Course Activities: Expert Interaction Approach

Mr. Donaldson is a detective in Hamilton County specializing in cybercrime...
Ms. Crosby has taught special education for 20 years are will be available to...
Kristy Smith and Ray Carlos will be posting this week's course highlights...

Interacting with outside experts can help learners connect course content to real-world experiences.

Professionals as Experts

Invite professionals in the field of study to interact with your students.

Identify Experts. How are experts identified?

• Contact professional friends and colleagues
• Involve members from professional associations and organizations
• Contact local members of the community. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce.
• Solicit participation from government agencies. As public servants, they are often willing to participate. Locate addresses at USA.gov

Explore Options. How will the expert be involved with your class?

• Interact with an expert in a live real-time chat, audio, or video conference
• Involve an expert for a period of time (i.e., 3 days to 1 week) answering questions posed by students using a forum or blog
  • Example: Bridging Theory and Practice
• Post information and resources by the individual with no live interaction

Prepare Students. How will you prepare your students for interaction?

• Clarify the purpose of the expert interaction
• Provide background information about the expert
• Focus the discussion on a specific topic or provide areas of expertise to help learners focus questions
• Provide examples of questions for prior semesters as examples
• Provide ideas for quality questions such as open-ended questions, questions asking for examples, questions involving situations
• Preparing students for expert interactions

Prepare the Expert. How will you prepare your expert?

• Provide background information about the students, their experiences, and learning needs.
• Place emphasis on the important of bridging theory and practice.
• Ask for specific examples and situations

Nurture Connections. How do you establish and maintain a group of experts?

• Be sure not to overuse experts by rotating people from semester to semester
• Make the activity easy by restricting the commitment to a few days
• Use technology that won't overwhelm the expert
• Provide the expert with choice of technology such as email interview vs live interview
• Reward experts with thanks, gifts, or honorarium

Share Experiences. How do you extend the experience?

• Conduct interviews and post content on the web (i.e., text/audio/video)
• Edit the interview or discussion for dissemination
  • Example: Videos for Access and Legal Issues
• Incorporate excerpts into course materials
  • Example: Words of Wisdom (Scroll to bottom of page)
• Example: Words of Wisdom (Scroll to bottom of page)
• Example: Words of Wisdom (Scroll to bottom of page)
• Example: Words of Wisdom (Scroll to bottom of page)
• Example: Words of Wisdom (Scroll to bottom of page)

Learn more at Collaboration: Ask-An-Expert from Teacher Tap

Students as Experts

As your students become more familiar with course content, get them involved with sharing their understandings with classmates.

Highlights. Rather than everyone doing everything, ask students to summarize the key points of a unit or discussions. Students might be responsible for 1 topic during the semester. Although this may be in paragraph form, you can also ask for:

• a 30 second podcast of the key ideas
• a top 10 list to remember
• a concept map or other visual representation of the key ideas
• a glossary
• a study guide with key points
• a voicethread audio/slideshow of key ideas

Explore examples of students as presenters:

• Introduction to Contemporary Hispanic Literature

Student Bloggers. Involve students in providing examples and sample problems.

• Example: The Scribe List from Applied Math 40S

To find more examples, do a Google search for your topic and add the word "experts".

Reminders!
Interacting with outside experts can help learners connect course content to real-world experiences.

Apply It!
Explore examples of expert interactions.

List the pros and cons of using this approach with your content.

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