Appendix A: List of Online Learning Activities for PE Courses

The following is a fairly comprehensive list of online learning activities that course providers may want to consider as part of building interactivity and instructor facilitation into their online courses.

The activities described were taken from a text written by Curtis J. Bonk and Ke Zhang titled Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, & Doing (2008) and are used with permission from the authors.

Table 1. Activities Relevant to the Acquisition of Knowledge: Emphasis on Words and Text
Activity	Description	Skills and Objectives
Online Scavenger Hunt	Activity designed to help student become familiar with course content and to foster discovery learning by exploring the vast amount of Web resources available on a topic. In a scavenger hunt, individuals or groups of students might be asked to find a set of items in a list or accomplish a set of tasks.	Includes exploratory learning, concept review, search skills, and reflection on what is found and what is learned. It can also be an early course activity to determine if learners have the proper passwords and access to necessary technology tools and resources.
Web Tours	Given that Web resources can overwhelm students, some instructors decide to start a session with a Web tour of the course agenda, course modules, and task options. Other instructors might take students on a Web tour of online resources that might prove valuable in completing the course. Web tours are common in corporate training when using synchronous conferencing tools, though they can find use in nearly any online educational setting.	Includes basic or factual knowledge, exploration skills, search strategies, self-directed learning, reflection on new knowledge, and inquiry learning. A key goal is of this activity is exposure to learning resources that be used later in the course.
WebQuest	In a WebQuest, online resources are arranged for learners to explore and review and then debate ideas, events, and concepts. In effect, the instructor finds a set of materials and provides access to them online in a set of activities. The steps are laid out for the students; the ways in which they can be assessed are posted.	Includes basic or factual knowledge, exploration skills, search strategies, reflection on new knowledge, inquiry learning, and problem solving.
Guided Readings	Content explorations are guided when students read from a selection of articles prescreened by the instructor. Prescreened or pre-assigned readings might be employed when the students need more guidance because of their maturity level, content familiarity, or experience with e-learning. A set of questions or issues might be embedded or posted in the LMS to guide their reading.	Includes basic content information, awareness and comprehension of key concepts and principles, reflection on concepts learned, and time to discuss and debate issues.
Discovery Readings	Similar in concept to Guided Readings, Discovery Readings are more open-ended where students select articles based on their own course-related interests. In such a situation, a student might be assigned online reading materials or be asked to find articles that relate to the activities of a particular week or module.	Includes online searching and browsing skills, article and information filtering, and selection of relevant and personally meaningful materials. Such an activity equips students with twenty-first century skills related to information search and critical analysis, while simultaneously empowering them with self-directed learning activities. The goal here is motivating and retaining students through choice, goals and personal relevance.
Question and Answer Sessions with Instructor	For effective online learning, students should be able to discuss course concerns, issues, and questions with the instructor using e-mail, text chat, and online discussion forums. Such questions and responses can later be posted within the LMS for future reference.	Includes feedback, sense of instructor social presence and instructional immediacy, interactivity, and prompt feedback. A primary objective is to focus student work and answer pressing questions.
Online Expert Chats	Students will most likely enjoy online chats with experts, especially when audio is enabled. Expert chats are highly effective and engaging across learning settings.	Includes course interactivity, feedback, and sense of instructor presence or instructional immediacy. This activity forces students to interpret ideas of an expert and ferret out themes or issues in them. Among the key goals is to connect course materials to real-world activities.
Online Synchronous Testing	Chat tools can be used for online quizzing of select student to test their understanding of the course content. Some instructors use dynamic assessment, in which each additional testing item is based on previous testing results. In effect, such tests are not related to typical online quizzed that might be stored in a course LMS, but, instead, they require instructor’s real-time interaction with students and grading of synchronous interactions and postings. In effect, the instructor posts questions, problems, or issues in a synchronous chat for students to answer, react to, and solve. While these types of activities are in line with social constructivist viewpoints, related to teaching and learning, such real-time testing and grading is dynamic, complex, highly flexible, open-ended or semi-structured, and intellectually demanding.	Includes comprehension, quick decision making, dynamic feedback, and application of terms and concepts.
Synchronous or virtual Classroom Instructor Presentations	Live or synchronous online instruction has been successfully used in corporate training for a number of years. Key advantages of synchronous instruction include having social interaction and support from peers as well as the instructor; interactive learning with polls, chats, and surveys; and the ability to archive the session when finished for those who have missed it.	Includes a sense of instructor social presence and instructional immediacy, feedback, interactivity, and focus on critical content. Also helps form a course community.
Expert Lectures and Commentary	This activity is a spoken expert commentary or narration layered over online resources such as PowerPoint slides, Web site tours, or other visual representations. Such lectures and commentaries are different from synchronous chat sessions, since they are not question-and-answer sessions. In effect, expert lectures might be synchronous or real-time presentations for a class or repurposed content used asynchronously.	Includes reflection, analysis, appreciation of multiple perspectives, and learning content with different delivery mechanisms. Skills fostered include reflection, analysis, and synthesis.
Posting Webliographies or Web Resources	This activity requires students to post or exchange important Web resources or Webliographies that they have found. A Webliography is a compendium or list of Web links which allow the user to access information in an expedient fashion. Students should not only be assigned to create a Webliography but also be asked to respond to those that that their peers have built. In addition, one might have students evaluate their resources on some scale or continuum, thereby adding an evaluative component to this highly generative activity.	Includes online exploration, self-directed learning, decision making, and digital literacy skills in browsing, filtering, and compiling information. Another focus or goal is to share and reflect on information.

