Collaboration among students across classes

We are often asked how teachers using Finalsite Learn group spaces can allow students to collaborate across classes with other students -- sharing ideas and projects, friendly class competitions, group discussions, and more!

There are two ways within Finalsite Learn to allow students to see each other's work and collaborate across classes.

1. Teachers can set up shared Resource Folders across their own groups. (For this to work, teachers must be admins of each other's groups.) These shared folders are linked, in that an update to one folder can be seen across all shared classes. Students can send submissions to teachers for them to add to the shared Resource Folder, so that students across groups can see those resources.

   To set it up: Teachers will create a new Resource Folder, check off the option to "Share this folder with several of my groups," then select the other groups that will see this Resource Folder. Then, students from all of those groups will be able to view and download those resources as needed.

   

2. Teachers can also set up a shared Discussion Board and allow students to start topic threads and post comments. This option does not require teachers to be admins of each of the groups to which the Discussion Board is shared. This option allows students to directly add their responses, upload images, and comment on each other's posts, but it also offers teacher moderation (so teachers can opt to review all posts and comments before they are public to other students).

   To set it up: Teachers will create a Discussion Board and check off the option to "Enable other classes to share this discussion."

   

   Teachers in other classes can then pull in that shared Discussion Board by clicking on the green "+ Shared Board" button, and selecting the original class and the name of the board to share to their own class.