Book Club
Create a course-long book club to further students connection to the topic.
Why Create this Learning Experience
Through active learning, this activity fosters collaboration, connection, and a sense of community. The class can unite around a central theme. The technique is to choose an a book that doesn’t hinder the cognitive load. If the course has dense heavy content, then it is best for the chosen book be light and vice versa.
To foster an interactive and engaging activity be sure to clearly articulate the expectations and establish parameters within the prompt. See the additional considerations on how to appropriately use this activity.
Prompt
Assessment Type: Graded or Non-Graded
Recommended Learning Tool: Discussion Forum
Learning Domain: A robust online course will incorporate a variety of learning domains to support students’ achievement of the course outcomes. This activity is best suited for a Low to Mid cognitive function.
If you are actively collaborating with a designer, please direct them to this resource if you are interested in utilizing this learning experience. It can be applied or adapted to your online course.
Additional Considerations
Consider the following recommendations to execute this activity effectively:
- This activity is useful for any discipline. Including courses where students could use a reprieve from dense content.
- To encourage participation, ask follow-up questions. Address students’ questions early to reduce confusion with the task.
- Setup a distinct space for the book club to take place throughout the duration of the course.
- Consider creating reading benchmarks to keep the momentum going throughout the duration of the course.
- Clearly articulate activity instructions and expectations, such as purpose, context, collaboration methods, submission format, deadlines, netiquette, model submission examples.
- Consider a rubric to provide students with directions and how their submission(s) will be evaluated.