Parlay Ideas

Parlay Ideas is a comprehensive instructional platform that leverages artificial intelligence to revolutionize classroom discussions. Designed by educators for educators, it aims to make every student's voice heard, fostering a more inclusive, engaging, and thoughtful learning environment. The platform is trusted by over a million teachers and students worldwide to develop critical 21st-century skills like communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.

Parlay provides a structured framework for both online and in-person conversations, moving beyond traditional, unstructured discussions. It equips teachers with the tools to guide students toward deeper understanding and more meaningful interactions. With its suite of features, Parlay helps save valuable preparation time while providing rich, actionable data on student participation and development.

How to use Parlay Ideas

Using Parlay Ideas is an intuitive process designed to seamlessly integrate into any teaching workflow:

1. Choose a Discussion Topic: Teachers can start by exploring the 'Parlay Universe,' a vast library containing over 5,000 ready-made discussion prompts created by a global community of educators. Alternatively, they can create their own topic from scratch.
2. Leverage AI Assistance with Parlay Genie: For custom topics, the AI-powered 'Parlay Genie' can read articles, watch videos, or analyze text to automatically generate higher-order thinking questions and follow-up prompts in seconds, significantly reducing prep time.
3. Select a Discussion Format: Teachers can choose the best format for their lesson. The 'Written RoundTable' is an asynchronous, threaded discussion board ideal for thoughtful, detailed responses. The 'Verbal RoundTable' is designed to facilitate and assess live Socratic seminars, ensuring equitable participation.
4. Invite Students and Begin the Discussion: Students can join a discussion via a simple link or through seamless integration with existing Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Google Classroom, Canvas, or Microsoft Teams.
5. Facilitate and Assess: As the discussion unfolds, teachers can monitor progress, provide feedback, and use the platform's tools to track participation. For Verbal RoundTables, teachers can tap on a student's name to record their contribution.
6. Review Engagement Data: After the discussion, teachers can access detailed reports and portfolios for each student, tracking their engagement, skill development, and growth over time. This data can be used to inform future instruction and provide personalized feedback.

Core Features of Parlay Ideas

• Written RoundTables: A supercharged discussion board with features like secret identities (to encourage honest responses), guided peer feedback questions, and the ability to highlight 'model' submissions.
• Verbal RoundTables: A powerful tool for managing live discussions. It helps teachers track who has spoken, ensure all students have a chance to contribute, and assess participation against custom criteria.
• Parlay Genie (AI Assistant): An AI tool that generates high-quality discussion prompts, follow-up questions based on student responses, and discussion summaries. It can analyze external content like articles and videos to create relevant prompts.
• Parlay Universe: An extensive library of over 5,000 discussion topics across all subjects and grade levels, created and shared by the Parlay community.
• Measurable Reports and Portfolios: Provides teachers and administrators with data-driven insights into student participation, engagement levels, and skill development over the school year.
• LMS/SIS Integrations: Offers seamless integration with over 30 external tools, including Canvas, Schoology, Google Classroom, and Microsoft Teams, for easy single sign-on, class rostering, and assessment syncing.

Use Cases for Parlay Ideas

Parlay Ideas is versatile and can be applied in various educational contexts:

• Socratic Seminars: Use Verbal RoundTables to facilitate structured, equitable, and easily assessable live discussions in humanities or science classes.
• Asynchronous & Hybrid Learning: Employ Written RoundTables to foster deep, thoughtful discussions in online or blended learning environments, allowing students to participate on their own schedule.
• Current Events Analysis: Use Parlay Genie to quickly generate discussion prompts from a recent news article or video, encouraging students to think critically about the world around them.
• Peer Feedback and Review: Structure peer review activities within a Written RoundTable, using guided questions to ensure constructive and helpful feedback.
• Developing Public Speaking Skills: The Verbal RoundTable provides a low-stakes environment for students to practice articulating their ideas and building on the thoughts of others.

Advantages of Parlay Ideas

Parlay Ideas offers significant benefits for both teachers and students:

• Promotes Equity and Inclusion: Features like anonymous posting and structured turn-taking ensure that all students, including introverted ones, have an opportunity to share their thoughts.
• Saves Teacher Time: The AI-powered Parlay Genie and the vast Parlay Universe library drastically reduce the time needed to prepare high-quality, engaging lessons.
• Develops 21st-Century Skills: The platform is explicitly designed to cultivate critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.
• Provides Actionable Data: Measurable analytics help educators track student growth, identify learning gaps, and personalize instruction effectively.
• Flexible and Adaptable: Works for any subject, grade level, and learning environment—in-person, online, or hybrid.

Pricing and Plans

Parlay Ideas offers a tiered pricing structure to accommodate different needs:

• Basic Plan (Free): This plan is free for individual teachers and includes unlimited courses, up to 6 active RoundTables at a time, access to the Parlay Universe, and Google Classroom integration.
• Individual Premium Plan ($120 per year): Aimed at super-users, this plan includes everything in Basic plus unlimited RoundTables, co-teachers, data export, student reports, Parlay Genie access, and priority support.
• Schools and Districts Plan (Custom Pricing): This comprehensive plan provides all premium features for every teacher, along with professional development, full LMS/SIS integrations, administrator dashboards, and dedicated support. Pricing is customized based on the institution's size and needs.