A LOLA is a live online learning activity. There are different types of LOLAs and one of them is called textra LOLA. This type of LOLA is an activity built around printed or online text materials. This activity called Imaginary Applications is an example of a textra LOLA.

Synopsis

Distribute a handout with short descriptions of different principles or techniques. Describe an imaginary application of one of these. Invite volunteers to describe their own imaginary applications of some other principle or technique. Assign a homework task to write other imaginary applications.

Purpose

To plan for the application of different principles or techniques.

Participants

Minimum: 2
Maximum: Any number
Best: 12 to 30

Time

30 minutes to 1 hour

Handout

List of different textra LOLAs, each with a short description

Supplies

•   Timer
•   Whistle
•   Paper and pencils

Preparation

Select a topic. This textra LOLA is suited to explore a set of items that belong to the same category. Here are some examples: European nations, Chinese cuisine, product features, cultural norms, or historical leaders.
Recently we conducted a LOLA on the topic of textra LOLAs.
Prepare a handout. This handout is in the form of a glossary with the name of each technique and a brief description. For an example, see the handout labeled Textra LOLAs at the end of this article.

Flow

Brief the participants. Announce that you are going to rapidly explore different types of textra LOLAs that are based on textual content. Give a very brief explanation of this type of online techniques.
Distribute the handout. Ask the participants to download a pdf file version of handout, Textra LOLAs.
Scan the handout. Invite the participants to review the pdf document independently and rapidly. Announce a 3-minute time limit for this task.
Rate the techniques. Ask the participants rate the usability of each type of textra LOLA on a 5-point scale with “1” being very useless and “5” being very useful.
Elaborate an item. Explain that you are going provide additional details of how you recently used the first item from the handout. Provide the context, the participants, and the purpose of your use of this item.
Ask the participants to prepare to describe their use of other techniques. Confess the usage report you presented earlier was an imaginary one. Tell the participants that you will ask them to provide similar imaginary usage reports of other techniques from the handout. Announce a 5-minute preparation time for the participants to individually select an item and get ready to make a presentation.
Ask a volunteer to present their application. At the end of 5 minutes, ask for a volunteer to talk about how they applied one of the items from the handout. Help this presenter by asking suitable questions (such as Who did you teach? What did you teach? and How did you start the activity?).
Follow up the presentation. Thank the presenter for their ability to imaginatively apply the technique. Make positive comments about the presentation.
Continue with additional presentations. Invite other volunteers to describe their use of a technique from the handout.
Assign homework. After a suitable number of presentations, ask the participants to write an imaginary report of the use of one or more items from the handout and send the document to you. Display these reports on a web page and encourage the participants to review them and comment on them.

Handout

Textra LOLAs: Text-Based Online Training Techniques

2-Minute Drill. Distribute an article and give the participants enough time to skim through it. Prepare 20 or more closed, short-answer questions related to the article. Organize the participants into groups and send each group to a separate breakout room. Appoint a judge in each room and give the judges a list of answers to the questions. Display a partial list of questions on the screen and ask the judge to call out a random question number. The participants in the breakout room yell out the answer. The first participant to give the correct answer scores a point. The judge specifies another random question number and continues the activity. At the end of 2 minutes, the person with the most score points is declared to be the winner. The game continues with a different participant assuming the role of the judge.

Abstracts. Assign four or five research reports for the participants to read. After a few days, schedule a textra LOLA session. Organize the participants into four or more teams and send each team to a separate breakout room. Ask the team members to collaboratively write an abstract of a randomly selected research report. After 10 minutes, ask each team to display its abstract on the screen. After every team has displayed its abstract (and permitted all participants to read it), conduct a poll of the teams. Invite every participant to select the abstract from a team other than their own team. Identify the team that received the most poll selections as the winning team.

Artistic Translation. Ask the participants to read an article within a suitable time limit. At end of this time, instruct each participant to draw a picture reflecting one of the key ideas from the article. Invite a randomly selected participant to display their picture using their camera. Ask the other participants to announce their interpretations of what they see in the picture. Later, ask the participant who drew the picture to explain what their picture is supposed to convey. Repeat the activity by inviting other participants to display and discuss their pictures.

Author Roundup. Select four or five articles related to the same training topic. Assign a different article to each participant. After the participants have read the assigned article, organize them into mixed teams to ensure that each team includes readers of different articles. Display a set of questions related to common themes. Ask the participants to respond to these questions based on their assigned reading. Later, ask the members of the team to compare the answers and identify the similarities and differences among different authors’ points of view.

Best Summary. Ask the participants to read an important article. After a suitable pause, conduct a textra LOLA: Organize the participants into four or five teams and send each team to a separate breakout room. Ask the team members to collaboratively work for 10 minutes and type a summary of the article in less than 150 words in the chat area. Instruct the participants to read the summaries from the other teams. Conduct a poll and invite individual participants to select the summary they like the best. Identify the winning team that wrote this popular summary.

Confused. After completing their reading assignments, ask the participants to think of questions related to confusing or incorrect information in what they read. Organize teams of participants and send them to different breakout rooms. Instruct them to discuss the questions and figure out the answers. Bring the participants back to the main room and answer the remaining confusing questions. Finally, ask each participant to type in the chat area a summary of one of your important answers.

Cross Questions. This textra LOLA is particularly useful for memorizing paired associates such as countries and Internet domain codes or elements and their chemical symbols. Prepare a 2-page handout so that each page has equal number of items. Organize the participants into pairs and send each pair to a separate breakout room. Assign a different page to each person. Ask each member of the pair to take turns to call out a stimulus (such as the name of country) and the other person to say the appropriate response (such as the capital of the country). Change the roles when a person hesitates too long or gives an incorrect answer. At the end of a prespecified time, identify the participant who supplied the most correct responses as the winner.

Each Teach. Analyze a procedure and prepare a separate handout to teach each step. Also prepare a series of exercises that would require the application of these steps. Rapidly demonstrate the entire procedure. Distribute equal numbers of different handouts to the participants. Ask the participants to work independently and master the application of the step from their handout. Organize the participants into teams so that each team has members who have mastered different steps. Ask the teams to complete several application exercises, learning all the steps from each other.

Fast Grab. Assign an article for the participants to read. Organize the participants into teams in separate breakout rooms. Ask each team to generate several closed questions on the content of the article and send these questions as a private chat message to you, the facilitator. Bring back all participants to the main room and conduct a quiz contest with the question supplied earlier by the teams.

Half and Half. Ask the participants to study an article, taking notes. Take away the article and send teams of participants to separate breakout rooms. Ask each team to prepare a summary of the key points of the article in exactly 32 words. Ask the teams to read their summaries. Next, ask the teams to rewrite the summary in exactly 16 words, retaining the essential ideas and borrowing words from other teams’ summaries. Repeat the process, asking teams to successively reduce the length of the summaries to 8, 4, and 2 words.

Key Ideas. This textra LOLA incorporates a book with several chapters or an anthology with varied articles. Assign a different piece of reading to each participant and announce a time limit. At the end of the reading time, send pairs of participants to breakout rooms and have them share the key ideas from what they read. After several paired discussions, re-organize the participants into teams of 5 to 9. Instruct the team members to share the key points from what they read or what they heard from others. Bring everyone back to the main room to independently select the most important key idea from the entire book. Ask the participants to type this idea in the chat area and review the ideas typed by the others.

Learn as Much as You Can. Come up with 20 or more items related to the training topics (such as causes, principles, strategies, tips, or products). Prepare handouts with single items and distribute equal numbers of them to the participants. Repeatedly send pairs of participants to different breakout rooms and ask them to share and discuss the item in their handout. After a suitable time, bring all participants back to the main room and conduct a quiz with short-answer questions about all the items.

Learning Teams. Organize the participants into three or more cooperative teams and send each team to a separate breakout room. Ask the team members to study the first section of a handout and practice playing a rapid quiz game based on the contents of this section. Next, re-organize the participants into contest groups to compete with members of other teams. Continue by alternating between cooperative learning sessions and competitive quiz contests. At the end of several rounds, identify the team with the highest score earned from the contests as the winning team.

Mining the Library. Before the online session, ask the participants to select and review one of the books from a library of books on the same topic. After a few days, ask the participants to find a partner and share a set of practical ideas from the books they read. Next, ask each pair to join another pair to form a team of four. Ask each member of the team to explain the ideas they learned earlier from their partner. Finally, ask each team to select the best idea among the different ideas. Bring the teams to the main room and ask them to present their selected ideas.

Mixed-up Sentences. Prepare a handout with seven summary sentences related to a reading assignment. Include a superfluous sentence that is not found in the reading. Arrange these sentences in a random order. Organize the participants in teams and send each team to a different breakout room. Display the seven summary sentences and ask the members of each team to find and remove the superfluous sentence and replace it with an appropriate sentence related to the content of the reading assignment. Finally, ask the teams to collaboratively identify the two most important summary sentences.

Open Book. The object of this LOLA is not to give the answer, but to give the location where the answer is found. Distribute copies of a hefty policy manual or a textbook to the participants and ask them to skim through it. Send teams of participants to different breakout rooms and ask them to prepare a list of questions from different sections of the book, along with page refences to the location of the answer. Ask the teams to send the questions and page refences as private chat messages to the facilitator. Bring everyone to the main room and conduct a quiz using the questions supplied earlier by the teams. During this contest, the participants don’t have to give the answer; they just need to give the page refence from the books they scanned.

Pages. Different participants are given different pages from a glossary of creativity techniques. Each participant is asked to independently select two most useful techniques from the page given to them. The participants who received the same page are organized into a team and sent to a breakout room. They compare their selections and come up with a consensus. Later, the participants are re-organized into teams whose members selected different pages. They share their consensus items and choose three techniques across different pages.

Recall Roulette. Distribute copies of an article and ask the participants to study it independently. Ask each participant to come up with several short-answer questions related to the article and send these questions as private chat messages to the facilitator. Scramble the questions and conduct a quiz context.

Superlatives. After completing a reading assignment, organize the participants into teams. Send each team to a separate breakout room. Announce several superlative adjectives (such as the most important, the most useful, the most surprising, and the most complex) and ask the team members to discuss suitable points from the reading that reflect each superlative.

Tips LOLA. This LOLA incorporates a list of tips related to a soft skill topic. active listening. The participants download a pdf document and review the tips. They reflect on the tips and select the one they like the most. The facilitator asks the participants to imagine that 5 years have elapsed, and the participants have successfully completed a personal project with impressive results. Each participant connects the selected tip to their fame and fortune and creates a story about the application of the tip. After 5 minutes, the facilitator sends groups of two to five participants to breakout rooms. The group members share and discuss the stories they created.