It is recommended to publish the homepage of the workspace or the orientation module of the workspace, course info even before the start of the study. On the front page of the workspace, students can read information about future studies, and on the course info pages, students can familiarize themselves with matters related to the implementation of the study in advance.
Use the preliminary assignment as a support for familiarizing yourself with the study
It is possible to get the students to familiarize themselves with knowledge base and other content with the help of a preliminary assignment. The pre-assignment often removes the backlog of assignments from the beginning of the study, and thus students have more time to familiarize themselves with the content of the orientation. The pre-task is especially suitable for multi-modal teaching and online studies, because the task can be used as a qualifying task.
Students who have completed the assignment by the deadline can start the course. If the pre-task is a qualifying task, it should be clearly mentioned in the implementation plan’s teaching section, method of implementation, and the return date of the pre-task should be mentioned in the section important dates of the implementation. As the use of qualifying tasks becomes more common, the method of operation becomes more familiar to students and the demands of students to get to their studies without doing the task decreases.
At the beginning of the online meeting, the students descend from their everyday life into a shared space. Note each newcomer with a welcome, if the size of the group allows it. After that, tuning in to the edge of learning follows. Tuning in is largely about managing expectations. It gives shape to the session and commits to joint action. Agree here on the rules of the game: asking to speak, using the camera, etc.
It is good to use time for a small introduction of students and teachers at the beginning of the online meeting, after greetings. Each student turns on the camera and tells, for example, one thought about the study that is about to start or how he felt when he just landed from his everyday life in the common space. Online meetings are often short-lived and intensive in content, but introducing yourself is useful for student teamwork. It’s much more pleasant to invite someone you’ve seen and heard online than to ask for team members based on name alone on a black screen.
