtfully integrate AI. Here's an example that excited us: We developed a lesson on Immigration, Industrialization, and Social Movements (1870–1900). Instead of a traditional approach, students step into the shoes of people their own age from that era - new immigrants, young factory workers, teen labor activists. They create diaries from the perspective of factory workers, developing empathy and making personal connections to history. (this is one of a million examples that can come alive with a thoughtful creative approach to working with AI as new tool) When teachers feel supported and equipped, incredible learning happens. The future of education is about empowering educators to create experiences that inspire deeper understanding and connection. 🏫 I'm curious: What support would be most helpful as you explore AI in your teaching or learning environment? If this resonates with you, I'd love your help sharing this with the educators, parents, and administrators in your network. You can find The AI Lesson Architect GPT link in the comments below - feel free to try it out and pass it along. #EdTech #TeachingWithAI #Education #Teachers #AI #LessonPlanning #StudentEngagement