Best Practice

Best practice guide for the class.games classroom

    Tips and tricks for using the classroom

    Minor problems can always occur, especially if someone is not yet very experienced in using the class.games classroom. Many of these problems can be avoided by keeping a few tips and tricks in mind when creating sessions. These tips for a smooth experience are presented in the following best practice guide.

    Tip 1: Take a look at the classroom from the participant's perspective

    When creating a session, you can easily test for yourself whether everything works by looking at the session from a participant's perspective. To do this, you need to add any participant and then simply click on it. The participant does not have to be named and can be deleted again after the testing. When you click on the participant, a selection of actions appears, from which you have to choose "Login as participant". Now you can see your session in a separate window from the student's point of view.

    If you cannot see the modules you have created, this is due to the visibility setting. If you can see the modules but cannot select them, then you have not yet started them. You set the visibility via the eye symbol for each module. The module can be started by selecting the "Set running" button that appears when clicking on the three dots next to the visibility symbol. You can find the exact location of these two settings in the images below. In case these settings are not yet completely clear to you, please visit the article on "Why can't my students join the module?".

    Content Visibility
    Start simulation

    You can also test entire games and surveys by viewing them from a participant's perspective. It is even possible to log in as more than one participant in order to test dynamic games. It is important to note that each module you create can only be executed once. After testing a module, you should create a new one before starting the actual session.

    Tip 2: Make use of the visibility setting

    A session can contain several modules, such as games, documents and teaching notes. As an instructor, you have an overview of the session at all times. Through the visibility settings, you have the option to decide what the students can and cannot see. This way you can either give the students an overview of the upcoming session, decide step by step what the participants may see and what they should focus their attention on or something in between. To ensure that only the content you intend is displayed, the visibility of each module can be set individually. These settings can be changed at any time, regardless whether before or during the session.

    Tip 3: Utilize the structure of the classroom

    To keep track of different courses and sessions, the class.games classroom offers a simple hierarchical structure. Multiple courses can be created, depending on how many classes you want to use the classroom for. You can then add the participants who belong to the individual courses. The next level are the sessions. These are the equivalent of classical lessons. Accordingly, you can create a session for each lesson and schedule your course. Within the sessions, you can then combine different modules as you like to create the lesson. These can be games, polls, chat options and teaching notes. Even if you only want to use individual modules, you are still required to create a course and a session.

    Classroom structure