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Stan Skrabut: Thank you ever so much for joining me for this week’s episode of In The Classroom podcast. I really appreciate it. I know you could be doing other things, but you’re hanging out with me and that is valuable. Well, you may be doing other things. Hopefully, you’re doing like the dishes, laundry, something like that, and still hanging out with me, so I really do appreciate it.
I have been working remotely now for five weeks due to this COVID-19 virus and I’m getting settled in. I’m finding my groove. Hopefully, you’re doing the same thing. If you’re working from a remote status, ideally, we’ll get out of this thing hopefully soon, but for the time being it looks like we’re going to be in this for awhile. This is also given me great opportunities because of less commute time to do some additional thinking, and writing, and reading, and I’m trying to make the best of it.
Well, this week we are going to talk about online courses. For some of you, you may have switched in a hurry and you’re in a new environment. For some others, you may have been teaching in an online environment for a long time. One of the things that I want to talk about today specifically is how to keep the humanity in our courses. Basically, humanizing our courses, our online courses and some strategies to do this.
If your course is missing human-to-human interaction, you really don’t have an online course. You have pretty much a correspondence course, and from personal experience, when the instructor is absent, when there’s no human-to-human interaction, those are long, arduous courses and there’s a reason why people drop out of them. People want that engagement. They want to have the instructor involved. Part of selecting an online course is also selecting the instructor, strongly encouraged, that you are involved in your courses that you create, and that you are involved in them throughout the entire term.
When we talk about interaction in a course, whether it’s face-to-face, or online, or hybrid, it doesn’t matter. We’re typically talking about three different interactions. The learner with the content, learner-to-learner interactions, and learner-to-an-instructor interactions. For many online courses, most of the interaction is learner-to-content. This has been a strong point that courses are built really focusing on the content and it’s great to have that content there, but their downfall is they’re often missing the learner-to-learner and learner-to-instructor interaction. This is as valuable, if not more valuable to an online course.
The research out there indicates that student-instructor interactions and getting timely feedback in a course contributes to increased retention and core satisfaction, so definitely one of the reasons why we want to do this. Well these three different interactions really are at the heart of this idea of community of inquiry framework that was developed by Randy Garrison, Terry Anderson and Walter Archer.
The learning experience is built around three different spheres of information or presence. One is the teacher presence, which I see that as the learner-instructor relationship or interaction. When we talk about teacher presence, we’re really talking about the instructional design, the organization of the course, the decision of what activities are going to be part of the course. It also includes the facilitation of the course and the activities, making sure that they’re released on time and things like that, and then also direct instruction. The instructor is present and they’re involved in the course. This also includes feedback that an instructor would provide in terms of these activities.
The next element is social presence. This is what I see to be learner-to-learner interaction. This refers to the ability to perceive others in an online environment as real and to project oneself as real. This means that all the participants are coming in there as real people and they recognize that there’s other real people as part of the course. This exchange between people in the course is really tied to this social presence.
Then finally we have the cognitive presence, which is that learner-to-content interaction that I talked about. This is where learners go in and basically interact with the content in order for them to construct meaning and knowledge from that particular content. This happens through a variety of different mechanisms, but it’s something that is to the heart of this. This community of inquiry framework really focuses on three things. Teacher presence, social presence, cognitive presence, and that is that that learner-instructor interaction, learner-to-learner interaction, and learner-to-content interaction.
Why humanize your courses? I mentioned one reason is the fact that it leads to increased retention. It leads to increased satisfaction. If somebody is doing something they enjoy and are getting value out of it, then they’re going to hang out and do it longer. That’s one of the main reasons why you want to have this human element to your course. The other, it’s required. According to the US Department of Education, in terms of distance education, distance education courses must have regular and substantive interaction between students and the instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously. You have a lot of latitude, but there has to be regular and substantive interaction between the participants of the course.
