Some low-stakes assignments (most from the University of Wisconsin) 

• • Instagram!:You may consider setting up an Instagram account for your class where you post photos, videos, short messages and so on– ask students to join a group chat or comment on video! This is also a great way to create and maintain community.
  • Scavenger Hunt: Pre-record a short lecture (2-4 minutes) using your cell phone or computer. Then ask students to complete an internet-based scavenger hunt related to your theme or topic that day. Invite students to share what they found in small groups via Canvas (either text-based on using BBCollaborate). Ask each group to report back to the larger class via a Canvas discussion board post.
  •  Writing Logs: Create an individual discussion thread on Canvas for each student. Have the write daily updates on how they’re progressing on the current assignment. You can provide a prompt for each day (post an outline, describe a source you’ve found, share your favorite sentence, pose a question about a writing problem). If you like, put students in small groups and ask them to read and respond to each others’ posts. (this option could easily be combined with another)
  • Peer Review: Use Canvas to establish peer review groups. Make a discussion thread prepared for each group. Ask individuals to write a brief introduction to their paper, and then provide a link to their Google Doc. Use a guided worksheet to help students provide feedback.
  •  Text-based reading discussion: Assign a reading. Prepare a 5 minute screen-captured or cell-phone lecture framing the reading and how you want students to use it. Have each student write a 500 word reflection on the reading/lecture in a Canvas discussion thread and post 50 word comments on 2 of their peers’ reflections.
  • Presentations: Have students voice-record short versions of their presentations using PowerPoint slides, Google slides, or–in a pinch–their phone cameras and then post their presentations to a Canvas discussion board. Ask each student to write a 200-word response to at least three other student presentations (ideally, tell them what you want their responses to focus on). You may want to provide alternate forms of response such as recorded audio and/or video. So that every presentation gets some feedback, ask students to reply to presentations with fewer than three existing responses.
  • Mini Research Reports: Write 4-5 discussion prompts, each of which will require students to do some research. Ask students to do individual research for two prompts and then post a response/description of what they learned. If you want, you can make the posts visible only after students post responses and then have them write a 250 comparison/contrast of their results and someone else’s. What do they learn from the contrast?
  • Question-posing paired with synchronous or asynchronous lecture: In Canvas, ask students to identify 2-3 questions that they have about an assigned reading in that day’s discussion board. Provide a short lecture to address questions (pre-recorded or real time via BBCollaborate or Kaltura, where you can  toggle between your face, a screen cast or a white board as needed.) Have students spend 5 minutes freewriting new questions they have about the topic in response to the lecture, choosing their best idea to post to that day’s discussion board. Ask students to engage in a large group conversation by providing a first response to one peer, and then continuing the conversation on at least two other threads. Be sure to model an ideal response (i.e. depth of engagement).
  • Text-based Group Collaboration: Ask small groups to collaborate via Canvas discussion board to identify a real-life example of something you are trying to highlight for the day (rhetorical strategy, etc.) Ask each group to create either (1) a 2-slide PowerPoint with audio that explains to the class how/why they chose their example and how it demonstrates the concept; (2) a screen cast that records a brief (no more than 5-min) group video conversation, or (3) a written group dialog representing their discussion. Each presentation should end with a question that pushes conversation about their topic or example further. And finally, ask students to watch/read the mini-group collaborations and freewrite their response to one group’s question. (Take a picture of the freewriting and send to the instructor or do the writing in a Canvas dropbox)
  • Guest Lecture: Use your media player (ex. QuickTime) to screen record a Skype visit with a guest speaker for 5-10 minutes, ask students to work in groups to create a response to how the speaker and an assigned reading intersect thematically. Have each group post their response to a Canvas discussion board and then each student should individually respond to at least one other group’s posting.
  • Crowdsource a Guide to Research (or some other writing task): Divide students into small groups. Ask each group to collaborate on creating a Canvas page related to a specific topic [e.g. do a class-composed guide to writing a research paper: One group takes ‘finding credible sources,’ another ‘analyzing data,’ and another ‘writing a lit review.’]. Depending on how in-depth you make these guides, you might want to have this activity last for a whole week, pairing it with some short framing lectures. If you’re comfortable in BBCollaborate, you could also create break-out chat rooms for each group to use.