Posted on 1 Comment on Shaping Student Perception for Higher Retention: Insights for Online Programs 

Shaping Student Perception for Higher Retention: Insights for Online Programs 

The phrase “perception is reality” could not ring truer in online education. How students perceive their online courses and instructors significantly influences their engagement and retention in the program. The Teacher Evaluation by Students (TEBS) survey that students complete at the end of each course asks for their perceptions of the overall course and its instructor. Here are some specific strategies that target the feedback from students about their instructors and how you can help foster student success and retention. Each topic listed below correlates with one of the seven questions in the student survey. 

 Active Participation in Online Discussions:

To receive full credit for their discussion assignments, students must post their thoughts and then respond to two or three (depending on the course) posts from their classmates. Too often, students treat these discussion assignments as just a box to check off – this assignment is done – and no actual discussion is generated. By actively participating in these discussions, professors can pose thought-provoking questions or raise issues that students may not have recognized. Each student’s response to these questions counts as one of their required “responses to others,” and the process can help students feel their contributions are valued, and their voices are heard.  

 Demonstrating Subject Matter Expertise:

 At Belhaven, all professors for a course or content area are credentialed as being qualified to teach that content. It is recognized that our professors have a strong command of the subject matter. Sharing this knowledge with your students can help gain their confidence and trust. Although the course assignments are pre-set in all courses, you can share your expertise, add related resources, and provide relevant real-world examples through your announcements to your class and during any Zoom meetings you might schedule. When students see you as experts in the content, their belief in your course’s educational value is bolstered. 

 Timely Responses to Student Questions:

 In today’s climate of instant gratification, our students want/expect responses to their questions immediately upon those questions being sent to the professor and sometimes do not realize that this expectation is unrealistic. Professors should commit to responding to student questions within 24 hours or sooner and within 48 hours (about 2 days) for inquiries received on weekends. Responding promptly helps develop a sense of your being willing and able to support students as they navigate your course’s assignments.  

 Efficient Grading Practices:

 Grading assignments and providing timely feedback to your students are crucial to retaining students within your course and their program. Per the course guidelines, you should return graded papers and assignments by the Wednesday following the Saturday due date. When students receive their grades on time, they plan their studies more effectively, and this consistency in feedback helps them perceive the course as well-structured and organized. 

 Providing Personalized Support:

 Students often need more assistance than they can find through written assignments or course lectures. You can enhance students’ perception of support by offering assistance when required. This assistance can be provided via whole-class or small-group Zoom meetings, personal phone calls or virtual meetings, whole-class announcements addressing issues and concerns from one student that may impact multiple students in the class, or links to outside resources or videos, or any other way to help students better understand challenging concepts or assignments in your course. 

 Constructive Feedback for Academic Success:

 Feedback is a powerful tool for improvement. For the biggest impact, feedback must be timely and constructive, highlighting areas of strength and focusing on strategies or guidance on areas needing improvement. When students can link your feedback to their work, they see a direct link to their academic growth. Practical, timely, and consistent feedback helps students perceive the course as valuable and worthy of their time and efforts. 

 Alignment with Grading Criteria:

 Consistency is vital when it comes to grading. If rubrics are provided for an assignment, you need to use the rubric when grading. This transparency helps students understand the reasons for any loss of points and increases their perception of fairness in grading and clarity in their assignments. 

 As stated at the start of this blog, “Perception is reality.” If students perceive their professors to be fair and equitable, if they perceive their courses to be valuable and worthy of their time and effort, and if they believe their professors care about them and want them to succeed, then that is their reality. This mindset makes students more likely to persist, succeed, and graduate. What you do in your classes really can make a difference. 

 

Posted on No Comments on Rekindling Inspiration: Nurturing Your Passion for Facilitating Online Learning

Rekindling Inspiration: Nurturing Your Passion for Facilitating Online Learning

At Belhaven, online courses are developed by content-area experts and follow a set formula or protocol.  Professors who teach in this environment often wonder how to incorporate their knowledge and personality into every course they teach. What practical strategies can you implement to help you maintain your passion for teaching?

