Smart Groups: A Tool for Group Orchestration in Synchronous Hybrid Learning Environments

Smart Groups is a tool consisting of one mobile application for the teacher and another one for the student for group orchestration in synchronous hybrid learning environments, i.e. when there are both onsite and online students. The teacher application shows recommendations of Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns (CLFPs) when creating groups for collaborative learning, being the location of the student transparent to the teacher. Regarding group management, if the teacher selects a CLFP the change between the phases of the CLFP is done automatically or by following the steps indicated by the application. The application also serves for the communication between the teacher and students and for sharing resources (e.g., documents, external tools, webs...) with the whole class or with each group. The student application indicates the group the student belongs to. Moreover, if the student is in the classroom the application points to the location where the group members should gather, taking into account the current need for social distancing. The student can communicate with the group mates and the teacher through the application and have access to the additional resources provided by the teacher. Finally, both applications warn users that are in the physical location if their safety distance (1.5m) with another user is not being respected for more than 10 s.