Table of Contents

Cover

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Small Teaching Online

THE CHALLENGE OF ONLINE COURSES

THE GROWTH OF ONLINE LEARNING

THE SMALL TEACHING APPROACH

APPLYING SMALL TEACHING ONLINE IN MULTIPLE

CONTEXTS

THE STRUCTURE OF SMALL TEACHING ONLINE

A NOTE ON OUR COLLABORATION

FINAL THOUGHT

Part I: Designing for Learning

Chapter 1: Surfacing Backward Design

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

SURFACING BACKWARD DESIGN ONLINE

CONCLUSION

Chapter 2: Guiding Learning Through Engagement

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: GUIDING

LEARNING THROUGH ENGAGEMENT

CONCLUSION

Chapter 3: Using Media and Technology Tools

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: USING

MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

CONCLUSION

Part II: Teaching Humans

Chapter 4: Building Community

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: BUILDING

COMMUNITY

CONCLUSION

Chapter 5: Giving Feedback

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: GIVING

FEEDBACK

CONCLUSION

Chapter 6: Fostering Student Persistence and Success

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

FOSTERING STUDENT PERSISTENCE AND SUCCESS

CONCLUSION

Part III: Motivating Online Students (and Instructors)

Chapter 7: Creating Autonomy

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: CREATING

AUTONOMY

CONCLUSION

Chapter 8: Making Connections

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: MAKING

CONNECTIONS

CONCLUSION

Chapter 9: Developing as an Online Instructor

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

DEVELOPING AS AN ONLINE INSTRUCTOR

CONCLUSION

Conclusion: Finding Inspiration

References

Index

End User License Agreement

“For anyone teaching online—novice or seasoned— Small Teaching

Online is a must-read! Darby expertly combines educational

research and her expertise as an instructional designer to suggest

practical solutions to challenges faced in the online environment in

bite-sized chunks that don't overwhelm.”

—Mel Young, Teaching and Learning Innovation Hub, Cambrian

College, Blogger, disruptivepedagogy.ca

“Darby and Lang extend the powerful Small Teaching paradigm

successfully to the online teaching and learning environment.

Faculty who are new to online teaching are especially well-served

with this superb introduction to research-based incremental

strategies.”

—Victoria Mondelli, Founding Director, Teaching for Learning

Center, University of Missouri

An unexpected delight! Flower brightens the literature she cites

with her experiences and experiments in her own online classes—

what she tried, what worked well and what didn't, and how she

improved on less-than-perfect results. You feel like you're getting to

know her and finding a new friend and mentor.

—Linda B. Nilson, Director Emeritus, Office of Teaching

Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University

Any professor would find this book useful, whether you teach

entirely online, in a flipped classroom, or just want your course

website to be more than a folder of readings. Flower Darby mixes

her rich experience as a teacher and learner with a careful review of

the most current literature to bring us a work that's deep with

context and immediately applicable.

— Joseph M. Murphy, Director of the Center for Innovative

Pedagogy, Kenyon College.

In his book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of

Learning, Jim Lang provided instructors with practical, simple, and

easy strategies for maximizing student learning and success. Flower

Darby and Lang now offer Small Teaching Online: Applying

Learning Science in Online Classes, an equally important book for

those who strive to create engaged learning experiences for

students in an online environment. This will be really helpful to

many instructors, whether teaching online or face-to-face or in a

hybrid format. Indeed, anyone who cares about student learning

and student success in the 21st century would benefit from

implementing the lessons presented in this book.

—Dr. Jerry Daday, Executive Associate Dean, Institute for Engaged

Learning, Professor of Sociology, IUPUI

The work of teaching is hard. Coupled with the often-uncharted

paths involved in teaching online, it can feel downright

discouraging. Enter Small Teaching Online. It is a practical guide to

help us design our online classes to support learning, be more

experimental in our pedagogy, give effective feedback, help

students persist, and create more authentic connections. This book

helps us see how we can continue to iterate one small step at a time

toward excellence in online teaching.

—Bonni Stachowiak, director, Institute for Faculty Development,

Vanguard University; host, Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

“What faculty members teaching online need most of all are

research-based, but very practical, strategies they can use in their

online learning environments tomorrow. Darby and Lang's book,

chocked full of great ideas that faculty can use right away, is just the

resource we have all been looking for.”

—Larry Gallagher, former Director of Faculty Professional

Development at Northern Arizona University

Small Teaching Online

Applying Learning Science in Online

Classes

Flower Darby

James M. Lang

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Cover design: Wiley

For Emerald, Piccadilly, and Britannia, for whom I learned to teach

online so I could be home when they were small.

About the Authors

Flower Darby is a senior instructional designer and adjunct faculty

member at Northern Arizona University, where she has taught for over

22 years. She is also adjunct online faculty for Estrella Mountain

Community College. She's taught over 75 online classes to more than

2,000 online students. Darby also teaches in-person and blended

courses in a range of subjects: English literature, composition,

technology, education, dance, and fitness. She regularly writes and

presents nationally and internationally on excellence in teaching and

learning design. She is zealous in her promotion of student success

through effective classroom practice, whether the classroom is

physical or online. Her bachelor's and master's degrees are from

Northern Arizona University in English literature.

James M. Lang is a professor of English and the director of the

D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in

Worcester, Massachusetts. He is the author of five books, the most

recent of which are Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the

Science of Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2016), Cheating Lessons: Learning

from Academic Dishonesty (Harvard University Press, 2013), and On

Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College

Teaching (Harvard UP, 2008). Lang writes a monthly column on

teaching and learning for The Chronicle of Higher Education; his

work has been appearing in the Chronicle since 1999. His book

reviews and public scholarship on higher education have appeared in a

wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Boston

Globe, Chicago Tribune, and Time.

Lang edits a new series of books on teaching and learning in higher

education for West Virginia University Press; he co-edited the second

book in the series, Teaching the Literature Survey Course: New

Strategies for College Faculty (2018). He has conducted workshops

on teaching for faculty at more than a hundred colleges or universities

in the United States and abroad, and consulted for the United Nations

on the development of teaching materials in ethics and integrity for

college faculty. In September 2016 he received a Fulbright Specialist

grant to work with three universities in Colombia on the creation of a

MOOC (massive open online course) on teaching and learning in

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. He has

a BA in English and Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, an

MA in English from St. Louis University, and a PhD in English from

Northwestern University.

Acknowledgments

To say that I'm grateful to Jim Lang is an understatement of epic

proportions. This book would literally not exist if it weren't for his

original book, Small Teaching. Further, you would not be reading this

book if not for Jim's willingness to take a chance on a complete

stranger, his openness to working with me, an unknown. Jim has been

unfailingly patient as he guided me, a new author, through this

process. Through the journey, Jim has modeled courage, wisdom,

generosity, grace, and kindness. Thank you, Jim, for the opportunity

to work with and learn from you. Sincerely.

My colleague and friend Wally Nolan is next on my list of people who

were essential to the creation of this book. All of my colleagues at the

Northern Arizona University e-Learning Center have helped me

develop as a passionate advocate of excellent online course design and

teaching practice, but Wally Angel, as he is affectionately known

around here, has had a special, selfless influence on who I am as a

professional and what came to be in this book. Thanks, Wall, and

happy trails to you.

Many other friends and colleagues contributed in countless ways to

the knowledge and approaches represented in this book, or have

otherwise supported me personally and professionally. Sirscha

Nicholl, Melissa Schoeffel, K. Laurie Dickson, Stephanie McCarthy,

Larry MacPhee, Peggy Gregory, Jim Nichols, Amy Nichols, Sharon

Gorman, John Doherty, Wayne Field, Erin Shelley, Betsy Buford, Jerry

Gile, Michelle Miller, Larry Gallagher, Anne Scott, Sharon Crawford …

too many to name. For all of these (and others), I'm thankful.

Pete Gaughan provided invaluable editorial advice; Amy Fandrei and

Roger Hunt on the Wiley team were of immense practical assistance;

our reader reviewers provided numerous helpful suggestions. Thank

you all.

Two more very special people deserve recognition: my parents, Patrick

and Lesley Hesselmann, who have always only ever supported me,

encouraged me to take on whatever goal, whatever challenge was

before me, who have always known, and have always told me so, that I

could do whatever I set my mind on doing. Thanks, truly. I so very

much appreciate your ongoing support.

I would be remiss if I neglected to give a quick shout-out to my kind

and generous mother-in-law, Janis Flynn, for doing so much to enable

my chaos. You know I couldn't do what I do without your help. I

appreciate you!

And of course, finally, Tim, my husband, to whom you will see

multiple references in this book because of how involved he has been

in the process. Tim, who tirelessly engaged in hours and hours of

discussion of the concepts in this book, who helped to generate the

most insightful ideas you will find here, who is the best instructional

designer I know, who's the wisest and most patient faculty support

professional, and who's an ideal case study of what today's online

students are experiencing since he himself is halfway through an

online graduate program. Not to mention Tim's incredible support at

home, taking on the vast majority of parenting and domestic duties

while I wrote, never complaining, just quietly serving the needs of the

family and home, freeing me up to do this work. Though it's a cliché, it

rings true: Words can't express my gratitude. So I'll conclude with a

simple, yet inadequate, thank you. For everything.

Flower Darby

Flagstaff, AZ

Introduction: Small Teaching Online

Think back to when you were a brand-new college student. Imagine

it's the first day of the fall term. You are excited, nervous, maybe even

a bit overwhelmed at the thought of your class schedule. You're not

sure what to expect or whether you have what it takes to succeed.

Your printed schedule lists the building number, but since you are new

to this college, you don't know which buildings are where. You consult

your creased campus map, looking for landmarks, building names –

anything to help you determine whether you are still going the right

way. You consider asking someone for directions, but everyone around

you seems sure of themselves and of where they are going. Clearly

you're the only person on this campus who doesn't know how to get to

class.

Suddenly, your building appears as you round the next corner.

Relieved, with little time to spare, you stride up to the door and give it

a good, strong pull. The door doesn't budge. Now you're frustrated as

well as stressed. Is this college preventing students from getting to

class? In a last ditch effort, you walk around the perimeter of the

building looking for other ways to enter. Almost predictably, the last

door you try opens. At last you're inside.

You find the classroom listed on the schedule, but what you see inside

only adds to your mounting despair. Almost predictably, the lights are

out and no one is in the room. The desks are tumbled crazily on top of

each other with no rhyme or reason. It's not clear where you're

supposed to sit or what you're supposed to do. Now you're getting

annoyed. Having been so keyed up about the first day of class, this is

more than anticlimactic. It's defeating. Demotivating. Downright

obstructive.

You muster up a renewed sense of determination, flip the light switch,

and spot a pile of papers on a table in one corner of the room.

Thinking maybe there are instructions, or some notice of a room

change, you walk over and take a small packet. It's the class syllabus,

just left there for students to find and read on their own.

Skimming through the pages, you glimpse information about the

textbook, assignments, and testing dates, but not much else. You'd like

to get a better sense of what this class will be like, what your instructor

will be like, but there's not much to go on. Disheartened, you trudge

out the door. Is this class even happening? If so, how are you supposed

to learn anything when so many barriers have been raised, when there

is so little support from anyone?

THE CHALLENGE OF ONLINE COURSES

The scene we've painted here seems so unlikely that it might be

difficult to imagine it actually happening in the real world. We all

know from experience that the first day of a college semester buzzes

with excitement, energy, and nervous tension. Instructors and

students gather in classrooms to conduct a ritualized first-day dance of

putting faces to names, reviewing the syllabus and class expectations,

forming impressions of each other, and making initial connections.

But the bleak scenario we've presented here represents an all-too-

common version of what our online students experience. If anything,

students in online classes can be even more keyed up than they are in

our onsite classes, especially since so many of them are returning to

school after an absence. And that's not the only cause of anxiety:

Today's students face additional challenges based solely on their

circumstances. What we've typically thought of as being a ‘non-

traditional’ student is quickly becoming the new normal, according to

Alexandria Walton Radford, head of RTI International, a think tank in

North Carolina. In a September 2018 interview with Elissa Nadworny

of National Public Radio, Radford stated that almost three-quarters of

today's college students have one of the following characteristics:

they've delayed enrollment in higher education, they have a child or

other dependent, they're enrolled in school part-time, they work full-

time, or they are a single caregiver. About a third of today's students

have two or three of these challenging circumstances to manage

(Nadworny and Depenbrock, 2018).

These factors are the very reason many of our online students choose

to take college classes online. They need a flexible option that

accommodates their work and family obligations. But juggling so

many concerns adds to the uncertainty of taking an online class. It's

easy to become overwhelmed.

For example, many new online students struggle even to find the log-

in page for the Learning Management System (LMS). If they find the

site, they might not know their user ID and password. If they find and

call the help desk number, they may be greeted by an overworked,

stressed-out employee who might not provide patient and friendly

support. All of this effort is required just to get in the door of an online

program. Even after they successfully log in to the LMS, newer

students may not know how to get into the virtual classroom. It is not

necessarily self-evident that students should click the link or the tile

with the often-abbreviated class name and confusing session code.

Once online students finally get into their class, it is frequently unclear

what they should do first. When college students walk into a physical

classroom, they know the norms and routines. Sociologist Jay

Howard, the author of Discussion in the College Classroom, points out

that students in physical classrooms follow basic behavioral norms

that they have internalized from many years of classroom education.

They sit in a student desk, face front, and wait for the instructor to

come in and begin the class session. “On the first day of class,” he

writes, “have you ever arrived in your assigned room to find a student

seated at the professor's desk or standing behind the podium ready to

lead the class session?” (Howard, 2015, p. 9). If you haven't, it's

because your students are well familiarized to the norms of classroom

education. They govern where students sit, how they interact with you

and one another, and many other aspects of the learning experience.

Many of these familiar educational norms do not operate in an online

class. Instructors and other students are not physically present to help

guide or shape an online student's behavior. They're being guided by

words on a screen instead of by the fully embodied humans they're

used to seeing in their courses. They might not be aware of how to

start engaging with the course content. If they're new to taking online

classes, they might stumble over seemingly simple tasks like posting to

a discussion board or taking an online quiz or checking their status in

the gradebook – and there's no one there in real-time to ask for help.

Because online courses do not provide these kinds of basic social

supports, we can hardly blame our online students for what might look

to us like poor, disengaged performance. We do little to set them up

for success even from the very first point of access. Just as in our

imaginary first-day scenario, the system barriers and the lack of social

support frustrates, demotivates, and discourages our online learners.

Many students are tempted to give up altogether.

And, quite frankly, so are many faculty.

THE GROWTH OF ONLINE LEARNING

Online courses are not going away. Grade Increase: Tracking

Distance Education in the United States reported that distance

enrollments increased for the fourteenth year in a row, with 6.3

million students taking at least one online course, at a rate higher than

enrollments have grown for the past several years (Seaman, Allen, and

Seaman, 2018). The authors further indicate that “there are now fewer

students studying on campus than at any point since 2012” (p. 26).

Our students are moving away from traditional on-campus classes and

moving toward online classes.

This growth of online courses poses a new challenge for higher

education: preparing faculty to teach effectively in this format. A quick

Google search on this topic reveals a wealth of resources to help

faculty learn to teach online. This highlights the newness of online

teaching. Many online instructors have not taken many online classes

as students. This is certain to change over time. But at this point, most

faculty teaching online have not experienced “the apprenticeship of

observation,” a phrase first coined in 1975 by Dan Lortie. The 2002

second edition of his book Schoolteacher describes the unique

experience found in the teaching profession (Lortie, 2002, p. 61).

Lortie argues that new teachers entering physical classrooms have had

decades of experience observing professionals on the job. These

observations typically form the basis of our approach to teaching,

especially considering the dearth of faculty preparation programs for

teaching in general.

But most of us don't bring any prior experience with online classes.

We can't fall back on the apprenticeship of observation. “Distance

educators lack a model or benchmark for online teaching because

many of them have not taken online courses as students,” note a team

of researchers in a recent article on how faculty learn to teach online

(Schmidt, Tschida, and Hodge, 2016). If faculty have had experience

as online students, it's limited, not like the years of experience they've

typically had as students in a physical classroom. This is one reason

why we urgently need programs to prepare faculty to be successful in

their online teaching.

An October 2018 report from Hanover Research, Best Practices in

Online Faculty Development, states that institutions should have a

focused approach for professional development for online faculty. Just

such a concentrated effort is underway at Northern Arizona University

(NAU). Over the past several months we have engaged in an extensive

review of institutional expectations of online faculty and

corresponding support models as we seek to equip our faculty to teach

online. Our leadership recognizes that providing this additional

support would help many faculty to be more successful in online

classes – but online faculty at other institutions might not find

themselves in such a supportive environment, and might feel

unprepared for their work as online teachers.

One way to address this lack of preparation is to think critically about

how we define effective teaching and what makes a good class. In her

2019 book Thrive Online: A New Approach for College Educators,

Shannon Riggs observes that the format in which a class takes place

does not, by default, determine its quality:

[G]ood teaching does not spring naturally from a particular

modality. A good course on campus is not good because of the

location or traditional brick-and-mortar ambiance. Likewise, a

weak online course is not weak because it is delivered via the

internet. Good teaching in any learning environment requires

careful attention to course design and facilitation. (Riggs, 2019, p.

4)

Helping faculty prepare to design and teach effective – no, excellent –

online courses can and should be a primary goal of educational

developers and institutional leadership. If we want to successfully

grow our online programs, and many colleges and universities do, to

meet the growing demand for rigorous and engaging online education,

we must attend to the all-important foundational step of developing

our faculty and helping them thrive in this relatively new learning

environment.

If faculty don't feel prepared to thrive in online classes, the same can

be said of our students. Online classes are not always the best fit for

the diverse range of learners in higher education today. To succeed in

online classes, learners must take more responsibility for their

learning. This requires self-regulation skills that enable students to

motivate themselves, stay on schedule, ensure assignments are

completed on time, and more. For many of today's students, these

abilities are still developing (Nilson, 2013, p. 1). Our students may

enroll in our online class for the flexibility and convenience, but these

advantages of online learning can cause problems for students who

may not have the self-discipline to enable them to succeed. Too much

flexibility can turn out to be not such a good thing.

So what characterizes successful online learners? In a 2015 review of

learner characteristics that lead to success in and satisfaction with

online classes, Heather Kauffman identified several qualities that may

contribute to a student's ability to thrive online. Kauffman's synthesis

showed that students who are organized, good at planning, good at

managing their time, disciplined, aware of the need to seek help when

appropriate, and resilient will fare better in asynchronous online

classes (p. 7). No surprise there. Such students are likely to succeed in

face-to-face classes, too.

But what about our online students who don't display these attributes?

What, if anything, can we do to help them succeed?

THE SMALL TEACHING APPROACH

This book has been written to promote success for both faculty and

students by following the premise and principles outlined in the book

Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning

(Lang, 2016), and applying them specifically to the context of online

teaching and learning. The genesis of this book occurred, in fact, when

Flower saw Jim give a presentation on Small Teaching at NAU, and

approached him immediately afterward with a proposal: “I want to

work with you to write a version of this book for online faculty.” Jim

immediately agreed, because at the conclusion of almost every lecture

or workshop he gave, someone always asked: “How can I apply small

teaching techniques in my online courses?”

The first and primary premise of Small Teaching is an extraordinarily

simple one: Paying attention to the small, everyday decisions we make

in teaching represents our best route to successful learning for our

students, in almost any learning environment we can imagine. Jim

developed this theory as a result of observing his children play sports,

and noticing that, when small bodies were not really capable of

extraordinary feats of physical prowess on the field, successful coaches

worked with them on small, fundamental skills that had powerful

effects.

This argument has resonated with many faculty, who have reported to

Jim in workshops that they have been overwhelmed by pressure from

their administration to revamp their teaching and their courses

according to whatever the latest new educational fad might be. Making

these kinds of significant, wholescale changes to your teaching is a

time-consuming and intimidating process and can lead to two

unhappy outcomes. First, faculty often find that their first effort to

make large changes to their teaching does not go well. This might

cause them to retreat immediately to their previous habits and stifle

the possibility of future innovation. Second, the prospect of making

large changes can seem so intimidating that faculty never bother to

start, and instead just continue to default to their current practice. The

small teaching approach seeks to effect change by giving faculty small,

actionable modifications that they can make without having to

overhaul their teaching from the ground up.

Many faculty around the world have seen the wisdom of this approach,

but the premise is hardly a new one. To the contrary, you can find

variations of this kind of “small” approach to effecting change in the

work of many other thinkers and contexts. Aristotle famously argued,

for example, that one grandiose virtuous action does not make a

person virtuous; we become virtuous by practicing virtue on an

everyday basis. A biologist pointed out to Jim, after the book had been

published, that evolution creates massive changes to life on this planet

through tiny, incremental changes. The popularity of books like

Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which point

us toward habits rather than grand gestures, demonstrates the appeal

of effecting change through small decisions and actions, instead of

focusing on major overhauls of behaviors and attitudes that can be

difficult to sustain.

But a second important premise underpinned the work of the original

Small Teaching, and underpins this one as well: We should make our

small decisions about teaching based on the best research we have

about how humans learn. We have seen an extraordinary growth in

that research in recent years. Initially, that work was confined to the

laboratories and journals of specialists in the field, but more and more

of those learning scientists are translating their findings for higher

education faculty. You can find that research in books like Make It

Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (2014) or How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories Behind Effective College Teaching

(2018), as well as in websites like http://RetrievalPractice.org or

http://LearningScientists.org, both excellent collections of resources and ideas for faculty.

You'll find that kind of research in the original Small Teaching as well.

In that book, Jim culled nine key learning principles from the research

and used them to guide instructors in their work. The principles were

divided into three parts. To help students obtain and retain

foundational knowledge and skills, he argued for the importance of

prediction, retrieval, and interleaving. To deepen their understanding

and foster more highly developed thinking skills, the principles were

connection, self-explanation, and practice. Motivation and mindset were the keys to inspiring students, and were covered in the third

section of the book, which finished (as this book does) with a chapter

aimed at faculty, designed to help them expand their pedagogical

knowledge and skill base.

APPLYING SMALL TEACHING ONLINE IN

MULTIPLE CONTEXTS

Readers will gain the most from their encounter with the small

teaching philosophy if they read the original Small Teaching and

acquaint themselves with these core learning principles, which can

help support effective learning in any kind of environment, face-to-

face or online. But if you have already read Small Teaching (or if you

pause here and go read it now), you'll notice a major difference

between that book and this one. The chapter topics here do not align

precisely with those in the original. You will find all the same learning

science principles interwoven throughout this work, but because

online teaching has its own special opportunities and challenges, we

developed a separate set of principles to guide effective change in

online teaching and learning.

Another difference between this book and the original is our reference

throughout this text to Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

principles. Although many higher education professionals associate

UDL with accessibility for students who have documented disabilities,

this is a too-limiting view of the reach of this framework, according to

Thomas Tobin and Kirsten Behling, authors of Reach Everyone, Teach

Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education

(2018). Still, many people think about making online content

accessible more often than they think about alternative formats and

experiences when teaching in person, so we would be remiss if we

neglected this important topic.

As we examine small teaching strategies in multiple areas of online

classes, we'll seek to expand our understanding of how UDL principles

can benefit a diverse student population. “In addition to respecting the

ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, and ability-based diversity on our

campuses, we can design courses … that expand the reach and efficacy

of higher education” (Tobin and Behling, 2018, p. 1).

And there are many good reasons for doing so, notably that UDL

increases all of our learners' ability to engage with our content and

demonstrate their knowledge in ways that they might prefer:

UDL is a way of thinking about creating the interactions we have

with our learners so that they do not have to ask for special

treatment, regardless of the types of barriers they may face –

time, connectivity, or disability. (Tobin and Behling, 2018, p. 130)

When we reframe our thinking about how UDL can help all our

learners engage and succeed, we see the value of the approach in every

course design decision we make, whether teaching online or in person.

Thankfully, the Plus-One design model presented by these authors

aligns perfectly with the Small Teaching approach of making small

changes in order to enhance student learning and engagement.

With UDL principles undergirding all of our small teaching

suggestions, we divided the learning science principles in this book

into three sections, just as you will find in the original Small Teaching.

Part I of the book focuses on designing online courses. Chapter 1, on backward design, presents an approach to course development that

applies in both traditional and online courses. But we still encounter

new and experienced faculty who have not come across this idea, so we

wanted to begin the book with a thorough grounding in a

fundamentally sound approach to course design. Even if you are an

experienced instructor, we hope that you will find it helpful to walk

your way through the course design process in this comprehensive

way, using small teaching principles to guide you through what can

seem like a very intimidating task. From there, Chapters 2 and 3 move into two core challenges that every online instructor will face, both in

the design process and throughout the semester: How will I invite my

students into the course and get them engaged so they are ready to

learn, and what materials and tools will I provide to help my students

learn? For both of these challenges, we've provided research and

techniques to help you and your students succeed.

In Part II, we consider the human element in online courses. In recent

years, an increasing amount of attention has been paid to this aspect

of online education; however, it is still the case that many online

learning environments could benefit from more effort to welcome and

support the people who are in them—including us. A primary strategy

to address this concern is to make a deliberate, research-based effort

to create a sense of community in our online classes, the topic of

Chapter 4. Chapter 5 looks at ways of providing effective feedback, a necessary ingredient for people to learn and grow. In Chapter 6, we

acknowledge that a significant concern in online classes is the attrition

rate, and we give you theory and strategies to help your students stay

present and engaged so they may successfully complete your class.

Each of these chapters helps us to nurture and support our students

such that they want to be in class and they want to learn.

Part III of the book tackles the complex matter of motivation. Creating

and maintaining motivation can be a constant challenge for online

faculty. Not only do many students struggle to inspire themselves to

work consistently on their online courses, many faculty might face a

similar struggle. Lots of people prefer to teach and learn in person, but

for various reasons, they're engaged in online education. Some of the

simple supports that naturally occur in onsite classes don't exist in

asynchronous online classes. For example, online courses lack a

predictable class meeting schedule and the built-in accountability that

such a schedule provides. As such, Chapters 7 and 8 focus on helping students sustain their own motivation by developing learner autonomy

and by making connections with the material and discovering how

course content relates to their future academic and career goals. Both

of these approaches have been shown to increase learner motivation;

we'll share research and small changes you can make to address this

concern. Finally, in Chapter 9 we turn our attention to finding ways of

motivating ourselves to continue learning and improving as online

faculty.

As you might imagine, we deliberately selected and organized chapter

topics with a view to addressing some of the unique challenges

presented by online education. No one single book can cover all of the

issues and opportunities we face in our online teaching, at least not in

any depth. What follows reflects our considered judgment on the

topics and strategies that are most likely to have an outsized impact on

online student engagement and learning.

Our primary audience for this book is one that grows larger with each

passing year: instructors who have experience with face-to-face

teaching and are now being asked to develop the knowledge and skills

they need to teach online. In other words, we presume some basic

familiarity here with teaching at the college level; what we hope to

offer in the pages that follow are knowledge and skills that will enable

an experienced teacher – even if that experience consists of a few

courses taught as a graduate student – to teach their first online

courses successfully.

While we have written this book with a special eye toward instructors

who are new to online teaching, we hope and expect that the research

and small changes we present will find an equally welcome audience

with experienced online faculty as well. Newer instructors will benefit

most from reading both the original Small Teaching and this volume

in their entirety; experienced online faculty or experienced faculty who

are shifting to online teaching might find themselves gravitating

toward particular chapters in one book or the other, and that's just

fine. We believe that each chapter in this book stands on its own, just

as the chapters in the original Small Teaching do. If time is limited

(and isn't it always?) you can skip from here to the chapter that

addresses the problem you have, or the teaching task immediately in

front of you. You'll find a myriad of solutions, tailored for online

classes, which you can implement immediately. In short, this book can

be read as a standalone introduction to online teaching, or paired

productively with the core principles from the original book for a more

comprehensive view.

Please note, we're aware that not all online classes are the same. Some

have smaller enrollments, perhaps fewer than 30 students; some are

larger, with 50 or more students in a class. Some online courses rely

heavily on publisher content and activities that students complete in

the vendor's platform instead of in the institution's LMS. Increasingly,

publisher content may consist of sophisticated adaptive courseware

that adjusts to individual student's learning preferences and needs –

commonly known as personalized learning – but even here, human

interventions and interactions are important to maximize the impact

of the adaptive system. Sometimes instructors teach highly

coordinated courses that require (or allow) little customization on the

part of the individual faculty member. All of these factors undoubtedly

impact your ability to implement changes in your online teaching. But

we believe every instructor of asynchronous online classes, regardless

of these kinds of variables, will find approaches in this book to be

more effective.

Further, the suggestions we present here can be applied in blended or

hybrid courses, that is, classes in which some percentage of seat time

has been reduced and replaced with online content and activities.