Table 2. Activities Relevant to Reflecting on Content: Emphasis on Problem Clarification and Knowledge Construction
Activity	Description	Skills and Objectives
Reuse Chat Transcripts	This activity involves the reuse and repurposing of synchronous chat transcripts. The chat transcript might be used for students to reflect on the differences in perspectives from two or more experts, the themes appearing within various chat sessions, or the content that was covered during units or weeks after a particular chat session. It might also be used to reflect on how student views changed after chatting with or speaking to one or more experts.	Includes synthesis skills, feedback, sense of social presence and instructional immediacy, comparison and contrast, appreciation of multiple perspectives, and analysis, evaluation, and other critical thinking skills.
Workplace or Job Reflections	Ask the student to reflect on their current job or workplace situation and to post their thoughts online. Additionally, the instructor can ask the student to conduct personal reflections on how they are applying key course content in their workplace. Ask student to read each other’s posts and ask them to summarize their reflections and compare them to the posts of their peers, highlighting the commonalities and differences in their observations.	Includes critical analysis skills, reflective writing and connecting content knowledge from books and lectures to real-world experiences.
Self-Check Quizzes and Exams	Students like to determine whether they know the content well enough to pass required examinations or course requirements as well as identify areas where they have deficiencies or misconceptions. This is especially true for modules and courses with extensive factual content. In effect, students want to know if they know something. An instructor might develop a set of quiz or test questions for students each week. Students can self-test or self-determine whether they are grasping the concepts or not.	Includes key course concepts and facts, feedback, self-directed learning, self-monitoring, and reflection.
Online Discussion Forums and Group Discussions	Online discussion forums are now highly familiar events in higher education. Online discussion forums can be pre-designed by the instructor, be student generated, or entail some combination of instructor and student design. Instructors can make salient certain key concepts or concerns for students to focus on in the content or topic.	Includes student reflection and expansion on course concepts and ideas, exploration of topics or ideas of personal interests, critical analysis, interaction, and synthesis. Another key goal is comparison to the interpretations or perspectives of other in the learning experience.
Personal Blogs	Students can be asked to create and maintain blogs or online diaries of their learning during a course. Instructors might ask students to post personal reflections on one or more of their routine readings. They can also post Web links, personal profiles, and pictures to their blogs. Each student in the course could be assigned a critical friend or Web buddy who provides feedback on those reflections.	Includes concept analysis, interpretation and integration skills, reflection skills, summary writing, writing as thinking, motivation and engagement, self-directed learning, and personal exploration on items or areas of interest.
Collaborative or Team Blogs	Blogs might also involve collaboration or virtual teaming. Students can be assigned partners to jointly summarize their progress on a project, joint reading assignment selections, and other experiences in their team blogs. The blog becomes a place for other teams to offer comments as well as for the instructor to provide feedback.	Includes concept analysis, interpretation, and integration skills, reflection skills, and personal exploration o items or areas of interest.
Synchronous and Asynchronous Discussion Combinations	One of the most interesting and engaging online instructional activities involves combining synchronous and asynchronous activities related to the work of one or more experts. Student will often strongly disagree with a viewpoint of an expert after reading one or more of their publications or interviews. However, when offering an opportunity to meet them personally in a synchronous chat or online videoconference, these same students will often find themselves agreeing with all or most of the views of the individual. In effect, they find that one article or publication does not represent all the ideas of an individual and that interests, findings, and perspectives of experts change over time.	This task entails a heavy dosage of perspective taking while offering the potential for cognitive dissonance and debate. It also fosters critical analysis, reflection, communication, insight, student interaction, and comparison and contrast.
Online Cases, Situations, and Vignettes	Posting of online case studies or situations to the LMS can foster student analysis and evaluations skills. Online cases have wide applicability and acceptability, especially with adult learners who have the experience base to relate to them and perhaps provide personal stories or situations that extend beyond them.	Includes critical thinking and analysis, inferencing skills, comparison and contrast, evaluation, and internalization of concepts and principles. A key goal is to understand how and where course principles can be applied.
Small Group Exam Question Challenges	Allowing students to design exam questions is one way to motivate them to study the material. In addition, such an activity is a prime example of a learner-centered approach that empowers students to control some aspect of the course activities or content while working collaboratively and discussing key concepts and principles within the content. When successfully implemented, such an approach builds ownership and pride for learning. And the work generated during one unit or course experience could be used in later iterations of the course. In effect, the course builds with student-generated content.	Includes collaboration, feedback, interaction, critical analysis, insight, concept review and attainment, and critical analysis and reflection.

