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Ryan Ditchfield, an Instructor at Fresno State, creatively organizes group discussions providing students an opportunity to self-assign themselves to a group discussion topic that interest them in his "Eyewitness Identification-FTB 159T" class. In the group discussions they have the choice to pick a role - Researcher, Eyewitness, Defense Attorney, Police Officer, Suspect, and Timekeeper and throughout the semester the students will also be changing to a different group and also change their role. This example represents student choice and group roles in discussions.

Michael Cole, an Instructor at Fresno State, developed a Canvas discussion board activity that provides an opportunity for students to engage in an undergraduate Exercise Physiology class learning module that is focused on understanding and applying concepts and ideas related to human energy systems. In this activity, students access highlights of events from the most recent Olympic games and discuss the use of the human energy systems in the context of the characteristics of these events (duration, intensity, etc.).

Kathaleen Valdez, an Instructor from Fresno State, uses a brief weekly discussion to help facilitate a line of communication between the student and the instructor by providing a way for students to check-in. The discussion encourages them to let the instructor know how they are doing in regards to the class or just life. It helps them know that there is someone else out there that has their back and is concerned about how they are doing and lets the instructor know if there is a need to contact the student for additional assistance. In addition, the discussion can be used as a way to monitor student participation.

Donald Henriques, an Instructor at Fresno State, uses the social annotation tool Perusall to encourage interactive reading.

Professor Emerita Betty Garcia from Fresno State, developed a small group activity where students are asked to brainstorm about "possible" "presenting problems" that would be brought to a group with the identified focus (i.e., graduate student stress) using Zoom breakout rooms. The purpose of this activity is to reflect on the role they will take in the group and in preparing and planning for the class lab group activity. The multi-sequence activity involves students thinking about options and choosing one. Possible presenting problems are posted on Jamboard for all students to review and factor into their decision-making about what "presenting problem" will be theirs.