Below you’ll find tools and activities that can help to foster discussion both synchronously and asynchronously.
For real-time video discussion, Zoom is your best option. Establishing communication guidelines (like everyone taking turns speaking, or using the chat feature to ask questions) and assigning roles (like having someone monitor the chat window) will help make Zoom discussions smoother. Using break out rooms can mimic small-group conversations.
For asynchronous, text-based discussion, Moodle forums allow students to post and reply to each other directly within Moodle.
VoiceThread (which is also integrated into Moodle) is a great tool for asynchronous discussion. Students can comment VoiceThreads you create, or can create and comment on each other’s VoiceThreads. These comments can be left over time and turn into an asynchronous audio, video, or text conversation among students.
Slack is a useful option for both real-time and asynchronous text-based communication. Faculty and students can communicate with each other and share files on a variety of topics (called channels) pre-defined by the faculty member.
