The Oxford University Press ELT team has published this useful article on chatbox activities in December 2021.
Any mode of teaching comes with its advantages and disadvantages, and this is certainly true of online teaching. One advantage of teaching synchronous classes online is that there is normally the option of using the chatbox. The chatbox enables more students to participate at once, it can get shy students to communicate more, and it can be used to develop aspects of writing. Below are five simple activities which language teachers can use in their synchronous online classes.