Personalize the Learning Experience

Belhaven’s online courses are pre-developed, but you can still personalize the learning experience. Here are some ways to infuse your personality and expertise into the online classroom:

  • Add Supplementary Materials: Enhance the course with supplementary resources such as articles, videos, or case studies that align with your teaching style and expertise. If you’ve taught the course before, you know where students tend to struggle with the content or assignments. You can highlight these areas in your course announcements and upload additional links or files to help your students master the material.
  • Create Discussion Prompts: Most courses contain pre-prepared discussion prompts that students must address, but you can add to this discourse. When you hold Zoom meetings with your class, ask questions that encourage critical thinking and foster lively debates incorporating your unique perspective and insights. REMEMBER – you can grant your students full credit for the week’s written discussion posts if they participate in that week’s Zoom meeting. If you give them credit, please put a comment into SpeedGrader stating that the requirement for that assignment was met via Zoom participation.
  • Share Personal Stories: Relate course content to your experiences, creating a more engaging and relatable learning environment. Again, this can be accomplished through course announcements or Zoom meetings.

Foster Student Engagement

Everyone knows that students must be engaged with the course material before they have a chance to learn that content. Here’s how you can enhance student engagement:

  • Use Interactive Tools: During Zoom meetings, you can incorporate interactive elements like polls, quizzes, and online games to encourage participation and interaction. You can set up no-stress games and quizzes using Kahoot, Socrative, or other platforms. During your meeting, have your students log into one of these sites, answer the question, and then share your screen to show everyone the class response and trigger great discussions!
  • Offer Real-World Applications: “Why do I have to learn this?” That’s a question from students that teachers grow to hate. What is the connection between the concepts you teach and real-world applications of that content?  Making this connection for students will help make the content more relevant and engaging.
  • Encourage Peer Collaboration: Prior to the start of your course, you can organize your assignments to allow students to work together in groups. The October 4 Faculty Development Zoom meeting will explain setting up these groups.  Especially if your class enrollment is large, subdividing students into smaller groups will promote student interaction and collaborative learning.

Continuously Refine Your Teaching Approach

Teaching online in pre-designed courses doesn’t mean you have to remain stagnant. Keep refining your teaching approach:

  • Collect Student Feedback: Your students complete the TEBS report at the end of the course. This feedback instrument lets students provide input on your effectiveness as an instructor and on the effectiveness of the course in achieving the course goals. But – this feedback is only shared with you after your course ends.  Regularly soliciting feedback from your students as you teach the course can help you identify areas where your personal touch can enhance the learning experience. While your course is still running, ask your students for specific suggestions about how the course can be improved and how you can improve your instructional techniques.
  • Professional Development: Stay updated with the latest trends and technologies in online education through professional development opportunities, webinars, and workshops.
  • Reflect and Adapt: Based on feedback from your students and the formal TEBS reports, reflect on your teaching methods, identify what’s working well, and adjust as needed to align with your teaching philosophy. Student comments on the TEBS reports can be a great place to start your reflection. Because the TEBS report is anonymous, students have the ability to be very honest in their feedback, both positively and negatively.

Connect with Your Online Learning Community

Online teaching can sometimes feel isolated, but you’re not alone. Connect with other online professors for support and inspiration:

  • Collaborate with Colleagues: Reach out to colleagues who teach similar courses or in the same discipline to share ideas, resources, and best practices. If a course has multiple sections with multiple professors, consider working together to offer combined-class Zoom meetings for your students. Collaborate on how to assess student assignments, share announcements, and work together to help make courses equivalent.
  • Join Online Educator Networks: Participate in online forums, social media groups, or professional organizations dedicated to online teaching.
  • Attend Virtual Conferences: Explore virtual conferences and webinars focused on online education to network with peers and gain fresh insights.

These are just a few ways to infuse your expertise, creativity, and passion into your online courses. Incorporating these four strategies into your teaching can reignite your passion for teaching and provide your students with a m

Disclaimer: ChatGPT was used to help develop the outline for this blog.

Posted on No Comments on Nurturing Effective Communication in Online Facilitation

Nurturing Effective Communication in Online Facilitation

While Belhaven’s online courses are pre-prepared, there are many ways our faculty can engage in effective communication to enhance the learning experiences of our students. It is this human element that you bring to your class and course that can have a profound impact on your students.  What strategies can you adopt to increase your communication skills and foster an environment of excellence within your virtual classroom?

