Tech Thursday: Class Timers, x2
Help students pace themselves during breaks & breakout sessions in remote classes.
To encourage students to actually step away from their screens - large and small - during breaks in my remote synchronous classes, I set a timer with a sound alert at the end. Since I use shared Google slideshows in all my remote class sessions, I just embed a YouTube video with a timer in the slideshow so that when we have a break, students can hear when time is up as well as see the countdown. The one I use has a very loud siren at the end of the timer (remember, you’ll need to enable sharing your computer sound when you share your screen for students to hear the timer alerts), but there are plenty of calmer options available as well.
In zoom, there’s a timer for breakout rooms, too. Open the breakout rooms dialog box, and create the number of rooms you want. Before you open the rooms, click on “Options,” below:
From the dialog box that opens, you can set a breakout room timer that will count down to show participants how much time they have left, and close rooms automatically when the timer is up.
These timers can also be used for keeping on track with your own tasks, as a low(ish) tech alternative to some of the task timers I shared previously.
Tech Thursday will take a break next week for the (U.S.) Thanksgiving holiday!