According to a 2017 Educause Center for Analysis and Research

(ECAR) study, many definitions of “blendedness” exist (Pomerantz

and Brooks, 2017, p. 23). If at least part of your course takes place in an LMS, you'll likely find ideas here to improve the impact of those

activities and interactions.

Even if you teach all your classes in person, chances are good that you

may have access to your institution's LMS. At NAU, for example, all

class sections automatically come with a course shell. The ECAR study

found that “the most common faculty uses of the LMS are all

operational, course management functions. These are functions that

require little or no interaction between the instructor and the

students” (Pomerantz and Brooks, 2017, p. 20). In other words, many

faculty use their course site, presumably for their in-person classes, to

provide the syllabus and static materials such as readings and

handouts. Many also use the gradebook to notify students of their

current grades. Notice these are one-directional uses of the LMS; they

communicate information to students without requiring students to

engage in any learning activities online. These platforms are quite

robust; they can facilitate interactions with your students that will no

doubt help them – and you – be more prepared to use in-class time

strategically. Read on to discover small ways of adjusting your

communication and creating online assessments and activities to

make the most of in-person class time.

THE STRUCTURE OF SMALL TEACHING

ONLINE

In the chapters that follow, we replicate both the structure of each

chapter and the general guidelines for activities and techniques that

were used in Small Teaching. The small teaching online approaches

presented here will fall into one of three categories:

Brief teaching and learning activities. Asynchronous online

classes are unique in that typically, students may be active 24

hours a day, 7 days a week, while the class is in session. This most

certainly does not mean that you have to be online 24/7. But as

you will see, making frequent appearances in class, or designing

quick learning activities for students, can be hugely beneficial to

your students. We will look at several ways of interacting with

students and being present that generally take not more than 10

minutes at a time. You'll find outsized potential benefits from

these small investments of time.

Small course design modifications. Good teachers always seek to

improve their classes. We note what works well and what does

not, and we tweak our courses and/or our class sessions in order

to keep making our classes better. This approach carries over into

online classes as well. It is not necessary, indeed not even

desirable, to make radical changes to your online courses from

session to session. But it is absolutely possible to make minor

design improvements each time you teach a course, or to apply

slight improvements to new online courses that you develop. The

result will be increasingly effective online classes in which your

students learn more deeply and you teach more authentically.

Minor adjustments to the way you communicate with online

students. Communication strategies may not be top of your mind

when teaching online, but they should be. We experience

significant barriers in online classes that we don't find in the face-

to-face classroom. First, there is virtually no real-time feedback,

either for us or for our students. Also, we are almost entirely

stripped of nonverbal communication cues, unless we strategically

employ audio and video in our courses (more on that later). For

now, suffice to say that it's important to be intentional in our

communication with online students. We'll explore many

strategies to improve this class element without excessively

overloading your time commitment.

Our guiding principle for this book is that these changes to the way we

design and teach online classes must not feel too daunting. We trust

that you will find approaches that you can employ tomorrow, next

week, or next term that will positively impact student learning. Expect

your outlook on online teaching to be positively impacted, too. You'll

find that making some of these small adjustments will enhance your

enjoyment of online teaching, further adding to your motivation to

continue to improve your online teaching to enable all our diverse

learners to succeed.

As in Small Teaching, you'll see the same structure in each of the

chapters in this book. Each chapter includes the following elements:

Introduction. We begin with examples of how the particular

learning phenomenon described in that chapter might appear in

everyday life or educational contexts.

In Theory. This section delves very quickly into the research that

supports the recommendations of the chapter.

Models. Four or five detailed models are described in each

chapter – fully fleshed-out examples of how instructors could

incorporate a small teaching approach into their course design,

teaching practice, or communication with students.

Principles. The models can't possibly cover every context in which

readers might be teaching, so the principles provide guidance for

creating your own small teaching strategies.

Small Teaching Online Quick Tips. These are brief reminders of

the simplest means of putting the small teaching strategy of that

chapter into practice; flip through or return to these when you

need a quick tip for an engaged learning activity.

Conclusion. A final reflection on the main theory or strategy of the

chapter.

This structure is designed to provide a range of ways to consume this

content. If you have time, if you truly want to revolutionize your online

teaching, small step by small step, read each chapter in full. This will

provide you the context to ensure that your implementation of small

online teaching strategies will be as successful as possible. On the

other hand, if you are looking for a quick fix, read the Quick Tips part

of your selected chapter for practical things you can do now.

A NOTE ON OUR COLLABORATION

The authors of this book have very different levels of experience with

online teaching and learning. Jim's has been quite limited; he has

helped to create two massive open online courses (MOOCs). Flower,

on the other hand, has taught dozens of online courses in multiple

contexts and has supported hundreds of online faculty in the design

and teaching of their courses. These different levels of experience

conditioned how we collaborated on the authorship of the book.

Flower drafted the majority of the book, drawing on both her extensive

experience and her familiarity with the research in teaching and

learning online. Jim's contributions were limited to this Introduction,

the “In Theory” sections of each chapter, and to revising and editing

throughout. All of the personal stories and examples come from

Flower, which is why the remainder of the book has been written in

first-person singular. We wanted to keep the personal, intimate voice

that characterized Small Teaching, and ensure that the book's voice

reflects the fact that Flower is the primary author of what follows.

FINAL THOUGHT

Small Teaching encourages us to “give new activities time to flower”

(Lang, 2016, p. 11). Give yourself time to flower, too. Class activities rarely go perfectly the first time you try them. And your

transformation into a more effective online teacher, one who

communicates and designs for both empathy and significant learning,

will not resemble the emergence of a butterfly from its cocoon. Pick

something small. Try it. Note what worked and what didn't. Refine

your approach. Try it again. Stay the course and, over time, you'll be

teaching exemplary online courses that exceed the standard for the

best in distance education.

But, as Jim points out in the original Small Teaching, it can be

overwhelming to imagine the big picture all at once. Instead, focus on

today. Are you teaching online now? Or does your online class start in

a few days or weeks? If you're reading this, you're likely looking for

strategies to be more effective in your online teaching. This book can

help.

We'll take it one small online step at a time.

Part I

Designing for Learning

Consider your entry into teaching, no matter your discipline. With the

possible exception of education or teacher training programs, almost

all disciplines fail to provide robust training opportunities for new and

future faculty. Many research universities now offer opportunities for

their graduate students to take courses in pedagogy or participate in

teaching development programs, for example, but very few require it

(Haras, Ginsberg, Férnandez, and Magruder, 2017, p. 56). We can

hardly blame overburdened PhD students for prioritizing their

research over their development as teachers, especially when faculty at

research universities might not see teaching as priority in their own

professional lives.

Likewise, professionals in the field entering the teaching force for the

first time might be working full-time and coming to campus in the

evening out of a desire to share their knowledge with the next

generation, and have to balance teaching work with full-time jobs.

Given the low rate of pay that institutions often provide to these

adjunct instructors, schools might be reluctant to require teaching

development activities as a prerequisite for the job.

As a consequence, most new teachers fall back on what we experienced

as students, and what we observe our colleagues doing in the

classroom ( if we observe our colleagues in the classroom – teaching is

a notoriously isolating business), as we develop our own classroom

persona and methods.

So how do we learn to teach? We might have been given a syllabus

from someone who has previously taught the class. Perhaps we then

chose a textbook either based on what the previous instructor(s) used,

or maybe based on our experience as students. Having selected the

textbook, we proceeded to comb through any syllabi that we were

given. We co-opted several elements, made adjustments according to

our preferences, and established due dates for major assignments and

exams. That may have been the extent of our big-picture planning.

When preparing to teach my first literature survey course, I remember

thinking to myself: Well, all 200-level lit classes have two papers due,

a midterm exam, and a final exam. So I guess that's what I'll do.

Looking back, it doesn't seem like a very intentional way to plan a

course.

To be fair, once we've selected a textbook and roughed in the main

assessments of the class, most of us then do everything we can to plan

a cohesive course that equips students to succeed on those

assessments. In all the years I've spent working with, mentoring, and

developing college faculty, I've never met anyone who set out to create

a random class with no sequential logic, no connection between

readings and tests, no central organizing principle. We assign

readings, videos, and other content that will prepare students to do

well on tests, papers, and projects. We plan class sessions and

homework assignments in a way that we hope will help students

understand class concepts. We may even provide study guides, rubrics,

and other materials to help students do well on our assessments. But

while we have good intentions, there is frequently a lack of deliberate

thought about exactly why we are asking students to do what we are

asking them to do.

Because thinking about the purpose of classwork is so foundational to

our teaching, in the next chapter we will take a closer look at backward

design. This framework helps us bring intentionality to our teaching.

Backward design may be new to you, you may have unconsciously

been doing it all along, or you may be well acquainted with the

approach. Whatever your familiarity with backward design, we'll

consider how we can be more deliberate in the design – or planning –

of our online courses, and how, using small teaching strategies, we can

reinforce and make explicit our online course design for our students.

Chapter 2 explores how we guide and support students through our

carefully designed online courses, ensuring that they have a clear view

of the purpose of each course component. In a face-to-face

environment, we have frequent, informal opportunities to remind

students about the big picture of the course, and about how a piece of

content or an assessment contributes to that big picture. We can

intervene on a regular basis to check student understanding, respond

to spontaneous concerns and questions, and support students through

the learning process. Students in online courses can feel isolated from

these essential learning supports. Chapter 2 provides small teaching

approaches that will help students keep the purpose of the course, and

all of its components, clearly in view. It also offers models that will

help you monitor the progress of your students and provide you

opportunities to intervene with support and guidance when they most

need it.

After considering how to intentionally design the course, and how to

create structures that support student learning, in Chapter 3 we'll

examine how to intentionally select technology and media tools for our

online classes. The tools and media that we use comprise a huge part

of the course experience, yet it's easy to fall into the same kind of

default thinking that we were susceptible to when we first began

teaching in person. Maybe your department chair gave you someone

else's online content to use, so you just stuck with that content and the

tools that were already in the course. Maybe you weren't so lucky;

maybe you had no example to follow and little guidance, so you

created an online course based on your best guess of what it should

contain. Maybe you've taught online for a while but have fallen into a

rut of using the same technologies that you've always used. Whatever

your situation, we'll examine a series of small teaching questions that

will help us think through what tools and technology we're using, and

why.

Learning doesn't happen by accident. Successful and engaging online

classes don't, either. Designing an online course is a large endeavor,

but even large endeavors have to start small.

Chapter 1

Surfacing Backward Design

INTRODUCTION

I yanked open the door of the English building, only moments to spare

before class was due to begin. Along with several students who were

cutting it equally close, I hurried up the stairs to my First-Year

Composition classroom on the second floor. Reaching the open

doorway mere seconds before 8:00 a.m., I rushed into the room, gown

flying behind me (well, not literally, but you get the idea) like Harry

Potter's Snape bursting into his dungeon Potions classroom.

I slung my professorial-looking leather school bag onto the table in the

front of the room and pulled out my green “Modern Class Record”

attendance book, the one supplied by the English department to every

graduate teaching assistant (GTA). I took my place behind the lectern,

opened my authority-bestowing book, and proceeded to call roll. My

sleepy (or bored) students – it was difficult to distinguish between the

two – took turns responding with a mumbled “here,” or occasionally

(for variety) “present.”

Having completed the housekeeping, I opened my college-ruled spiral

notebook, the one in which I jotted down my lesson plan for each day.

As I skimmed over my hasty and underdeveloped agenda, I drawled,

“Let me seeee heeeeeere ….” while I tried to remember what we would

do that day and why.

Every. Single. Day. Every single day of my very first semester teaching

college, I began class with those not-so-inspiring words—or so my

students told me at the end of the semester (I didn't realize I was

doing this). The class met at 8:00 a.m., four days per week. And every

day I would race into class, take roll, and say, “Let me see here,” while

trying to figure out what the plan was. Not exactly a great start to my

teaching career.

I've thought a lot about that semester. At only 22, I faced a sullen

bunch of 18- and 19-year-olds every morning across the podium. That

their sullenness might be related to my teaching only occurred to me

later. It came as a shock to me that not everyone loved writing papers.

Didn't everyone find joy and satisfaction in expressing themselves in

the written word?

Somehow or other, I made it through that first semester. Prior to the

first day of class, I and the other new GTAs had sat through a few days

of training. After the semester started, we met every week to continue

learning how to teach First-Year Composition. We'd discuss the

content, the writing assignments, and sometimes even teaching

methods. What we never discussed was the overall purpose of the

course. What were the objectives of the course? Certainly we wanted

students to become better writers. But bette r in what sense? For what

purpose? To get jobs? Become novelists? Write better memos in their

business careers?

Since I didn't have a clear view of the specific purpose of the course, I

didn't have a clear sense of how all of its elements came together. The

course seemed like a collection of different parts and practices –

assignments, classroom activities, grading – that were each their own

thing. But what connected them all? Why, for example, were the

papers assigned and structured the way they were? What was the

purpose of peer review? Why had the course readings been selected?

None of this was apparent to me.

I suspect that many of us learned to teach college courses in the same

way that I did: by the seat of our pants. Of course, flexibility and agility

are virtues in our teaching, and every successful teacher must learn to

improvise in the classroom. But that doesn't mean we should not also

begin with a robust, systematic, and purposeful overall plan for the

course. Having such a plan allows us to flex within the boundaries of

our well-designed class, one that has developed answers to the kinds

of questions articulated above.

Cue backward design.

IN THEORY

Imagine you are planning a road trip for your summer vacation. Do

you hop in the car one day and mindlessly drive wherever the road

leads? The more free-spirited among you might well try something like

that. But most of us decide on a destination first. Where do we want to

go?

Having settled on the destination, we make other plans to help us get

there. We consider various routes for the trip. We research and select

incremental milestones: Where might be a good place to break the

journey for meals or exercise? Where should we stay overnight? We

also have to make decisions about supplies we might need, the tools to

make a successful journey. What do we need to pack? Do we need

beach chairs and sunscreen for a trip to the ocean? Or are hiking boots

and trekking poles needed for a mountain adventure?

Very few of us begin journeys without thinking about where we are

going, how we will get there, and what we will need on the way.

In their seminal book Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and

Jay McTighe propose taking a similar approach to the design of

educational experiences. They suggest beginning the process of

teaching a course by thinking about the end first. If you're not familiar

with this book, I highly recommend reading it before you teach your

next class, as it provides many useful strategies for putting their theory

into practice. You might also look at Dee Fink's Creating Significant

Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College

Courses (2013), which takes a parallel – and equally thorough –

approach to the process of creating a meaningful learning experience

for your students.

The very short version of the arguments that both books make is that

we should begin the course-planning process by focusing first on the

most essential goals that we have for our students. Wiggins and

McTighe refer to those goals as the “enduring understanding” that we

want students to take away from the course. They explain that in order

for an understanding to qualify as enduring, it should have “endured

over time and across cultures because it has proved so important and

useful,” and also that it should “endure in the mind of the student … it

should be learned in such a way that it does not fly away from memory

once the unit is over or the test is completed” (Wiggins and McTighe,

2005, p. 136). Only after we have identified those deep goals should we

worry about the content of the course, or the methods of instruction,

or the kinds of assessments we will invite students to undertake.

Everything must be anchored in the goals for enduring understanding;

everything stems from those goals. New faculty members often begin

the course-planning process by selecting the content: the textbooks

and lecture materials. The backward-design process forces them to

forget about the content until they decide what they really want

students to learn.

When you backward design a college course, you might consider how

you would answer three large questions, drawn from the road-trip

analogy:

Where do we want to go? What are our primary goals for the

course? What do we want students to know and be able to do by

the end of the term? This should form the basis of our thinking

around course learning objectives or outcomes. Early in your

career you might have taught courses without a clear sense of

what the learning objectives listed on the syllabus actually say or

really mean. Maybe you inherited a syllabus or a course shell from

someone else, or maybe you just whipped up some objectives in

order to fill a spot on a required course template. When we take a

backward approach to designing our course, we think carefully

about our destination. Where do we want students to end up?

This helps us to slow down and consider both the substance and

the wording of our objectives.

How will we know if we have arrived? Once we are clear about

the course learning objectives, it's essential to measure students'

achievement of those objectives to determine whether they

attained them. We do this by way of both summative and

formative assessments. Summative assessments such as final

exams, papers, and projects allow students to demonstrate their

mastery of our course learning objectives. Formative assessments

such as low-stakes quizzes or weekly reflections help us to know

whether students are making good progress. Planning intentional

measures designed to reveal whether students are achieving the

course outcomes forms a critical part of deliberate course design.

What will we need to help us get there? After deciding on the

destination and effective ways of measuring whether or how well

we arrived there, the final core step in backward design is to

consider what students will need in order to succeed on our

assessments. Here is where we (finally) select course materials

such as textbooks and other content. We design activities that

help students engage with and process new information and

concepts. We devise a course schedule with milestones, often in

the form of incremental deadlines or formative assessments that

keep students accountable and allow us to give feedback on their

work along the way. In doing so, we help our students make

steady progress toward the destination – that is, achieving the

course learning objectives.

We've provided here only the barest sketch of backward design,

because the core concept of it is relatively simple to understand. You

can find a much more thorough explanation of the idea from either

Fink or Wiggins and McTighe, as well as plenty of overviews through

some simple online searching.

The goal of this chapter is to help you make sure that the work you put

into backward design has the desired impact on your students. When

you have lots of time to spend with your students in a face-to-face

environment, you have frequent, informal opportunities to remind

them about the larger purpose of the course, connect classroom

activities to the course learning objectives, and provide the reasoning

behind your assessments. You can write all of those same things to

your online students, but when students are viewing everything

through a screen, such text can become white noise that they filter out

while they are getting to the requirements. So online teachers need to

work a little harder to ensure that students see the purposes that

underlie the activities they are undertaking. They need to ensure that

their backward design floats a little closer to the surface, visible in

multiple ways throughout the semester.

The small teaching strategies in this chapter will ensure that your

carefully designed course demonstrates to students that you have

created meaningful goals for them, reveals to them how the

assessments will help them achieve those goals, and ensures – both for

you and for them – that all of the course content has been created with

the end in mind.

MODELS

The concept of alignment underpins the theory of backward design.

Course materials, learning activities, assessments, and objectives

should all align. In other words, every element of a course should line

up with and support the achievement of the learning objectives. You

have worked hard to create that alignment in your well-designed

course, but it's important to make it transparent to your students, who

otherwise might view some aspects of the course as busy work.

Helping your students understand what they are to do and why it's

valuable is especially important in online classes, because you don't

have the opportunity to detect confusion and answer assignment-

related questions in real time the way you would in the physical

classroom. The small teaching strategies described will help to clarify

course learning and assessment activities as well as the purpose of

each. This will help your backward-designed online course to have the

greatest positive impact on the learning of your students.

Begin Work on the Final Assessment in Week

1

One of the challenges of online classes is that major assignments can

get buried in endlessly nested content folders or learning modules. I've

known many students who were caught by surprise toward the end of

an online class. Somehow they overlooked the part of the syllabus or

the course site that describes the final paper or project or exam.

Suddenly, after navigating and completing the majority of the course,

students stumble across a major assessment they were not expecting.

Of course, students should take responsibility to thoroughly review the

syllabus, familiarize themselves with the entire course site, even

review assignments that are not due until the last week of class. We

can even help them do this. For example, we may require a syllabus

quiz to obtain cursory agreement that students read and understood

the course requirements. But it can still be hard for students to “see”

everything in an online class, especially once they are deep into the

semester, and taking other courses as well. There can be a lot of

material to sift through, and we lack the advantage of getting together

in the classroom to review important details. We can send emails,

make announcements, and otherwise beg our students to pay attention

to course requirements, but these methods may not be enough.

Instead of policing student compliance, we can encourage their

meaningful engagement with the end-of-term assessment (which

might carry more weight than any other assessment) right from the

very start. If you've taught online for any length of time, you know that

busy online students tend to skip any task for which they are not held

accountable. If there are no points attached, for example, students

may not read your helpful announcements, watch your videos that

provide additional guidance, or even read your assignment feedback.

Knowing this, create an online activity in the first week that requires

students to familiarize themselves with the final assessment and –

more importantly – to do something with it. Maybe they share initial

ideas for the final project in an online discussion forum. Maybe they

ask at least one question about what to expect on the final exam in the

discussion board – this way, others benefit from answers that emerge

from the posts. Perhaps they take a low-stakes quiz that presents

questions in the same format as they will find on the cumulative final

exam. Or students can read the instructions for the final paper and

submit a brief written assignment in which they describe the

assignment purpose and requirements in their own words.

This model aligns well with one of the principles articulated in Small

Teaching. In that book, Jim reviewed evidence that suggested that

students receive significant cognitive benefits from trying learning

tasks before they are ready. In other words, we often think we must

teach content and skills to students, and then give them tasks that will

put that knowledge or those skills to use. But research from the

learning sciences tells us that when we ask people to complete tasks

before they learn something new, they will learn it more effectively

(Lang, 2016, pp. 41–62). The authors of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning explain that “unsuccessful attempts to solve a

problem encourage deep processing of the answer when it is later

supplied” (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, 2014, p. 88). In other

words, when we give students a cognitive task at the beginning of the

semester, before they have learned the skills they will need to complete

it, we are creating that “fertile ground” for their learning throughout

the semester.

So this first model has both cognitive and metacognitive benefits. It

helps students learn, and it helps them become more aware of the

major assessment of the course, which will allow them to plan their

learning and study more effectively.

Consider, then, creating a (low-stakes) graded assignment in the first

week that gives students a preview of the final product, provides a

little taste of what to expect, and requires them to begin thinking

about and working on it. Start with the end in mind, and require

interaction with that final assessment. Tell your students why, too.

They'll appreciate your transparency and will be more motivated to

engage meaningfully when they see the relevance of class activities

beginning in the first week.

Make the Purpose of Class Activities Explicit

When you develop your online course using backward design, you

have good reasons for every design decision you make. With specific

and measurable course learning objectives in mind, you create

assessments that allow students to demonstrate mastery of the

objectives. You select readings, videos, and learning activities that

enable students to gain new knowledge and practice using and

applying it before they are assessed on that new information. You

write instructions that provide clear guidance on what students should

do to succeed on learning activities, assignments, and assessments.

All of the logical and carefully considered reasons for these decisions

are crystal clear to you. You thought it all through. Everything makes

sense in your own head. But your students aren't in your head. It's

possible, even quite likely, that your students don't know why you are

asking them to do what you're asking them to do.

You should therefore make it a regular part of your online teaching

practice to keep the rationale for your decisions in full view of your

students. This principle lends itself especially well to small teaching

applications that you can make throughout the semester in regular

bursts.

For example, at the beginning of each online module or unit, provide a

short, written description that introduces that module's content,

describes what students are doing, and explains why they are doing it.

I like to open each module with a two- to three-sentence overview of

the module, an explanation of how module content and activities will

help students succeed in the class (or help them achieve academic and

career goals, become better employees, better citizens – think big!),

and a list of four to six learning goals or objectives for that module that

align with the course learning objectives.

You can begin your list of learning goals with something like, “After

successfully completing this module, you will be able to…” and then

provide a bulleted or numbered list of specific demonstrable skills

students will acquire as they complete the module work. Provide this

guidance in a short, written element at the beginning or top of each

module in order to clearly establish why they are doing what they are

doing in that module. Alternatively, or in addition to your text-based

overview, you may want to give a quick video introduction to each

module, in line with the principles of Universal Design for Learning

(UDL).

Reinforce the reasoning behind class activities using announcements

at intentionally timed intervals throughout the course. Video

announcements are perfect for this. Written announcements are also

an option, but in my experience students are more likely to click on

and view a (brief!) video thumbnail than to read yet another wall of

text.

Most Learning Management Systems (LMSs) include native or third-

party integrated tools that allow you to capture a quick webcam video

of yourself talking to the camera. The YouTube app on your

smartphone also makes it relatively easy to record and upload these

kind of casual videos. Studies show that students appreciate informal

class videos that reveal your personality (Guo, 2013; Cavanagh, 2016).

Don't stress too much about creating professional-looking videos that

require editing skills you may not have. Prepare a few talking points to

further explain the purpose and the reasons for engaging in that

week's classwork. Share some examples, tell a story that illustrates

your pedagogical thinking, or describe a video or blog post that you

just came across that reminded you of the relevance of that week's

work. Remember to provide captions, a text transcript, or a text-based

outline for any videos in your online class (Tobin and Behling, 2018).

And then provide a link to the media or news item that caught your

attention, and might likewise catch the attention of your students.

…and Do the Same for Assignments

Everything I've said above about the clarity of classroom activities in

your head, and the potential lack of such clarity to your students,

applies to your assignments as well. Create assignment instructions

that provide a clear rationale for the work your students will do, as

well as clear directions for how they can accomplish it successfully.

You can also relate the task to the current module and to the course

learning objectives.

John Warner, the author of two excellent books on the teaching of

writing, provides one great model for how to do this in his book The

Writer's Practice (2019), which contains multiple samples of

assignments you can give to students to improve their writing. Each of

those assignments – which he calls “experiences” – comes with a

written explanation that contains four core components: audience,

process, reflect, and remix. As he walks students through these core

aspects of the assignment, he has plenty of opportunity to help them

understand what that particular writing experience will help them

accomplish. They might be learning to tailor their prose to different

audiences, for example, or learning to become a more careful

evaluator of sources. Whatever the purpose, they learn about it from

the way Warner has structured the assignment and instructions.

Mary-Ann Winkelmes has researched the impact of the kind of

transparent assignment design we're talking about. Her work has led

to the creation of the Transparency in Learning and Teaching in

Higher Ed project, with extensive data on how this approach helps

students and many examples and support materials to help you begin

to incorporate this into your own teaching. You can find a great deal

more information at https://tilthighered.com.

I've had a lot of success with a method similar to those proposed by

Warner and Winkelmes. My husband, who has been my personal

sounding board and instructional designer since Day 1 of that First-

Year Composition class over two decades ago, helped me develop an

approach that I've been using for a long time now, one that I find

particularly helpful in online classes, where busy students want

concise yet thorough information about what they have to do. I offer it

here as another variation so you can expand your thinking about what

your assignment prompt might contain. My husband's advice was to

follow a simple template when creating instructions for an online

assignment, discussion forum, or project. I now use these headings in

the instructions I give to my students:

Here's what I want you to do: I explain the task.

Here's why I want you to do it: I explain the reason this task will

contribute to the student's success in class and beyond.

Here's how to do it: I provide detailed instructions, rubrics,

checklists, and exemplars to help students clearly see and

understand my expectations.

You would verbally provide this guidance and explanation in your in-

person class, but somehow this often gets neglected online. Create

assignment instructions that clearly convey the what, why, and how of

each assignment. Your effort will pay off in two important ways: You'll

get fewer student questions about what they should do, and better-

quality work that demonstrates student learning and achievement of

outcomes.

Have Students Reflect on and Respond to

Learning Objectives

Reflection on our learning is a significant part of making learning

durable. Turning again to Make It Stick: The Science of Successful

Learning, we find multiple cognitive benefits of reflection:

Reflection can involve several cognitive activities … that lead to

stronger learning. These include retrieval (recalling recently

learned knowledge to mind), elaboration (for example, connecting

new knowledge to what you already know), and generation (for

example, rephrasing key ideas in your own words or visualizing and

mentally rehearsing what you might do differently next time.

(Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, 2014, p. 89)

Additionally, reflection is a key part of learning to regulate our own

learning – a crucial skill for our students to develop (Nilson, 2013). A perfect way to structure this reflection while also reinforcing the

intentional design of our classes is to require students to review

learning objectives at various points of the class.

For example, in the first week of class, have students reflect on and

respond to course learning objectives as stated in the syllabus. We

typically default to written assignments in higher education, but you

can just as easily invite reflection through audio or video, which aligns

with UDL principles and might provide a welcome alternative for

some of your students. Hesston College faculty members Karen Sheriff

LeVan and Marissa E. King argue:

[B]ecause we often rely on writing as the primary mode of

metacognitive reflection, some students, especially those who

struggle with college-level writing, may not experience the full

cognitive benefits of reflection. For such students, the stress of

writing can compromise their focus on reflection. (2016)

They advocate for the use of quick audio reflection assignments to

encourage a more informal and reduced-stress response.

Many LMSs and widely used third-party tools facilitate the recording

of such media. On the flip side, there will always be students who

prefer writing over audio. You could accommodate both preferences

by allowing students to choose whether to submit their reflection in

writing or as a recording. The point is to get students to think carefully

about what they are about to learn in this course.

Asking students to respond to the learning objectives also ensures that

they know what the objectives say and mean, or alerts you to the need

to clarify the objectives if students struggle to articulate their response.