Introduction and Availability:

Post a personalized introduction to the course, highlighting your availability to assist students. What is the best way for students to contact you?   Provide multiple ways for students to connect – can they best contact you via email, texts, comments in Canvas, or phone?  Let students know you are there to guide and support them as they move through your class.

Timely and Supportive Responses:

Respond promptly to student inquiries, providing clear, concise answers that address their concerns and keep them on track. Professors are to respond to student email requests within 24 hours of receiving that request and within 48 hours on weekends. It is highly recommended that you offer 1-3 live Zoom meetings during your course to help address student confusion and concerns as the issues arise.  Students can attend these sessions, and it is OK for you to offer a participation incentive by crediting participating students as having completed that week’s discussion assignment (they receive full points and don’t need to post anything!).

Guidance on Discussion Etiquette:

Offer guidance on respectful and constructive online discussion behavior, ensuring a positive and inclusive virtual classroom environment. Students can have differing viewpoints, but they must contribute respectful and constructive dialogue. Help guide the discussions towards a respectful exchange of thoughts.

Announcements and Reminders:

The minimum requirement for course announcements is to post one announcement per week. You are not limited to only one per week!  Post explanatory announcements if you have taught your course before and know where students typically struggle with the content.  You can share articles and supplemental materials through the announcement portal.  In your announcements, discuss the results of the previous week’s assignments.  Where did students show an overall strength or great insight?  Identify areas of weakness or misunderstanding that occurred throughout the class.  Offer words of encouragement when students appear to be struggling.

Virtual Office Hours:

Virtual office hours play a pivotal role in student success in the virtual classroom. Depending on your preference, you can establish set hours where you will be available to answer student questions or establish open hours where your students know you are available to help them.  My preference was to not have “official” office hours but to let students know to email me if they desired a phone conversation or Zoom meeting.  I know other professors prefer to establish a routine time when students can contact them.  The form your office hours take is up to you and your personal style, but virtual office hours are a “Must Do” for virtual instruction.

Feedback that Fosters Growth:

Provide feedback on assignments and discussions that highlight students’ strengths and suggest areas for improvement, fostering continuous learning. When working in SpeedGrader, please be aware of some limitations to students receiving your feedback.  Many, if not most, of your students rely on their phones and the Canvas app to keep up with their studies.  This practice makes much of your feedback ineffective because it is not read.  For example, many professors spend hours highlighting and posting comments within a student’s submitted paper.  These very helpful comments address content, construction of the paper, grammar and mechanics, formatting, etc.  But – these comments are not readily visible to students when they view their grades on the app, so they don’t read the comments.  The same is true when you post feedback within the assignment rubric.  Those comments are also not immediately visible to students.  BUT – if you post your feedback in the “Comments” box, that feedback is displayed along with the grade for the assignment, making it easy for students to view the feedback and hopefully understand why their grade is what it is.

Summarizing Discussions:

Summarize key points from online discussions to help students see their peers’ collective insights and contributions. But – do this as a course announcement, not a discussion post. Many students have told me that they just “check the box” for discussions and rarely go back to read what was said by their classmates.  By posting a summary of the class discussion as a course announcement, you can bring closure to the topic and highlight areas of insight or correct any misconceptions that arose within the discussion post.

Celebrating Milestones:

Acknowledge and celebrate student achievements, such as completing challenging assignments or engaging in thoughtful discussions.  While being careful not to publicly embarrass a student, let the class know when something was well done.  With the student’s permission, post an exemplary response, or present an insightful student’s idea or solution to a problem.  Milestones can also be non-academic.  When students share their personal achievements with you, with their permission, share these with the class.  Did someone recently complete a half-marathon?  Let others know!  New baby? Celebrate! Publicly recognizing student achievements elevates morale and helps develop a community mindset within your class.

To conclude, facilitating student engagement and maintaining clear and supportive communication can enhance the online learning experience and create a strong sense of community within your virtual classroom.

Posted on No Comments on Strategies for Improving Student Performance

Strategies for Improving Student Performance

The information below comes from a whitepaper released by McGraw Hill regarding the devastating effect procrastination can have on student performance.  Here are some of the strategies they share from their research to improve student performance. I encourage you to read through the list and pick at least one or two of the ideas shared and begin to implement in your courses.