Let’s dive into ways that you can make that happen, because it’s really not that hard. If you listen to the strategies I’m going to provide and I’m going to give you 16 strategy for humanizing your course, ways that you can do this. You will probably find out that you may already be doing some of them or some of them that you could be doing better. That’s what we’re going to focus on.
Number one, create an inviting space. What does this mean? I work with Blackboard and when I get into a Blackboard shell, I see their homepage and the homepage for a course is like here’s a list of announcements, here’s a list of to-do things, here’s a list of other requirements, blah, blah, blah, right? That is not very inviting. You have the ability, whether it’s Canvas or whether it’s Blackboard or other learning management systems to change the front page of your course and make it more inviting. That you want to create a welcoming entrance where they know that they’re in a special place.
Create a landing page and that’s more of a marketing term, but it’s a page that really talks about the course, that welcomes the students to the course, and explains why this is the best place to be in the whole world at this moment. Include images, include video, narration, just to flesh that out, but explain how this particular course fits in with all their other courses, and why they should be taking this and help guide them. Now, throughout the course, you can keep changing out your front page. You may want to use that as a place to introduce the next module, for example. You can keep flipping out your front pages, and that’s possible. Number one, create an inviting space.
Number two, represent yourself as a human. I do a lot of reviews in online courses, and one of the things that I get back with instructors over and over and over again is the lack of human presence in their course. When you’re doing an icebreaker, you want students to introduce themselves, for example, you need to do it, too. Talk about yourself. Why are you teaching this particular course? What makes you qualified? What is your background? Talk a little bit about your background, where you went to school, what you majored in, what your research interests are, maybe some of the hobbies you have. Introduce yourself.
You would do this in a face-to-face class, so why wouldn’t you do this in an online class? Share stories. Support your stories with images. I recently went to a conference in New York City, so I shared a little bit about my going to the conference and what I learned. I included images as part of that. Do the same thing. Don’t make an online course a sterile environment. Jazz it up, make it human. Be part of it. Share about yourself.
One of the fascinating things that people are talking about over and over in our remote working area is when a cat walks across in front of the camera, or when kids open the door to see what mom or dad is doing in their teaching environment. This makes it authentic. This makes it real. This makes it human. Don’t get rid of those pieces. Keep them in there. Also, don’t be afraid to show up on video. Students want to see you. That doesn’t mean you have to do video for everything. That’s not what I’m saying, but what I’m saying is don’t be afraid of video.
Some instructors I have, they say, “Oh, I don’t look like how I look up on video.” I go, “Your students see you every single day. It’s for them, not you. Get past yourself. Do it for your students because that’s what your students want. It’s not about you. It’s about what your students want and need.” That’s number two, represent yourself as a human.
Number three, create a welcome video. We just got done talking about the importance of video. Create a welcome video and plug it into your course. This is where you’re going to be able to introduce yourself, tell a little bit about yourself. Set your expectations for the course. How much do you expect students to be in and involved in your course? What the grading expectations? Talk about that. Give an overview of your course. Talk about the different elements that are part of the course. Create that welcome video. Get them excited about why they should be taking your course.
Another video that you need to create is number four, create an orientation video. Create an orientation through your course. Walk them through your online course. Show them where things are. Students are tremendously frustrated, because they go from one class to another, and everything looks entirely different every time they go to a different course, because typically there’s no standardization, but you can help that. You can create an orientation through your course and show them where everything is, but also walk them through the syllabus. the key things that you want them to do.
Number five, send a welcome email. A welcome email is a great way to set the tone for the course. You can send this out before the course starts to alert them maybe of some requirements of your course such as technology needs. Just letting them know that this is an online course. Some students, maybe when they registered, were not thinking about that, and so they may not realize that this is an online course. Make sure that you tell them that.
Also, let them know when the course is actually going to start. Students know when to get on and they’re going to be able to access your course content. If you’re going to have synchronous meetings, let them know that ahead of time. Now, being an online student, my expectations is that the course is asynchronous. The fact that you get on for synchronous event is nice, but please don’t require it, right?
