During our annual Associate Instructor Orientation on August 21st, a group of IUB instructors volunteered their expertise to share some classroom knowledge with our newest instructors. There was so much fantastic information communicated on that day, I figured, why keep it to myself? So, I’ll be sharing a few of the “quick tips” I learned from these pros.
Xian Wang and Shahzarin Khan facilitated the session, “Enhancing Classroom Engagement: Strategies for Active Learning.” During the workshop, they shared an activity called “Dot-ocracy.” In this activity, students use dot stickers to create visual displays (think: bar charts or graphs) by marking their opinions or knowledge on a blank chart. It’s a great way to get 
students to anonymously vote, and it helps instructors instantly gauge the levels of agreement (or, let’s be honest, disagreement) in the room. After stickers are placed, students can either take a gallery walk to see the group’s collective wisdom or engage in a full-class discussion about the results. If you want a digital version of this activity, think about using Microsoft Forms. Shahzarin and Xian also conveyed some important advice: always explain the “why” to your students. Don’t just make them stick dots for the sake of it—share how this activity contributes to their learning. This transparency creates better learning opportunities for our students!
Much gratitude towards Shahzarin and Xian for their presentation at AI Orientation and for enriching our IU Bloomington teaching!
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