Instructors, remind students not to delay starting assignments! Make it a point to detect the early signs of procrastination and intervene with students who are lagging. If you’re using online learning management systems like Connect, you can use the system to look at patterns of student activity and engagement with the course that can help identify
which students may need a little extra assistance. Additionally, by taking some extra teaching steps and employing a few simple strategies, you can likely help the procrastinators before it becomes too late:

Intervene early: Intervene with struggling students before things go too far and grades suffer. Meet and work with them to develop a plan to successfully complete assignments and the course. Pay attention to early warning signs of struggle: late assignments, poor assignment quality, lack of communication, not responding to feedback, and displaying apathy. It also means being proactive and reaching out to students showing these signs and asking if and when, they started an assignment.

Use the data: The fact is, many students may not even know the unintended consequences of procrastination. Kick off the class with a short lecture or video presentation on procrastination. . . .  Let them know that while procrastination is a natural behavior, those not staying on top of when they start an assignment have a greater likelihood of receiving a poor score and course grade.

Stay in touch: Ask students to notify you via email when they start an assignment. When about 75 percent of students have emailed you, reach out to the ones you haven’t heard from and encourage them to get started.

Measure progress: Administer mini-surveys to students to assess their progress on assignments and get involved with those who are not tracking to deadlines, or the assignment start threshold.

Monitor: Actively monitor student assignment start times in the online learning management system. When about 75 percent of them have started an assignment, contact the remaining 25 percent to get them started.

Nudge and repeat: “Nudge” them to start assignments with plenty of time before the due date. Repeat this message throughout the course, weaving it into weekly emails,
discussion posts, or any time you’re communicating with students. Use the carrot and not the stick and nudge them with extra credit for early assignment submissions.

Manage time: Integrate and lecture on-time management strategies in the first class. Listen to their ideas, provide feedback, and be clear that an important strategy is starting assignments early enough to do well on them.

Practice reflection: Early in the course, ask students to write a self-reflection paper or email on how to avoid procrastination in this course and in their college career. Have them be specific in identifying their habits and recommending specific solutions.

Text and call: Send a group text to the class reminding them to start an assignment. Or give them a call if you think they are starting an assignment late—it might just help to light a fire and get them moving on an assignment. One-on-one conversations might also reveal a student who needs assistance and an opportunity for you to help get them on the right track.

Make a timeline: Ask students to turn in a short project timeline outlining when they plan to start an assignment, meet deliverable milestones, and their strategies for staying on track. Review assignment grades and contact students who received less than a “B+” and discuss how they did the assignment work relative to their timeline. Provide helpful feedback for the next assignment and timeline.

Check-in regularly: Touch base with students, get them thinking and talking about starting assignments and making progress. Reminders can happen via text, email, when soliciting feedback or commenting on their work, or even dropping a thoughtful “don’t
procrastinate” note in the student chat room. Be proactive and show students that you’re interested in setting them up for success.

Posted on No Comments on Rubric for Writing Assignments & Final Papers

Rubric for Writing Assignments & Final Papers

Grading is one of the most challenging parts of teaching. This is even more complicated when you want to be fair and objective, but the quality of the work submitted is so uneven. The best way to solve that is to use a standard rubric for assessing writing assignments/final papers. According to Wikipedia: “In education terminology, rubric means “a scoring guide used to evaluate the quality of students’ constructed responses”.[1] Rubrics usually contain evaluative criteria, quality definitions for those criteria at particular levels of achievement, and a scoring strategy.”

There are several ways to construct a rubric, but doing so can seem overwhelming and time-consuming. So, I’ve built you a rubric that is extremely easy to use.  You can find it at this LINK.

The Directions for using the Rubric are on one of the tabs of the file you will find on blazenet.  If you are inquiring from outside of Belhaven’s system, send me a request at rupchurch@belhaven.edu.  Keep in mind that the criteria language on the rubric are not original, nor do I have any idea where it originated.

