FlipGrid

You may have heard from other Social Work colleagues about the things they are doing with the FlipGrid tool in their classes.  FlipGrid is a video discussion platform that allows you to create discussion prompts for students.  The students then post videos and reply to classmates in a personal, interactive way that fosters connections between students and faculty.

As the course instructor, you can create prompts for short weekly assignments, or can use FlipGrid for student presentations up to 10 minutes.  When deciding what types of activities to create, here are some best practices to keep in mind:

  • Timing.  You’ll be spending a lot of time listening to FlipGrid, so you may want to adjust timing appropriately.  While 10 minute student recordings are great for a presentation, you might want to limit weekly discussion topics to 1-3 minutes.
  • Engagement.  One of the things students enjoy about FlipGrid is the chance to interact with their peers and their instructor.  Consider encouraging students to engage in thoughtful conversation with each other, and also chime in yourself as an instructor.  Remember that just like in a class discussion, the instructor doesn’t need to reply to every comment students make.  Thoughtful and intentional faculty engagement allows students the autonomy to connect with each other and the content, while still allowing the instructor to guide the conversation.
  • Privacy. Some students prefer not to show their face in their video.  You can allow them to record audio with a screen share, a pixelated video, or other filters that give them greater privacy and be more comfortable in engaging.
  • Participation Guidelines.  Make sure students know how you expect them to participate and how they will be graded on participation.  You should also provide them with netiquette guidelines so they know how it is appropriate to interact as a class, and you can avoid inappropriate or inflammatory content.  Having students help create community guidelines ensures that they are invested in the course, and that they can hold each other accountable for appropriate participation.

Resources for Faculty

Using FlipGrid is typically easy and intuitive, but you may want some resources to help you get started with using this new tool.

  • FlipGrid has created this useful, basic, step-by-step guide to creating an account and getting started with your Grid.
  • This second page from FlipGrid has additional tutorials on managing student videos, providing feedback, and using advanced FlipGrid features.

Resources for Students

As you work with students, you may want to provide them with some helpful resources to help them get started with FlipGrid.