Teaching Tips: FlipGrid

Ideas and considerations for using FlipGrid as part of your remote teaching

  1. First, Flipgrid is a richer discussion platform, but will it work for your class? Since Flipgrid requires that both you and your students upload recordings, you will all need:
    • A webcam and a microphone.
    • Good connectivity. Consider, first, your own internet capability if you have to work from home. Ask your students if they have high internet bandwidth at home. If some students don’t have the infrastructure to post Flipgrid videos, it would be simpler to use Blackboard’s Discussion Board instead.
  2. Plan your Flipgrid discussion assignments
    1. Have a focus and purpose for the discussions i.e., learning objective.
      Complete this sentence for each assignment (as if you’re speaking to your students): “By the end of this discussion, you will be able to [demonstrate, analyze, evaluate, describe, calculate, solve, compare, value, understand others in terms of, etc.] …” This will improve the quality of your questions and their contributions.
    2. If you have over 15 students in your class, set up small group discussions to encourage deeper student engagement.
    3. Flipgrid’s guide [PDF] for building community in higher education offers some example ideas:
      • Require that students pose a new question for classmates at the end of their response to your question. This provides a jumping off point for dialogue.
      • Make conversations personal, invite comparison, find meaning, be current, use visuals, and collaborate
      • Ask students to reflect on their learning and record a video of advice for the next semester’s students about how to succeed in the course.
      • Check learning comprehension by asking students to talk about how they would apply concepts they’re learning to real-world examples.
  3. Warm up! Start with low stakes activities when introducing Flipgrid to students.
    • Begin with a prompt that will be easy to answer.
    • Make the first Flipgrid discussion be ungraded, for practice.
  4. Be flexible.
    Some students may not want to share videos of themselves, so be clear in each assignment description that that students are welcome to cover up the webcam or point it towards something else – like a plant, a piece of art, etc.
  5. Get creative.