Here are the Directions:

1 Review rubric and tweak as necessary, including adding course name and number along with the points for the assignment.
2 Save the blank rubric as a .pdf and attach to an announcement to students indicating that the rubric will be used to grade the assignment.
3 When grading the assignment, open the rubric in Excel and enter the appropriate number in the Faculty Score column. If you have entered the total points for the assignment, the spreadsheet will calculate the final points.
4 Save the completed rubric as a pdf for each student
5 Upload to the assignment under Speedgrader (at the bottom of the right column) – under comments. Add a comment letting the student know there is a grading rubric attached along with any other comments desired.
6 Repeat for each student

I want to encourage you to give this a try. Once your students get over the shock, they will perform better and you will have a better ability to communicate more objectively and evenly.

Posted on No Comments on Irreducible Minimum meets Collaborative Learning Strategy

Irreducible Minimum meets Collaborative Learning Strategy

When these two concepts intersect, powerful learning can occur.  However, for there to even be an intersection, the Instructor must accept a few basic premises:

  1. That student learning is different than teaching.  I have heard it said that “teaching is an art.”  I can believe that, but what makes it an art is whether or not learning occurs.  Teaching experiences designed without consideration of how or even if it impacts student learning are empty experiences, which can be equally frustrating for Instructor and student.
  2. That adults learn differently than traditional age college students.  Because of their life experiences the studies show they are better at synthesizing material, particularly if it is presented in a way that allows them to grasp relevance.
  3. That there is more than one way to “skin a cat” as my Mom used to say, i.e. there are other ways to teach besides lecture.
  4. Finally, that there are some things about any subject which are more important than others and which are crucial to mastery of the whole (this is the irreducible minimum c.f. The Seven Laws of the Learner by Bruce Wilkinson).

When these premises are accepted, the Instructor can look at the material to be covered for the class session and, because of experience and education, determine which topics are crucial.  With that knowledge, it is easy to arrange the class session to focus on the crucial topics first, before moving on to the other topics, which are still important but don’t qualify as crucial.

Once the irreducible minimum has been identified, now comes the choice of how to present the material, i.e. what learning strategies will you employ to insure these crucial topics are not just taught but learned.  While those activities include lecture, it is probably the most over used  and least effective technique employed by Instructors.  There are other articles in this blog which talk about collaborative learning activities and any search engine will turn up hundreds if not thousands of ideas, so I won’t include those in this blog post.    Suffice it to say, to contemplate what it will take to achieve student learning will require more time and energy as well as some creativity.  It will mean becoming comfortable with a certain amount of creative chaos in the classroom, something may Instructors find uncomfortable.  On the plus side, this intersection of Irreducible Minimum and Collaborative Learning Strategy will dramatically improve the learning of the students in your class and may have an unexpected consequence of re-invigorating you love for the “art” of teaching.

Originally posted November, 2014

Posted on No Comments on Classroom Activity

Classroom Activity

Incorporating collaborative classroom activities which are both instructive and engaging can be challenging. One way to do that is to use an activity similar to the one I describe below.

I use an RSS feed to pull together posts from various blogs across the internet that I find interesting.  One of those is from Lolly Daskal. She usually posts interesting material, but it is often light on application.  One of her more recent posts was titled: 10 Vital Traits to Look for in People You Hire. As you can imagine, the points she lists are accurate but too shallow to make an application.  As a classroom activity, however, I could use this list in a couple of ways:

  1. I could emphasize the importance to setting up an RSS feed (I use Bloglovin but there are many which do the same thing and almost all are free) and to pull together some favorite blogs for collection. This promotes self-development and ongoing-learning, a skill that will be vital for everyone in the days ahead. Check out this post about these feeders.
  2. I would use a specific post like the one above and parcel it out to groups in the class and ask them to explain how to determine whether or not a trait exists in a job candidate. For instance, one of her 10 vital traits was that the individual must have a growth mindset. You may be aware of the book Mindset in which Carol Dweck explains the virtues of the growth mindset and the differences and advantages over the fixed mindset (excellent book and I highly recommend it). I would challenge the group with this assignment to find out about the growth mindset, if they don’t already know, and then determine ways in an interview to discover if the candidate had a growth mindset.
  3. Alternately, you could post large pages of paper around the room and list the 10 traits on per page and have the groups rotate from page to page every couple of minutes adding their thoughts to how to find out if that trait is present.

