Group Size Differentiation in the Online Classroom

Differentiating group size within the virtual classroom can greatly impact the learning experience for your students. By strategically organizing your students into smaller groups, you can foster collaboration and engagement while improving student outcomes. 

At DaVinci Education, our team of experts are familiar with the benefits and the challenges of this process. This is one of the many reasons we designed Leo, our enterprise software platform. Leo was uniquely created to help streamline virtually every task related to healthcare education, including enhancing the learning experience for your online students.

Here are several tips for effectively differentiating group sizes in the online classroom, including ways in which Leo can help.

• Create Diverse and Balanced Groups: When you split students into smaller groups, try to include a mix of different academic abilities, backgrounds, and viewpoints. This means putting high-achieving students together with those who might need extra help, so they can learn from each other and work together. In Leo, you can either manually form the groups yourself or let Leo generate random groups for you. 

• Leverage Technology: Make use of different digital tools to help your students work together in the online classroom. Leo allows easy integration with hundreds of embeddable elements including LTI-based EdTech tools. 

• Foster Communication and Collaboration: Plan regular check-ins or virtual meetings to make sure everyone is making progress and to tackle any problems. Encourage working together to solve problems and giving feedback to each other. Leo makes it easy for students to communicate with one another and you in multiple ways.

• Provide Ongoing Support and Feedback: Giving personalized feedback is important for each student's improvement in smaller groups. Check their work regularly and give feedback quickly so they can make immediate changes. With Leo, you can provide feedback through gradebook comments, discussion boards, and evaluations. Students can also evaluate themselves and each other.

Differentiating group size in the online classroom can be a powerful tool for promoting collaboration, engagement, and personalized learning. Leo can help you streamline this process. Contact us today to learn more about how Leo can help you create dynamic and inclusive learning environments where students can thrive.