Padlet
Name, Abbreviation, and Number of Course
Geodesign, Landscape Architecture (LA) 631: Geodesign Methods
Name of Activity or Assignment
In this Padlet exercise the instructor poses the following topic to the student “Using this Padlet answer the question: List a project you have or are currently working on and briefly explain how different scales of thinking, data, or problem definition would impact how you proceed(ed) on this project.”
Description and Purpose of Engagement Tool
Padlet provides an online, interactive "whiteboard" area that allows open editing of the board by participants. It is a great way to allow students to interact together related to a topic you present that may need both textual and visual components to explain.
Students can comment on the topic or question provided in addition to commenting on other students comments with text and sticky notes. The sticky notes also allow students to add graphics to the board. Please visit Padlet Junction, the FAQ support document about Padlet, for more details regarding its use.
Description and Purpose of Activity or Assignment
Padlet is typically used as a means for allowing students the opportunity to interact and share information or opinions about a topic when they are unable to meet face to face, synchronously. It provides a way to enhance a text lecture by allowing students and instructors to respond to a question or topic by making contributions along-side each other on a “whiteboard-type space” online. Contributions can be textual or visual, and students and instructors can respond to each statement or visual that is added to the space until the question or topic has been sufficiently answered.
A Padlet is very easy to implement. Once you have created one you can simply embed it into a course page and then have students interact with it. Typically this is done asynchronously in an online course because students will come and go on their own schedule. Certainly you could specify a time for students to “meet” online and complete it synchronously, but that is not necessary for it to be a successful activity to engage in and may make it unnecessarily complicated. Also, usually a question is posed or a topic is provided that you want the students to respond to by adding comments or images to the Padlet “white-board” area.
Learning Objectives Associated with Engagement Tool
- Differentiate between various types of scales of thinking, data, or problem definition
- Explain how you might use different types of scale in a project
- Demonstrate how various types of scale would impact a project
- Predict how you might use different types of scale in framing your design problems, issues, goals, and objectives in the creation of a representation model
Preparation Details of Activity or Assignment
Using a Padlet is a surprisingly easy process. You need to go to the Padlet home page to start creating your Padlet. Instructions on how to create one are included there, and are as simple as clicking the “New Padlet” link in the upper right of the menu. Once one is created you can use the “Modify this Padlet” icon on the right (bottom of the icon list on the right) to change the title, description, tags or portrait of the Padlet. This function also has advanced options such as picking a padlet.com address (useful if you have several for one course), and other pertinent display settings which you can experiment with when you create your own. For more details about creating and altering a Padlet visit the “Padlet Junction” FAQ page.
Once everything is the way you want it you can select the “share/export” icon (once again in the right side icon list), and you will be given and embed code to place the Padlet in your course. Once you copy that code into the Html page where you where you want the Padlet to appear, it will be visible.
Student Instructions for Activity or Assignment
Instructions for Padlet are equally easy to provide. Within the copy of the lecture area for the course, the instructor simply poses a question or topic and then asks the individual students to respond to the question or topic within the Padlet space by adding text or dragging images. As more students add items to the Padlet, the other students may respond with additional items until the space is filled and the question or topic has been addressed.
The Padlet ends up being a collage of contributions that all students can see and respond to with comments and visuals in a discussion-board format.
Assessment/Grading Criteria for Activity or Assignment
As mentioned previously, no specific assessment was given for this specific Padlet activity. Instead it was part of a greater “Discussion” requirement for the course unit which did have a point value in the unit rubric. Several Padlets were used throughout this course, with similar grading criteria to ensure participation. While not required for use with this tool, it is beneficial to award some sort of point value to the students for engaging in the activity.
For this particular course, interacting with the Padlet was part of an overall discussion participation grade. Each student was awarded 25 points each unit for participating in the discussion activity for that week (some of which were one or more Padlets embedded within the lecture for that unit, and some were online discussions). This was in addition to 75 points for particular project work. All of which added up to 100 points awarded each unit for the work that is required to be completed. Here is a copy of the discussion rubric that was used for the course unit that contains this Padlet example.
Example of Final Student Output