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Ask an ID: Helping Students Build Belonging and Discover Support Services with Padlet

Ditch the passive syllabus tour! Learn how an interactive Padlet scavenger hunt can help students explore college resources, build a sense of belonging, and start navigating your course successfully from day one.

Illustration of a colorful, cluttered desk with stacks of books, a coffee cup, keyboard, and a computer monitor displaying the text "Helping Students Build Belonging and Discover Support Services with Padlet". Below the desk, the phrase "Ask an Instructional Designer" is written in bold, playful text.

Ask an ID: Helping Students Build Belonging and Discover Support Services with Padlet

Dear Instructional Designer,

I want my students to feel a strong sense of belonging at ACC from the very first week, but I also need them to know how to access help when challenges arise. It often takes weeks to foster community in my classes, especially in online sections, and students tend to gloss over the support services listed in my syllabus. What’s a better way to help them actively engage with these resources and connect with each other?

-Seeking Connection

Dear Seeking Connection,

One great idea we have seen a lot of faculty incorporate into online learning is a welcome Padlet. We did a Remote Recess a couple of years ago where Phil Patrone talked about how adding this one element helped his course drop rates tremendously! You can watch the recording of that session here.

You can also take this idea one step further and try an Online Learner Scavenger Hunt using Padlet. Instead of asking students to read a list of course information and support services, invite them to complete short challenges that help them practice navigating the course, prepare their learning environment, and discover common ground with classmates.

The activity could include stops such as:

  • Grab-and-Share: Find an object that represents something you enjoy, value, or want classmates to know about you.
  • Blackboard Base Camp: Locate an important course feature, instruction, due date, or resource.
  • Help! I Know Where to Go: Match a realistic student challenge with an ACC support service.
  • Build Your Learning Lair: Examine your usual study space and identify one helpful feature and one possible improvement.
  • Online Learning Survival Kit: Recommend an object, tool, habit, or strategy for succeeding online.
  • Find Your People: Browse classmates’ posts to find a shared interest, an intriguing idea, and something you want to try.

Students complete the stops individually, so they do not need to coordinate schedules. They connect afterward by reacting to posts, asking questions, and identifying shared experiences.

Why does this work?

The activity supports several goals at once:

  • Belonging: Students reveal something about themselves and make low-pressure connections with classmates. These early interactions can help establish that students are seen, supported, and part of a learning community.
  • Purposeful movement: Students step away from the screen to find an object or examine their study space. This is not about fixed “kinesthetic learning styles.” It uses movement and interaction with the environment to make participation more active and memorable.
  • Support-service practice: Students do more than receive a list of resources. They practice locating the appropriate support for a realistic problem before they need it.
  • Course orientation: Students navigate Blackboard themselves and locate information they will use later. This turns orientation into an authentic practice task instead of a passive tour.

How do I remake the Padlet?

Open the shared Padlet and select Remake (the little box with arrows at the top right of the screen) to create an editable copy in your account. Choose whether to copy its posts, design, comments, and other elements. Then:

  1. Change the title and description for your course.
  2. Edit the challenges to reflect your syllabus, assignments, technology, and student-support resources.
  3. Remove any stops that do not serve a specific course goal.
  4. Review the settings for comments, reactions, attribution, moderation, and visitor permissions.
  5. Confirm that students can write and reply without being able to change the Padlet’s structure.
  6. Test the activity from a student view before publishing it.

Keep the challenges short and practical. You might ask students to locate your communication policy, find where grades and feedback appear, open a required technology tool, or identify a backup plan for internet problems.

Allow students to respond with photos, screenshots, drawings, emojis, GIFs, or written descriptions. Students should not be required to reveal their faces, homes, or locations.

How do I embed it in Blackboard Ultra?

First, open the completed Padlet and select Share, then Embed in your blog or your website. Copy the board embed code.

In Blackboard Ultra:

  1. Open the location where you want students to find the activity.
  2. Select the plus sign, choose Create, and then select Document.
  3. Give the Document a clear title, such as “Start Here: Online Learner Quest.”
  4. Select Add HTML.
  1. Paste the Padlet embed code and save the Document.
  2. Make the Document visible to students.

Preview the activity on both a computer and a mobile device. Include a regular link to the Padlet near the embedded version so students have another way to open it if the embed does not work well with their device or assistive technology.

This approach transforms course orientation from “Here is everything you need to know” into “Let’s practice finding our way together.”

Yours in connection,

Instructional Designer