Table 3. Activities Relevant to Visual Learning: Emphasis on Display of Information
Activity	Description	Skills and Objectives
Anchored Instruction with Online Video	In anchored instruction, there typically is a short “anchoring” event in the form of a video that instructors and students watch and then can later revisit and reevaluate. The intent is to create a problem-solving contents or environment using short video snippets. Such anchoring situations spur student interest in the topic being taught while allowing them to better define problems and more flexibly use their knowledge. Increasing, there are online tools and services for fining video-related content, such as Google videos, Google Images, YouTube, TeacherTube, MSNBC Video are a few.	Includes reflection, critical analysis and evaluation, observational skills, and grasping the application of concepts, rules, and procedures in action.
Concept Mapping Key Information	Student might be required to create concept maps or visual representations of key information or knowledge gained from the course. To guide their effort, they might use a tool like Inspiration, MindMapper, Visual Understanding Environment (VEU), FreeMind or Cmap. As part of this activity, student place key information or macro-propositions near the top of their maps and micro-propositions or secondary information below them. Linkages between terms as well as descriptions of such linkages are essential for understanding what the student has internalized. In addition, depicting casual relationships is crucial in certain disciplines or topics.	Includes knowledge integrations and synthesis, concept review, visualization of learning, reflection, critical analysis skills, insight, and logical thinking,
Video streamed Lectures and Presentations	Learning is enhanced when the students can see their instructor’s facial expressions and nonverbal cues during the delivery of course content. For this reason, asking your media department or instructional support personnel to video stream your presentation or lectures would be advantageous. This may involve lecturing in a designated room or equipping a computer with a Webcam and appropriate software such as Camtasia or Captivate to record and produce streamed videos. When done, instructors might assign students to watch these videos streamed lectures and summarize what they have learned.	Includes grasping visual cues, course content and declarative knowledge, and appreciation of instructor or expert viewpoints.
Video streamed Conferences and Events	As conferences, seminars, and institutes are increasingly streaming session presentations and activities, instructors might use such content in their courses to apprentice students into a field of study. Professional conferences in business, education, law, or most any field provide opportunities for students to reflect on the content they are learning and how others are currently using such knowledge, or perhaps how they might someday employ it as a practitioner in the field. Assignments might be structured around either archived conferences or live ones or both.	Includes grasping visual cues, course content, and declarative knowledge, and appreciation of expert viewpoints. Another key goal is extending student content learning beyond the course instructor or text.
Video Modeling and Professional Development	Professional schools and corporate training organizations are increasingly employing online videos to demonstrate how skills are used in the real world or on the job. The Department of Psychiatry at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, for instance, has a virtual interview project through which students have opportunities to conduct interviews with virtual patients. When using these resources, the student decided what questions to ask and can then watch student responses to them. Such practice activities provide confidence for students and are a safe harbor for practicing newly acquired skills before interacting with individuals in real-life situations.	Includes comparison and contrast, observational skills, enhanced reflection, inference, and evaluation. A key goal is to witness concepts in action and begin to internalize them.

Table 4. Activities Relevant to Hands-on Learning: Emphasis on Doing
Activity	Description	Skills and Objectives
Video Scenario Learning	Scenario learning typically transports learners to a specific place and time. The scenario activity provides a series of challenges for learners to address in which they must make choices and decisions. Scenario activities can be brief or long and might entail many practice exercises.	Includes concept recognition and application, visual discrimination skills, inferencing, perceptual cues, coaching, feedback, and evaluation.
Online Review and Practice Exercises	A common activity for testing recently learned knowledge and information is the review or practice exercise. Such online tests can entail much more than simple multiple choice, true-false, or matching questions. Indeed, there may be a scenario or vignette that a student must watch and then respond to. Or perhaps a concept is displayed visually and the student must then make a series of decisions. In some cases, a situation is presented, with a set of questions or activities following it to determine whether the student understand the concept.	Includes trying out concepts, gaining skills in practice, reviewing concepts, and principles learned, reflection on knowledge acquired, knowledge recognition and application, and skills internalization.
Real-Time Case Studies	In real-time cases, students address real-world problems and issues as they occur. To facilitate this process, in agreement with company officials, a student is planted in a company or government setting and writes up the case situation. Correspondence with the class or institution happens in a variety of formats, including synchronous chats, blogs, asynchronous discussion, videoconferencing, Webcams, and so on.	Includes application of knowledge and skills in real-world context, flexible application of knowledge, appreciation of multiple perspectives, problem-based learning, and critical thinking.
Course Resource Wiki Site	Wiki tools allow members of a community to record events, activities, news, and other information. In an online class, a wiki can serve similar purposes. In a course wiki site, an instructor might post key course advice and assignment reminder information or provide feedback on student projects in individual student wiki pages, and student might add to such notes and reminders.	Includes collaboration, interactivity, student participatory learning, problem- and project-based learning, and assignment feedback.
Online Glossary and Resource Links Project	Some courses include options through which students create extensive yet practical final projects that benefit both current students as well as those taking the course later. An online glossary is one such project. Here, a student or a group of students designs an interactive online glossary that summarizes key concepts and ides for the course. Web links might be generated that connect terms and definitions to articles.	Includes concept review and extension, application of concepts, concept discrimination, insight, exploration, and evaluation.