How to encourage more active participation?

[ibm]

I use piazza in a way in which maybe it was not intended. I post questions and small exercises to encourage thinking and problem solving, especially before tests. Even though all question do eventually get answered, unfortunately I find that most students are passive viewers and only a handful of them actually do the work and submit answers. Even so this is way more participation than I have arising from the students themselves (i.e. they ask very few unsolicited questions).

To encourage piazza viewing I post weekly summaries of classes (something the students should of course do by themselves but don't). This of course provides a huge help for them so I am considering making the summaries accessible to only students who have at least contributed one question/aswer.
Do you think this too radical/unfriendly/anti-educational an approach? Thanks for any feedback.

ps. I emailed another instructor who teaches a similar class in the US (I am based in Europe) and he said he had exactly the same problem. I thought it was a cultural thing but maybe not.

[ibm]

Oops. How would I even do my "private posting" to only participating students? I would like to create a group of active students but do I really have to add each of their addresses by hand ?

Thanks

[Pito Salas]

Yes it is an official component of their grade, as 'class participation'

-- Pito

p.s. sent from my iPhone, so excuse brevity, typos, etc.

On Mar 18, 2013, at 1:16 PM, Ileana Blade <ilean...@ub.edu> wrote:

Hello Pito

Do you give a grade at the end or a monthly grade? Maybe I should not have said it would raise their grade but it would be part of their grade.

ileana

ps. I don�t know anyone else who uses Piazza !

On Mar 18, 2013, at 4:59 PM, Pito Salas wrote:

What I do is make participation part of their grade. That works well. And then I read their posts and give some of them a 'good note' or post further discussion points as responses. 

By the way you should encourage anyone you know who uses piazza to join this list. The more we are the more we can help piazza make the product great!

-- Pito

p.s. sent from my iPhone, so excuse brevity, typos, etc.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "piazzausers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to piazzausers...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
 
 

Dr. Ileana Blad�

Associate Professor 

Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia - Despatx 728

Facultat de Fisica - Universitat de Barcelona

C/ Mart� i Franqu�s 1

08028 Barcelona. SPAIN    

tel: (34) 93 403  49 86    

fax: (34) 93 402 11 33

Aquest correu electrònic i els annexos poden contenir informació confidencial o protegida legalment i està adreçat exclusivament a la persona o entitat destinatària. Si no sou el destinatari final o la persona encarregada de rebre’l, no esteu autoritzat a llegir-lo, retenir-lo, modificar-lo, distribuir-lo, copiar-lo ni a revelar-ne el contingut. Si heu rebut aquest correu electrònic per error, us preguem que n’informeu al remitent i que elimineu del sistema el missatge i el material annex que pugui contenir. Gràcies per la vostra col·laboració.

Este correo electrónico y sus anexos pueden contener información confidencial o legalmente protegida y está exclusivamente dirigido a la persona o entidad destinataria. Si usted no es el destinatario final o la persona encargada de recibirlo, no está autorizado a leerlo, retenerlo, modificarlo, distribuirlo, copiarlo ni a revelar su contenido. Si ha recibido este mensaje electrónico por error, le rogamos que informe al remitente y elimine del sistema el mensaje y el material anexo que pueda contener. Gracias por su colaboración.

This email message and any documents attached to it may contain confidential or legally protected material and are intended solely for the use of the individual or organization to whom they are addressed. We remind you that if you are not the intended recipient of this email message or the person responsible for processing it, then you are not authorized to read, save, modify, send, copy or disclose any of its contents. If you have received this email message by mistake, we kindly ask you to inform the sender of this and to eliminate both the message and any attachments it carries from your account. Thank you for your collaboration.