Real time learning during and after the pandemic: how to productively use chat and polling

During the pandemic, students have been regularly engaged in what I call real time learning through chat and polling exercises. This is an exciting development, but one that also carries the risk of being poorly implemented and not achieving its intended learning outcomes. Four real time teaching methods are presented in this article for consideration by instructors. These methods activate the early stages of the learning process as students encounter and reflect on concepts, puzzles and cases. The resulting level of student engagement acts as a stepping-stone towards higher-level thinking. The four methods are: reproducing questions from polling organizations; asking prediction-oriented questions; repeating polls several weeks later; and, placing more attention on text-based entry. Teaching innovation here represents small changes in the classroom that can be adopted by a wide number of instructors, carrying discernible impacts on student learning. The data from this study suggest that well-designed use of the chat box is the most effective of the four teaching methods examined. The lessons derived from real time learning in social science courses, especially how students recognize the learning opportunities afforded by short writing activities, can be applied in other disciplines.