But students might feel overwhelmed by the requirement to respond

to all of the objectives. You could ask them to select a few objectives

that they are most interested in, or think are most valuable for them

personally, or that they are the most concerned about. Many students

don't even read the course learning objectives, so requiring a written

or recorded response to some or all of the objectives facilitates their

engagement with these goals right from the start.

You can also build in a regular opportunity to review and reflect on

module learning objectives. In my graduate online class on technology

fluency, students answer a series of questions at the end of each

module. One of the questions on each of these assignments asks them

to list each module learning objective and to write about how they

made progress that week, why the learning goal is significant or

important, and what they need to do to continue their learning in this

area. Students write a sentence or two about each objective. It's not an

overwhelming activity in terms of the time it takes to write or to grade,

but it pays off in significant learning dividends. Students actually have

to read, pay attention to, and think about what we said we would do in

that module and how it helps them achieve the objectives for the

course. I've received some initial pushback on this activity, but once

my students get used to the idea, they like the opportunity to actively

think about what we're doing and why.

With a little thought, you can find many ways to continually draw

students' attention to the learning goals. Doing so pays off in

important ways in developing self-aware, productive students who will

likely become more successful learners in both their online and face-

to-face courses.

Look Back, Look Ahead

Magnify the impact of your course alignment by building in one final

opportunity to think about what students have accomplished in the

course. As a concluding activity in the class, zoom out from the weekly

or module learning goals. Take a high-level look at where students

have come from, at how much they've achieved. Reinforce their

learning, solidify important concepts, and further motivate your

students to become lifelong learners.

One way to do this is to revisit an activity from Week 1 (Lang, 2019). If you asked your students to reflect on and write or talk about the

course learning objectives in a syllabus review assignment, have them

review what they said then. Ask them where we said we were going.

Did we get there? Why or why not? What was particularly helpful in

reaching the destination? What might have helped them make even

better progress along the way? It's amazing how far students can come

even in the four- to eight-week condensed online classes we often

teach. Point this out to them, or better yet, guide their discovery of

their growth. Depending on what you ask in your prompt, you may

also get constructive feedback to help you refine and improve the

course. Either way, you will help your students develop important

reflection skills that will benefit them in any new learning context, be

it personal, academic, or professional.

One of my favorite ways to get at this, while also helping students see

for themselves the personal value and relevance of the course, is to

include a Three Takeaways assignment. Ask students to think about

the three most important things they have learned in your course. Ask

how they will continue to develop that learning and apply it in a future

academic, workplace, volunteer, or family life setting. Their

submission could be in the form of a journal entry, blog post, written

assignment, or audio or video recording posted to the class discussion

board.

You'll want to think carefully about whether individual, private

reflection is best for this task, or whether you want students to learn

from each other's insights in a more public way. If you were teaching

in the classroom, would you ask students to write this down and turn it

in as they leave the room? Or would you structure a Think-Pair-Share

activity, which becomes a discussion that the whole class engages in?

The differences between public and private reflection are important to

consider. Think about your purpose for this activity and decide

whether that's best achieved by having students submit privately or

asking them to submit something for public consumption and

discussion.

I use the Three Takeaways in my Technology Fluency and Leadership

class, offered as part of a master's degree leadership program at

Northern Arizona University (NAU). The students are almost always

working professionals who balance family obligations with school; to a

person, they seek career advancement and personal betterment of

their situation. But I get a wide range of tech savviness in the course.

I've had IT professionals who could be teaching the class,

administrative professionals who are nervous about trying new tech,

and people in service or retail industries who, for example, aren't

required to create PowerPoint presentations in their work, but know

that in order to make a career move, they need new skills. Every

student arrives at a different place in the journey. The Three

Takeaways assignment allows each individual to think carefully about

their own learning and growth and to consider how they plan to apply

what they have learned to their personal and professional context.

They can choose to write or talk about class concepts or more

metatopics, like what they learned by being a first-time online student.

Whatever their three takeaways are, there are always insightful

revelations that help them develop as an individual and reinforce the

learning we experienced in the class.

PRINCIPLES

Helping your students see and benefit from the intentional design of

your course pays off in important ways: They'll be more engaged when

they know why they are doing what they're doing, and how it will

benefit them in the course – and in other contexts, too. Better

engagement leads to more meaningful learning. A few principles can

help guide your approach.

Design with the End in Mind

This is just basic backward design: Keep your final destination

squarely before you in every phase of your planning process. Articulate

where you want your students to arrive. Plan a final assessment that

will measure whether they got there. Then think critically about what

they need along the way: readings and media content to provide

information and knowledge they need to get where they are going;

incremental tasks and assessments to act as signposts and to let

students know whether they are making good progress; and learning

activities and tasks to help them practice using and applying the new

knowledge before being tested on their mastery of it. Equip your

students with the necessary tools and supplies to help them reach the

final destination.

Provide Frequent Reminders of the Purpose of

Content and Activities

Using written instructions, video announcements, and weekly

reminders, help students clearly see the purpose behind course

activities and assessments. These reminders accomplish two goals.

First, they help you think through the purpose of classwork. You'll

have lots of opportunities to remind yourself that there's a reason

you've assigned various readings and tasks. Keeping your purpose in

view will help you avoid giving students busy work, an accusation

commonly made about online classes.

These reminders will also help your students stay engaged. Tell your

students – often – that you deliberately designed tasks to help them

learn and succeed in the class. When they see the relevance of

coursework, the thread that ties everything together, students are

more willing to complete activities and assessments in a way that

promotes meaningful learning.

Point Students Back to the Core Objectives

You put a lot of careful design work into the creation of your class.

Make the design overt for students to maximize the impact of your

efforts. Create tasks that draw students' attention to course and

module learning objectives. In many college classes, students don't

even know what the objectives are. Have students read, think about,

and respond to objectives as part of a syllabus review or orientation to

the course. Provide module learning objectives that detail how module

work supports course goals. Require an end-of-module or post-

assessment reflection in which students evaluate how well they

achieved module objectives, or what they might do differently next

time. In your announcements, emails, even in individual feedback,

reinforce the core objectives again and again. We all perform better

when we know what the goal is. Encourage your students to achieve

their best learning by repeatedly pointing out the learning goals for the

class.

Connect the Beginning and Ending

Bookend your class with activities that help students see the end at the

beginning, and conversely, see the beginning at the end. In Week 1, get

students working toward the final assessment. In the final week of the

class, have them reflect back on where they started. Doing this enables

your students to see the direct connections between the beginning and

the end of class. They'll see, and value, the straight path that led them

from where they were on Day One to where they got to by the end.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

SURFACING BACKWARD DESIGN ONLINE

Learning activities, content, assessments, and core objectives must all

align to ensure successful arrival at the final destination. Help your

students recognize the intentional design of your course in order to

maximize their learning.

Get students working on the final assessment in Week 1. Is there

a piece they can tackle right up front? Create a (low-stakes)

graded task that requires students to read and think about the

final project instructions or begin to plan the topic of their final

paper. Or assign a quiz that mirrors the format of the final exam

and gives them practice with that format. Explain that because

you want students to succeed on the final, they'll begin preparing

for it in the first few days of the class. Set them up for success by

starting with the end.

Clarify the purpose of classwork and assessments. What might

seem clear to you could be mystifying to your students.

Throughout the term, tell them why they're doing any given task

so students see the connections between activities and core

objectives for themselves.

Assign tasks that foster self-reflection on learning as it relates to

course objectives. At the beginning or middle of class, ask

students to read, think about, and respond to learning goals and

their progress toward or achievement of them.

At the close of the semester, have students reflect on where

they've come so far and what they intend to do to continue their

learning. Create opportunities to think about learning objectives

to reinforce and maximize the design of the course.

CONCLUSION

When the wheels of your car are in alignment, travel proceeds in the

intended direction. The wheels respond correctly to the input you

provide through the steering wheel. You arrive at your destination

smoothly, almost effortlessly. When you have proper alignment, you

don't even notice. All works harmoniously as it should to get you

where you want to go.

Contrast that to what happens when a wheel is out of alignment. The

vehicle keeps veering slightly to one side, requiring constant pulling on

the steering wheel to stay on track. More effort is required to drag the

car along its intended path. Misalignment creates additional wear and

tear on the tires, too, which can become costly and dangerous.

When we have effectively applied backward design, all course

components are aligned. We arrive at our destination more smoothly,

with less effort, less wear and tear, and less frustration and confusion

than we (and our students) experience when intentional design has

not been part of the course-creation process.

The value of starting with the end in mind is clear. The small teaching

approaches outlined here ensure that we are getting the most out of

our backward design. In so doing, we can significantly increase the

quality and effectiveness of our online classes without significantly

increasing the time and effort required from us.

Chapter 2

Guiding Learning Through Engagement

INTRODUCTION

I've discovered a lot about the science of learning in the dance studio.

I began teaching beginning and intermediate jazz dance at the local

community college after having been a dancer for more than 20 years.

But nobody actually gave me any instruction in terms of how I should

help students become dancers. Instead, I learned how to teach dance

through the twin methods of emulating my favorite teachers of the

past and by trial and error.

I learned, for example, that when introducing a new step, it helps

beginners to get the feet down first before learning what the arms will

do. Otherwise (though I didn't know it was called this then), there's

too much cognitive load. Beginning dance students can't process the

footwork and the arm movement at the same time. They learn more

successfully if they tackle one, then add the other, with me guiding

them along every step of the way.

I learned that beginning dancers get frustrated and demotivated if I

constantly throw new things at them. Better to practice one new step

for a while, get feedback from me on their progress, and build

confidence and self-efficacy before introducing a slightly more

complex step or one that requires greater skill.

I learned, most generally, to pay close attention to process: Teach the

simple stuff before you move on the more advanced steps. I had to

ensure that dancers had strong basic technique before I asked them to

execute advanced turns or leaps. Otherwise, if a dancer wasn't

prepared to hurl their body through space in a double stag or switch

leap, I'd be helping them limp or hop or sometimes crawl out of the

studio with a dislocated knee, bad sprain, or broken bone.

What I learned in the world of dance holds true in sports as well. You

don't see soccer coaches asking their players to perform scorpion kicks

before they've had countless hours of drills and feedback on their

work. Young gymnasts don't begin with death-defying aerials; they

spend countless hours on the ground, working with their coaches to

master basic skills.

But we often do the academic version of this with our students. We

don't break down difficult tasks into more manageable steps. We don't

provide process-oriented feedback while they are working; we wait

until they have completed a major assignment to let them know how

they performed. We don't help students build confidence as they

complete segments. We put them on the bicycle with no training

wheels and expect them to spin away with no falls, no scraped knees or

elbows. Sometimes we even defend our approach in the name of rigor.

The first online class I taught, and the one I've taught the most, is a

junior-level English composition class. As has happened to many of

you, I was given online content for my class. When I first started

teaching it, I'd made none of the decisions about the class except to

adjust the due dates for the current semester. It was an accelerated

writing intensive course. Students read lots of material in a short space

of time, wrote the ubiquitous online discussion posts, submitted short-

to medium-length papers. And then, out of the blue, came a major

research paper. Little in the online course prepared students for this

complex task. Indeed, I hardly understood the requirements the first

time I taught the class. My students were certainly not prepared to

succeed.

I'll give them credit: They tried their best. But without any guidance

and support from me throughout the process, their papers turned out

badly. Topics were poorly selected. Arguments were nonexistent.

Sources were neither credible nor scholarly. The writing itself was

abysmal.

I learned something else that semester: Grading poor student work

takes a long time. It's also painful and unrewarding, especially when

you're fairly certain that students won't seriously consider your

feedback and improve their work. In this case, the research paper was

the last assignment of the course. Students submitted their papers and

then likely put the whole experience out of their minds.

Looking back, it's clear that they would have benefited tremendously

from consistent engagement with me, and even with each other,

throughout the process of producing that final, high-stakes

assignment – something that forms a more regular part of my teaching

in face-to-face environments. The online classroom presents special

challenges when it comes to creating those kinds of regular

opportunities for engagement with our students, but small teaching

strategies can make a difference.

IN THEORY

The theoretical justification for scaffolding the learning of your

students could come from multiple directions. For example, we could

review the importance of formative assessment, and the many studies

that show how multiple, low-stakes assignments support learning

more effectively than a single summative one. Or we could point to the

connection between scaffolding and metacognition, and how

scaffolding provides students with more opportunities to pause and

reflect on their learning.

But consider instead the findings of The Meaningful Writing Project:

Learning, Teaching, and Writing in Higher Education, an intriguing

book published in 2016 by three researchers in the field of

composition studies. Michele Eodice, Anne Ellen Geller, and Neal

Lerner spent years trying to understand the kinds of writing

assignments, from courses of any kind, that students found

meaningful in their college courses. They surveyed more than 700

undergraduates at three different institutions, all of whom were given

two core prompts:

1. Describe a writing project from your undergraduate education

that was meaningful to you.

2. Explain why it was meaningful.

The authors spent several years interpreting and categorizing the

responses to those two questions. Working with a team (which

included undergraduates), they supplemented their survey data by

interviews with two groups: (a) a subset of the survey respondents and

(b) faculty members who had created meaningful writing assignments.

The results of their analysis are fascinating reading, and – in our

estimation – generalizable beyond writing assignments. The results, in

other words, can help us understand what students find meaningful as

they complete the work of their college-level courses.

Among the top three elements that they heard from students over and

over again was that meaningful work allowed students multiple

opportunities for engagement throughout the completion of their

assessments. In other words, the faculty member did not simply hand

out an assignment sheet and then send students away to complete it.

Instead, the faculty member built into the assessment many small

steps along the way.

Those small steps took many different forms, which means we have

lots of flexibility to adapt the findings of their research into our

courses. The specific forms of engagement the students reported in

their surveys – including multistage feedback from the instructor, peer

review sessions with their fellow students, and short assignments

building to a larger one – were less important than the fact that

regular engagement formed a fundamental part of the learning

process.

Previous research, including a large-scale study conducted by the

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), had found that

“interactive writing processes” – similar to engagement – proved

especially effective in the teaching of student writing. The Meaningful

Writing Project found an even stronger effect of such engagement:

“Instructors in classes in which the meaningful writing project

occurred,” they write, “were more likely to use informal, nongraded

writing … and to have students engage in peer review compared to

NSSE respondents” (Eodice, Geller, and Lerner, 2016, p. 55). Both of

these large-scale surveys of student writing thus report the power of

multistep engagement throughout an assessment in helping students

find it meaningful.

It might go without saying, but we'll say it anyway: Students who find

an assessment meaningful are more likely to work hard on that

assessment, learn from it, and complete it successfully. That link

appears again and again in the student responses documented in The

Meaningful Writing Project. “While I was writing I was given great

feedback on my paper,” one student wrote, “that helped me end up

with a great finished product and a good grade.” Another student

pointed to the extent to which the learning from the writing project

transferred to other contexts: “This assignment has affected all of my

other writing projects because I am constantly mindful of audience,

voice, tone, format, style, and other writing principles” (Eodice, Geller,

and Lerner, 2016, p. 66). These are the kinds of responses we want

from our assessments, and frequent engagement is the tool that can

help us get there.

Students in online courses, just like students in face-to-face courses,

can have trouble both understanding the purpose of their assignments

and course activities and managing them successfully. Complex

assignments might require a dozen or more cognitive steps that can be

difficult for a student to organize and complete in a logical, timely

manner. When we build in plenty of engagement along the way, as we

will argue in the models that follow, we provide the opportunity both

for students to complete our assignments successfully, and for them to

see the deep value and meaning of the work we are asking them to do.

MODELS

The models in this chapter begin by drawing directly from the kind of

research reported in The Meaningful Writing Project – in other

words, by providing lots of small signposts and opportunities for

feedback as students complete assessments. But from there we'll move

on to ways in which we can provide frequent opportunities for

engagement throughout the course, and not just on our assessments.

Engagement can prove especially challenging in online courses, when

students can feel isolated from both you and from one another

(Bolliger and Inan, 2012). These models, and the principles that

follow, will help break down the barriers between you and the

students, between the students themselves, and between the students

and the course content.

Break Down Complex Tasks

The Meaningful Writing Project helps explain why my online junior-

level composition class research paper assignment was such a disaster.

I had built in no engagement or scaffolding along the way. I taught the

assignment a couple of times as it was presented to me – namely,

requiring students to submit the final paper without any milestones or

feedback opportunities before submission. Then I realized that I could

improve the quality of these research papers, and improve students'

learning as well, by doing what I do in my in-person classes. I set up

an incremental sequence of tasks and deadlines designed to pace out

the work and help students know they were doing the right thing.

This essential focus on process, common in face-to-face classes, often

gets overlooked online. To bring it into your online courses, create a

checklist with the steps required to make progress toward a

cumulative assignment and the deadlines for each. Have students

submit a topic for the paper or presentation, for example. This needn't

be an overwhelming production. Have them write or record two or

three sentences describing what they want to do and submit this as an

assignment.

After getting your feedback on their topic, students can then submit a

basic outline with their main argument and supporting bullet points.

Require them to turn in a list of sources, whether that be a formal

annotated bibliography or a simple list of sources and bullet points

about the content and value of each. Next, assign a first draft. Build in

peer review, using your Learning Management System (LMS) group

tool to assign pairs. You could require the pair to meet using

videoconferencing tools, or even just by phone, to give substantive

feedback to each other.

All of what I suggest here can be embedded in group projects as well

(and if this hadn't already occurred to you, you can use it in your face-

to-face and blended teaching, too). Provide a checklist and

incremental deadlines for the group to turn in evidence of their

progress at various points of their work together. This can have the

additional benefit of facilitating healthy group functioning.

Of course, you must review the incremental work of your students and

provide timely feedback about their progress. Are they on track to

succeed? Tell them so, or give pointers for improvement.

A few years ago, students in my graduate online educational

technology class were to execute what I'd designed to be a meaningful

and authentic final assessment. Their project required them to identify

a problem in a class that they teach, research and identify a technology

tool that could help them solve the problem, design a lesson that

implemented the tool, teach the lesson to real or volunteer students,

and then report back on their experience. For whatever reason that

semester, lots of my students got the wrong end of the stick. They

submitted the first piece, a description of their problem and the

technology solutions they were considering. I read these with growing

dismay one Saturday morning around 6 a.m., one of my most

productive online teaching times. At least two-thirds of my students

had turned in ideas that would not work at all, plans that would cause

them to fail miserably on the project. This would inevitably be

reflected in their grade.

I soon realized that my instructions must not have been clear since so

many of my students were going about it the wrong way. So I created a

quick slideshow featuring some freely available images of literal train

wrecks. At such an early hour, I was not presentable for a webcam

recording, so instead I narrated the slides to clarify instructions,

identify where lots of them were going wrong, and suggest how they

could start again or make significant changes to get them back on

track. Before 8 a.m., I'd sent an announcement urging students to

watch the video. They were therefore able to use all day Saturday and

Sunday, valuable time for online graduate students with full-time jobs,

to reassess and re-engage in a productive way. Several later told me

how grateful they were for this correction before they'd invested too

much time into the project.

Two key points: First, I had to acknowledge that I was partly to blame.

Teaching requires a certain humility. It was necessary to recognize my

own shortfall, some gap in the initial instructions, in order to help my

students succeed. Second, I had to act fast. Had I waited to review

student submissions until the middle of the following week, my

correction would have come too late. Carving out a bit of unanticipated

time on that Saturday morning, a small sacrifice that mildly impacted

family life, was necessary in order to get the information to students in

time for them to benefit from it.

Break down your big assignments into manageable chunks, help

students pace their work, and provide meaningful feedback along the

way. The quality of student learning will improve without a doubt.

Release Content Strategically

An effective way to provide multiple opportunities for engagement

with online class content is to use the conditional release (CR)

function available in most LMSs. Using this feature, a piece of content

does not become available until the student meets a condition. For

example, before students can access math instruction and homework

practice for a new topic, they must achieve a minimum passing score

on a quiz that reviews the skills learned in the preceding topic. This

kind of scaffolding requires students to demonstrate some level of

mastery (you can set the conditions as to what level you require)

before they can see or access the next piece of content. Using

conditional release, or adaptive release as it is sometimes called, can

provide helpful structure and another point of engagement in online

classes where students must direct much of their own learning.

A team of researchers examined the effects of CR on student

performance in a comparison of the impact of CR in undergraduate

entry-level face-to-face and online math classes (Fisher et al., 2015).

They drew on their earlier work in which they established best

practices for using CR, as well as a subsequent study that identified

student perceptions of the value of CR. In their 2015 experimental

study, they predicted that CR would improve student performance

(resulting in higher test scores and average final grades) and that CR

would have greater impact in online courses compared to in-person

courses, “given that many features of CR are easier to implement and

control in an online … format” (p. 4). Their results showed that

students in the online math courses did indeed earn higher exam

scores and final grades than in the control group of online classes with

no CR. But this was not the case in the face-to-face classes; students in

these classes were not helped by the use of CR compared to students in

face-to-face classes with no CR. For our purposes, a key finding is that

using conditional release helped online students earn better grades. I

suspect that a primary cause for increased success rates in online

classes is that online students can benefit from the more structured

process that conditional release provides, since they lack the structure

and support provided by regular in-class meetings.

You can use CR to guide students and provide early feedback on their

performance in many different ways. In a psychology class, create a

mastery vocabulary quiz that requires students to demonstrate

knowledge of key terms before being able to proceed with new content.

In a political science class, ask students to submit an end-of-module

written or recorded summary of key concepts before they can access

the next module. In a philosophy class, create an assignment that

requires students to outline the argument being presented in the

assigned text before they can access the subsequent analysis paper

assignment instructions. In a criminal justice class, have students take

a quiz on your video mini-lecture before they can access the next

segment of your mini-lecture series on the topic. You can use

conditional release in almost every discipline to check for student

understanding and provide feedback, whether that is machine-graded

feedback provided by an LMS quiz, which might be more practical in

large enrollment classes, or your manual review of student work

before they proceed to the next step of a major project or assignment,

which might be more meaningful for the content you're teaching.

Here's one way you can structure this process in your online class.

Create an assignment at the beginning of each module, which is the

only thing that students see in the module. Provide detailed

instructions. You might ask students to write one paragraph (around

200 words) in which they summarize the key points of the preceding

module and predict how it might relate to this module's topic. Explain

that the purpose of this task is to help them practice retrieval and look

for connections between the previous module and the current one (for

more on the cognitive benefits of retrieval practice and making

connections, see Chapters 1 and 4 of the original Small Teaching).

Once students submit their response, which, in line with Universal

Design for Learning (UDL) principles, can be by text entry, uploading

a document, or submitting an audio or video response, the rest of the

module content becomes available.

You can assign points for these conditional assignments and quizzes,

or you can choose not to count them toward the grade. If they are set

so that students must submit a task, these activities don't necessarily

have to be graded. Noted educator and author José Bowen often

makes the point that the tennis net doesn't grade your swing. I heard

Bowen speak in November 2018 at the Professional and

Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education

conference, and he discussed the importance of the kind of

nonevaluative feedback that a tennis net provides. The net doesn't

assign points based on your performance. It provides feedback. Either

your ball sails over it or the ball hits the net and bounces back to you.

But the net doesn't give you a grade (Bowen, 2018). You can use

conditional release to achieve the same purpose: help students get

feedback on their learning without necessarily assigning points.

Don't overdo this. You could create frustration if students have to

jump through this hoop (as they might see it) too many times before

being able to proceed with the course. Use this approach intentionally,

strategically, and in a limited way. Help students to make steady

progress and receive valuable input on their learning, whether it's

confirmation that they understand the concept or feedback that

indicates they need further review, by the selective use of conditional

release.

Scour Class Interactions for Cues

When you're teaching in person, you can look out at your students,

walk the room, and observe nonverbal cues that indicate students

aren't getting it. Or they're bored. Or you've lost their attention

entirely. Good teachers acknowledge these cues and change tack

accordingly. They might provide more explanation, or an illustration,

or another way to describe the concept. Or they might stop the current

activity – lecture or small group work or individual problem-solving –

and start doing something else.

Online, you don't have these visual cues quite so readily available. You

can't see the quizzical facial expression of your online student, trying

to make sense of your assignment instructions, by themselves, alone

with their computer screen. It's not so easily observable when students

have lost interest and drifted off. You usually don't have a chance, real-

time, to correct a misunderstanding the way you could during class

discussion or small group work.

But you can still monitor and support the engagement of your online

students, and it's important to do so. The small teaching approach

here is to check in frequently and keep an eye on student interactions,

even if only for a few minutes two or three times a day.

Notice what questions you receive through the LMS message system.

Are several students asking you the same thing? Instead of replying to

each one, post a quick video or text announcement to further explain

and clear up confusion. Even better, send a quick copy-and-paste reply

to each student individually, saying to check the announcement. This

way you acknowledge individuals and help the group as a whole at the

same time.

Many online classes include a question-and-answer discussion forum

for just this purpose. If your course doesn't have this element, make

that small teaching strategy number one: Add it! Students can post

general questions about the course and assignments so that everyone

benefits from the answer. Be sure to check it and reply promptly or at

least in a reasonable amount of time. I've observed online classes in

which the questions for the instructor remain unanswered for days,

leaving students feeling abandoned and discouraged.

When you do reply, again, consider how to scale up your response.

Sometimes I duplicate the answer I put in the post as a class

announcement that goes to students' email addresses, just to be sure

they are getting the information. You can apologize for any

duplication, but make it clear that you want to make sure all your

students have what they need to succeed. Another way to scale up is to

collect frequent questions and post as frequently asked questions

(FAQs) the next time you teach the class.

In addition to monitoring questions, you can monitor discussion

interactions. This doesn't have to be the time drain you might imagine.

Interacting with your students in discussion is an important way to

guide their learning. Are they confused about a concept? Misapplying

it to their context? You can detect this and correct it through a quick

reply.

Some faculty don't engage in online discussion forums with their

students, but doing so fosters both cognition and student engagement.

When you teach in person, you wouldn't launch a class discussion and

then walk out of the room, leaving the students to conduct their own

discussion. Yet many online faculty do just that – leave students alone

to lead their own discussion online. Instead, consider the findings of a

meta-analysis of 41 research studies of online discussion (Zhou, 2015).

One clear theme that emerged is that students highly value faculty

interaction in online forums, and that the quality of faculty interaction

can have a positive impact on peer-to-peer interaction. In other words,

instructors who interact regularly in the discussion board and model

good online discussion practice can enhance the learning experience of

their students. Further, certain faculty behaviors, such as summarizing

a student's post, directly addressing the subject of the post, and

responding to students' posts more than once per week can encourage

critical thinking in online classes (Belcher et al., 2015).

Interacting with students in your online discussions is well worth

doing. Indeed, I tell my students that if they see a reply from me in the

discussion board, it's in their best interest to read it. My best online

teaching takes place in the forums.

To accomplish this efficiently, set aside 30 minutes per day, four to six

days a week. The shorter your class session, the more days per week

you should log in. Teaching a 16-week class? Four days per week is

fine. Teaching a four-week summer session? Help your students by

investing the additional time you expect them to. Log in six or maybe

even seven days per week when class is so condensed.

Skim through that day's discussions and post quick replies where

needed. These can take two to three minutes each but can have a big

impact on student learning. Most importantly, students see you in the

class, guiding their learning, providing instruction. They know that

you support them and care about them, and are likely to more fully

engage as a result. This return on your investment of a few minutes

per day is significant.

Provide Module Discussion Highlights

Another way to provide small signposts and feedback for students

throughout the course is to help them focus on important concepts

that arise in online discussions. These forums, at their best, can be

invigorating, highly engaging, and motivating. Online discussions can

be the highlight, the pinnacle of learning, in a well-designed and

intentionally taught class. But it's equally true that robust online

discussions can become overwhelming for both students and

instructors.

To address this concern, write or record a summary of important and

interesting points that emerged in the module's discussion. Post this in

the forum, perhaps pinning your post so that it stays at the top. Or

send it as a concluding announcement for each module. Either way,

reinforce the learning that happened within the module to help

students discern what is most relevant and what they need to retain

from the lively conversation that can take place online.

I recently facilitated the ACUE (Association of College and University

Educators) Course in Effective Teaching Practices for 65 or so of our

faculty. After the nine-month online professional development course

had ended, several faculty learners told me how much they

appreciated it when I quoted their discussion posts at the end of the

module. People love to see their contributions publicly recognized and

praised.

Caitrin Blake, a faculty member at Arapahoe Community College,

makes a similar point in a recent blog post, “An Online Instructor's

Guide to Better Discussion Boards.” Blake argues that we should

“reward good work on discussion boards.” One way to do this is to

“identify posts that went above and beyond expectations” (2017).

