Twitter can be used to showcase how students apply what they learn in the classroom to everyday life. Dr. Maira Goytia (Biology department lecturer) discusses the assignment she introduced to her class Spring semester 2016, engaging students to apply the concepts they learn in class to what they observe in nature on a daily basis. Their observations reflect that learning is taking place and the content is being absorbed for long term learning.
Dr. Maira Goytia, Lecturer, Biology Department @ Spelman College
During Spring 2016 semester, I teach Animal Behavior in the Biology Department. Among our course goals, we wanted to engage students with the course concepts outside of the classroom. We created an assignment that would commit students to engage with animal behavior and relate the topics of the course with real events that students could observe as animal behavior scientists do.The assignment: Students must post 4 observations during the duration of the course. Each observation must contain a description of the animals involved, their behavior (in association to class learning), location and time of the observation. Students need to share their observations with classmates.
How We Decided to Use Twitter: We looked for a solution that could be easily shared among students, easily incorporated in Moodle, and with the potential to be carried on over the years. Twitter seemed our best option. It was extremely easy to incorporate as part of the Moodle course page, as a “block”. Most students have a Twitter account, or can otherwise create one free of charge.
Student Feedback on the Assignment: Students have mentioned that it is easy to post using this setup. The observations lead to discussions in the classroom.
Activity Administration: This assignment does not require any further management. It also allows the instructor and other students to comment on others’ observations and post replies. This system is slowly being accepted by the students, either because they are not used to this type of assignment or because, during winter, animals are not as visible as they might be during the spring. At the end of the semester, it will be easy for the instructor to determine how many posts each student made just by selecting the student’s Twitter handle.
Other Thoughts: This is our first time assigning this activity. At the end of the semester, we plan to survey the students about this assignment, the ease of use, the perceived relation to the course material and its efficiency as a tool to engage students with the course. The results from the survey will determine whether we will carry the assignment during our next class and/or help us improve the assignment.
Create a Twitter Block on Your Moodle Course page
- Create a Twitter account if you do not already have one. Please note: in order for this activity to work successfully, your Twitter account must be public. Protected accounts will not display in Moodle.
- Access your Twitter account and Go to the create a widget options. Select what you want displayed in the feed
and copy the embed code. - Once in Moodle, select to Turn Editing On in your course.
- Select to add an HTML block from the add a block drop down menu on the left side of the course home page.
- After the block is added to the page, select to edit the block and paste in your previously copied HTML code. The instructions show this button as saying HTML but your text editor will show a button that looks like this <>.
- Your feed should now be active. You can respond to posts directly from the Moodle page.