With each semester comes a new cohort of students, and thus the challenge of building a sense of community amongst them and developing activities that will keep them engaged. While there is no magic formula, I would like to share some collaborative tools I have used with my classes that have proven conducive to increased student participation and connections between classmates.
Perusall
Imagine all the times you have asked your students to actively read and annotate a text for homework, only to find that many have failed to do the reading or that those who did have only a few highlighted excerpts for “annotations.” Can you really blame them? Reading assignments can be extremely boring or difficult, especially when done in isolation. Social learning platforms like Persuall can take some of the pressure off students when having to decipher a lackluster or challenging text. You have the option of creating a standalone course with Perusall, or a course that is integrated with your Learning Management System (LMS). Either way, students access and annotate the readings online, and these annotations will be visible to the entire class.
Depending on your goals, you can guide students to do several different things with their annotations. You can have them highlight or analyze an important quote, rephrase a difficult concept, pose a question and/or answer the question of another student, or share their reaction to a specific idea, among many other things. When students read each other’s annotations, this often inspires asynchronous discussion about the text, which aids in increased understanding and engagement with the text. As a bonus, since you can see who is logged in at the same time as you, students can also engage in real-time discussion of the text through the chat functions.
There are various collaborative annotation platforms out there. I use Perusall because I found it most intuitive and user-friendly. Whether you use Perusall or something else, I do recommend trying collaborative annotations with your classes, as it will yield more thoughtful annotations. Moreover, it allows you to quickly gauge how well your students have understood the reading, so you can adjust your next lesson plan accordingly.
Padlet
When I am lucky enough to get assigned a smart classroom to teach in, I like using Padlet for quick, low-stakes writing exercises. Padlet is basically a virtual wall to which the whole class can contribute short posts. No sign-ups are required for students. The instructor creates a free account, makes a Padlet wall with a writing prompt, and then shares the link with students. They can quickly access the site using their phones or another Internet-enabled device, and then post to the wall either publicly or anonymously. This can be in the form of textual comments or even media attachments, such as images or GIFs, for when students have trouble putting their thoughts into words.
What I like about students using Padlet versus the traditional pen and paper is that it allows for greater in-class participation and more immediate feedback. I often find that while grading written assignments after class is over, I come across a brilliant response that was not shared during class because the student was too shy to speak up, or there just was not enough time to hear from every student. Padlet has enabled me to quickly scan and go over all responses during class, so that all students can hear and benefit from them. More students also tend to complete the writing exercise if it is done on Padlet, and I find it takes up less class time, allowing for more time to cover the day’s learning objectives.
If you have a longer writing exercise in mind, you can supplement Padlet with a collaborative Google Doc (though it is less aesthetically pleasing). Again, you just share the link to the document, and then students can type out their responses. Everyone can see what each other is writing in real time. I have found this beneficial in terms of enabling me to provide timely feedback, whether positive reinforcement to those who are on the right track, or clarification and guidance to those who are stuck or confused.
Padlet has many other uses, whether to create a blog, portfolio, or website, so I urge you to explore and discover how you can best utilize this platform in your classroom.
Kahoot!
Everyone enjoys a little friendly competition, and Kahoot! is a great way to test your students’ understanding of a concept in a fun, low-stakes way. I must credit my son for introducing me to this game-based learning platform when he saw my DIY PowerPoint-version of Jeopardy. As they say, out with the old and in with the new.
It is relatively quick to create your own “kahoot,” or learning game, which is composed of curated questions each with multiple choice answers. There is also a database of pre-made kahoots from which you can select, but a kahoot that is tailormade to your class content is best. Students join the game via their phone or other Internet-enabled device using a unique PIN. Questions are displayed using the classroom screen projector. The faster a student selects the correct answer, the more points he or she will be awarded.
At the end, you can assess which questions had the most incorrect answers and then review the content with your class as necessary.
At the end of the day, every class is different; one strategy does not fit all. The key is to experiment and to not completely dismiss an activity if the first time does not go as planned. The rewards are more engaged students and a stronger sense of community in the classroom .

Christine Choi
Dr. Christine Choi is an Assistant Professor of English. Her areas of expertise include Victorian Literature, Women’s and Gender Studies, and multimodal and multilingual pedagogies.