I managed this task by copying and pasting important snippets and

insightful comments into a running document throughout the week. I

would check in to the discussion forums most weekdays. I'd reply to

people, commenting and asking questions where appropriate to

further the conversation. But I also knew that not everyone would be

able to closely follow the details of the week's discussion.

Our faculty learners truly were making valuable contributions to our

collective understanding of new concepts, and I wanted to ensure that

these contributions were not lost. So I saved short quotes along with

details such as the learner's name and the context of the comment. I

added to this document each time I went into the online discussion. By

the end of the week, I had an at-a-glance summary of highlights, which

meant that it took only a few minutes to write a concluding

announcement to share some quotes from the week and to draw

people's attention to the most relevant and interesting elements from

the conversation.

Incidentally, online discussions need not be solely reserved for fully

online classes. When purposefully integrated into the course design,

they can add an important dimension to blended and in-person

classes, too. Incorporate opportunities for students to engage with

concepts, you, and each other in between class sessions. Apply this

same strategy: Shortly before the next class meeting, maybe the

evening before, send an announcement highlighting key points and

questions to help students be most prepared for class the next day.

Again, this suggestion serves multiple purposes: to emphasize key

points, to increase motivation by calling out individuals with

exemplary posts, to serve as study guides, to ensure students don't

miss something important. Done well, online discussions can be just

as noisy as a lively conversation taking place in the classroom. Help

students get key takeaways by summing up what they've learned, just

as you do in person.

PRINCIPLES

Engagement doesn't happen as naturally in online classes as it does in

person. Context isn't created effortlessly. Connections aren't always

quite as clear. But it doesn't take much to help your students check in

regularly to get a sense of how they're doing in the class. Provide

multiple opportunities for engagement to monitor their progress, give

them quick feedback and encouragement, and promote better

learning.

Break Down Complex Tasks

Help your students pace their work and feel confident that they are

performing to your expectations by chunking major assessments into

manageable pieces. Provide a checklist or an overview of the entire

process. Schedule deadlines such that you can give timely feedback so

that students can benefit from it as they work on the next part of the

task. Build confidence and self-efficacy as you guide and support

student learning.

Notice and Respond to Cues

Where are there communications breakdowns? Are multiple students

asking the same questions? Have online discussions gone astray – or

worse, silent? Spend a few minutes in class every day, or if not every

day, on several nonconsecutive days of the week. Post announcements

to answer the questions you receive by email. Reply in the discussion

forums to praise a strong post or correct a minor misunderstanding.

Provide regular but not time-intensive signals to your class to ensure

they stay engaged and productive.

Give Feedback – Frequently

Look for every opportunity to help students know how they are doing

in the class. Think early and often. It's easy for online students to feel

isolated and unsupported. Go out of your way to tell students they're

on track, or what to change to get back on track. It truly needn't take

long. A few minutes per day, multiple days per week. This small

investment will frequently result in big learning gains.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

GUIDING LEARNING THROUGH

ENGAGEMENT

Without intentional effort on your part, online students can easily

disengage. Use the models and principles of this chapter to increase

the number of interactions that students have with the course, and the

opportunities that you have to check progress and provide feedback.

Create several mini-assignments that become the cumulative

assessment in the class. Set deadlines for each. Provide feedback

on each. Help students pace themselves. Build self-efficacy as you

reinforce student learning during each step of the process.

Create conditional release assignments that guide students'

learning, let them know whether they've mastered course

concepts, and help students discover connections between class

activities. Get students to think about why they are completing

module tasks, and why they're doing so in that particular order.

Seek out cues that indicate students may be confused. Notice

patterns in the kinds of questions students ask you. Pay attention

to trends in student submissions that show misunderstanding or

miscommunication. Take quick action via an announcement,

clarification video, or email to the class. Help students get back on

track and stay there.

Post summaries of each module's discussion forums. Point out

what's important and what needs paying attention to, in order to

proceed with class content.

CONCLUSION

Some people are really great at teaching themselves. They're

motivated. They know where to go for the information they need. They

read the user manual or find a tutorial video online or download an

app to learn a new language. They are self-sufficient learners.

But many of us are not like that. Many of us prefer, even need, a

guided learning experience. I will never learn Adobe Photoshop by

trial and error. If I were to need to learn to use this program, which

I've successfully avoided until now, I would enroll in a class, knowing

I'd need the structure and the expert help of the instructor to keep me

engaged and learning.

We can guide our students' progress by providing incremental

feedback and engaging them frequently through multiple means, in

just such a way. When you actively and intentionally engage your

students, they will likely respond to that attention by working harder

and by immersing themselves in class content and activities. Best of

all, this needn't be an overwhelming task. Your students will learn

more, and learn better, when you give those small signposts, early and

often, throughout the course.

Chapter 3

Using Media and Technology Tools

INTRODUCTION

Most of us take our everyday technologies for granted. We expect them

to work seamlessly. We do not even notice when they work well.

Every morning, we are awakened by an alarm, whether on our

smartphone or a bedside clock. We make our way to the kitchen, flip

on the light, and brew the perfect cup of coffee with the touch of a

button. We reach into the refrigerator for our favorite creamer to

flavor our coffee. We sit down with our mobile device and scan the

day's news.

Without the technology solutions we all have in our own homes, how

much longer would each of these activities take? Two hundred years

ago, we'd wake up naturally or rise with the sun. If it were still dark,

we would light a candle. Coffee drinkers would have to grind the

beans, light the stove, boil water. If we wanted cream, we'd have to

trek out to the ice house to get it. We might collapse at the end of the

day, after the work was done, with the day's newspaper to get a view of

the outside world.

Technology has made our lives easier in many ways. We default to the

assumption that it will be there to support us, that it will solve the

problems we do not even remember we had before we had electricity,

cars, the internet. It's easy to forget that technology serves a purpose,

that it solves problems. It's easy to get distracted by the shiny.

A couple of years ago, a faculty colleague of mine took an unsolicited

call from a representative from a vendor for a classroom response

system, commonly known as clickers. The salesperson convinced her

that this tool would solve all her large-enrollment lecture class

problems, so my colleague signed on the dotted line and came to us for

training on the tool. Fortunately, one of my learning design colleagues

called a time-out to ask her whether this was really the right tool for

the job. She'd been distracted by the shiny, but came to see that

clickers would not address her challenges without a purposeful design

for their use.

Consider the current state of classroom technology. In the name of

active learning, institutions spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on

high-tech learning spaces featuring sophisticated technology and

flexible furniture to facilitate collaboration. The classroom tech is

controlled by a highly complex console at the front of the room. But

very often the systems are so complex that they are not used to full

effect. I have known many faculty, people without adequate

preparation to teach in these spaces, who are intimidated by the

sophisticated technology and do not really use it at all.

That's a lot of very expensive shiny technology that does not serve a

clear purpose.

IN THEORY

Derek Bruff is the director of Vanderbilt's Center for Teaching and one

of the leading voices in higher education today on the use of

technology in teaching. An early adopter of the use of personal

response systems in class, Bruff authored one of the first books on the

subject, and maintains an active blog on teaching and learning in

higher education, with special attention to the role that technology can

and should play in our courses. Bruff's more recent book, Intentional

Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in

College Teaching (in press), begins with him describing the technology that he finds most essential to his own teaching: chairs on wheels. “By

that,” he explains,

I mean classroom furniture, including tables and chairs, that I can

easily move around before and during class. When I walk into my

classroom, I have typically planned a series of activities for my

students focused on my learning objectives for the day. Sometimes

that involves whole class discussion, other times small group work,

or pair work or a class debate or a jigsaw activity. Moveable

furniture helps me create the kind of classroom environment that

supports the learning activities I have planned.

You'll hear a similar message about teaching and technology from

almost every leading voice in this field. Eric Mazur, the Harvard

physicist who popularized the use of personal response systems in

higher education, gives workshops around the world about his

conversion from a traditional lecturer to an advocate for active

learning. He has become known especially for his writing on peer

instruction, which pairs the use of a personal response system with

collaborative learning. At a recent workshop that Jim attended, Mazur

had participants engaging in sample peer instruction activities by

using hand signals instead of clickers or phones or other electronic

devices. A presentation following Mazur's, given by biologist Mindy

Maris, had us using colored index cards to show our responses. All

three of these proponents and practitioners of technology-enhanced

teaching are perfectly willing to step away from the shiny tools when

they are not required to accomplish their objectives.

Cognitive psychologist Michelle Miller has been another pioneer in

research and writing about technology in education, and she brings

the findings of her home discipline to bear on the field, exploring

applications of research from the learning sciences to the intersection

of education and technology. When it first became possible to

incorporate multimedia components into college courses, she points

out, many faculty members leapt to do so – and many still do, even

when it might not seem like a good fit.

The contemporary era of educational technology offers a wealth of

multimedia bells-and-whistles we can add to our learning activities.

Most of us have an intuitive sense that these media engage students

beyond what we can do with plain text … Intuitions, however, are

not always right. (Miller, 2014, p. 149)

In fact, Miller argues, some uses of multimedia in teaching have been

shown to detract from learning, instead of supporting or enhancing it.

For example, if you are showing a slide presentation to students, and

narrating over your slides – as you might do for a simple video in an

online course – the impact on student learning might well depend on

how you decide to handle the content of the slides. Simply reading the

words on the slides can produce what the research calls the

redundancy effect, which will actually hurt student learning; but you

can err at the other extreme as well, and interfere with learning by not

paying enough attention to the slides. What works best – Miller

describes it as the “Goldilocks” principle – is a close but not perfect

relation between slides and narration, and when the narration occurs

in conversational language (Miller, 2014, p. 154).

The point being made by all of these experts in the field of educational

technology just represents an extension of what we argued in Chapter

1: Every decision you make in designing your online course should

extend from the learning objectives you have designed for your course.

Develop those objectives first, and then figure out which technological

tools will help you and your students meet them. You'll likely not be

using chairs with wheels with your online students, but you might well

find that the latest fancy teaching tool or program that you have heard

about from a colleague just does not fit well with your course, and that

some simple alternative will get the job done more efficiently.

MODELS

A faculty member in construction management wanted his students to

draw on actual blueprints, but he only had one set. His solution?

Students worked in groups and took a picture of the blueprint with an

iPad. Using an app, they drew on the blueprint according to the

instructions. They were then able to share their image with the rest of

the class on the large projection screen so the class could review and

discuss.

A group of faculty had worked for three days in a teaching seminar. At

the end of the seminar, teams were to present their work. The other

participants wanted to contribute in real time and also record the

interaction and material for later reference. Their solution? Each

faculty team created a shared Google Doc. As they presented, other

participants contributed additional resources and ideas directly into

the doc. By the end of each team's presentation, a rich, robust set of

materials existed, more fully developed than the team members

themselves had started with.

I teach advanced jazz dance, but my body does not perform the

advanced turns and leaps like it did 20 years ago. My solution? I pause

class, gather my dancers around me, and play a YouTube video on my

smartphone of a young and agile dancer executing the leap with

perfect technique. I describe what she is doing so my students get both

good instruction and a helpful visual example.

All three of these real-life scenarios feature a purposeful technology

tool to accomplish an objective or solve a problem. The construction

management professor only had one set of blueprints to work with.

The faculty teams wanted to contribute to each other's work in a

meaningful way. I am just plain getting old; new aches and pains

remind me that my body no longer soars and spins the way it once did.

Both in the classroom and online, our technology should solve

teaching problems or open new possibilities for teaching excellence.

We have plenty of opportunities to accomplish that goal using the

small teaching approach.

Create Short Lecture Videos

One of the pervasive problems of online classes is that they can be

text-heavy, dry, and boring. Students are often confronted by an off-

putting wall of text. An increasingly feasible solution? Creating short

videos to deliver content.

Some faculty are charged by the prospect of upping their online

teaching game with informative videos. Many more are intimidated by

the idea. Creating lecture videos, for many, seems like it will be “big

teaching” – that is, so much work that it never happens. But once

again, it does not have to be that way. For small teaching, we advocate

use of content videos: Invest a small amount of time and effort to

achieve a big reward in student engagement and learning.

When thinking about how to incorporate lecture videos, many online

faculty imagine posting videos of their classroom lectures in the

course. This is certainly one way to do it, and some institutions are

investing in elaborate lecture-capture systems to facilitate this process.

But lecture capture requires expensive tech and a team of skilled

professionals. The small teaching way is to record short narrated

slideshow videos or webcam-style videos speaking directly to the

camera on your computer monitor.

The key word here is short. “Traditional in-person lectures usually last

an hour, but students have much shorter attention spans when

watching educational videos online,” writes Philip Guo in a blog post

about a study he and his colleagues conducted (Guo, 2013). The

researchers compiled data from 6.9 million video-watching sessions to

track engagement patterns of online students. Their findings led to a

strong recommendation that online class videos should be no longer

than six minutes. In a conference paper that presents more in-depth

results of the study, Guo and his colleagues note that informal videos

led to greater engagement and that high production value might not be

effective. The researchers warn that a great deal of pre- and post-

production effort will be needed “if instructors insist on recording live

classroom lectures” (2014). That sounds like big teaching to me.

Instead, you can create a mini-lecture video yourself without

expensive technology or a team of experts, and without a big

investment of time. Guo's research actually showed that students

engage less with formal professionally edited videos. So set aside half

an hour at your desk and record your own content without worrying

too much about high production value or perfectly polished delivery.

You can do this using a wide range of video-recording tools and

software. For example, Canvas includes a native recording option.

Other LMSs may not have that feature, but institutions are

increasingly licensing third-party video tools to embed within the

LMS, such as Kaltura or Panopto, so that it's seamless to use.

Alternatively, find one of the many free or low-cost options available

online. At the time of this writing, Screencast-o-matic (for screencasts

only) or Loom (for screencasts or webcam recordings) are both good

options. They are relatively simple to use to record short informal

mini-lectures. Explain Everything offers recordable interactive

whiteboard functionality. You could even record yourself using Zoom

or other videoconferencing software if you have more experience with

those formats.

The two most common forms of mini-lecture videos involve talking

through a short set of slides or speaking directly to the webcam. Both

can be very effective. Some instructors are not comfortable seeing

themselves on camera: if you are one of them, start by recording a five-

minute screen capture of your slides. With practice, you may find that

you become more comfortable recording yourself talking to the

camera. (Incidentally, this approach is a great way to reinforce

instructor presence, as discussed in Chapter 4.) Remember the

research cited by Michelle Miller, which showed that, when we narrate

over slides, conversational language works most effectively. Keep your

narration casual, and make sure you frequently refer to the material

on the slides without just reading it word for word.

Most tools offer at least minimal editing ability, and that's really all

you need. Do not edit out the occasional trip over your tongue. That

makes you and your video authentic. When I record webcam mini-

lectures, I capture a few extra seconds of me smiling at the camera

after I finish talking. It's quick and easy to cut there or fade out so

students do not see me fumbling around trying to find the right button

to click to end the recording.

Remember to provide one or more alternative forms of your video

content so that you are facilitating successful interactions for all your

diverse learners. Captions, transcripts, and even text-based outlines of

your video content can provide choices for how your students consume

the material (Tobin & Behling, 2018). Some video-recording tools

provide an auto-captioning tool that can speed up the captioning

process (though you may have to quickly edit your captions for

accuracy); if you like to type out your mini-lecture script before you

record, then you'll already have a transcript ready-made. You may also

want to provide guiding questions that students can answer while

viewing the mini-lectures to help your learners actively engage with

your videos instead of passively consuming them.

If you create your mini-lectures in your LMS, they are already

embedded where you want them. If you record them using another

tool, find out how best to stream them in your online class. Consult

your local instructional designer or LMS support team for guidance on

this and other support services to make your videos easily viewable

and accessible for students on whatever device they are using to

engage in class.

Most importantly, remember the small teaching philosophy. Start with

one mini-lecture video. Is there a concept that has always been hard to

convey in your online class? There's the subject of your first mini-

lecture video. Next time you teach that class, add a couple more.

The good news is that you can reuse these videos for future classes if

you are intentional about what you include. Do not include a semester-

specific due date because that would be irrelevant next time you teach

the course. In a recent article for Inside Higher Ed, David Joyner,

Computer Science faculty at Georgia Institute of Technology,

recommends additional strategies to make sure you can reuse your

videos (Dimeo, 2017). For example, be careful about referring to other

videos within your course. If your videos are too closely connected,

modifying one area of the course might demand that you modify

several others as well to stay up-to-date… avoid this by keeping the

videos as individually independent as possible. Rather than using

phrases like, “Recall the example we used last semester,” say

“Imagine this example.” If the previous area of the course is

unmodified, students will draw the connection on their own, but if

that example has been dropped, the video does not come across as

unconnected. (Dimeo, 2017)

This level of planning may not come naturally, but keep at it. Invest a

little time figuring out what to include in your mini-lecture and how

best to record it. It'll take less time with practice, you'll benefit from

the return on your time investment for multiple semesters, and your

students will be glad to have a break from the wall of text.

Spur Engagement with Online Content

Unfortunately, busy online students have developed a predictable

pattern. At the risk of overgeneralizing, many students will not watch

even the most engaging, informative, or important video if there is no

accountability for doing so. Online students are becoming ruthlessly

efficient in how they spend their time on classwork. We can hardly

blame them for this, as so many of them have busy and challenging

lives outside of their studies, which can include special challenges like

caring for sick relatives or even fighting food insecurity (Goldrick-Rab,

2016).

A colleague of mine, completing an online master's degree, carefully

examines the end-of-module assignment first, then skims the assigned

textbook chapters for the necessary information to complete the task. I

am guessing his instructors believe their students are thoroughly

reading all assigned material, but that may not be the case at all. Just

as my colleague does, online learners usually have both work and

family obligations. Many of your students will have been drawn to the

online format precisely because they need schedule flexibility in order

to pursue college-level learning while maintaining other

commitments. So if there is not an explicit reason to watch a video,

even if it's less than two minutes long, some students will not watch it.

At the same time, we know that the content we have created will

benefit their learning, so we have to think deliberately about how to

spur their engagement with the course materials.

An effective and simple way to create that engagement and add

accountability is to include a short, graded assessment after each

required video. This strategy can also help students actively work with

the content, which helps them to “process information and monitor

their own understanding” (Brame, 2015). Some video tools allow

embedded quizzing, although not all do as of this writing, and

embedding quizzing adds a layer of complexity to your work. Still, this

approach can hold students accountable for engaging with your

videos.

If you prefer to keep it basic, add an auto-graded quiz immediately

following the video. Use your LMS quiz tool to create a five-question

multiple choice or true/false test to check for understanding. You can

include feedback in the quiz answers to enrich student understanding.

For example, if a student gets a question wrong, you can direct the

student to review a section of the video at a particular timestamp. You

can set the quiz to show this text to students upon submission of the

test. For correct responses, you can also provide additional guidance,

perhaps suggesting where students can find additional resources on

the topic.

Instead of an auto-graded quiz, in my technology and leadership class

I assign a short-paragraph written response—or this could be a

recorded audio or video response—worth five points after each mini-

lecture video. In the instructions, I tell students they have to

demonstrate to me that they watched the video, thought about the

content, and are applying it to their context. I am willing to read and

grade these manually because I like that these short responses require

higher-order thinking. It typically takes me less than one minute to

grade each submission. That small investment of time pays big

dividends in terms of increased engagement with the course content.

The most helpful and interesting videos are worthless if students do

not actually watch them, or watch them without full attention. Make

watching the videos worth a few points. You are likely to get far higher

levels of engagement with the video content as a result.

Leverage Video for Spontaneous Updates

In addition to mini-lecture videos, short recorded announcements in

which you respond to developments in your class can have a powerful

impact. We all take advantage of “teachable moments” in the

classroom. Ever alert, we seize unexpected opportunities to reinforce a

concept based on an unplanned comment or occurrence during class.

The same thing is possible, even desirable, when teaching online.

When you spot student confusion, for example, take a few minutes to

record yourself clarifying instructions or answering questions that

pertain to the whole class. These short updates require even less

planning than your mini-lectures; just identify a few salient talking

points and record yourself using a native or embedded video capture

and streaming tool in your LMS. Or you can use the tools already

mentioned (Loom, Screencast-o-matic, or Zoom) or the YouTube app

on your phone and then stream the announcement video in your class.

The idea is to watch for those teachable moments, then record a quick

video to address the situation.

Again, students prefer informal videos in which you are authentic to

stiff, formal, or professionally edited videos. They want to see and hear

you being you. You needn't record and re-record until you achieve the

perfectly polished presentation. Do you always articulate every word

perfectly when teaching in the classroom? If not, don't worry about

doing so in your teaching videos.

For many faculty, this might be a new and uncomfortable experience.

Some of us don't like the way we look or sound on camera. I'd

encourage you to try recording yourself speaking to the camera, even if

you begin with a very short one-minute greeting in the “Start Here”

section of your online class.

We all practice public-speaking skills when we teach in the classroom.

This is simply a variation of that skill. Were you perfectly comfortable

standing in front of a room full of people when you first started

teaching? For many of us, it took practice to gain confidence in that

setting. Give yourself time to practice and build confidence in creating

online class videos, too.

The more practice you get, the more comfortable you'll be with sharing

your thinking in real time with your students via video. A couple of

years ago, I was grading assignments while using my treadmill desk. I

wanted to give a couple of points of general feedback to my students,

so I used the native recording function in my LMS to make a few

comments as I walked. This stretched my comfort zone; I'd never

shared something as casual as that, but it was authentic and it got

students' attention. Indeed, just a few weeks ago one of my students

from that class, who is also a faculty member at NAU, told me he still

remembered that announcement because it was so unusual to see an

instructor talking to students from their treadmill desk. As another

example of authenticity, last year I answered a student's question via

video so I could talk through a few considerations. I recorded a 90-

second response using the YouTube app on my smartphone. In the

middle of my recording, two of my daughters popped up behind me

and started clowning around. In the past I would have stopped the

recording, banished them from the room, and started again. This time

I briefly introduced them, asked them to settle down, and continued

with my recording. My students told me they appreciated seeing that

side of me, a working mom in my home office, and they got useful

course-related information, too.

Over the years that I have been recording these in-the-moment

updates, I have become increasingly fond of the informal, casual

approach. When I record using the webcam on my laptop, I literally jot

down three to four bullet points on a Post-it Note, affix that note

immediately to the right of the camera lens, and review my talking

points in a conversational tone, making sure that my eye movement to

the right to read the note while talking is not apparent in the recorded

video—this became easier with practice, as most skills do. Recall Philip

Guo's research that shows a less formal approach can help to engage

online learners, whose attention span is shorter than it would be when

attending class in person.

However, if you are new to recording video announcements, or if you

prefer to plan more meticulously than I do for my off-the-cuff

approach, you may want to emulate Joana Girante's method (2015).

Girante, an economics professor at Arizona State University, explains

how she creates and uses weekly videos on ASU's TeachOnline website

(which, incidentally, is a great resource for finding innovative

strategies and support materials for online teaching). Girante uses her

weekly announcements to set the stage for the week's content and, like

me, to address things that occur to her that very week, perhaps

referring to a current event or further explaining a concept that her

students are struggling with. But these videos are more highly

produced than mine are. Girante narrates PowerPoint slides and

incorporates images, animated graphics, and short video clips to

attract and hold the attention of her students. She writes a script,

complete with cues for advancing slides and animations, and she uses

video editing software on her computer to edit her recordings. If this

approach resonates with your teaching style, invest some time in

learning to create this kind of announcement video. With practice,

you'll likely soon become adept at the process so that you become

more efficient, able to quickly create your videos as needed throughout

the semester.

While mini-lecture videos are probably best created prior to start of

the term, try these short videos for updates on the fly. After all, that's

what you would do in the classroom, right? You'd say a few words to

clear up confusion, not hand around a sheet of paper with some

written comments and explanations. If you choose to speak directly to

the camera, your facial expressions, combined with your vocal

intonations, can do a lot to help students understand your meaning.

Provide them with these nonverbal cues using quick casual recordings.

Source Existing Media

I firmly believe that it's essential to include some videos of yourself in

your online class. Your students want to see and hear you, their

instructor. But you don't have to reinvent the wheel for every topic you

want to present. As I am sure you know, you can find rich sources of

high-quality media on every subject on the planet and beyond. Take a

little time to find relevant videos, audio recordings, and images. If you

are not sure where to start, ask your campus librarian for help. There's

a huge amount of material available online. Find and share impactful

pieces of content that add depth and breadth to your existing

instructional materials. This will help students gain a richer

understanding of the nuances of your subject.

For example, a faculty member teaching organizational psychology

found that his students could not quite grasp the concepts in the

textbook. He discerned that these ideas, presented in dry textbook-ese,

did not resonate with his students. His solution? He posted scenes

from Office Space (as appropriate under copyright permissions) to

make the concepts come to life. Students instantly understood the

principles at work when presented in engaging, humorous film clips.

Notice once again that technology solved a problem. This instructor

did not share Office Space solely because he thought it was funny.

Doing so would have fallen under the questionable category of “edu-

tainment.” Rather, the instructor identified a problem and applied an

effective technology solution. When considering adding media of any

kind, think carefully about how it supports the achievement of course

learning outcomes and what problem it solves. If you don't have a

good answer for both of those questions, leave it out.

As you look for relevant videos, audio, and images, keep two additional

considerations in mind. First, think broadly about categories and

sources of media. News outlet archives. TED Talks. Images from

credible sources of natural disasters, war zones, refugee camps,

shrinking polar caps. Khan Academy videos. Song lyrics on YouTube.

Even humorous summaries of the classics. Students in my recent

First-Year Seminar on Heroes, Villains and Monsters amused

themselves (and, I'll argue, learned a lot) by finding and sharing videos

such as the Overly Sarcastic Productions version of Beowulf. (Look it

up. It's funny—and informative).

Second, always be wary of the shiny. In Minds Online: Teaching

Effectively with Technology (2014), Michelle Miller provides an

excellent overview of multimedia theory, which, she notes, “is most

commonly associated with Richard Mayer” (p. 153). Miller explains,

“Central to the framework is the multimedia principle, which holds

that adding pictures – or diagrams, or other similar representations –

to text produces enhanced learning compared to text alone.” Miller

further explains that, although this concept seems to make sense, “a

host of variables interact to create enhanced learning through

multimedia” (as cited in Multimedia Learning, Mayer, 2009) and

proceeds to give a useful overview of these variables and the various

ways in which they interact. “The moral of the story? Don't bring in

graphics except those with a substantive connection to what you are

trying to teach. Pictures for pictures' sake make your lesson prettier,

but less effective” (Miller, 2014, p. 155). Intentionally selected, images and media can powerfully impact student understanding. This seems

logical, but it's important to consider the opposite of this statement.

Adding images, visuals, and audio that are not directly related to

content can overwhelm and confuse learners. Ensure your media

resources are relevant, not distracting.

As a quick reminder, you'll want to pay attention to copyright

considerations when you source existing media for your online (and

other) classes. You will likely find someone at your institution, perhaps

a librarian or instructional designer, who can help you navigate legal

concerns. Another useful resource is the Stanford University Libraries'

copyright and fair use website

(https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview).

Find the Right Tech Tool for the Job

In the 2016 second edition of their book The Online Teaching Survival

Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips, Judith V. Boettcher

and Rita-Marie Conrad acknowledge that “digital tools are changing

faster than we can describe them” (62). The challenge of “describing

specific tools that will be obsolete before the book is published” led

them to focus instead on technology tool categories that accomplish

specific pedagogical purposes. This is an effective approach, done

thoroughly in that book so I have chosen not to replicate it here. I can

highly recommend The Online Teaching Survival Guide for a practical

treatment of concepts and approaches we touch on in this text.

For small teaching with online technology tools, we can focus on

implementing technology solutions in feasible yet impactful ways.

Remember that our focus is on solving problems. Don't select a tech

tool just because you heard of someone else using it and you thought it

sounded cool. Instead, to help you teach most effectively, choose a

usable technology tool that solves your problem.

Most of us have the greatest success when we make minor changes,

little by little. If your roof is leaking from heavy rain, start by getting a bucket. Don't tear the roof off. Small tech tool fixes can be remarkably

effective. By contrast, large-scale implementation of a complex tech

tool may very well backfire and cause more problems than it solves.

So how do you identify appropriate and purposeful technologies to

implement in your class? Perhaps the most efficient way to conduct

your research is to search online for apps and ed tech tools aligned to

your course objectives, which should reflect the range of levels of

cognition in Bloom's Taxonomy. Here are just a few examples of how

to intentionally align tech tools with the cognitive domain of Bloom's:

Use Zoom to help your students understand complex concepts.

Schedule an optional synchronous study session in which you

answer students' questions in real time.

Quizlet can help students remember facts and vocabulary terms.