There are a LOT of good resources available to draw upon to enrich your class and engage your students.  If you would like to know more or have questions, please contact me (rupchurch@belhaven.edu) or Dr, Kim Priesmeyer, Dean of the Center for Teaching and Learning (kpriesmeyer@belhaven.edu).

Posted on No Comments on Zoom Video Conference – Why and How

Zoom Video Conference – Why and How

You probably are already aware that you have access to a powerful video conference tool from inside Canvas, titled Zoom.  I’ve included a picture of the link.  Zoom is very easy to use and intuitive, meaning that you should be able to use it with only a little trial and error. Below I’m going to discuss Why you might want to use Zoom, and How to set it up and use it.

WHY

I’m going to list several scenarios in which you might benefit from using Zoom:

  • As “office hour(s)” – Designate a time each week when you know you’ll be at your computer and start a zoom conference, posting the link in an announcement on the course-site in Canvas.  One of the things I love about Zoom is that if
    you minimize it, a small window stays active in the upper corner of your screen and you can easily see if anyone joins the conference and you can maximize Zoom.  You can also post an announcement that “Office hours” are by appointment and set up your Zoom specific to any student who schedules an appointment
  • To record a presentation or tutorial.  Zoom is perfect for recording a presentation or tutorial of some computer application.  Whatever you can see on your desktop can be shown through Zoom and recorded and made available to students.  This might be particularly useful for some of the trickier formulas or math related problems.
  • To set up an optional (strictly voluntary) class meeting relative to a specific event, e.g. you could set up a Zoom to discuss political debates following the debates while everyone is still fresh.
  • To bring in a guest lecturer to your class session.  While you would still need to let the Dean know and get approval, this is a perfect way to bring someone into your class that you know can bring some specialized knowledge or a powerful story to connect with your students. This way your guest could be literally anywhere in the world and still present in your classroom.
  • These are only a few ideas, but I’m sure you are getting the idea.

HOW

Starting a Zoom is very easy, all you will need is your Belhaven login and password.  Once you click on the Zoom link you will want to “Host” a meeting after you enter your credentials.  To invite others, either email them the link or post the link in an announcement on your course site.  I’ve included a video below which walks you through the process.

Let me know how it works for you.

 

Posted on No Comments on Creating a Team Project Covenant

Creating a Team Project Covenant

This is a repost with updated links

Many of the courses in the Adult Studies Programs for Belhaven University include a Team Project.  The inclusion of the Team Project is valuable on many fronts:  It provides the opportunity to learn to work together, maximizes group resources, allows for synergistic achievement, just to mention a few.  It is also one of the most frustrating experiences for many students who complain about “freeloaders” who don’t do the work and either drag everyone’s grade down or force others to carry the extra load, often without the Instructor noticing or seeming to care.

The best solution to this and one which falls in line with our goals and mission is the Team Project Charter.  Unfortunately, it is often ignored because it takes time to work out and many Instructors and even team members fail to see the value, wanting to jump straight into the project.  This is almost always a mistake leading inevitably to the complaints mentioned above.

The Team Project Covenant is important because it outlines the basic expectations and is signed by each member of the team.  The basic parts include:

  • Group goals and/or purpose.
  • Planned meeting time, place, and agenda.
  • Clearly understood attendance requirements and penalties for absences.
  • Discussion of responsibilities of members within teams.
  • Discussion plan for meetings.
  • Conflict management and resolution, penalties for constitutional covenant breaches, and plan for constitutional covenant changes.

When these items are spelled out it is much easier to pull the document back out at the beginning of a Team meeting and address any problems and the potential penalties for covenant breaches.  It empowers teams to function smoothly and to stay focused, while avoiding freeloading.

There is an example of the Team Project Covenant on Blazenet under Student Live/Services – you can find it HERE  (you must have a Belhaven login to access this document).

If you haven’t wanted to take time for this in the past, I strongly encourage you to make time going forward.  It will provide a better experience for the students, less frustration and grousing for you to deal with, and, more importantly, allows students to see how to deal with situations if a positive format that they can use in the future.

Here is another article which also describes the importance of the Team Project Charter:  Creating an Effective Team Charter