The Practice Bus
The “practice bus” is a metaphor. It is our way of characterizing a new feature that exists because you requested it. The “bus” automatically creates review groups as students complete their work and are ready for feedback. It is an easier way to facilitate reciprocal feedback between students who require flexible deadlines, especially in large classes and in an online or hybrid environment.
The practice bus makes it possible to create an online community that gives students an opportunity to participate when they are ready, without requiring you to waste time managing.
Improvements for Instructors
The practice bus allows you to give more effective reviews without spending more time planning and tinkering with reviewer groups. Now, you can:
- Schedule reviews
- Schedule an automatic grouping, an “early bus,” to take place for students who submitted the writing assignment early or on time
- Schedule a late automatic grouping, a “late bus,” to take place on a later date that groups the students who submitted their assignments late
This feature is our response to your feedback asking for better course planning tools and to eliminate the tedious process of rearranging reviewer groups to adjust for late writers. Our goal is to enable instructors to create a review, schedule it, and forget about it. We want you to spend your time teaching, not managing.
Improvements for Students
For students, this feature helps them get the feedback they need when they need it. They never have to wait for their tardy peers before they can start working on their reviews, and the feature also allows you to give some students deadline flexibility without sacrificing their opportunity to engage and practice with their peers.
How to Get Started
You can get started using the Practice Bus by clicking on the Settings tab in your Eli course, scrolling to the bottom of the page, and clicking on Try New Features!