Students create flashcards that can be accessed via an app on their

smartphone or tablet for studying on the go.

Hypothesis helps students analyze. Have students, individually or

in groups, annotate online texts to draw out deeper meaning or

important concepts.

Google Docs and Slides help students synthesize and create.

Assign group research projects or presentations, using Google

tools to foster seamless collaborative work, as learners compile

findings and create papers and slide decks to report on their

research.

There's a seemingly endless array of available technologies, with more

coming out every day. By the time you are reading this, the above tools

may have been superseded by even more effective solutions. The point

is to find a tech tool that accomplishes your objective and aligns with

the desired level of thinking for the learning activity you use it for.

Finally, again, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the small

teaching approach when implementing tech tools in your online class.

To be most successful, start small. Make sure you yourself are

comfortable with the tech. If you cannot easily and confidently use the

tool, it's not the right choice for you. Remember, too, that you can

teach very effectively using only the basic set of tools in your LMS.

Boettcher and Conrad offer excellent advice about beginning your

online teaching career with readily available LMS tools such as

Announcements, Discussion Forums, Assignments, and Quizzes. “The

first time you teach in any new environment or with a new set of

learners,” they note, “it is wise to keep it simple and use the basic set

of tools well supported by your institution” (Boettcher and Conrad,

2016, p. 63). The authors further explain, “Fortunately, most

communication tools for teaching and learning are now included in

institution-provided learning management systems (LMS)” (p. 65).

After providing a brief introduction to the basic tools available in the

LMS, such as those noted above, Boettcher and Conrad share this

invaluable advice:

Give yourself a break and don't expect perfection of yourself the

first time you teach in this new-to-you environment…. You are

learning new digital tools, what they can do, and how to recover

when things don't always go as expected. (p. 68)

This last reminder, that things don't always go as planned, is another

important reason to stick with the tools that are available in the LMS

and are supported by your institution if you are new to teaching

online.

However, if and when you are ready to expand beyond the LMS, try

one new minimal implementation of a purposeful tool next semester.

The next time you teach the class, expand and refine your use of that

tool, making incremental advances as you go. Before you know it,

you'll be teaching effective and engaging online classes, taking full

advantage of the enhancements offered by a range of powerful

technology tools, improving student learning and engagement all the

while.

One note of caution: Consider the impact on your students of using

technologies outside of your LMS. These may require a separate

account or a subscription fee; your selected tool may not be accessible

for students using a screen reader or keyboard-only commands; social

media tools could mean that students have to put themselves out there

in a public space in a way they may not prefer to do. Think through the

implications and consult with your local instructional designer to help

you think about issues you might not even be aware of. Whatever tools

you decide to use to engage your students and foster their learning,

make sure they are the right tools for the job at hand.

PRINCIPLES

Purposefully incorporating technology tools in online classes can have

a significant positive impact on student learning. Follow these guiding

principles to help ensure a successful addition to your teaching

toolbox:

Identify the Objective

You began creating your class by writing your objectives, and those

objectives should help determine your technology use. What tools will

help you achieve your goals – and what tools will help you solve the

problems that would prevent you from achieving those goals? You can

and should certainly explore and learn all about the many

technological tools that are available to online instructors, but explore

with a critical eye. Which ones of them will help your students learn?

Which ones align with your objectives? As you proceed throughout the

semester, you will see new challenges arise, learning moments missed,

and unexpected obstacles. These pain points are opportunities to

explore and implement new tech tools. Having a good understanding

of the problem you want to solve will help you find the best technology

solution and help to ensure that you are using the technology

purposefully.

First, do No Harm

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates is popularly credited with

this basic premise. In providing medical care, doctors are to abide by

the overriding principle of not hurting their patients with prescribed

treatment. Likewise, our teaching methods should not make things

more difficult for our learners. Select technology tools that don't

hinder learning. Some common barriers to ease of use include a

difficult log-in process, out-of-pocket expense, nonfunctionality with

keyboard use only, or levels of complexity that require learners to use

all their cognitive resources to navigate the tech. These kinds of

barriers will not promote student learning and success, so carefully

analyze and test the usability of your tech tools to ensure that you are

not making things harder for your students.

Provide Alternative Means of Access

Including media and using technology tools can do a lot to liven up

online classes. But ensure that all materials and tools are accessible in

multiple formats (your institution's disability or accessibility resources

department can usually help with this). The principles of Universal

Design for Learning tell us that an adjustment that helps make

technology accessible for one student may also help many others be

successful (Tobin & Behling, 2018). For example, captioning videos

enables hearing-impaired students to consume the content – but it

also benefits non-native English speakers by providing another way to

take in what is being said. I have manually captioned my short lectures

and announcements directly in YouTube. It takes me roughly four

minutes per one minute of video to type the audio. Or, try the auto-

captioning tool in YouTube, cleaning up the captions with quick edits

after they are produced. You can also provide full-text transcripts for

videos or audio recordings. Make sure all images are tagged so that a

screen reader being used by a visually impaired learner has

meaningful content to convey. If you choose to include a tool that is

external to your LMS, check the accessibility first. In short, don't keep

your students from being able to access and participate in your online

class; provide alternative options that benefit all your diverse learners

with all of their unique preferences and needs.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

USING MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

Online classes can be text-heavy and static. Create more dynamic and

engaging courses with the intentional use of media and purposeful

technology tools.

Create short, three- to five-minute mini-lecture videos. Narrate

over a slideshow or record yourself talking to the camera on your

computer monitor or smartphone. Use a native video recording

tool in your LMS or an external tool or app.

Include assessments to ensure students are attentively watching

your video content. A short multiple-choice quiz or written or

recorded reflection can hold students accountable for consuming

– and actively engaging with – the content you provide.

Build depth and nuance with existing video content and your

own informal video announcements and updates. Source clips

from any number of media forms and outlets ranging from TED

Talks to popular films. Add timely clarification with authentic

casual video clips you record. Remember the significance of

nonverbal cues to communicate effectively. Find and create video

content to bring these cues into the otherwise isolating online

classroom.

Select technology tools that solve a problem you have identified

and that align to the intended outcomes of a given activity or of

the course as a whole. When thinking about using a new tool,

whether it's within or external to your LMS, stop and ask yourself

why you want to use the tool. If you don't have a good

pedagogically sound purpose, leave it out.

CONCLUSION

A few years ago, I decided to keep a food journal to help me achieve

some health-related goals. Looking for a pocket-sized notebook that I

could keep on me, I spent a couple of hours searching through hall

closets, junk drawers, and cupboards full of kids' activities and art

supplies. I was pretty sure my young daughters had some stashed from

when they used to play Restaurant and take each others' orders while

pretending to be servers.

It was only after my fruitless search that it dawned on me that I carry

around a device in my pocket all day long. I am never without my

smartphone. And chances were good that I'd find an app to function as

a food journal. Feeling slightly foolish about the time I'd spent looking

for that nonexistent notebook, I searched the App store and indeed

found several robust options to track nutrition, activity, and more.

In this case I had a problem, and, although by a circuitous route, I

found a technology solution. Soon I had formed a daily habit of

tracking calories consumed, such that I hardly noticed I was doing it.

In this way, the technology became transparent, seamlessly

incorporated in my everyday routine.

Media and tech tools have great potential to improve the student

educational experience, identified as national priority number one in a

2017 report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The

Future of Undergraduate Education: The Future of America. Let us

employ these tools to help our students learn more effectively in our

online classes. Implement transparent media and technology

solutions, being careful not to make things harder or use tech for

tech's sake.

These are powerful tools – powerfully beneficial or powerfully

distracting. Be purposeful.

Part II

Teaching Humans

Part I of this book focused on the importance of deliberate design in

online classes. Regardless of your experience level, teaching online

arguably requires more planning than teaching in person, especially if

you've taught in the classroom for a while. Many of us are adept at

improvising during class. We likely have materials that we've used for

years: slides, handouts, active learning prompts. An online class

requires different kinds of materials and activities. Teaching online

also requires a different form of interaction, a different demand on our

time than does teaching in person. In short, we need to bring

intentionality to online teaching in ways that differ from our approach

in the classroom.

In this section, we focus on the humans we are teaching—the real

people behind the names on the screen. The social and emotional

components of learning are powerful (Eyler, 2018; Cavanagh, 2016).

Online courses require deliberate attention to all three potential

relationships in the course: the one you have with your students, the

one your students have with you, and the one the students have with

each other. In the online classroom, where students are likely

completing coursework in isolation, alone with their computer, they

can easily forget that there are other people in the class who can help.

This is vastly different than what we experience in an in-person class,

where the other people in the room are clearly visible. The existence of

others gets obscured online.

To address this challenge, in Part II we look at small teaching ways of

building connections between ourselves, our learners, and the course

material. This takes far more intentional effort than it does in person.

Yet it can be done, and multiple studies show that doing so impacts

learning. Personal interactions are instrumental to online student

success, just as they are in face-to-face environments.

In Chapter 4, we'll examine the importance of building community.

When we facilitate the development of a robust and dynamic

community of learners in an online class, we significantly increase the

potential for individual student learning and success. When we don't

attend to this essential ingredient, we see high attrition rates, low

engagement, and minimal participation. I've entered online classes

and observed tumbleweeds blowing forlornly across the deserted,

dusty road. To prevent this sense of neglect, we'll explore evidence-

based methods of being actively present in our classes and helping our

students do the same.

Another essential component of learning is receiving input on our

performance. Feedback provides crucial guidance to help us see where

we are in our effort to achieve mastery. This measuring stick

powerfully impacts our students' ability to learn, but like many other

teaching activities, giving regular feedback requires deliberate effort in

an online class. Take a moment to consider the importance of feedback

in learning. People can learn new information and skills through one-

way transmissions such as reading books (like you're doing now) or

watching YouTube videos (an easier and faster method of acquiring

new information), but that kind of learning requires more effort,

dedication, and commitment on the part of the learner. Chapter 5

presents small teaching ways of providing the ongoing feedback that

helps sustain a more typical student. These strategies can enable us to

give students frequent and meaningful guidance without creating an

unsustainable demand on our time.

We explore a third aspect of teaching real people in Chapter 6: helping

our students successfully complete our online classes. Without set

class meetings and the physical presence of an instructor and other

students, the flexibility afforded by online learning can work against

busy online students, who may not fully understand the time

commitment and level of self-direction required to be successful in an

online class. Therefore, we'll consider ways of helping our students

persist.

When we keep tension on the line, we're often more successful in

reeling in the fish. Neglecting to do so allows the fish to get away,

sometimes with our favorite lure. An online course requires that same

kind of regular tension on the line to keep everyone engaged. With it,

we'll see more of our students successfully complete our classes. And

when we consider that we're helping students achieve one more

milestone in their journey toward degree completion, we are

motivated to employ small strategies to help.

Several years ago, I set out to learn to play the bodhrán. I acquired this

handheld Irish drum and found a good series of tutorial videos. Can I

play the bodhrán today? No. I lost interest in the video instruction and

did not persevere. The outcome would likely have been different had I

bought lessons from an instructor, learned more about the instrument

and its rich history, and attended the local weekly Celtic music jam

session to learn from other musicians. Interacting with people,

building community, and receiving input on our efforts help us to

persist. We'll look at feasible ways of fostering these interactions with

the people in our classes in order to help our students succeed.

Chapter 4

Building Community

INTRODUCTION

“The Storm Troopers are actually the good guys,” I said. “They're just

trying to keep law and order. It's the Rebels who are causing all the

problems.”

The room erupted in noise. Students couldn't contain themselves.

Some argued with each other in spontaneous little groups. Some

wildly waved their hands in the air, talking over each other as they

fought for my attention. The ones who knew me pretty well by this

point in the semester contented themselves with folding their arms

and smirking at me from a posture of defiance. Prove it, their facial

expressions said. We don't believe you.

I called on the student who was the most agitated, whom I feared

might explode if I didn't allow her to express her passionate opinion

on the matter. She made her point; another student argued

vociferously against it. A third student opened his comment by saying,

“Going back to what she said…” and proceeded to agree with the first

girl, building upon her argument.

Our heated debate continued for well over 20 minutes. Periodically, I

would lob in a new argumentative ingredient to stir the pot, to

challenge students on their viewpoints, to demand evidence from the

movie to support their position.

I certainly didn't persuade my students that I was right. I wasn't even

convinced myself of the argument I was defending. But we did enjoy a

lively exchange of opinions, substantiated by carefully recalled scenes

from the films. By the end of the class, we likely had more questions

than answers, but we were committed to continuing the conversation

in our quest for new understanding.

Students later told me, in their end-of-term course evaluations, that

the debates we had in that class helped them to see others' viewpoints,

to consider perspectives that differed from their own – to expand their

thinking. This was music to my ears: One of my primary goals for my

first-year seminar class was to cultivate new ways of thinking, and our

interactions in class had done just that.

The importance of exchanges such as this cannot be overstated. As

social beings, we learn from each other. We may learn what not to do,

we may seek to emulate others because we admire them, or we may

understand complicated concepts differently as a result of someone

else explaining it to us in a way that makes more sense than the

teacher's explanation had.

Interacting with others is a key component of our ability to learn new

things. This can happen naturally in the classroom, but it doesn't

always happen so easily in an online class. As we have seen, online

students are typically isolated, sitting alone behind a computer screen,

engaging with class content by themselves. They experience little, if

any, real-time exchanges or collaboration with other people, whether

students or the instructor.

Although social experiences may not naturally happen in online

classes, we can look to research old and new to help us understand

how to make small changes to our teaching that could foster the robust

dialogue and engagement we enjoy in the physical classroom.

IN THEORY

Creating a sense of community in an online course involves both effort

and intention, but it should form an essential part of your thinking.

The sense of community among learners in a course – something not

always achieved very effectively in face-to-face courses, it should be

noted – plays an essential role in the effectiveness of the course in

producing learning. Two sources can help explain why this is so: one

close to a hundred years old, which helped establish the importance of

peers and community in learning; and one that appeared just after the

turn of the millennium, and has provided a conceptual framework for

understanding how to foster that sense of community in online

learning experiences of any kind.

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist and polyglot whose research

and writing took place mostly during the first decades of the twentieth

century. Although he wrote about a wide number of topics, not all of

them related to education, he remains most well-known today for a

theory he developed about the importance of students working in

collaboration with peers and instructors in order to achieve their full

cognitive potential. Vygotsky posited that individual learners can be

identified at specific levels of development at any point in time: we

might say, for example, that a student learning math is capable of

solving problem types A and B, but nothing yet beyond that. The type

of problem that remains just outside of that student's reach, problem

type C, is one that they will be able to achieve when they work in a

social context with a more experienced learner (such as a teacher) or

with their peers.

Vygotsky labeled the space between the student's current state of

knowledge and the potential state of knowledge they might achieve

with the help of peers as the zone of proximal development. In an

essay first published posthumously in 1935, and later included in the

1978 collection of his work Mind in Society: The Development of

Higher Psychological Processes, Vygotsky describes it this way:

We propose that an essential feature of learning is that it creates the

zone of proximal development, that is, learning awakens a variety of

internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when

the [student] is interacting with people in his environment and in

cooperation with his peers. Once these processes are internalized,

they become part of the [student's] independent developmental

achievement. (p. 90)

In other words, an essential part of the student's movement from

problem B to problem C is her observation of those around her, her

collaboration with them on tasks (and even play), and her imitation of

those who have already mastered problem type C – at which point

problem type D becomes her new zone of proximal development. We

can take Vygotsky's research as a foundation for our claim that

connections and community are important to create in online courses.

Students need more than access to videos, text, and disembodied

voices commenting on their work. They need the presence of their

peers and instructor to help them learn.

Lev Vygotsky was not alive long enough to help us understand how we

can facilitate learners helping one another in online environments; for

that, we can turn to a conceptual framework developed by a group of

Canadian researchers in the years immediately preceding and

following the turn of the millennium. From 1997 to 2001, these

researchers sought to identify the characteristics of online learning

experiences that could both provide guidance to online instructors and

establish a framework for future research on the effectiveness of online

teaching and learning. The initial presentation of their research, in a

seminal 1999 paper, established the idea of a “community of inquiry”

as a framework for both creation and evaluation of online teaching and

learning (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 1999). Their initial paper

has led to a fully developed field of research on the importance of

community in higher education teaching and learning, one that

includes an online community of inquiry devoted to research on

communities of inquiry, curated by some of the key scholars in the

field.

The three primary aspects of a community of inquiry established in the

initial paper continue to guide that research today. The effectiveness of

an educational experience, they argue, depends on presence in three

core areas:

1. Cognitive presence. They define this as “the extent to which the

participants in any particular configuration of a community of

inquiry are able to construct meaning through sustained

communication.” Such construction of meaning depends on

whether learners engage in activities like reflecting deeply on the

course content, drawing new and creative connections with course

material, or opening themselves to new ideas and ways of

understanding.

2. Social presence. This essential feature consists of “the ability of

participants in the Community of Inquiry to project their personal

characteristics into the community, thereby presenting

themselves to the other participants as ‘real people.’” Social

presence can be established or indicated in a community of

inquiry through such factors as “emotional expression, open

communication, and group cohesion.”

3. Teaching presence. This last form of presence works in concert

with the first two in order “to support and enhance social and

cognitive presence for the purpose of realizing educational

outcomes.” Practically speaking, this can occur through both the

“design of the educational experience” and “facilitation” of

learning within the course (Garrison et al., 1999).

These three distinct elements quite obviously work most effectively

when they work in concert. The teacher begins by establishing her

presence in the design of a learning experience through taking into

account the actual learners who will be in the course, and builds into

the structure of the course plenty of opportunities to engage with those

learners through direct instruction and feedback. But a well-designed

course will also provide opportunities (and incentives) for learners to

interact with one another, both to help each other learn and to build

that sense of community. When these two forms of presence have been

established, the learners in the course are more likely to engage in the

kinds of active, collaborative processes that help them construct new

knowledge through their cognitive presence.

The most important and also most challenging of these three forms of

presence, for the creation of online courses in higher education, will

likely be social presence. “Social presence,” the authors argue, “marks

a qualitative difference between a collaborative community of inquiry

and a simple process of downloading information” (p. 96). But you can

better understand how to create social presence in your online courses

if you contextualize it within the other two forms of presence, which

both provide the rationale for doing so and clarify your role in the

process. You want to establish that social presence because it will help

students become more cognitively present in the course – in other

words, more actively engaged and thinking. And you can help create

that social presence through your presence as a teacher, which you

establish initially through thoughtful design and then continuously

through your interactions with learners.

In both of these areas, small teaching can help.

MODELS

Once we accept the importance of building community in what can be

an otherwise very isolating learning experience, it is not difficult to

implement strategies to help us do this. First, consider the impersonal

nature of online class interactions. Even for experienced online

learners and instructors, it's easy to forget that a name on the screen

represents a human being who can benefit from your presence and

benefit your learning with their presence. Reading static text in a

discussion forum, course message, or written assessment does little to

remind us that a unique individual wrote those words, someone with

prior experiences or expertise that can help shape our understanding

of course concepts. To create community in online courses, then, we

should help learners see both ourselves and one another as human

beings behind those names.

Structure Student Interactions

In the Community of Inquiry framework, as well as in Vygotsky's

work, student-to-student interaction helps create new learning. It's

not enough for students to work with your content. It's not even

enough for students to work with you. They must work with each

other, too, to learn and succeed in our online classes.

Joshua Eyler's 2018 book, How Humans Learn: The Science and

Stories Behind Effective College Teaching, provides additional

compelling arguments in favor of the value and importance of social

interactions for learning. In order “to know more about the interplay

between teaching and learning,” he explains, “we have to delve into

our nature as social beings. In fact, it is not a stretch to say that much

of what makes us human stems directly from our sociality” (p. 66).

Eyler goes on to highlight the centrality of social interactions for

effective learning:

At a very fundamental level, we need others in order to live

functioning lives. As an extension of this, our sociality drives our

learning in many essential ways. Sure, we can learn things on our

own, but we rarely learn them as deeply, because so much of our

learning derives from our social nature and our visceral need to

communicate with other people. (pp. 66–67)

To help our students learn from each other as well as from us, their

instructors, Eyler encourages us to design and teach our classes in

such a way as to “place our social natures as human beings front and

center in the learning process” (p. 83).

One of the most common ways to harness the power of social

interactions in online classes, especially student-to-student

interactions, is to include online discussions as a central element of

the course design. A tried-and-true method to create community from

the beginning is to have students post an introduction in the first week

of class. These introductions can be in the form of text or video. Be

sure to incentivize students' replies to each other as well. Perhaps

students can ask a follow-up question of at least one peer, to help them

get to know each other. Guide them to engage with class content right

away by sharing two or three goals or expectations for the class, or by

identifying metacognitive strategies they plan to employ to be

successful (McGuire and McGuire, 2015) or by describing what they

may already know about the subject. In other words, introduction

posts can be more than just an ice-breaker; they can be a purposeful

in-road to class material as well.

If appropriate for your learning outcomes, consider requiring video

introductions of your students. Several of mine have told me that

they've worked with the same people in their online program for

multiple semesters, without ever being able to put a face to a name.

We can learn a lot about and from each other through the relatively

simple means of seeing and hearing each other. YouTube and other

tools make this quite feasible, and the payoff in creating strong

community from the start can be significant.

Continue class conversations through meaningful online discussion

prompts. Contrary to popular belief, online discussions can be just as

rich and engaging as a lively classroom discussion. Indeed, in Creating

Engaging Discussions: Strategies for Avoiding Crickets in Any Size

Classroom and Online (2018), Jennifer Herman and Linda Nilson

point out that online discussions can “avoid the problems related to

the traditional classroom, such as time limitations, dominating

students, and large class sizes” (p. 49). To maximize the potential of

online discussions, be sure to create discussion topics that are

“discussable” – that is, avoid closed-ended questions and prompts.

Instead, offer students the chance to debate, persuade, share their

experience as related to a class concept, discuss a case study, or

otherwise engage more deeply with class material and with each other.

Key to this strategy is to require students to submit an original post

and then to reply to a minimum number of their peers' posts. To foster

originality, in many Learning Management Systems (LMSs) you can

require students to post their own submission before they can read

others' posts.

Also, setting two deadlines for each discussion forum, an earlier one

for initial posts and one a few days later for replies, can help students

hold a meaningful and timely conversation. Many instructors have

increased success when the grade for an online discussion includes

several components, including meeting staggered deadlines, replying

to other students, and achieving standards for both the length and the

quality of the post. Getting students to apply class concepts in a

discussion with their peers can help them process and retain material

more fully as they think critically, defend their argument on a

particular topic, and reflect on their own and others' experiences

related to class content (Herman and Nilson, 2018).

Writer and educator John Orlando presents an intriguing alternative

approach to fostering meaningful online discussions in a 2017 Faculty

Focus article. Orlando calls into question the common online class

discussion requirement of one original post and at least two reply

posts per student. If the purpose of this requirement is to “generate

creativity,” he argues, “then a response to someone else's point might

contain more insight and creativity than an original [post]” (2017).

Orlando proposes requiring “one or two original thoughts” instead of

both original and reply posts, which, as many online instructors have

found, can feel a bit unnatural. After all, when conducting a discussion

in the classroom, do we require at least three contributions from every

student? And that one must be a new point, while the other two

respond to a peer's comment? No, we don't. That would feel

inauthentic and too scripted. Orlando encourages us to similarly relax

some of our standard expectations for online discussion participation

in order to foster stimulating, authentic, and creative social

interactions in which students can learn from each other.

Some faculty find that whole-class online discussions can feel

overwhelming, with too many posts and replies, so that meaningful

conversation – and learning – gets lost in the shuffle. To address this

concern, consider using the group functionality available in most

LMSs to create small discussion groups. Cognitive psychologist and

veteran online educator Morton Ann Gernsbacher recommends this

approach particularly when you're teaching large-enrollment classes.

“If the pedagogical goal is to enable interaction and engagement

between and among students about what they read,” she explains,

“then you need to divide and conquer” (Gernsbacher, 2016). Creating

these smaller groups can make “a class of 80 can feel like a class of six

to eight.” To set this up in your LMS, you can create group discussions

in which only the members of each group can access that group's

discussion board. This keeps the interactions more focused and

organized than they would be in the whole class discussion. The group

tool itself usually offers several options, such as randomized

enrollment, manual placement of students into groups, or allowing

students to self-enroll. You might use this last option if each group is

studying a unique topic, for instance. Students choose the topic they

are most interested in exploring, which would give them some control

over their experience in your class – more on this in Chapter 7. The

many available options in group creation and functionality mean it's

likely that you could find a way to encourage meaningful peer-to-peer

interactions using this tool.

I hope by now that you agree that structuring student interactions to

enable them to learn most effectively is a worthwhile thing to do,

especially in online classes. In order to foster the best learning in our

classrooms, Joshua Eyler notes that we “should include strategies for

cultivating a climate that is conducive to learning and to productive

social interactions” (2018, p. 86). However, Eyler calls into question

something that many of us who teach online have often wondered,

whether the technology-enabled social connections that take place in

online classes can truly facilitate learning, “whether the technology

allows us to tap into our sociality enough to maximize learning” (p.

107). A fair question. A valid question. One to which, when online

environments and interactions are intentionally designed and

facilitated, I would answer yes. Purposefully used, technology can

allow us to sufficiently learn from and with each other. The key is to

use tech for social interactions the small teaching way: by making

deliberate design and teaching decisions based on the science of

learning.

Show Up for Class

The importance of the social and teaching presences in the community

of inquiry framework suggests that you have the potential to impact

the sense of community in your online class in a way that no one else

in the class has. You set the tone and the example, both at the very

beginning of the class and throughout the semester. Although you may

feel yourself present in class just through your role as instructor, you

have to make your presence known to students. This can be a simple

practice to implement, but it can produce significant results in keeping

the attention and engagement of your students.

An often-cited case study reveals the impact of online instructor

behaviors on student satisfaction with feedback and teaching quality

(Ladyshewsky, 2013). The researcher compared student evaluation

results on several sections of the same online class taught by two

different instructors. Bear with me: Before you dismiss student

satisfaction as a questionable measure of instructor effectiveness,

recall that a primary goal of effective online teaching must be to retain

the attention and engagement of our students. It's so easy for online

learners to disengage that we must employ all reasonable tactics to

keep them attending and participating in class. When students are

satisfied with instructor behaviors, we can likely surmise that we're

successfully doing our job.

In particular, Ladyshewsky focused on how the two instructors

interacted with students and gave feedback in online discussion

forums. Instructor 1, who earned significantly lower satisfaction

ratings, posted much less frequently than Instructor 2. In addition,

Instructor 2's responses to student discussion posts were more

personal, using students' names, expressing gratitude for their

contributions, and adding personal anecdotes to further illustrate a

student's point, for example. Ladyshewsky concluded that Instructor

2, through more frequent and personal discussion posts, exhibited

greater levels of social presence in addition to the cognitive and

teaching presence established by the less frequent, shorter, and less

personal posts of instructor 1 (p. 13).

This research reinforces the importance of frequent and supportive

instructor engagement in online classes. Remember our opening

analogy, about a student showing up to class on the first day of class,

but no one is there? The same principle applies throughout the

semester. If your students begin to feel that you are never in class,

they'll stop showing up, too, and the energy of the online learning

community will take a nose-dive. It's vitally important to be active in

your class in order to help sustain the interactions in the class.

Online classes are not meant to be like your favorite slow-cooker

recipe. They are not “set and forget.” It's impossible to foster

meaningful relationships with that approach. In order to be effective,

you as the instructor should log in often. Actively participate and

engage your students. Think of it as checking on a simmering pot,

stirring often, tasting to see whether to add more salt. Your

interactions in class can be minor. The important thing is to be

present, and to make sure your students know it, on a very regular

basis.

One of the simplest ways to make your presence known is by posting

frequent text or video announcements. This serves two purposes.

Frequent communication helps to keep your students focused and

progressing. Plus, you can use announcements to accomplish

important teaching goals: clarifying misunderstandings, summarizing

the week's highlights, helping students to prepare for an upcoming

exam. In some LMSs, you can even schedule announcements to post at

whatever date and time you choose. In this way, you can appear to be

present even when you will not actually be present – for example, if

you have a travel commitment that interrupts your regular class

activity. Schedule or post announcements to create an ongoing

reminder that students should be paying attention to classwork.

It is also helpful to engage with your students in the online discussion

forum, as Ladyshewsky found. Establish a regular routine. Maybe you

will post comments, questions, and additional guidance in the online

discussion board on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. It only takes a

few minutes to read student contributions and add your own thoughts.

It's highly motivating for students when you are in the discussion with

them – and the opposite is true, too. Many students are seriously

demotivated when their instructor never joins the conversation online.

