Participating in discussions

Lesson discussions

Each weekly module includes opportunities to Respond, where you can answer key questions about teaching STEAM with virtual labs and simulations in the course discussion forums. The discussions give you a chance to think about and share how online learning and simulations technologies can enhance the teaching and learning of STEAM.

This course includes people from all around the world, and each of us has a different perspective, different personal characteristics, and different opportunities. Share what meaningful and interactive STEAM teaching will look like for you in your teaching and learning setting, and offer advice and support for others in similar or different situations.

Above all, enjoy the Respond activities! They will become very large. You don't have to read all the posts - scan through to find the ones that are most interesting or useful to you Make your own post, reply to others, and check back to see if others have replied to you. It is possible to have a conversation in a forum, even as other conversations happen around you.

Note: If you need AI tools to help translate your ideas into English, you're welcome to use them. However, your own genuine, practical experiences and insights are far more important in your discussion posts than "getting it right" - and no AI can capture that.

Communities of practice

In addition to the lesson discussions, you are invited to join the IVLST communities of practice, special forums where you will be able to meet others and share ideas, strategies, and resources specific to your STEAM discipline. Each community of practice will be led by one or two specialists from the IVLST instructional team (whom you'll meet on the next page), and the conversations will continue to build throughout the three months the course is open - even if you finish early, be sure to return to check in on the latest ideas in your community of practice.

IVLST currently has communities of practice for our four main STEM disciplines – Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics – as well as a community set aside for Arts and non-STEM disciplines. You'll find all of these listed under the Discussions tab in the navigation menu. You are, of course, welcome to join more than one community, depending on your current position, future goals, or interests; all we ask is that you contribute as best you can. And if you find others working in a related discipline that isn't already included in one of the communities of practice, you might create your own.

Create your own discussion forums

As you scroll through the list of discussions (using the Discussions tab in the navigation), you might find additional special-topic forums in the box below the main course forums. These special-topic forums can be created by your instructors or by your fellow course participants.

You can build upon the discussions already there, or add special topics of your own, such as a forum dedicated to your students' age level, specific challenges, or region of the world - what issues are particularly important to you and your colleagues in your own context?

If you have a special topic you would like to discuss with others, click the box labelled "+ Discussion" to create your own forum. Give it an interesting title to get others' attention, and post your ideas or question. Be sure to click "Allow threaded replies" for more involved and interesting conversations. Then watch for replies; you will be in charge of your own forums.

Meet the expert(s)

Beyond the discussions and communities of practice that will continue throughout the three months of the course, you are also invited to join us for a series of "Meet the Expert(s)" webinars or workshops beginning in January. Rather than lectures, these live sessions are intended as opportunities to meet and discuss issues, challenges, and particularly effective approaches to integrating virtual labs, simulations, and other technologies into STEAM teaching, and you are encouraged to introduce your own questions and insights.

Attendance at the Meet the Expert(s) sessions is optional. A schedule of dates and times (coordinated to accommodate our global community's multiple timezones as best we can) will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

In the discussions and sessions, you'll be sharing and building on each other's ideas with your instructors and your fellow course participants. To meet your instructional team, continue on to the next page.