Reading Lists are a great way to actively engage students with course reading and viewing. The simplest method is by using the Mark as Done feature. By each item in a Reading List is a Checkmark in outline. Students can click this to tick off completed reading or viewing assignments. Use of this checkmark is a factor instructors can view in the analytics for their course.
Another simple student engagement element is Student Discussion.
Student Discussion is found in the right hand pane of your Reading List.
Click on Student Discussion to view and add comments. You can add comments that guide students' understanding as they read or ask discussion questions.
Another option for student engagement is the PDF viewer. If you upload a PDF file, you have the option to use Public Annotations. A toggle at the top of the viewer allows you to turn public annotations off, but they are turned on by default.
Turned on, each user has the option to post annotations either privately or publicly. The default is to keep the note private.
To make a comment, a user clicks the tab on the right of the PDF frame.
As the instructor, you can delete any public comment or switch it to private. Users can also change their own public comment back to private and vice versa. Students comments are color-coded and searchable by name. Instructor comments are coded with an icon (see Implementer, ExLibris below).
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An instructor can also change the public annotations status of several PDFs at once using the Edit Multiple Items icon. Click the icon, select the items and then use the right panel form to change the status.