Once again, think about our analogy with the in-person classroom

experience. If you were to ask your students to discuss the assigned

reading as a large group, and then you walked out of the room, would

you expect that 20 minutes later there would be a lively debate taking

place? The more likely outcome would be that students would be on

their devices, attention focused on their individual screens, if they

remained in the room at all. You have to stay in the room, to lead and

guide and shape the conversation in order to uncover new

understanding. This is also true in an online discussion. Be present

and active in the conversation in a meaningful combination of all three

presences: social, teaching, and cognitive. Ladyshewsky calls for

online instructors to “facilitate student engagement in discussions”

(2013) so that we support students by our social, teaching, and

cognitive presences.

In addition to interacting with students in discussions, it's important

to make yourself known to your students by giving timely feedback.

From the student perspective, submitting a paper or a project online

can feel like sending something out into outer space. If there is a

lengthy silence, if it takes you too long to acknowledge that you

received it, let alone to grade and return the submission, students get

frustrated. Post your typical turnaround time in your syllabus, and do

your best to stick with your policy. Try something like, “I will typically

grade and return assignments within seven (7) days of the due date. If

this changes due to unusual circumstances, I'll communicate that as

needed.” Be sure to post an announcement or send a course message if

you do get behind in grading. That certainly happens for a variety of

valid reasons. Just be sure to tell your students what's happening and

when you expect to catch up, so that they are not worrying whether

you're still there and still actively reviewing their work.

Our students need to know we are there, we're actively participating in

class, we're teaching and guiding and giving feedback and interacting

and doing all the things good teachers do. Further, Michelle Pacansky-

Brock, a faculty mentor for digital innovation in the California

Community College system, identifies the particular importance of

being there for our increasingly diverse student populations in a recent

Inside Higher Ed article. “Relationships are at the core of meaningful

college experiences,” she notes, “and they're particularly important to

underserved students who are more likely to doubt their academic

abilities. Underserved online students need the presence of an

engaged instructor” (Lieberman, 2018). We can support our learners

who may otherwise become marginalized in online classes simply by

being actively present and engaged with them.

For the sake of all our online students, each one of whom deserves our

teaching best, show up to class. Often. Too much prolonged silence on

our part is a sure way to kill the energy in an online class. But taking a

little time to be fully present contributes to the energy that sustains the

social aspect of learning so important in an online class.

Reveal Your Personality

Another way to establish your teaching presence, in addition to your

regular communication with the students, is to help your students see

you as a real person. Establishing presence in an online class “doesn't

just naturally happen,” note Rosemary Lehman and Simone Conceição

in Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be

There” for Distance Learners (2010, p. 4). Because online instructors and students are not in the same physical space at the same time, they

argue, it's essential to be deliberate in our efforts to be present with

our students.

A great way to “be there” for our students is to share more of who we

are as people. We'll present some practical suggestions for how to do

this, but remember, it is not necessary to try all of these ideas at once.

In fact, it would not be advisable to do so. Instead, pick one or two of

the following to try. Demonstrate that you are a real person who cares

about your students, and they will respond with warmth and increased

engagement, like a flower turning toward the sun.

When preparing for a new semester, think carefully about the

experience students will have the very first time they enter your online

course. Just like in person, first impressions count. What will they

learn about you when they click into your class for the first time?

Starting off on the right foot is truly important, so think about small

teaching approaches you can implement before the class even begins.

For example, create media-rich course content to share some

information about yourself. Show your students a bit about who you

are as a person and a professional. Linda Nilson and Ludwika

Goodson, in their excellent book, Online Teaching at Its Best:

Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research

(2018), suggest you should also share information about “your interest

in the course content, and your positive feelings about teaching it” (p.

85) since that helps to create a welcoming environment in which

students can learn. There are lots of ways you can do this, ranging

from more simple to more technical or complex. The key is to help

your students put a face to a name and to get to know you just a bit.

A relatively simple strategy is to create a “Meet Your Instructor”

section of your online class. Post a photo of yourself, whether it be a

professional headshot or an image of you camping with your family.

Or both. Write a brief biography that summarizes your academic

background, your research interests, and also your personal hobbies

and pursuits.

Some instructors like to create an automated slideshow video to reveal

something about themselves to their students. There are several online

video creation options, such as Animoto, that pair your still photos,

videos, or music clips with their templates and soundtracks. The result

is a professional slideshow video that takes mere minutes to create.

This can be a highly visual, impactful way to convey something about

yourself and your interests. Your students will know that you are more

than just a name on the screen. Keep in mind, the time you invest in

creating a video such as this really pays off, because you can reuse the

same video for different classes or for several semesters in a row.

A third option is to record a short webcam-style video in which you

introduce yourself to your students. As I've suggested elsewhere in this

book, this does not have to be fancy or professionally produced. Just

use the camera on your computer monitor or on your mobile device to

record a two- to three-minute greeting. Talk a little bit about why you

got into teaching your content in the first place, why you think it's

relevant for today's learners, what you hope to accomplish in the class.

Briefly share some information about your family, pets, or favorite

pastimes. Once again, several websites and mobile apps can facilitate

the recording and sharing of quick videos. And don't worry too much

about how polished your speech is. If you trip over your tongue just a

bit, if a stray hair is out of place, if your dog barks off camera, it's fine.

As we have discussed already, these imperfections help our students

see us as real people. They go a long way toward establishing the

relationships and trust that foster effective online teaching and

learning.

One additional consideration: including images and videos in online

classes helps to create a more dynamic and engaging learning

experience. But we want to be sure that our materials are accessible for

all learners. Pay attention to details like the quality of the audio, even

for an informal video. Using a headset or earbuds with a built-in

microphone can help.

It's equally important to provide alternative means of access. Videos

should ideally be captioned, or should be accompanied by a text

transcript. Many institutions can help you caption your videos or

otherwise check the accessibility of your content. Providing alternative

ways to access your content helps all learners, no matter their

circumstances (Tobin and Behling, 2018).

Sharing your personality with your online students helps establish

both teaching and social presence. Begin the semester by introducing

yourself in a way that helps students get to know you. Continue this

effort throughout the course by writing or recording announcements

in your authentic voice. If you're traveling to a conference, or

attending an out-of-state wedding, let your students know you'll be

offline for a few days, but that it doesn't mean you've abandoned them.

And otherwise share select details about yourself, your personality,

and your life. Doing so is well worth the effort required to create and

establish relationships person-to-person.

Design and Teach for Cultural Inclusion

An often-overlooked yet increasingly important issue in online

education is the lack of provision for the needs of culturally diverse

learners. Differences in ethnicity, sexual orientation, political

affiliation, gender identity, faith backgrounds, and many other

nuanced and multifaceted forms of culture exist in the online

classroom, but these differences are rarely planned for or

accommodated in the design and teaching of online classes. In order to

build community, support all of our learners, and help each individual

feel a sense of belonging, we must begin to increase our awareness of

the ways that cultural contexts influence online student behaviors and

levels of engagement.

How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts and Cultures calls for

recognition of “the cultural nature of learning,” (National Academy of

Sciences, 2018, p. 136). The report authors emphasize the importance

of this recognition because “the influences of environment and

culture…affect what takes place in every classroom and every student.

The characteristics of the learning environment, of educators, and of

the students themselves are all shaped by their cultural context” (p.

136). I think many of us would agree that this must be the case, yet we

do very little to acknowledge the impact of cultural differences in our

online classes.

Courtney Plotts is the national director of the Council for At Risk

Student Education and Professional Standards (CASEPS). In her work,

Plotts advocates for the needs of culturally diverse learners and helps

faculty to see the importance of increasing their awareness of this

issue. When we are better informed, we can better support our

students and include them in the online class community we work so

hard to create. Plotts argues that although support services exist for

multicultural and LGBTQ students on our campuses, for example,

equivalent support structures are not as frequently available in online

spaces. “Culture on the outside permeates online learning,” she

contends, “but we don't do anything about it” (C. Plotts, personal

communication, January 10, 2019). What we tend to do instead is to

ignore cultural differences in our online classes. That's a mistake,

however, because it leads to marginalizing whole populations of our

students, even if unintentionally:

Standards for teaching marginalized students don't look the same

as they do for teaching other students. There are ways and

mechanisms of having rigor in your curriculum, but also it's

important to include a pathway for students who don't have the

self-efficacy that others may have…. There are cultural contexts for

why some students do or don't reply to your email or post in

discussions. [If you ignore these] you'll lose the same students over

and over again. (C. Plotts, personal communication, January 10,

2019)

To begin to address this situation, Plotts recommends seeking

professional development in culturally responsive online teaching and

also evaluating the diversity of online faculty at our institutions. On an

individual level, we can all ask ourselves what the role and impact of

diversity in online classes is currently, and perhaps what it should be.

In a 2017 article titled “A Fundamental Look at Cultural Diversity and

the Online Classroom,” Karen Milheim suggests we should consider

“how a student's cultural background might manifest itself in a virtual

learning environment.” She contends that simply “acknowledging that

culture does, in fact, influence learning is an important step in

designing for and instructing a culturally diverse student body”

(Milheim, 2017). One practical suggestion from both Plotts and

Milheim is to carefully monitor online discussions for culturally

sensitive language and behaviors, such as a student making a

derogatory comment, or students simply neglecting to reply to some

students, perhaps because of cultural differences, more than others. If

we discover such “archived marginalization” (C. Plotts, personal

communication, January 10, 2019), we can take action to address or

remedy the situation, perhaps by deleting an offensive post or

modeling appropriate discussion replies to students who are coming

from cultural contexts that are different than our own.

Here's another idea from Obiageli Sneed, an instructional designer at

ASUOnline (2016): Include an awareness activity from the Critical

Multicultural Pavilion EdChange project by Paul C. Gorski. In

particular, Sneed recommends the “Name Stories” activity (n.d.) as

part of the discussion introductions. You and your students can share

stories about how you got your names, meaning, nicknames, what you

prefer to be called, even pronunciation tips. As others reply, perhaps

with compliments and questions, a natural opportunity emerges to

discuss cultural values and elements that are important in our unique

backgrounds and heritages.

You can find a wealth of additional resources at the Critical

Multicultural Pavilion EdChange project website. Look for additional

ideas for awareness activities, equity awareness quizzes, case studies,

and support materials to help you incorporate these kinds of activities

and resources. These materials are not necessarily geared to online

teaching, which is fine; think creatively about how to apply some of

these approaches in your online as well as your face-to-face classes.

But as we work to make small changes in the specific ways we foster

the social element of online learning, let's commit to cultural

inclusivity as a defining characteristic of our practice.

Convey Caring and Support

A final way to create community in online classes is to demonstrate

that you care about your students. Getting to know each other as

people is a two-way street. The more our students know about who we

are, the more likely it is that they will engage with us and with our

online content. Similarly, we want to know our students as people as

well. Like us, they are not just names on a screen, although it can

sometimes feel that way. Our students are living, breathing people.

They come to us with hopes and dreams, pressures and concerns,

competing demands on their time. It's important to remember that

students have lives outside the LMS. Their whole world does not

revolve around our class. From time to time, they may need additional

support or flexibility.

A recent phenomenological study of 12 instructional designers

highlights the importance of keeping the online student's experience

firmly in view when planning and teaching online courses (Vann,

2017). “Findings showed that all participants considered empathy for

learners to be an essential concept in the instructional design process,”

(p. 235) and that “empathy should guide the decisions that inform the

instructional strategy for any given instructional design” (p. 236). This

study uses the term empathy to indicate that we should carefully

consider what our students will experience in our online courses,

which I wholeheartedly agree with. However, in a 2018 blog post,

writer and educator Kevin Gannon argues that a pedagogy of empathy

might not appropriately capture the idea of supporting our students in

these kinds of ways: “A pedagogy of care, on the other hand, welcomes

students on their own terms, includes them for who they are, and –

most importantly – commits us to doing the type of work to maintain

that climate and approach” (Gannon, 2018a). This is a useful

distinction; the point I'm making here, whether we think of it as

empathizing with or caring for our students, is that online learning

presents unique challenges, and we should do “the type of work”

Gannon calls for to build trust and relationships with our students.

Acknowledging and planning for those unique challenges allows us to

do just that.

Andrea Deacon similarly argues for the importance of caring about our

students' needs as online learners (2012). In her insightful article,

“Creating a Context of Care in the Online Classroom,” Deacon rightly

asserts that too often, online faculty overlook – or have not yet been

prepared to address – the social and affective elements in an online

learning environment. Without deliberate attention to this aspect of

teaching and learning, Deacon notes, online students might easily

perceive the “classroom as a cold and impersonal space, a space where

their ideas and experiences are not valued or important and their

instructor does little to showcase a caring attitude or foster a learning

community.” She encourages us to take time to “think carefully about

how the affective and social domain of their teaching becomes

transformed in an online classroom” (Deacon, 2012, p. 6). If we don't, Deacon claims, students are likely to perceive that “their instructor

does not value, respect, or care about their needs as learners” (p. 7).

When we stop and think about it, I suspect most of us would say that

we do care about the needs of our online students, but it takes

intentional effort to create an online learning environment that

conveys this attitude – that we value and respect our students and

want to help them succeed. Fortunately, we can find many small

approaches to do just that.

The importance of considering online students' needs was brought

home to me in a recent conversation with a former student who took

my online graduate course on technological fluency and leadership.

Students in this program seek a master's degree for career

advancement. Almost all of my students are working professionals

with family obligations. This fully online program allows these

individuals to earn an advanced degree without disrupting current

obligations.

Partly because I know that my students are juggling a lot of different

commitments, I had created a mechanism to allow students to have up

to three deadline extensions, no questions asked, during the course.

My former student told me, months after the fact, that she was able to

complete the class on time, despite the fact that her home was

significantly damaged by severe storm activity while the course was in

session. The stress and time pressure that resulted from this damage

to her home might otherwise have caused her to withdraw from the

only optional pursuit in her life – her online class. But I had

empathized with my busy online students in the design of the course

by allowing deadline extensions. Consequently, she did not even have

to expend the emotional energy required to fill me in on the details of

her situation. Instead, she finished her coursework when it was

possible to do so and successfully completed another class toward her

master's degree.

Demonstrating this kind of understanding of students' lives and

pressures shows that you know they are real people too, that you care

about them, and that you're invested in relating with them in a way

that allows them to persist. Over the years, I've had innumerable

students come to me with personal issues that impacted their ability to

succeed in class, as have you, if you've been teaching for any length of

time. I think sometimes we develop a healthy skepticism about

reasons students provide for not completing work on time. But I've

learned not to immediately jump to the conclusion that a student who

needs additional time is taking advantage of me. I try to assume

positive intent. As a real person with real pressures, it's very possible,

even likely, that something negative really did occur in the student's

life. Rather than being overly strict and demanding, a little flexibility

can go a long way toward helping our online students succeed.

My favorite small teaching strategy in this respect is the Oops Token,

which allows students some wiggle room on class assignments. I first

read about this idea in Linda Nilson's 2015 book, Specifications

Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty

Time. Think of this as a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. You can offer one

or more of these opportunities as appropriate for your class. Students

turn in a token for a no-questions-asked deadline extension, the

opportunity to revise and resubmit an assignment, or otherwise make

up for an unexpected challenge or honest mistake. We'll take a closer

look at Oops Tokens and Specifications (Specs) Grading in Chapter 7,

“Creating Autonomy,” as this strategy can also be quite effective in

helping students learn to take responsibility for their own learning.

Personally, I've found Specs Grading to be quite effective in

accomplishing both goals – that is, building in flexibility to

demonstrate that I care about students' lives outside the LMS, and

helping students recognize that there are consequences for not doing

their work up to standard. It's kind of a silver bullet, really – but more

on that later.

Meanwhile, if you're wondering how to manage something like this,

one solution is to create a hidden and ungraded grade center column

for each token. If a student uses a token, enter a “1” in that column. In

this way you can streamline your tracking of each student's use of

tokens. You can also offer extra credit to students who don't use any of

their tokens. Just check the grade center column or columns and add

five points if no tokens were needed during the course.

Oops Tokens are a good way to convey empathy. You can find other

approaches too. One that is quite simple yet very effective is to

schedule five-minute phone or videoconference calls with your online

students. It's truly amazing how impactful a short conversation can be.

Hearing your tone of voice, or if using video, seeing the expression on

your face (and vice versa) really helps us connect with our students.

You can require this of all students, maybe at the beginning of the

term. Or you can reserve this strategy for struggling students. Last

semester, for example, I talked on the phone with a student who had

completed all her work in the first week of class, then disappeared for

three weeks. I was considering having her administratively dropped,

but decided to reach out before I did so. When we spoke, she explained

that her fiancé had suffered a relapse of his debilitating illness and

they'd gotten into financial trouble because he couldn't work. Like my

student with the severe home damage, this student had let slide her

only optional commitment and fallen behind in class. As we spoke, it

was clear that she was amazed that I understood and was willing to

give her a chance to catch up if she could. The relief in her voice when

she explained that doing so would allow her to remain in good

standing for financial aid was palpable. You might think I was too soft

on her; I don't always make such arrangements. And your class may

not accommodate this degree of schedule flexibility; some of mine

don't, either. But when we can, let's talk with our students in real time

to see what might be possible. Speaking with students can clear up

misunderstandings, clarify confusing concepts, and generally

demonstrate your support in a tangible way.

Finally, you can show that you care about your students by asking

them how the class or how their semester is going. This simple action

indicates that you care about them as individuals, and students

appreciate and respond well to that. You might pose the question

generally in an announcement, followed by an expression of gratitude

and support for their ongoing effort. Sometimes, when I sense a

particularly low-energy atmosphere in my online class, where the

whole class seems less engaged than I usually experience, I'll send an

individual course message to each student. I paste the body of the

email into each message, which makes this a relatively efficient

process. I ask students how they're doing and how I can help them.

Most students reply with a quick, “Thanks for asking, I'm fine” type of

a response. I can work with the few who reach out with a more

particular concern without an overly burdensome demand on my time.

But as you can imagine, getting a personal question about their well-

being has a big impact on students, and I've seen renewed energy and

engagement as a result of taking the time to send these messages.

You may have too many students in your online class to implement

this particular approach; again, I reserve this step for semesters when

the online energy is unusually low. But the basic idea, that is, enacting

scalable and authentic demonstrations of caring and support, can truly

help to establish trust. As we know, this is a crucial element of creating

community in online classes. Therefore, it's worth considering how it

might be done in your online classes, or indeed your face-to-face and

blended classes, which could of course also benefit from this kind of

outreach.

PRINCIPLES

As should be clear by now, building community in an online class can

be quite feasible. Demonstrate that you are a real person. You care

about your students. You are there to support their success in an

otherwise isolating environment. Your students will respond with

greater engagement with you and with their peers. A few principles

can help shape your own small teaching methods of building

community:

Create Zones of Proximal Development

Intentionally structure student-to-student interactions. Design

engaging and meaningful discussion forums. Build support

mechanisms such as staged deadlines and grading rubrics to help busy

online students stay on track. Consider implementing small groups to

lead the discussion in an assigned module. With this approach, each

group of students could develop expertise on one chapter or topic.

They then lead their peers in a way that helps others advance further

in their zone of proximal development. We can leverage the social

interactions in our online classes to help our students learn from

others who are further along in their development.

Establish Teaching Presence

One of the defining characteristics of an effective online class is the

frequent presence and ongoing support of the instructor. Do your

students ever see or hear you? In written text, do they get a sense of

who you are personally and professionally? What are you doing to

guide their learning throughout the semester? Many online instructors

don't know how to “teach” in an online class, since the material can be

canned or predetermined and set in place, like a textbook. You can

actively teach your students online. They're hungry for your expertise,

your guidance, your reacting in the moment, just as you do in the

classroom when you detect confusion or a lack of understanding. Do

this online through discussion posts, announcements, summary posts

that highlight the week's main concepts, short videos to clarify a

concept, and even through an old-fashioned phone call when

warranted. You'll find that these guiding interactions are intrinsically

rewarding as they increase your own satisfaction with teaching online.

Support Social Presence

Would you rather attend a professional conference or complete a self-

paced online professional development module? Most of us value the

opportunity to congregate with like-minded people, to network, to

share ideas and interact with each other. Many students will feel the

same way: They would prefer the in-person learning experience that

results from attending classes on campus. But the flexibility offered by

online classes is the only way that many students can earn a college

degree. Appreciating that this mode of learning may not be their first

choice, indeed that they may feel anxious and alone, will help you

shape your approach to creating and establishing a thriving online

community. Be sure to sustain your efforts: speaking from personal

experience, it's easy to start out strong, and then fade away from class

interactions as the semester gets busier and busier. There is no better

way to squelch student engagement and learning. Develop efficient

ways of interacting with your students, and sustain those efforts until

the final week of class. The continuity of your personal engagement

will help your students stay actively engaged with the course and each

other as well.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

BUILDING COMMUNITY

If you've taught online, you know it is very hard to retain your

students' attention. It's like flying a kite. It's vital to keep the tension

on the line. If you're not paying attention, you'll lose the kite. The

same is true for our online students. Their drifting manifests itself in

minimal participation, low achievement on assessments, and doing

the least possible amount of work to pass the class. It's important to

keep tension on the line, to actively engage and constantly capture

students' attention, in order to foster their success. Building

community is an effective way of doing this.

Require peer-to-peer interactions in your class. This can take the

form of online discussion boards, small-group discussions or

projects, and having students record brief introduction videos and

respond to each other to get to know each other a bit.

Show up to class as often as you are able. In my experience, the

more we participate in class, the more our students will, too. Post

frequent announcements, engage with students in online

discussions, and provide feedback on assessments in a timely way.

When our students see us in class, they will be more motivated to

engage there as well.

Prior to the first day of class, post some information about who

you are as a person. Create a text-based page with one or more

still photos or develop a video to show students something about

your life and interests. Reveal your personality throughout the

semester by interacting with students in your authentic voice.

Develop your cultural awareness. Consider how ethnic and other

cultural contexts influence your students' experience and

interactions in your online class. Strive for inclusivity in your class

design and teaching. Incorporate activities such as “Name Stories”

as one way to get started.

Cultivate and demonstrate genuine caring for your students.

Create margin in your class, room for a bit of flexibility in case life

happens, for you or your students. Use Oops Tokens or other

approaches to soften class policies when needed.

CONCLUSION

Online classes and degree programs still struggle with a reputation of

being subpar to the in-class experience. A big part of this

phenomenon, in my view, is the fact that early online classes felt like

an electronic correspondence course (and unfortunately, many still do

today). Historically, an individual online student worked through

content alone and submitted assignments from afar. Some highly

motivated students can succeed in such an environment, but many

cannot.

Lots of us thrive in an engaging, dynamic, interactive environment in

which we can learn from and with our peers. Indeed, this is exactly

why the Community of Inquiry framework came into being. The team

of Canadian researchers set out to understand and address the

importance of building community in an online class, in order to

prevent the electronic correspondence course phenomenon. Small

teaching applications of this framework, plus intentional design to

create zones of proximal development, result in a robust learning

experience for our students.

The good news is, it's not that hard to create an engaging environment

online. If you are skeptical about this, just consider the lively

interactions we see on social media. Someone posts something

impactful, be it attention-grabbing, joyful, tragic, incendiary, or ironic.

Instantly numerous people respond and join the conversation, and

these conversations can be sustained over days, weeks, or even

months. Social media shows us that it is possible to engage people

remotely.

With careful thinking about your course and your learning outcomes,

you can implement strategies that will build relationships, establish

trust, and help your students realize their full cognitive potential.

Chapter 5

Giving Feedback

INTRODUCTION

“How long does it take you to grade a paper?” asked my niece. I started

to explain that it depends on the length and type of the writing

assignment, and made up a number: “Oh, an average of about 20

minutes, I guess, depending on how thorough I'm being in my

comments.”

I stopped myself there, realizing that she was not actually interested in

the details. “Why do you ask?” I said. My niece said she was wondering

how long it usually takes an English teacher to grade and return a set

of papers. Again, I asked why she wanted to know. She proceeded to

tell me that over the course of the previous school year, she never once

received a paper back with comments in her accelerated English class.

No one did. They submitted their papers and never saw them again.

“But how did you know what you needed to do better next time?” I

asked, horrified. “Exactly,” she replied. “I didn't.” She explained that

she and her fellow students could look up the grade for each

assignment online, but they never received targeted feedback about

what they had done well and how they might improve as writers.

This lack of feedback occurs more commonly than we might like to

admit in online classes. Maybe it has something to do with not having

an appointed time to see our students. When I teach English in

person, I determine in advance what class meeting I intend to return

students' papers. In my first semester teaching, I actually returned all

papers the very next day. I knew my first-year students were anxious

about their performance. Out of compassion – and perhaps some

perverse form of pride – I made it a point to grade and return papers

the next time I saw them.

That practice didn't last long. But when we know we will see our

students every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m., we have a built-in

mechanism reminding us to return exams and papers in a timely way.

If we hold them too long, students start to ask when they'll get their

work back. They can do this because they know where we will be and

when they will see us. Class meets on Tuesday morning; they know

we'll be in the classroom. They can pin us down and get a real-time

response to whatever current questions they have.

The same does not necessarily hold true for online courses. It may not

be clear exactly when we will be in the classroom, available to answer

questions. And since we typically don't have a preset meeting time in

an asynchronous online class, we don't see our students and

remember that they are waiting to find out how they did on that major

project, or even on their minor projects along the way. They can fall

out of sight and out of mind.

These separate but related issues – teachers not providing feedback in

a timely way, and students not having clear avenues to request or

receive that feedback – contribute to a regrettably common experience

of online students: feeling unsupported, on their own, with no real

sense of how they are doing or how to get their questions answered

when they have them. I've seen some egregious examples of this

neglect. A colleague told me about the time he took a 10-week online

class. He posted a question about the final project in the Q&A

discussion forum in Week 2. In Week 8, he still had no answer.

A couple of years ago, I participated in a six-month online professional

development certification course. Acknowledgment of submissions

and indication of whether I'd met expectations was intermittent.

Perhaps the developers didn't think professionals needed feedback; it

didn't seem to be part of the design of the learning experience. Or

maybe, as has happened to many of us, assessing learning took longer

than expected, and the facilitator struggled to keep up with participant

submissions. Whatever the reason, my experience served to remind

me of the importance of helping all learners in all contexts know just

how they are doing at any given time.

Of course, we online instructors, many of whom might be teaching

different courses at multiple institutions, must protect our time. When

I first started teaching online I found myself in class first thing in the

morning and last thing at night, checking posts, answering questions,

and generally interacting with students. I had to learn that instructor

presence does not mean being available 24/7. But it does mean

supporting our students by responding to questions and providing

feedback on their work in a reasonable amount of time. It means

assigning grades and giving comments before too many other

assessments are due. It means notifying our students if we expect to be

offline due to conference travel, for example, and not to worry if a

response is delayed.

You'll notice that we have primarily been discussing two very practical

aspects of feedback: making sure students receive it, and making sure

they receive it in a timely way. My experience as an online instructor,

student, and coach of other online instructors has convinced me that

these elements are often missing from online courses, so we'll focus on

them in this chapter. But of course we want to make sure our feedback

is meaningful and effective, so we'll consider first what the research

tells us about how to ensure our feedback helps our students learn,

and then present models for providing that feedback in a consistent,

timely way in your online courses.

IN THEORY

It's worth stepping back to remind ourselves of the general context in

which feedback typically occurs: grading student work. Within that

context, feedback serves one of two purposes: Justifying the grade we

have given to students, or providing them with specific instructions on

how to improve for their next assessment. The first kind of feedback

relates more to summative assessments, which are the judgments we

make about student performance; the second kind relates more to

formative assessments, which are the opportunities we provide for

students to try their hand at a task and get feedback on it before they

are measured for their high-stakes grades.

Of course we have an obligation to measure the performance of our

students through summative assessments, even though many of us

would prefer to teach without that responsibility. Almost any online

course you might teach will require you to provide summative

judgments about the work of your students, and translate them into

grades. We have seen very few instructors who completely shirk their

obligation to grade student work, and to offer at least some

explanation for the grades they have given.

But what students crave, and what too often they don't receive, is

feedback specifically designed to help them get better – especially

through frequent, low-stakes assessments. When we actively engage

students throughout the semester with formative feedback on their

work, we can significantly improve their learning. In their book

Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College

(2010), Barbara E. Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson argue

that student “involvement in learning is in part determined by their

perception of faculty members' interest and friendliness toward them,

including the fairness and helpfulness of the testing and grading

system and the teacher's communication about their work and their

grades” (p. 14). If we want online students to actively engage with the

course, we have to engage them as frequently as possible through fair

and helpful feedback.

