What Parlay does

Parlay is a digital platform that enhances classroom discussions and student engagement. It provides a library of ready-to-use discussion prompts, tools for creating custom prompts, and features for tracking student participation and performance. Parlay facilitates online roundtable discussions, promoting critical thinking and collaborative learning. It also uses data to help teachers assess individual contributions, understand student perspectives, and tailor instruction to diverse learning needs.

Key features for teachers

• RoundTable: A threaded discussion board activity that includes secret identities, guided peer feedback questions, and 'model' submissions. This feature ensures every student has a voice and allows teachers to track student participation.
• Parlay Genie: An AI-powered tool that generates higher-order discussion prompts and follow-up questions based on articles, videos, and past Parlay discussions. It can craft follow-up questions based on student responses, making discussions more engaging.
• Discussion Prompt Library: A library of over 5000 discussion prompts created by teachers in the Parlay community. Teachers can browse topics for their class or contribute their own.
• Integration with External Tools: Parlay integrates with more than 30 external tools, enabling Single Sign On, class rostering, and easy assessment syncing.
• Assessment Tool: An exhaustive tool that allows teachers to track, score, and respond to both student-written responses and students' participation in the discussion. It provides analytics on both the quantity and quality of student participation, and suggested feedback based on the type of topic and how other students have responded.

Pricing

Parlay offers a free plan for teachers that includes discussion activities, a content library, and core functionality. This plan allows for unlimited courses, unlimited students, and up to 12 RoundTables at one time.

Potential classroom applications

• Facilitate Socratic Seminars: Use Parlay to conduct Socratic seminars, a form of dialogue-based learning where students engage in critical thinking and idea exchange.
• Promote Collaborative Learning: Utilize Parlay's threaded discussion board activity to encourage students to share their perspectives, learn from each other, and practice constructive dialogue in an online community.
• Create Custom Discussion Prompts: Stimulate thought-provoking discussions by creating custom discussion prompts or choosing from a library of over 5000 prompts created by other teachers.
• Conduct Asynchronous Discussions: Facilitate asynchronous discussions, allowing students to participate in discussions over the course of a few days, either in class or remotely.
• Encourage Peer Feedback: Set up custom criteria for assessing students in the discussion and configure guiding questions or sentence stems for peer feedback and commentary.