Students pick asynchronous courses for very important reasons is because they can control their schedule. If you have requirements where you say you must be there at a certain time and place, that could be a big turnoff for students. It’s important that you let them know ahead of time, so they can drop your course. Then emails are also great places where you can put links and attachments, things to get them started. For example, you can attach your syllabus and things like that.
Number six, open channels of communication. Different ways that you can do this. One, encourage your students to email you. Have them, force them, require them, to send an email to you, so you know how they can be reached if you need to reach out to them. Hosting virtual office hours or virtual student hours. I talked about this in episode 53 and what I do, personally, is I’ve told students that I’ll typically get on and grade like Wednesday evening, because by that time the discussions fill up and it’s time for me to really go take a look at them. I let the students get involved in their discussions for the first few days, then Wednesday I typically go on.
I’ve told them upfront that I will open up student office hours Wednesday evening and I use Zoom. Before I get on, I shoot a message to them, and let them know when I’m going to get on. They’re free to come check in on me using Zoom. That’s how I do it. Another strategy that you may want to consider, especially within the first two weeks of class, is having an, an open Q&A session where students can get on, ask questions regarding the course, where you can talk with them face-to-face, even in a virtual environment. That’s certainly a strategy.
Number seven, get to know your students. Try to create a survey so you can find out how students want to be called, what is the best way that you can help them be successful in your course. Use that information back into discussions, back into feedback, where you call them by the name that they want to be called. People resonate to their name. It’s something that you’ve had your whole life, and so when you hear your name, you react positively to that.
Use that in the discussions. Use that in the feedback that you’re getting. Use all the information about the student to help tailor the course for that particular student. If you know that somebody has had certain experiences, if you can talk about those experiences as you’re explaining certain concepts in your courses, that particular student, it’ll resonate with them just a little bit more. Get to know your students.
Number eight was just using the student’s name and I talked about that already. Take time to learn the student’s name and specifically what they want to be called and use that throughout your course.
Number nine, set discussion expectations. What this is is describe what the rules of engagement are for your discussion. How you want them to craft answers, what the requirements are about that, but also talking about netiquette. Rules of civility within online discussion. I’m a huge fan of Pixar as feedback strategy. If you’re asking students to do, to respond to other students, having them use “Yes, and–“, right? “Oh I like this, I agree with this and here’s a way to extend that,” to basically take the black hat off if you’re referencing the six thinking hats. Just basically setting netiquette guidelines. Keep things civil. That’s what we want to do.
Number 10, personalize the discussions. Rather than have students respond to factual information, such as define a specific concept or term which everyone in the class will have to give the same response, instead, have students respond to these questions by tapping into their personal experiences, tapping into their beliefs and values. Basically, have students reflect and use questions that tap into that.
Other strategies that are also, have students explain how they are going to apply the strategies they’re learning. I use a particular discussion format called IRA, and basically, I ask students for three insights based on the reading, or the watching of videos, a resource that they would share that’s external to the class, and an application. Now naturally, I ask them to justify why they chose any of them and all of them.
This really taps in. It’s very much in line with andragogy, the adult learning principles. I really like that. If you want to know more about that, check out episodes 29 and 30 and these will give you some ideas on how to create more engaging discussion and engaging discussions yield more interaction between participants. That’s one of the things that you’re going to try to do because learning is about dialogue.
We spend a lot of time with this learner content where they’re interacting with content and and having a conversation with the authors of that content. What we need to do is have them reflect, have them talk out their positions and why they’re supporting their positions. A great way to do that is through discussion. When you are creating your discussion, certainly I have weekly discussions. How you do it, that’s that’s entirely up to you, but a couple other discussions that you might want to consider is having a student student-only discussion, like a student lounge in your course where students can go in and just share ideas and also having a Q &A regarding the course.
This is where students can ask questions in a public manner and you can respond to them and that goes back into these ideas of productivity that I talked about a couple of weeks ago.