Two core principles should help guide your thinking as you consider

how to provide such feedback to your students in online courses. First,

make it timely. “Assessment without timely feedback contributes little

to learning,” write Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in their

seminal article on “Seven Principles for Good Practice in

Undergraduate Education” (1987, p. 4). The research on how timely that feedback should be is not entirely clear. One meta-analysis of

more than 50 studies on this question found that feedback on lower-

stakes assessments such as quizzes or classroom activities was more

beneficial when it was immediate; feedback on more major

assessments, such as tests, was more beneficial following delay,

perhaps allowing students some time to rest their brains and process

their performance before reviewing the assessment and hearing the

feedback (Kulik and Kulik, 1988). So don't hesitate to take a little

longer with those higher-stakes assessments, but stay focused on

turning around the shorter, low-stakes material more quickly.

Second, ensure that all of your assessments of student work include

clear directions for how to improve for the next time – and do not

simply justify a grade or number you have stamped onto their work.

Walvoord and Anderson call focusing on grade justification a

“common trap” that leads us to focus on the negative aspects of

student work. But “our chief responsibility,” they argue, “is to help this

learner move forward.” They recommend we ask ourselves this core

question with every comment we provide on student work: “What does

this learner need from me at this time?” (Walvoord and Anderson,

2010, p. 110). Our response to that question becomes the driving force

behind our feedback.

With all of that said, of course students will want to know why they

have received the grades you have given them, and we should provide

them with that information. But you might consider how you can

distinguish for your students the summative and formative aspects of

their performance on assessments. Jim has taken to dividing the

comments on his students' major assessments into two categories,

which are clearly labeled “This Time” and “Next Time.” The comments

under “This Time” focus on assessing their performance on the

completed assessment; “Next Time” comments give students

instructions for how to improve. Similarly, Flower's categories are

labeled “Strengths” and “For Improvement.” The comments under

“Strengths” highlight what the student is doing well; “For

Improvement” comments provide specific ideas for, well, improving.

As you formulate feedback strategies for your online course, consider

how you might help your students keep most clearly in view the

feedback that will help them learn.

We stay firmly focused in this chapter on providing feedback to

students, which means we won't delve much into the many thorny

questions surrounding grades and grading systems. Walvoord and

Anderson's book is an outstanding resource for considering such

issues more deeply, and is worth a read if you are looking for help in

those areas.

MODELS

Being available for our students, and providing timely feedback to

support their learning progress, doesn't have to be an overwhelming

time drain. If you're teaching a traditional in-person class, you will

likely spend anywhere from a few to several hours in the classroom

and engaging with class-related activities each week. The models

presented here help you spend a comparable amount of time

effectively, strategically distributed throughout each week, in order to

powerfully impact student learning and success.

The online feedback coin has two sides, both equally important: giving

timely feedback and giving effective feedback. The first two models in

this chapter provide practical advice on timeliness, the last two focus

on the quality of feedback, and the one in between bridges both

timeliness and efficacy. Some of these suggestions are simple, small,

and relatively easy strategies to implement; some are more complex,

something that may be more successful if you have more time to plan

or more online teaching experience under your belt. Taken together,

these five models should give you plenty of ideas about how to make

small changes in your approach to provide useful guidance to your

online learners.

Set Deadlines Strategically

I taught online for years before figuring out that if I didn't want to deal

with panicky student emails on Sunday evening, I shouldn't make the

weekly module assignments due on Sunday at midnight. Having

learned that lesson, now I'm more strategic about setting assignment

deadlines. For example, if I know I won't have a chunk of time to grade

until Saturday, I don't make the project due the previous Sunday

night. If I know I'm traveling abroad for a week, I don't assign a

complex task during that time, one that will likely generate lots of

student questions and an additional need for time-sensitive support.

In short, consider your own availability for providing feedback just as

much as you consider appropriate pacing of learning activities when

creating the course schedule.

This leads back to my earlier point about students not necessarily

knowing when you will be online for real-time responses. Their lives

online in other contexts have conditioned them to expect immediate

responses. Traditional college-age students are used to sending their

peers a text message or Snapchat and receiving an instant response. As

one post on the website Netsanity pointed out, “When a teen sees that

a friend or partner has received the message but hasn't responded, it

can cause anxiety and frustration” (Netsanity, Are Messaging Apps,

2017). These students may carry their expectations about immediate

feedback into your online course.

But this problem doesn't apply only to students in their late teens and

early twenties; all of us have been conditioned to technologies that

provide instant responses. Many online shopping sites, for example,

offer real-time assistance through a synchronous chat function. When

we're conducting transactions online, we almost expect there to be a

way to get a fast and customized answer to our specific question. Yet

some Learning Management Systems (LMSs) don't offer this kind of a

chat tool. Even if yours does, there's no way you can be online at all

hours of the day and night, as your students are. It's often the case that

students can't get help in the moment that they need it.

I closely observed my husband's behavior in the online summer class

he just completed. As a diligent and mindful student, full-time

university employee and father of three, he carefully scheduled class

time each evening after dinner. Often, he'd have questions about some

of the finer points of the learning activity he was engaged in. But his

instructor was not in class in the evenings, which is understandable,

but still challenging. There would be no way for him to get an answer

within his allotted class time for the day. Instead he would

methodically analyze every angle of the assignment instructions, make

a decision about the best way forward, and hope for the best.

We don't have to be available for student questions at any time of day

or night. Instead, we can be intentional in how we set due dates and

communicate expected turnaround times so that our students know

not to panic if they don't receive an instant response.

My online modules now close on Mondays at midnight. This way I

have time at my desk on Monday during the day to field last-minute

questions prior to the deadline. I figure that many of my students,

most of whom work full-time, will do their coursework over the

weekend. If they email me questions on Sunday, I can reply on

Monday; they can revise their work as needed Monday night and still

submit on time.

Have Real-Time, Just-in-Time, Conversations

This small teaching strategy is also related to timeliness in responding

to students' needs. It's relatively simple, but requires more planning

than setting deadlines strategically. This approach makes sense for

many online instructors, yet it is often overlooked.

Many of us are conditioned to think that online classes are

asynchronous. Some online classes take place entirely (or almost

entirely) synchronously, with live virtual class meetings, but most of

today's credit-bearing online courses in higher education don't require

a great deal of synchronous class activity. In other words, no one has

to be engaged in any activity at the same time as anyone else. Indeed,

this is a primary reason that online learners choose to attend class

online, as I've noted elsewhere in this book. They need the scheduling

flexibility in order to pursue a college degree around their current

work and family obligations. But just because most of the course takes

place asynchronously, it doesn't mean that synchronous, or real-time,

interactions are completely off-limits.

If you've ever picked up the phone to call a colleague after exchanging

12 emails without making progress on the topic, you'll know how

effective it can be to have a quick conversation. When we talk to each

other, we can answer questions, clarify misunderstandings, address

issues, and reach consensus. Achieving resolution can take much less

time when speaking by phone as opposed to a seemingly endless back-

and-forth by email.

The same holds true in our online classes. Sometimes a short, real-

time conversation is a far more effective mode of communication than

the most thoughtfully created text instructions, recorded videos, or

email replies can ever be.

Before looking at some small teaching ways of structuring

synchronous interactions, it's important to clarify what I am not

suggesting. You shouldn't require attendance at any event you've

scheduled to take place on a particular day and time. Some instructors,

with all the best intentions, mandate participation in office hours, a

class orientation, or a study session, for example. But if your online

learner works second shift at the local manufacturing plant, your

thoughtfully scheduled 7 p.m. session will never be possible. You

might think that's an ideal time for students who also have full-time

jobs to meet with you, and even pat yourself on the back for giving up

some of your evening to accommodate your learners' needs. But the

truth is there will never be one single meeting time that fits all of your

students' schedules.

Workarounds include offering multiple sessions for the same event,

making attendance completely optional, or recording the synchronous

session for later viewing by students who could not attend. Just don't

mandate that online learners be able to commit to a real-time session

– for many, it won't be possible.

For this reason, I don't tend to hold virtual office hours – but I'll offer

some suggestions for how to do so, if you want to take this approach,

in the next model. Personally, I've found that my content is not

complex enough to warrant live sessions for mini-lectures and Q&A

sessions. My online courses are very practical, based on technology we

use every day at work and at home.

Therefore, I prefer scheduling either mandatory or as-needed

conversations with individual students. Recall our discussion in

Chapter 4 on the importance of being present for your online learners.

What better way to be there for students than to make time to talk to

your student, when they're struggling with a particular concept or

need a bit of individualized support? Whether you require a real-time

conversation with each student or simply make the opportunity

available for those who want to take advantage of it will depend on

many factors. If you teach a large-enrollment class, you may not want

to require a 10-minute conversation with each student. But let's say

you have a reasonable class size and you anticipate student anxiety

stemming from difficult content. It may be well worth your time to

briefly connect with each learner in the first week of class.

You can ask students to sign up for a timeslot using a Google Doc or

Sheet. Create a schedule on which you list several meeting days and

times. Students select their meeting time on a first-come, first-served

basis. Or, use one of many online scheduling services available, such as

youcanbookme.com. The advantage of using a system like this is that it offers more functionality than a homegrown sign-up sheet. For

example, it can interface directly with your calendar and sent

automated reminders to your students before their appointment time.

However you choose to schedule it, you and your students both may

appreciate the oft-forgotten simplicity of a phone call. I've often found

this to be the most efficient and convenient option since students have

their phones with them all the time, or so it seems. It's an easy way to

connect, sometimes even on short notice. Or, of course, you can use a

videoconferencing solution available through your LMS, or a platform

such as Zoom, which is quite easy to use. Whatever communication

tool you choose, spending just a few minutes talking with a student

can have a significant impact on their engagement and learning.

I know some instructors who do this. They tell me the payoff for

investing those 10 minutes per student is significant. They

communicate warmth, interest, and confidence in the student's ability

to succeed, all in just a few minutes. If you add this element to your

course, you may want to provide students with a prompt or topic for

discussion, or perhaps a series of questions you plan to discuss. The

conversation can be primarily social, or related to class content, or a

mixture of both – you can decide what makes the most sense for your

teaching preference and subject matter. After that call, your students

will likely be more willing to reach out for help, knowing you, their

instructor, is a caring human being who is committed to their success.

Although I see the value of scheduling a mandatory call with each

learner, I have not used this method in my own classes. Instead, I

reserve this option for students who need one-on-one attention.

Perhaps a student clearly doesn't understand assignment instructions,

as evidenced by an initial effort that falls far short of the mark.

Perhaps someone is experiencing a set of unexpected challenges in

their personal and professional life. In each case, a 15- or 20-minute

call, which we hold during a mutually convenient time (you can make

time slots available using the online scheduling service I mentioned

above), can do wonders to help your student get back on their feet and

resume progress in the class.

I'm convinced that my understanding and supportive tone of voice

does more to reassure the student of the feasibility of success than

anything I actually say during the conversation. In Chapter 4, I

described a recent phone conversation with a student who had fallen

behind because of a health crisis. As I said there, in all of these kinds

of conversations, the relief I hear in my student's voice is palpable. In a

short, real-time conversation I can literally hear pressure being

relieved. With such phone and videoconferencing calls, I've done more

to impact my student's learning and success than I can accomplish in a

hundred written or recorded messages.

Get Creative with Virtual Office Hours

Holding online office hours can be a great way to support your

students in their learning. These sessions can replicate what happens

in the physical classroom better than any other method. However,

many faculty members have found them to be less than satisfying, for

several different reasons. As alluded to in the previous model, we face

numerous challenges when attempting to hold online office hours.

Students won't all be available at the same time, so attendance is

frequently quite low – even when students could attend, often they

choose not to. If they do show up, we may experience technology

challenges such as audio and video problems that interfere with the

learning opportunity and lead to frustration on the part of both you

and your students.

Wondering why his attempts at holding online office hours were often

unsuccessful, Patrick Lowenthal, together with his colleagues,

investigated how to make video-based synchronous office hours most

effective for online learners (2017). The researchers made several

changes to previous, unsatisfactory attempts to hold online office

hours, surveyed the students regarding what was working and what

wasn't, and adjusted the new approach accordingly. The resulting

virtual office hours were better attended, more interactive, and

generally more successful in terms of students valuing the experience.

Lowenthal and his colleagues make several useful design

recommendations, a few of which I'll highlight here:

Rebrand your office hours. Knowing that students rarely attend

instructors' office hours, Lowenthal called his synchronous

sessions “Happy Hours.” Other possible names he suggests

include “Coffee Breaks,” “Afternoon Tea,” or “Consultations” (p.

188). Using a more inviting name can imply that these sessions

are less formal, more supportive, and less intimidating.

Reduce the frequency of these events. Although it's common to

offer virtual office hours every week, Lowenthal found better

success when he held 60-minute Happy Hours only four times per

semester (p. 189). He scheduled these strategically, according to

when the time together would be most useful. For example, you

might offer a synchronous review session just before an exam. Or

consider holding a live feedback session after a major project or

paper is due, to address common errors and help students see

how they can do better next time.

Announce the scheduled sessions ahead of time. List them in the

syllabus and talk about the schedule during the first week of class

(p. 188). Encourage students to put these on their calendar and

plan to attend.

Alternatively, use a scheduling tool like Doodle to determine

times when most students can attend (p. 189). This strategy

might be particularly useful if you have students in multiple time

zones.

Encourage students to submit questions prior to the synchronous

event. This way, you can tailor your presentation or prepare some

talking points to address common areas of confusion (p. 189).

Offer incentives such as the opportunity to earn points for

attending. Be sure to offer a “comparable learning experience for

those unable to attend a live session. For example, give those

students specific questions/prompts to respond to while watching

the recording” (p. 189).

As I think you'll agree, the research conducted by Lowenthal and his

colleagues offers a rich source of evidence-based and creative solutions

to the common challenges associated with online office hours. If you're

interested in many more design recommendations based on this study,

please read the full article, “Live Synchronous Web Meetings in

Asynchronous Online Courses: Reconceptualizing Virtual Office

Hours” (Lowenthal, Dunlap, and Snelson, 2017). You will likely find

several ideas for how you can reimagine your online synchronous

sessions so they're both timely and an effective means of providing

feedback and guidance for your learners.

Use Tech to Streamline Grading

This model moves squarely into the category of providing quality

feedback – the other side of the feedback coin. You can actually do

some things better and more easily in online classes than you can face-

to-face. Streamlining grading using readily-available technology tools

falls into that category.

An effective yet surprisingly underutilized tool for assessing student

work in online (and blended, and face-to-face) classes is the rubric tool

within your LMS. When I was full-time faculty, I graded hundreds of

online students' research papers manually before I became aware that

I could create a rubric in the LMS. In my current role as an

instructional designer, I see numerous faculty grading with a rubric

created in Microsoft Word instead of using the LMS rubric tool. They

are doing better than I was when teaching full-time: at least their

students are provided with a rubric. But downloading, marking,

saving, and uploading a rubric in Word for each student submission

takes far more time than it does to assess work using the LMS rubric.

As is often the case with grading, investing a little bit of time and effort

up front can save you an exponential amount of time when evaluating

student assignments or discussion posts. Spend some time creating an

effective rubric in your LMS. This may not be as simple as it sounds.

Rubrics are complex assessment tools: Used appropriately, they can

save you a significant amount of grading time while still providing

rich, robust feedback to your students. Invest the time to research and

design your rubric—you'll be able to use it for several semesters to

come.

An excellent resource to help you with this task is Introduction to

Rubrics: An Assessment Tool to Save Grading Time, Convey Effective

Feedback, and Promote Student Learning (2012) by Dannelle Stevens and Antonia Levi. This practical guide includes how to create effective

rubrics, the advantages of using rubrics, using rubrics with faculty

colleagues and teaching assistants, and discipline-specific rubrics. If

you are new to creating and grading with rubrics, this book is likely to

prove invaluable.

To facilitate the design process, you may find it helpful to create the

original rubric in Microsoft Word or similar. Once you're happy with

the criteria, levels of achievement, the wording and the scoring

distribution, it doesn't take long to create an LMS rubric. Copy and

paste the text from your document into the tool. Often, you can choose

whether each column, or achievement level, shows points possible, a

percentage of the total points possible, or a range of points or

percentages. You have the option to customize your rubric and scoring

method to align with your subject matter and your outcomes.

Depending on your LMS, you may need to associate the rubric with the

assignment. In other words, it may not happen automatically. Once

this is done, you can set the rubric to be visible to students, which

helps them explicitly see your expectations for their work.

As you begin grading with the LMS rubric, you'll find that your time

spent engaged in the task is reduced significantly. LMS rubrics are

typically easy to use. They calculate a student's grade automatically as

you click the radio buttons for the appropriate level of achievement for

each column, and they import the score or percentage directly into the

LMS grade center. The rubric tool makes it easy to give robust and

specific feedback on strengths and areas for improvement in a

remarkably short amount of time. Keep in mind, this time-saving tool

is equally effective in your face-to-face or blended classes, too, if you

have students submit their assignments online instead of on paper.

Of course you want to make sure that your rubric aligns closely with

your instructions, and that the descriptions you provide in each cell

are useful for students. If you can be sure of that, you can save yourself

a lot of grading time without shortchanging the quality of feedback

your students receive.

Give Meaningful Comments via Media Tools

Another approach to providing quality yet efficient feedback is to

record your comments using audio or video tools. Although I'm clearly

a fan of the written word (hence the book you are reading), nuances

can get lost in translation when feedback comes only in written form.

No matter how clearly you write, no matter how careful your word

choice and sentence style may be, writing lacks additional cues that

help to orient both partners in a conversation. Vocal intonations add

emphasis, or empathy, or enthusiasm. Facial expressions convey

encouragement, concern, optimism. Body language communicates

interest, attention, support. All this is forfeit when the only thing we

have is written text.

To compensate for this loss of nuance in your feedback, consider

giving comments using audio or video. A pair of researchers evaluated

the impact of audio versus written feedback in one undergraduate

biology class and one postgraduate biology class, both of which took

place in person (Voelkel and Mello, 2014). In the undergraduate class,

a treatment group of students received audio feedback on a formative

essay; in the postgraduate course, all students received audio feedback

on their formative essay. The researchers found no significant

difference in the learning gains of the undergraduate students who

received audio feedback; undergraduate students performed almost

exactly the same on the final exam regardless of whether they'd

received audio or written feedback on the formative assessment (p.

25). However, all student respondents indicated increased satisfaction

with the audio feedback; it felt more personal, they reported, and they

found it to be more useful because the audio feedback included more

explanation and suggestions for improvement than the written

feedback did.

Interestingly, the researchers found that the audio feedback, which

they captured using digital voice recorders, took on average five

minutes longer to create than did the written feedback. However, the

audio feedback was more robust: “On average 34 words per minute

were produced by spoken feedback whereas only four words per

minute were written in the form of comments” (Voelkel and Mello,

2014, p. 28). An analysis of the audio and written feedback confirmed

the students' sense that the audio feedback was more detailed and

personal. The researchers concluded that “it might be well worth

spending the additional time necessary to provide high quality

feedback. Staff training and increasing experience may over time

shorten the time needed to produce audio feedback” (p. 29).

Another study of audio versus written feedback found similar results,

that audio feedback did not significantly impact student performance

(Morris and Chikwa, 2016). However, an important finding for online

teaching in particular emerged in a study of instructor and student

perceptions of audio feedback in online composition classes

(Cavanaugh and Song, 2014). As in the study of biology students, these

researchers found that students had more positive perceptions of

audio feedback than they did of written comments and noted that

audio feedback may be particularly effective in online classes. In the

physical classroom, they point out, if a comment is unappealing to a

student, “there is at least the opportunity for the instructor to present

a friendlier face in class and cushion the student's impressions”

(Cavanaugh and Song, 2014, p. 126). Providing audio feedback allows

online instructors to add encouraging vocal intonations and oral

markers of support.

A great example of this strategy in action is my colleague's use of

recorded comments in her online First-Year Seminar class. I was

unfamiliar with this idea when she first told me about her approach,

but as I've considered it I've come to see that it is quite simple yet

highly effective.

My fellow instructor explained that recording her comments about

students' papers allowed her to convey support for her students in an

impactful way. She knew that her freshmen online students were likely

feeling some level of anxiety and doubt, so she went the extra mile to

encourage them. She demonstrated to me how she said things like, “I

can see that you tried to include supporting evidence here, and I know

this can be hard, but we really need to surround the evidence with

explanation to make a strong argument.” Even here this sentence

communicates only so much. When my friend spoke this to me out

loud, she infused empathy, understanding that the task was

challenging, appreciation for the effort put forth, but also clear

emphasis on what the student needs to do to improve. She used vocal

intonation and an authentic intention to help her students succeed to

great effect.

In Canvas, you can record audio or video comments directly from the

grading screen. Look for the “play” button under the text box for

comments. Clicking that button allows you to record audio or video, or

to upload media you may have already created.

If you're not teaching in Canvas, you may not have such a seamless

way to create the comments, but it may be worth looking into the

options. If your institution has licensed a media service such as

Kaltura or Panopto, you can create audio comments using that tool

and then provide the link in the comment text box. Or consider using a

digital voice recorder and emailing the .mp3 files to students, as some

of the researchers did in the studies just cited.

Alternatively, you could capture a quick video of yourself talking to

your student using YouTube or similar apps on your phone, or using a

media recording solution available in your LMS. In a 2015 study on

the use of video feedback in undergraduate and postgraduate

education courses, researchers found that both students and faculty

found video feedback to be more useful and motivating than written

comments (Henderson and Phillips, 2015). An efficient way to share

your video comments with your students is to paste the link from your

recording into the text comment box. Adding the visual of your face,

ideally wearing a positive expression and conveying optimism in your

students' ability to succeed, enables you to provide a richly nuanced

and effectual way to communicate with your online learners.

As you're reading this, you may be uncertain about whether to try

video or audio feedback, if recording comments is a new skill. Some of

you may prefer to use video instead of audio. Another variation is to

record a screen capture in which you talk through a student's paper as

displayed on the screen. Great idea – but it requires a little technical

know-how. If you like the idea of providing media comments, start

small. Audio recordings take less prep and therefore less time than

video, yet still deliver a powerful bang for the buck.

Want to help your online students know what you really mean in your

feedback? Talk to them. It's as simple as that.

PRINCIPLES

Given the unique dynamic of an online class, intentional effort must be

made to support students through regular and ongoing feedback.

These principles can shape your way forward.

Be Timely and Responsive

At the risk of repeating this point too often, let me reinforce the

importance of being available to answer questions and to help

students know how well they are doing in the class. When you teach in

person, students know where and when to find you, and, importantly,

they have also committed to that meeting time in their schedules. The

same is not true in an online class. Reduce student anxiety by being

responsive to questions and returning assessments as soon as is

reasonable. Explicitly state in your syllabus when students should

expect you to reply to emails and return graded work. If you become

unexpectedly unavailable, let them know. Explain why and when you'll

be back. A little transparency goes a long way. Make yourself

accessible for students. The payoff – increased student commitment

and effort – will be well worthwhile.

Take Advantage of the Tech

We can do many things more effectively when teaching online than we

can when teaching in person. Using technology to provide highly

efficient yet powerfully meaningful feedback is one of them. Put the

affordances of technology tools to work for you. Take advantage of

embedded or readily available technologies such as LMS rubrics,

audio- or video-recording capabilities, and even the oft-forgotten

phone to communicate with both efficiency and impact. You can give

individuals targeted specific input on their work. Doing so doesn't

have to dominate your schedule when you apply the right tech tools to

the task.

Put Yourself in Your Students' Shoes

Think of situations in which you've been anxious about your

performance – such as from your own student experience, or from

waiting for the peer review comments on the article you've submitted

to a respected journal in your field. Perhaps in your employment, your

supervisor is opaque; you don't have a sense of how you are doing or

where you may need to improve. Not receiving guidance or timely

answers, not having a clear sense of your standing in a situation, can

increase anxiety. Equip your students for their best success by calling

to mind how it feels when you lack the input you need to move forward

productively. Demonstrate empathy and caring by being available to

help.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

GIVING FEEDBACK

Your students need your targeted and timely guidance in order to

develop a sense of self-efficacy. They need to know how they are doing

in your class and what they can do to improve. Don't let them languish

under a cloud of doubt. Instead, empower your students to achieve

greater success through efficient and effective feedback. Help them see

how their performance matches your expectations. Your students will

detect your support and respond with renewed effort.

Schedule deadlines to coincide with your availability to answer

questions in advance and return graded work after.

Talk to your students in real time, by phone or using any number

of videoconferencing tools. Schedule a call for each student, or

offer this on an as-needed basis for students who need additional

support. Create the human connection and achieve greater

understanding through the simple means of talking to each other.

Take a creative approach to offering virtual office hours, working

to ensure they are meaningful and a productive use of your time

as well as your students' time.

Create LMS rubrics to swiftly evaluate student work while

simultaneously providing detailed individual feedback.

Record audio or video comments on assessments to provide richly

nuanced input, adding emphasis and empathy through your voice.

CONCLUSION

“The uncertainty is the hardest part,” my 14-year-old daughter said to

me over dinner one night. “Put that in your book. Uncertainty is the

worst.” She was referring to the unknown of beginning her first year of

high school, but her point seems especially relevant to this chapter.

Indeed, this was the greatest challenge my husband faced in his online

summer class described earlier in this chapter. Although he was

diligent to do his work, he received very little feedback from his

instructor, whether in the moment he had a question or otherwise. Sad

to say, he completed 75% of his course without hearing from his

faculty member on his performance or progress. Given this striking

lack of guidance, this uncertainty about how he was doing, my

husband was tempted to conclude that he must be failing the course.

But he persevered and eventually earned the reward for his hard work

and self-directed learning in the form of an A for the class.

Although my husband, who is both mature and highly motivated, was

able to persist in the face of such uncertainty, many of our students

won't. When they don't know how they are doing, it's hardly surprising

if they become anxious and unmotivated. Eliminate the uncertainty.

Administer small feedback to help your students thrive.

Chapter 6

Fostering Student Persistence and

Success

INTRODUCTION

“Cheerleading has to happen!”

My colleague in the biology department was describing for me what

she does to help her students complete her rigorous accelerated online

course. Acknowledging that some faculty may balk at the thought of

themselves as cheerleaders, she revised her statement to include

words like coaching and mentoring. It was abundantly clear to me,

however, that this biology professor was passionate about her

students' success. Her enthusiasm was evident in every syllable she

spoke. She would get her online students over the finish line or die

trying.

Later that same day, I had another conversation with a faculty

member in advertising and public relations. “I used to think that my

job was only to teach the content,” she said. “I used to be

uncomfortable addressing students' unprofessional behavior. Now I

believe that a big part of my job is to help students become functioning

adults.” In other words, she sees part of her job as helping her

students learn what it takes to be successful in today's society, a task

that extends far beyond the confines of her class content.

I really enjoyed these interactions because both instructors reflected

back to me my own passion for excellent teaching to foster student

success. Clearly, they both care deeply for their students. They're

willing to go above and beyond the call of content-based duty to help

their students succeed. That doesn't mean that they dumb down their

content or inflate their grades. Instead, they've embedded support

structures within their teaching that enable students to rise to the

occasion, work hard, and persist.

An overarching theme of my own teaching has always been to help

students in just this way. Sometimes this happens in the college

classroom. Sometimes it happens in the dance studio. Sometimes in

my Pilates class. In all of these environments, learners need

encouragement. They need empathy and support, especially if the

context is new, unfamiliar, or anxiety-inducing. They need reassurance

that with effort, persistence, and resilience, they will achieve their

learning goals.

One Saturday a month I teach a beginning Pilates class at my local

gym. Last month, a member nervously came up to me before class as I

was setting up the music. “I've never taken Pilates before,” she said.

“I'm not sure what to expect.”

“Great!” I beamed. “You're in the right place. This class is for you. This

is a beginning level class, so I'll give lots of instruction and tips along

the way. You'll always know what to do and how to do it – I'm sure of

it.”

I proceeded to give her a few pointers, such as that she would not need

shoes and that we would remain on the floor throughout class,

targeting core muscles and weaving in relaxing stretches as well. I

helped her to know what to expect, but my main goal was just to

reassure her, to encourage her that all would be well. After class she

thanked me, said how much she enjoyed it, and promised to be back

next time. As the result of hearing a few encouraging words and seeing

a confident smile, my new Pilates student had overcome her nerves

and taken the first step on a new fitness journey.

I do the same thing in the adult jazz class I teach on Fridays at

lunchtime. I get students who used to dance as children, years ago.

Others always wanted to take dance but never had the opportunity.

Some are trying dance for the first time as a way of varying their

wellness routine, of getting more movement in their life. All of my

adult dance students display some degree of nervousness, some level

of not knowing what to expect.

