Going Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Online Discussion Questions with Flipgrid and Classroom

Online discussion questions have been around since the dawn of online learning; however, is this an effective one-size-fits-all approach to learning? Brain science is revealing that variability is the rule and not the exception. If variability is the rule, then why do we expect our students to have online discussions the same way?

Flexible Discussion

Let's say that you want to have your students participate in a discussion question. If you can provide flexibility, then why not try to post the question in Google Classroom and Flipgrid?  Here's how it might work.

Here's a video tutorial and text instructions below:

Step 1: Create a New Topic in FlipGrid

If you are new to Flipgrid, you might want to check out my tutorial prior to this step. You will want to create a new Topic in your Flipgrid. A topic is your discussion question. Choose "Create Topic" after you add in your title, description, and video response time.

Step 2: Share Your Topic

It might be easier to open up your topic and choose "Share Topic." When you do this, you will be able to share directly to your Google Classroom.

Step 3: Choose Your Google Classroom

Choose the Google Classroom icon and select your class. Then choose how you want the video to be posted. For this example, I will use the Question format. Type in your instructions and post. I decided that I was going to give students the option to type their response in Google Classroom or record their response in Flipgrid. See example.