Number 11, stay involved. Do not check out of your course. As an instructor. you need to regularly check in on the progress of your students, just don’t disappear. There’s a number of courses where I’ve had instructors just disappear that never received, never even received. I received my grade, but I never received feedback on papers. I never, they were not part of the discussions. They just turned the course on and provided grades at the end of the course.
This is not how you build good courses, memorable courses. Instructors are always worried that going online is like, “Oh, we’re using technology to teach.” No, that’s by choice. If you choose not to be involved in your course, then you deserve what happens when you’re not involved in your course. Online courses, you should be involved. Students expect you to be involved. It will show up in your feedback, your end-of-course feedback if you are not involved, so be involved.
Part of being involved is also number 12, be responsive. Let students know that you’ve heard from them. Nothing is more frustrating to a student than if they send an email and days go by and they don’t hear a response. Get back to them. Let them know at the minimum, that you received their message and you’re working on it, but just don’t ignore them. Be there, be available to assist them. Be able to point out resources to them. Be professional.
Be professional. Treat them with as professionals. Treat them with respect and you will get the same respect back. I have to say, in part of that, make sure that you set clear expectations. If you are not working on your course on a weekend, let your students know. If you’re going out to a conference, let your students know. If you say that you’re going to get back to them in 48 hours and something disrupts that, let your students know ahead of time. They’re going to be fine with that so long you let them know. Part of your core syllabus, you should also let them know when you will respond.
Number 13, provide timely and quality feedback. When you are looking at course activities, assignments, tests, provide useful feedback to the student. You can do this in text, you can do this with audio, you can do this with video. You can do a combination of all that, but take time to respond to them and provide feedback that will help them develop and grow.
Number 14, summarize week or module, so at the end of the week summarize the conversation and you can do this different ways. You can do this with text, video. You can send out emails, but take time to summarize the conversation. Provide your input. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the conversation, or key points, or whatever you want them to consider, make sure that you go ahead and summarize that and get it back out to the students.
When you do this, you may also want to consider introducing upcoming content. Have a sales pitch why they should be checking in on that particular content. Not hard to do. I do mine Sunday mornings when I’m opening up the next module. Basically let them know where they stand in their course. I tell them, talk about what we just went over, introduce the new content, give them the standings, little bit of encouragement, and we start the new week.
Number 15, use announcements. When you are making a change to your course of any kind, you open up a test, you start a new module, what have you, announcements are also a tool that you can and should be using to let students know what’s going on as far as your course. Pretty basic, but it’s a useful tool that helps with that humanizing, that you are considering them, and you’re trying to find different ways to keep that communication going.
Number 16, apply universal design for learning. These universal design for learning strategies will help you develop more engaging courses and will help to humanize these courses. I talk a lot about them in episodes 8 through 10. Two areas that I really focus on was providing multiple means of engagement and provide multiple means of action and expression. I encourage you to go check those out, those sub strategies within those different areas. Lots of good stuff that will help you build better courses, courses that individuals want to be part of.
Just a quick recap of those 16 principles.
Number one, create an inviting space.
Number two, represent yourself as a human.
Number three, create a welcome video.
Number four, create an orientation video.
Number five, send out a welcome email.
Number six, open those channels of communication.
Number seven, get to know your students.
Number eight, make sure you use your students’ names.
Number nine, set discussion expectations.
Number 10, personalize the discussion.
Number 11, stay involved.
Number 12, be responsive.
Number 13, provide timely and quality feedback.
Number 14, summarize week or modules.
Number 15, use announcements.
Number 16, apply UDL principle.
If you do a combination of those things, you will raise the level of your courses. You will see it in your end-of-course feedback that you were involved. Students do appreciate this. They recognize it. They know it. As somebody who’s taken a lot of online courses, I certainly, these were things that I noticed as a student, so I encourage you to do that, but before I let you go, here’s a quick plug for my book, Read to Succeed.