Kapadia Tech Recipes

Classroom Assessment Techniques with Top Hat and Zoom

Description: Interject Top Hat questions during your Zoom sessions to engage students and see if they are with you and ready to go on, or if you should intervene and stay on a subject a bit longer. Top Hat questions can be multiple choice, fill in the blank, numeric answer, sorting, or click on target; students answer these questions on a mobile device or computer. Questions can be auto-graded for any proportion of correctness and participation, and those scores can be pushed to Canvas to be included in the gradebook. As well, PowerPoint slides can be uploaded to Top Hat, so questions can be interspersed with the slides. Especially challenging questions or questions that many students get wrong can be assigned as homework for extra practice.

Ingredients:

  • Secondary device such as a tablet or laptop (optional)
  • Top Hat
  • Zoom

Directions:

Note: Although Top Hat can be presented and shared on Zoom all from one computer, sharing it instead from another device, such as an iPad, makes managing your Zoom room easier (e.g., it allows you to better monitor chat and, if combined with the drawing activity below, makes switching between Top Hat and other apps easier).

  1. (prep) Inform your students that you will be using Top Hat during your Zoom sessions. See Top Hat preparation checklist for sample messaging to students.
  2. (prep) Log in to Top Hat and create a series of questions to use during class.
  3. (tablet) Log in to Top Hat on a browser, such as Chrome
    Note: the instructor portal for Top Hat only works in browsers.
  4. Enter the same Zoom room from your computer and iPad.
  5. (tablet) Tap Share Content (iPad) or Share (Android), then Screen. 
  6. (tablet) Navigate back to Top Hat and tap Present. 

Resources:

Drawing during Zoom sessions

Description: This recipe allows you to easily produce quality, in-class drawings that can be saved and used again later or shared with students in Canvas or other workspaces. During office hours, the drawings could be pulled back up and annotated further, all while keeping the original, saved image.

Ingredients:

  • iPad (or touchscreen laptop or tablet)
  • Apple Pencil (or other active stylus)
  • Zoom
  • OneNote

Directions:

  1. (iPad) Open OneNote and select a notebook and a page (or create a new page).
  2. Enter the same Zoom room from your computer and iPad.
    Note: Make sure to mute your iPad (or other secondary device), so you won’t have audio feedback.
  3. (iPad) Tap Share Content, then Screen. Navigate back to OneNote.
  4. (iPad + Apple Pencil) Draw or enter text in OneNote.
  5. (OneNote) Tap the Share icon when you are finished, select Anyone with the link, uncheck Allow editing, and Apply.
  6. (OneNote) Copy the link, and share it via Canvas Announcements or your preferred communication method.

Resources: