Teaching and Learning With the Forge
The Forge online classroom replicates and improves upon a physical classroom experience by engaging students in active learning, providing faculty with real-time data to support student learning, and facilitating a sense of community between students and faculty—something that asynchronous online learning platforms cannot do.
“The Forge platform provides a better learning experience than asynchronous online models. Both faculty and students actually feel as though they are sitting together in a classroom and engaging with the material and each other.” — Stephen M. Kosslyn, Foundry College Founder, President Emeritus, and Chief Academic Officer
What Makes Forge Different?
Unlike other platforms that were built for the business world, the Forge is designed specifically to facilitate learning by integrating best practices from the science of learning in the online courses.
Actively Engage With Students
The Forge creates a community where participants see each other face-to-face via a scrolling video matrix, take part in live break-out group sessions, and engage in real-time polls.
Create Breakout Groups
Form small groups of 2-8 students, each with their own live video session, for activities like debates, role-plays, and group problem solving.
Use Data to Help Students Learn
Real-time data within the platform ensures appropriate breakout groups and feedback on participation, as well as regular updates on student attendance, engagement, and learning progress.
Unique Forge Features
The Forge uses cutting-edge forms of active learning to promote student success by engaging students dynamically with the lesson. The Forge’s unique features guide and encourage instructors toward effective active learning methods—even if they were not previously aware of them.
- User-interface designed to facilitate active learning
- Instructor can drop into and interact with breakout groups
- Scrolling video grid so everyone is present
- Data-driven composition of breakout groups
- Ability to bring content from breakout groups to class
- Save breakout group work in database
- Sequences of breakout groups for multi-step activities
- Ability to 'tag' breakout groups into debrief discussion
- 'Spotlight' mode to highlight students and breakout groups
- Collection and utilization of data from quizzes
- Automatic and manual class progression
- Observer mode
