Recommendations and best practices Illustration

Pre-loved practices in online teaching

Welcome to the Visual Toolbox for Designing Online Learning.

A collectively gathered resource kit you can use to design your online courses. You’ll find inspiration for creating your next online course and activites that you can easily incorporate into the online classroom.

Let’s start creating engaging virtual learning!


Activities to boost your online class experience

The following activites in the table are classified accoding to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning and an Activate category to indicate which activities you can use to achieve different goals in the classroom.

  • Create Icon Create

    Produce new or original work.

  • Evaluate Icon Evaluate

    Justify a stand or decision.

  • Analyze Icon Analyze

    Draw connections among ideas.

  • Apply Icon Apply

    Use information in new situations.

  • Understand Icon Understand

    Explain ideas or concepts.

  • Remember Icon Remember

    Recall facts or basic concepts.

  • Activate Icon Activate

    Inject energy into class, get people moving, and have fun.

Hover with the mouse over activities names and rectangles in the table to get more information displayed on the right side of the page. Click the activity’s name to get a full description of the activity.

Click on a square to see details about a practice

Activity thumbnail

  • Group Size
  • Time Frame
  • Facilitation Level
  • Contributes to
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Filters

Group Sizes
Levels of Facilitation Skills
Time Frames
Virtual and Hybrid Hackathons Thumbnail

Virtual and Hybrid Hackathons

A hackathon is an event in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming to complete one or several programming challenges.

“Culture clash” on virtual mobilities  Thumbnail

“Culture clash” on virtual mobilities 

Students from different countries could hold culture clash events, for example, virtual cooking events where students show how to prepare some foods from their country. People could follow the instructions at home. 

Virtual social activities Thumbnail

Virtual social activities

Social gatherings online before the course starts so students can meet each other.

Digital thematic networks Thumbnail

Digital thematic networks

Collaboration networks revolving around a theme topic-specific resources.

Gamified Virtual Reality exercises Thumbnail

Gamified Virtual Reality exercises

Utilizing virtual reality to teach different skills

Playable Concepts Thumbnail

Playable Concepts

Embeddable mini-games for teaching and meaning-making

I like I wish Thumbnail

I like I wish

The students are given a safe space to give peer feedback to their teammates

Multi-step exercises on a video Thumbnail

Multi-step exercises on a video

After a topic is covered, the teacher uploads a video in which more difficult exercises are solved.

SCRUM for thesis supervision Thumbnail

SCRUM for thesis supervision

SCRUM methods used for master's thesis management can increase the number of completed master's theses.

Practical group exercises Thumbnail

Practical group exercises

Practical group exercises to be done during lectures.

Shared cloud folder and website Thumbnail

Shared cloud folder and website

Shared cloud folder and a website to share and return course materials in a structured manner.

Course discussion forums Thumbnail

Course discussion forums

A forum at which students can ask questions, see others' questions and get help from their peers or teaching assistants and teachers

Local customs and manners Thumbnail

Local customs and manners

Online collaboration and group discussion about local customs based on reading material.

Short video recording Thumbnail

Short video recording

Using a self video recording platform, the teacher can record a short video in advance for explaining a concept or a process.

Online group discussion Thumbnail

Online group discussion

The teacher creates a Padlet platform in advance, and instructs students on an assigned team discussion.

Flipped classroom Thumbnail

Flipped classroom

The students are given the material in advance and they produce an outcome to share with their peers. 

Appreciation Circle Thumbnail

Appreciation Circle

The day before an important deadline/presentation, do an “appreciation circle”.

Touch Blue Thumbnail

Touch Blue

In this icebreaker, the teacher calls out a colour to touch. Each student then has to go touch something with that colour. 

Open exam Thumbnail

Open exam

The exam questions are published and the final exam has 2 of the 10 questions plus 1 question from a broader topic area.

Breakout pitches Thumbnail

Breakout pitches

Students prepare short pitches with their group, all team members are assigned to different rooms and pitch their solution.

Focus SOS Mentimeter Thumbnail

Focus SOS Mentimeter

Ask topic questions in a collaborative platform to evaluate the class mood.

Free Component Thumbnail

Free Component

Students deliver content on a topic of choice, on any format they choose.

Peer assessment Thumbnail

Peer assessment

Students give feedback to their peers in an individual or team basis.

Group formation Thumbnail

Group formation

This practice helps create groups according to student interests

Video Analysis Thumbnail

Video Analysis

The video is shown to the students before, or at the beginning of the class. It is interrupted frequently to highlight aspects and details.

Student-led questionnaire Thumbnail

Student-led questionnaire

Students create questions and answers. Educators validate them, and make them available throughout the course.