It is important and valuable to engage students. It is also equally important to ensure that exchanges are a safe and respectful place for engagement. There are a few features and settings to consider when creating an exchange specifically for students, and those are covered below.

Languages

Toggling Support Additional Languages to On has many benefits:

1. It allows your students with different language proficiencies the option to participate in their preferred language.
2. The exchange platform is translated into their selected language, which could help students understand the process and the conversation on a deeper level.
3. Students can read thoughts that were translated by Google in the original language they were submitted in and their selected language.
4. It brings people together who typically aren’t sharing in one conversation due to language barriers.

Survey Questions

You can ask survey questions to get quantitative data as well as qualitative. For example, by asking Likert scale questions, you are able to see how many students are feeling a certain way and you can also see what resonated with certain subgroups.

Sample exchange question: What would you like me to review as you prepare for the exam?

Sample survey question: How prepared do you feel for the exam?

Thinking Ahead 

Use filters in the Discover Dashboard to see what students who feel “somewhat prepared” would like you to review before the exam.

Want more information on survey questions, click here!

Moderation

Our default settings for moderation are off, reflecting our company's value of transparency, but you are free to turn them on and off to suit your needs. We always recommend reflecting on your moderation needs, as they can change from exchange to exchange.

There are two steps to moderation:

1. Thoughts are flagged by a participant and/or machine
2. Leaders review flagged thoughts to decide if the thoughts should stay or go

Some questions to ask yourself when moderating student exchanges:

1. A thought was flagged due to slang/inappropriate words, does it need to be removed or can it stay in the conversation? Can you use leader comments to encourage the student to re-enter the thought without the inappropriate word?
2. You come across an inappropriate, rude, hurtful thought and it has already been rated/seen by others. What are your next steps? Do you want to remove it? Can you use leader comments to explain to the sharer why you removed the thought? Should you address the class as a whole? Do you need to reach out to someone for support?
3. Getting feedback from students might not always be a pleasant experience, but it can be informative. How comfortable are you with getting authentic feedback from students? Can you leave an uncomfortable thought in the exchange and see where it lands with the rest of the group? 

With student exchanges, most leaders initially gravitate towards more moderation, and in time, as leaders and participants become more familiar with the process, their use of moderation changes. 

Want more information on our philosophy and best practices for moderation, click here!

Sign Up/Login Required

Requiring login means participants need to create a Thoughtexchange account using their email and a password before they can participate. There are pros and cons to requiring login and when it comes to student exchanges, the pros often outweigh the cons. This is also an exchange-by-exchange feature. You can require that students login to their account when necessary, which might not be all of the time.

Note: Even when login is required for an exchange, participant information is never tied to the thoughts shared and is not visible to the leaders of the exchange.

Pros:

• People can return to exchanges easily without having to re-answer SQs or see previously rated thoughts.
• People can explore thoughts from previous/closed exchanges.

Cons:

• People feel that they will be identified and might choose not to participate
• It is an extra step before people participate in the exchange. 
• If requiring login during a live exchange, we recommend providing extra time for students to create/login to an account.

Want more information on requiring login? Click here!