NYU Chat/Hangouts
Best used for
- Office hours
- Advising sessions
- Student group assignments
- Components of mostly face-to-face small seminar classes when the students are, at times, in many different locations, especially if the classes are upper level or graduate.
Unique features and applications for teaching
- Screen sharing is integrated within Hangouts group video calls, making presentations and visual resources easily shareable. Group chat allows everyone in the Hangout to provide links to resources, provide feedback, or ask questions without interrupting the conversation.
Set up advising sessions or office hours
- By appointment - invite a specific person at a specific time.
- Open - log on and create a Hangout visible to any group of students. Keep the window open for a specific period of time and allow students to “drop in.”
Special considerations for best practices
- The screen is organized with the speaker highlighted in the center and the rest of the participants lined up along the bottom of the screen. The person speaking “has the floor,” so extra noise or speaking out of turn can interrupt the flow. Therefore:
- It is important to set rules for how to take turns speaking at the outset. Write up and distribute those guidelines in advance of the sessions.
- Make sure students are aware that ambient noise (music, tapping) might be enough to give them inadvertent voice-activated “control” of the session.
- Use the presentation feature if needed.