I tell them, repeatedly, that I admire them for trying something new,

something slightly out of their comfort zone. I spend almost as much

time instructing them to be patient and keep practicing a new step, to

stick with it, as I spend on giving instruction on the new step itself. I

draw their attention to dancers who have made good progress simply

by persisting through the challenge of learning an entirely new skill.

Indeed, one of my current students was brand new to jazz dance when

she started three semesters ago. Although the movement was

unfamiliar to her, she worked hard, came back for more, and was

patient with herself. She's come a long way in the time we've danced

together, and I hold her up as an example of persevering despite

occasional mild frustration.

Similarly, I like to highlight how far dancers have progressed just

within the course of one semester. Around Week 6 I start saying things

like, “You couldn't have done this step back in September. See how far

you've come?” And I repeat that refrain every time we learn a new step

of increasing complexity, one that requires increasing skill. “You can

do this,” I tell my dancers. “You've got this.”

If we want our students to succeed in our courses, and in their lives

beyond school, they definitely need some of this kind of cheerleading.

But they need more than just our words; they also need concrete

strategies to help them succeed, ones that are both built into the

structure of the course and capable of helping out in a pinch. When we

combine these structured supports with our positive, encouraging

attitude, we are giving our students the best possibility to succeed in

our online courses and beyond.

IN THEORY

The original Small Teaching includes a chapter on helping students

develop what researcher Carol Dweck has termed a growth mindset.

Decades worth of experiments by Dweck and others have suggested

that when learners believe their intelligence is flexible and capable of

improvement, they are more likely to be successful at learning tasks.

By contrast, some learners have what Dweck calls a fixed mindset,

which means that they assume that intelligence is a static thing – that

you had your IQ stamped on your forehead at birth, and that you're

stuck with whatever you were given (Dweck, 2007).

Mindset researchers have been arguing for some time now that we can

help learners succeed by convincing them to abandon such fixed

mindsets about learning and intelligence. When learners bring a fixed

mindset into an academic context, it can limit them in numerous ways.

If they believe their intelligence is fixed at the low end of the scale, it

causes them to give up in the face of challenges. I'm just not smart

enough for this, they might think. If they believe their intelligence is

fixed at the high end of the scale, they might not want to complete

required work. I don't need to do the homework assigned by the

teacher, they might think; I'll just pick it up on my own. Whether they

believe they are naturally smart or naturally stupid, in other words, a

fixed mindset can interfere with their learning.

Dweck and many other researchers in this field have demonstrated,

fortunately, that mindsets can be changed. People can be educated out

of fixed mindsets and into the understanding that intelligence is a

flexible commodity, one that can be grown with effort. But the past few

years have seen increasing debate about the value of such efforts in

education, as some critics have argued that the benefits have been

oversold. Progressive educators, for example, have argued that

focusing too much on the mindsets of students might cause us to

ignore structural problems in the education system, or inequalities in

the classroom or in our society. We can't cure all of our educational ills

by changing the mindsets of students.

But the research that supports the power of mindsets – which is

strong, but not unlimited – remains solid, and only continues to grow.

The problem really lies in the fact that it has been oversimplified and

packaged into a cure-all. Changing the mindset of a student won't

erase the challenges that are faced by students who come to our

courses beset by poverty, or victimized because of their race, gender,

or sexual orientation. Too many teachers (and their administrators)

have attempted to slap mindset into their curriculum with simplistic

applications: praising students for their effort, for example, instead of

their performance.

In 2015, Dweck addressed the backlash against mindset, and these

oversimplified applications of the theory, by explaining:

[E]ffort is key for students' achievement, but it's not the only thing.

Students need to try new strategies and seek input from others

when they're stuck. They need this repertoire of approaches—not

just sheer effort—to learn and improve . . . effort is a means to an

end to the goal of learning and improving. ( Education Week, 2015)

In this language you can see the logic behind the models we outline

below, and in the original Small Teaching. Students need more than

effort to succeed. They need a teacher who has created opportunities

for them to “try new strategies and seek input.” They need a teacher

who keeps their eyes pinned on “the goal of learning and improving.”

These are elements we can seed into our communication with students

(as you'll see in the first model below) and into the structure of the

course (as you'll see in the next three models).

Mindset theory falls more generally under the umbrella of thinking

about how to help students succeed in our courses. We are less

concerned here with the specific tactic of identifying mindsets and

changing them, although that theory helps explain why we believe

efforts to support student success matter, and can make a difference.

Instead, consider what we offer in this chapter as concrete steps you

can take not only to remind your students that learning benefits from

effort, persistence, and reflection, but to build those reminders into

the very fabric of your course.

MODELS

Online classes suffer from a relatively high attrition rate compared to

traditional in-person classes, at least 10–20% higher (Bawa, 2016).

Some studies have found that online student attrition rates may be

significantly higher, up to seven times higher, than in face-to-face

courses (Patterson and McFadden, 2009). This is a known issue in

online higher education. Many of us who regularly teach online can

attest to discouraging online attrition rates, though we have little

recent national research to support our anecdotal observations. Still,

the issue of online students failing to complete their classes is widely

acknowledged as a pressing concern.

We have many strategies we can use to combat the easy tendency of

students to drift away. Indeed, we can do a lot simply by being actively

present in our class, by interacting frequently, and by providing timely

feedback. Chapters 2, 4, and 5 present numerous small teaching strategies to help us be there to support our students' learning in our

online classes. But there's more we can do, and we should. I believe we

have many good reasons to help our students persist and earn a

college degree. Here are some ways we can do more of this in our

online classes.

Nudge Targeted Students

A personal email from you, especially if sent early in the semester, has

significant potential to help a student who needs a little extra

attention. Colleges and universities are increasingly developing and

putting in place support systems to help us identify and reach out to

students who may be struggling. But a personalized message from

your email address can be much more impactful than these other

approaches.

My passionate-for-student-success biology colleague, when teaching

her eight-week online classes, checks on every student on Day 3 of a

new session. If a student has not yet accessed the course or the

publisher content, she sends a personal email to that student. The

message asks whether she can do anything to help, and reminds

students of the importance of getting a strong start in her fast-paced

course. She tells me that her students, perhaps surprised that an

online instructor is paying attention, typically respond by logging in

and getting started with the course. Or they may drop the course

before the deadline, ensuring that they don't throw away precious

tuition dollars on a course they can't commit to completing at this

time. Either way, my colleague's timely email helps her students take

appropriate action.

A similar approach has yielded powerful results for Zoë Cohen, faculty

in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona. In “Small

Changes, Large Rewards: How Individualized Emails Increase

Classroom Performance” (2018), Cohen shares her strategy of

emailing individual students who failed the first of three exams in her

in-person Physiology of the Immune System course – typically, about

20 students in a class of 200. Cohen's approach is a perfect example of

a small teaching way to help students persist. She sends a personal

email in which the body of the message is the same, but she addresses

it to each individual student. “Hi _______,” it reads,

I was looking at the exam #1 scores for PSIO 431 and saw that you

didn't do as well as expected. Since it's still early in the semester,

now is the time to try and figure out what went wrong and how we

can fix it.

She proceeds to ask some guiding questions about how the student

prepared for the exam. “Did you come to class and participate in the

discussions? Do you have a study group? Did you come to office hours

to discuss the material?” Cohen ends on an encouraging note,

expressing her interest in working with the student “so that the rest of

the course goes more smoothly.”

The first time she sent these emails, Cohen was surprised at her

students' responses. She expected students to blame her for not

adequately preparing them. Instead, she received several replies

thanking her for showing an interest, and resolving to change practices

in order to do better. Three years after sending that first email, Cohen

now makes it a regular practice. She has seen the impact and considers

this small investment of time to be well worthwhile.

Cohen teaches in person, but her strategy, known as a nudge, can be

easily applied online. The idea of gently steering students toward

making wiser decisions stems from an impactful book titled Nudge:

Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Thaler

and Sunstein, 2008). The basic, yet revolutionary, premise is that we

can influence people to make better decisions simply by the way we

present the choice or encourage them to do so. Helping our students

form better study habits, for example, can be the result of a

communication strategy such as Cohen's personalized emails.

Nudges are becoming more widely used, and studied, in teaching in

higher education. Researchers are finding that these small

interventions that encourage positive behavior are making a difference

in students' performance. One recent study measured the impact of

two personalized emails from the professor to individual students

reminding them of various avenues of support (Carrell, Kurlaender,

and Bhatt, 2016). Not surprisingly, the treatment group earned higher

grades than the control group.

Nudges such as these may be even more important in an online class.

Show your struggling students that you're paying attention.

Demonstrate that you care. Send a personal email, written in a kind

and supportive tone of voice, early enough in the semester for them to

change their behavior to be more successful. Like Cohen, you may be

surprised at the impact this small outreach can have.

Assign a Goals Contract

Although online learning is rapidly expanding, it is still new enough

that many students have little experience with online classes. For

example, college students have generally spent at least 12 or 13 years

in the K12 classroom. They know what to expect in that setting. Rarely

have today's college students spent anything like that amount of time

taking online classes.

Because of this, students need help understanding what will be

required of them in the online environment, where self-directed

learning is essential for success. We can teach students how to make

and honor their commitment to a course by asking them to submit a

Goals Contract in the first few days of class.

Although learning contracts are not new, they can effectively help

students develop their own strategy for success. The University of

Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence website encourages faculty to

use this approach in their classes. “Learning contracts give ownership

to students over their learning at the outset of a project or class, they

prompt students to reflect on how they learn, and they establish clear

goals and project timelines” (Self-Directed Learning: Learning

Contracts, n.d.). Helping our students take ownership of their learning is a strategic way to help them persist and complete online classes, and

therefore is well worth considering.

The first half of the Goals Contract can help clarify your expectations

for students in the course. Decide what behaviors are often lacking in

online students who fail to complete your course. Create a list of

statements for students to agree to. For example, you may want to

present some statements such as these for students to initial their

agreement:

I have read and understood the syllabus.

I carefully reviewed the course schedule and noted deadlines in

my calendar.

I understand that to succeed in this eight-week class, I will work

16–18 hours per week on coursework.

I have scheduled time in my weekly routine to log into class at

least four different days of the week, some of which are not

consecutive.

I can and should post questions about the course in the Q&A

forum on the discussion board.

I will attend online tutoring if I start falling behind.

Have students print the document, initial next to each statement, and

sign and date the contract. Then ask them to take a picture with their

phone or tablet and upload it for a low-stakes quiz grade. You may

want to make this activity required in order to release the remaining

course content.

The advantage of this strategy is that you have students' agreement in

writing in case a complaint arises later on. The downside, of course, is

the same flaw of every end-user agreement you've ever signed. We are

all prone to checking the box next to a statement that says, “I agree to

the terms of use,” without reading the terms of use, simply in order to

move on and begin using the application. Students may initial, sign,

snap, and upload without really thinking about what they've agreed to

do.

For this reason, I like to add a second essential component to the

Goals Contract. Recently, I attended a professional development

workshop in which we were asked to set some goals for the upcoming

academic year. The activity was elegant in its simplicity. The prompt

asked us to write two goals, state one thing we committed to doing to

help us achieve those goals, one challenge we anticipated would

interfere with our ability to achieve those goals, and one strategy for

overcoming that challenge. The opportunity to write down these

statements, to articulate our plans in this way, made concrete the

otherwise vague intentions we formed in the workshop.

A Goals Contract combines the teacher's statements of expectations

with goals established by the students. Provide a document with a few

statements and space to initial. Below that, have students identify

their two goals, one thing they commit to doing, one challenge, and

one strategy. Students print the document, initial, hand-write the

goals section, then take the photo and upload the pic. Adding a

component in which students have to think through what they plan to

do to succeed can make this activity quite powerful. This simple

activity helps them to set goals, and importantly, to see for themselves

that they can achieve those goals (Nilson and Goodson, 2018, p. 116).

As an alternative to having students write out the goal section of this

contract, you could offer them the option of recording a video of

themselves stating their goals and plans. Some students might find it

more compelling to verbalize their positive intentions in that format.

Whether in writing or in video form, ask students to articulate that

they understand what it takes to succeed, and to identify how they

plan to do so.

Use Mastery Quizzes

My cheerleading biology friend uses another technique, mastery

quizzes, that can really help at-risk students in her online course. The

concept is simple. My colleague requires a vocabulary quiz worth zero

points at the beginning of each module. Students must earn 100% on

the quiz, even though it does not count toward the final grade. What it

does, however, is make the rest of the module content available. Until

students earn 100% on the vocabulary quiz, they may not proceed with

the module.

To enable them to earn 100%, students have unlimited attempts. They

may take the quiz as many times as they need to in order to get that

100%. But until they do, students may not move forward.

In a series of articles on authentic learning, Theresa Gilliard-Cook and

Brandon West explain that mastery quizzing can be used to get

students to “demonstrate a baseline knowledge or vocabulary” and to

“reinforce their comprehension” of these baseline concepts (2015).

The authors further note that mastery quizzes are effective for two

main reasons. First, they are low-stakes since students can take the

test multiple times to achieve success (most learning management

systems (LMSs) allow you to determine a set number, such as three

attempts, or you can set the quiz so that students have unlimited

attempts). Additionally, mastery quizzing “requires the students to

reflect on what they don't know and gives them an opportunity to go

back to address the gaps in their knowledge” (Gilliard-Cook and West,

2015). Whenever we can help our students reflect on and address any

gaps in their knowledge, we should probably consider doing so.

We can help our students to earn the necessary 100% (or whatever

level you determine is mastery – perhaps for your content, 80% is

sufficient) on such quizzes and also develop self-reliance by

embedding guidance and directions in the test feedback. “Such

feedback is simple to prepare yet often neglected,” point out Nilson

and Goodson (2018, p. 84). If we take a bit of extra time to set up this

automated feedback for each LMS quiz, we can direct students to

address their own gaps in their knowledge. Keep in mind, too, as with

many small teaching suggestions, your time investment pays off when

you reuse these quizzes semester after semester. For example, you can

set the feedback that displays if the wrong answer is selected to say,

“Incorrect. Please review pages 342–344 of your textbook.” Or it might

direct students to review the relevant section of your mini-lecture

video according to its timestamp. So the feedback could say, “That's

not the best answer. Review the video from 2:15 to 3:00 to help you

rethink your response.”

In my colleague's class, the purpose of the mastery quiz is to make

sure students can speak the language of biology. She argues that

students can't learn concepts if they don't understand the terminology.

To empower students to learn new information, she requires them to

demonstrate mastery of the vocabulary. In the process of doing so, she

gains new opportunities to provide support to her students and

structure for their learning.

Many of the students in her online, 8-week general education biology

class have failed the in-person, 16-week class. The lack of structure in

the face-to-face class seems to contribute to their failure. Just showing

up to a lecture, without specific guidance about things like making

sure they know the vocabulary for the day's lesson, has not resulted in

successful completion of the class. Some of her online students take

these Mastery Quizzes up to 13 times before they earn 100%, my

colleague tells me. She will sometimes provide very detailed guidance,

like suggesting they write down the words on the quiz, and look up and

write down the definitions, before they reattempt the quiz. “Students

thrive on the structure provided by these gateway quizzes,” my friend

said. “They don't have the basic study skills they need to be successful.

The mastery quiz forces them to practice good study habits in order to

complete the class.”

Again, no points are attached to these quizzes. The implied message is

that this is a basic study skill. Working to learn these terms is

necessary to make progress through the course. This teaches the value

of laying a strong foundation before trying to acquire new

understanding.

Providing guidance on where to find the correct answer helps students

pass the quiz and proceed with module content. Consider adding

meaningful guidance to your feedback for correct answers, too.

Encourage students to find out more, and suggest an additional

resource or two. Recommend complementary topics for parallel self-

study. Show students how and where to further explore on their own.

Use embedded feedback to remediate or challenge, right in the

moment when it's most relevant.

You can set up mastery quizzes in your LMS using the settings on the

Quiz tool and the conditional release function. Set the quiz to allow

unlimited attempts, or whatever number you decide is best. Exclude

the score from the final grade. Set the conditional release to only

display the rest of the module content after the quiz shows 100%. Your

local instructional designer or LMS support team should be able to

help you do this if you're not sure how.

Scaffold Assignments

Many students are anxious about what they will experience in their

online class. That may change over time, as students become more

experienced with online learning. But for now, it's helpful to build

structures that reassure students that they are on track.

Noted psychologist Albert Bandura's self-efficacy theory (1977) tells us that when we achieve success on a task, our belief in our ability to

succeed increases. “Successes raise mastery expectations,” Bandura

explains, “Repeated failures lower them, particularly if the mishaps

occur early in the course of events. After strong efficacy expectations

are developed through repeated success, the negative impact of

occasional failures is likely to be reduced” (Bandura, 1977, p. 195). In light of this, it's vitally important to structure learning tasks that allow

learners to succeed early and often.

For example, in recent years the push bike has become very popular

for teaching preschoolers how to ride a bicycle. Gone are the training

wheels. There aren't even any pedals. Instead, the young child uses

their feet to make the bike go and to make the bike stop. Since there

are no pedals to worry about, beginners can experience success sooner

than they might otherwise – and with fewer crashes that result in

skinned knees and elbows. This increased belief in their ability to

succeed allows the child to master other necessary skills such as

balancing and steering. Once the child feels confident in their ability to

coast around on the push bike, it's a small step to teach them to use

pedals and brakes in order to truly ride a bike.

You can create a similar sequence in your online class by offering

frequent opportunities for students to succeed in low-stakes tasks as

they work toward more complex and high-stakes ones. Remember,

according to Bandura, repeated failures have the equal and opposite

effect, so we must be careful not to create tasks that set our students

up to fail. Instead, think carefully about what small and achievable

tasks you can create, activities that are likely to lead to students

successfully completing them, and thereby becoming more expectant

of their ability to succeed on the next, slightly more complex, task.

One of the assignments in my educational technology class, for

example, is to create a teaching video mini-lecture on a topic of

interest. Many of my nontraditional students have not had much

experience recording themselves. These students are often nervous

about this task. They have low self-efficacy when it comes to creating a

polished teaching video. However, I have specific pedagogical goals for

this assessment, so I want them to build the skills to demonstrate their

knowledge in this format as opposed to other modalities.

Before I knew about scaffolding learning activities, I may have

concluded they would just need to figure it out. I might have told them

in Week 1 that the video would be due in Week 8, and suggested they

start practicing. I might not have told them even that much—out of

ignorance about helping students succeed, not out of malice. But over

the years, I've come to see the value of building support structures that

empower students to take small steps, to achieve small successes, to

grow in confidence as the task becomes more complex. So now I

deliberately build multiple opportunities for feedback and growth in a

project such as this.

First, students post a short (60- to 90-second) video introduction of

themselves, due on Day 4 of the eight-week course. Because students

are talking about something they know a lot about, it should not be too

cognitively demanding. What they do need to figure out, however, are

some of the basics of creating and posting a video. This task is like

putting them on a push bike. There's no need to worry about

everything yet, but students need to decide which device or app to use

to record. They need to find a headset or earbuds with a microphone,

so that viewers can hear them adequately. They need to learn how to

upload their video to YouTube or NAU's video streaming solution,

Kaltura, and request machine captioning. They need to embed their

video or paste a link into an online discussion forum, and submit it

before midnight on the day it is due.

For some students, these tasks aren't challenging. But for many of my

older students, recording even a 90-second video involves several new

steps that each require skill development and practice.

I know my students are nervous about this (because they say so in the

opening seconds of the video), so I make it a point to reply to these

posts and grade them as soon as I possibly can, generally within one

day of the deadline. I put on my cheerleader hat, award all-or-nothing

points – a good-faith effort earns full credit – and include confidence-

boosting comments.

Video tasks build in complexity over the course of the class. After

creating their video introductions, students continue developing skills

through frequent assignments that enable them to practice and gain

confidence in recording and editing videos. These tasks increase in

length and difficulty. For example, in Week 2, students post a 2- to 3-

minute video discussing their key takeaways from an assigned journal

article. The following week, they propose their teaching video topic,

including their rationale and a brief summary of supporting materials,

in a slightly longer video, not more than 3 to 5 minutes. And the task

continues to build from there both in difficulty and duration. By the

time the 8- to 10-minute teaching video is due, students have practiced

recording meaningful videos multiple times.

Importantly, I assess each submission and return feedback well before

the next video task is due. It's difficult to develop a new skill in a

feedback void. We need constant instructions, encouragement, and

coaching in order to progress. As soon as possible after each video

deadline, I grade and return the assignment so that students have time

to improve their method before creating the next video.

This intentionally structured process allows my students to become

more confident in their ability to succeed on the teaching video

assignment. Those who were nervous in the first week of class now

have a much higher sense of self-efficacy for this task. I like to think

that they can apply this same practice elsewhere in their lives, in

various settings and contexts. For me, helping students see what it

takes to succeed is important for their lifelong well-being.

PRINCIPLES

I suppose I am so interested in helping students persist and succeed

because more than the grades are at stake. Like my friend in the

advertising and PR department, I have bigger goals for my students.

Whatever the class I'm teaching, I want students to mature and grow

in confidence. We can apply small teaching strategies to help our

students pass our classes. More importantly, these approaches will

help our students become more effective in their personal,

professional, and civic lives.

Help Students Commit to, and Achieve,

Success

As their instructor, you know what it takes for your students to

complete your class. Help them to understand what it takes. Help

them commit to doing the necessary work. Assign tasks that cause

students to evaluate their readiness for your class. Ask students to

think about what they are willing to do to get through. Have students

articulate their plan of action. At strategic points of the class, check in

with students. Ask them if they are meeting the goals they laid out in

Week 1. Suggest ways they can continue moving forward, even if

they've had a setback such as a failed exam. Help your students see

how to succeed and, importantly, take action that allows them to do

so.

Provide Lots of Structure

Online learners are often unaware of the level of self-direction it takes

to persist and succeed in a class. Without the supports of a set class

time and physical presence of the instructor in the classroom, students

must create their own classwork schedules and plans for success.

Guide the development of this kind of self-direction by creating strong

structure. Oblige students to demonstrate mastery of foundational

concepts before proceeding to more complex processes. Teach

students good study habits by not allowing them to progress in your

class without them. Foster a growth mindset by allowing multiple

attempts on tests and papers. Help your students become better at

directing their own learning by providing the framework that they may

lack. Over time, we'll develop the leaders of tomorrow by holding

students to account today.

Create the Personal Touch

Personal outreach from you can have a major impact on your

individual students. Create minor impact on your time through small

and targeted methods of contact. Develop a strategy that enables you

to personally interact with students without too much demand on your

time. This could be a reply to each individual's introduction post. Or

comment briefly but meaningfully on a task in the first week within as

short a time frame as you can. Send a personal email after the first test

to anyone who did not do well. Whatever your approach, help students

see you as an individual who cares about their individual success.

Create person-to-person contact to motivate and guide students to

succeed.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

FOSTERING STUDENT PERSISTENCE AND

SUCCESS

Attrition rates in online classes are distressingly high. Increased access

to college resulting from the flexibility of online learning is

meaningless if students don't persist and attain a degree. We can apply

small teaching strategies to help.

Nudge students in need of a little extra support. Send targeted,

personalized emails at strategic points of the course with

reminders about steps they can take to recover lost ground.

Ask students to commit to a plan for success. Have them

complete a Goals Contract in the first few days of class.

Submission of this contract could release the rest of the class

content to underscore its foundational importance in the course.

Require students to demonstrate mastery of foundational

concepts. Create gateway quizzes, which must be passed with a

score of 100%, in order for students to proceed with module

content.

Deliberately build self-efficacy through scaffolded assignment

design. Students achieve success in small tasks to help them

develop confidence for more complex ones.

CONCLUSION

The other night, I attended my daughter's open house at her new high

school. I was impressed in general with the school ethos of supporting

student success while encouraging practical behaviors to achieve it. In

particular, I was struck by the pre-AP English teacher's comments. She

related how she always hears deep dark confessions from her new

students, such as, “I've never been good at writing,” or, “I'm a terrible

speller.”

“I can work with those things,” she said. “That's my job.” She went on

to say that what she can't work with, what truly hinders progress, is a

poor work ethic. “I can't help students who won't do the work.”

Students might not be doing the work in your course for a variety of

reasons. Some of them might have overextended themselves; some of

them might not be ready for a college course. But many of them will

not do the work because they doubt their own abilities, or because they

don't understand the amount of work and self-discipline required to

succeed in an online course. For all of these students, the kinds of

small teaching nudges we have considered in this chapter should

provide support to help them on their academic journeys – both in

your course and beyond.

Part III

Motivating Online Students (and

Instructors)

The challenges presented by online learning differ from those

presented by traditional instruction. Attrition rates are among the

most significant of these challenges for online courses. Many students

find at least some of their online classes to be dry, boring, and

unengaging. We as online teachers may similarly experience a lack of

teaching and learning energy in the online classroom. Just the other

day a faculty member in our Applied Indigenous Studies program

expressed this sentiment to me. “I really get jazzed in the classroom,”

he told me. “My online classes don't hold my attention.”

Bearing in mind that online learning is still a recent phenomenon in

the world, I'm confident that researchers and practitioners will

develop a broader range of evidence-based solutions to the unique

issues we face in online classes, more extensive than we have available

today. In the meantime, both parties in the online learning

partnership can be, at times, guilty of investing less time and energy

than are required to create a synergistic learning experience. Given the

apparent need for support in this area, in Part III we'll focus on the

challenge of maintaining the needed momentum for a successful

online course. Here we'll consider strategies for keeping our students

– and ourselves – motivated, inspired, and engaged.

Our approach in this section is shaped by the control-value theory of

achievement emotions developed by Reinhard Pekrun, a researcher at

the University of Munich in Germany. Pekrun and his colleagues

studied how the emotions that students experience while learning

impacts their motivation to engage in the learning itself. Sarah

Cavanagh provides a succinct overview of Pekrun's theory in her 2016

book, The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with

the Science of Emotion. The first element in this theoretical framework

is the level of control students have over their learning experience.

Cavanagh describes this as the extent to which “students feel in control

of the activities and outcomes that are important to them” (2016, p.

148). Value is the second factor in this theory; value represents the

degree to which “the activity or material represents meaning or worth

to students” (p. 148). Cavanagh summarizes Pekrun's body of research

in this area by explaining that when students evaluate a learning

environment, feeling a sense of “high control and high value will both

independently and synergistically contribute to which emotions

students experience and how those emotions contribute to motivation

and learning” (p. 148). These two notions of control and value provide

a manageable entry point for thinking about how to motivate students

in our online courses.

To help students develop a sense of control, Chapter 7 presents small

teaching strategies for fostering learner autonomy. Online learning

requires a high level of independence. Students must take ownership

for their learning in order to succeed in an online class. It's vital that

they learn to direct their own learning in ways that may not be as

necessary when taking an in-person class. We'll consider doable

adjustments to our online teaching that help students become less

reliant on you, their instructor. Such adjustments allow students a

degree of choice so that they feel more in control of their learning.

They can teach students how to take responsibility for their learning,

arguably an important life skill in many contexts outside of your class.

Giving students more control – or at least the perception of more

control – can lead to increased motivation to engage with you, your

material, and the other students in the class.

Similarly, we should help students see the meaning or value of class

activities. Chapter 8 explores the importance of making connections

between new knowledge and pre-existing knowledge or experience.

These connections help students to form the dense webs of

interrelated ideas that we as experts have in our neural networks.

When students see how new concepts relate to each other and to what

they already know about the material, content becomes more

meaningful. Chapter 8 will examine ways to help students form these

connections for themselves. In so doing, we help students to find

worth and perceive the value of what they are learning and how it

applies to their lived experience.

Finally, in Chapter 9 we turn our attention to us as online instructors.

It's certainly important to find ways to foster motivation in our

students. But how do we keep ourselves motivated? Here I'll seek to

inspire you to keep finding purpose in your online teaching, to

continue to develop your own sense of control, your own sense of the

value of what you are doing. Online classes aren't going away.

Excellent online teachers are positioned to make a tremendous impact,

not only on individual students, but on our society as a whole, as we

teach tomorrow's thought leaders today.

When our online classes are as engaging as our dynamic in-person

classes, we'll know that we've arrived. When we are just as jazzed in

the online classroom as we are in the physical, we'll know we've

succeeded. When both parties in the online learning partnership are

highly motivated, an energizing atmosphere results in which deep,

meaningful learning takes place.

Chapter 7

Creating Autonomy

INTRODUCTION

About five years ago, I was hired by our educational leadership

department to design and teach a new, updated version of their course

on Educational Technology in the College Classroom. This online

graduate-level course is a requirement for students in two master's

programs: one in educational technology and the other in community

college and higher education. I completed a significant redesign of the

course to incorporate content in the areas of instructional design, the

learning sciences, and principles of effective teaching with technology.

Modeling best practices in online course design and delivery was a

primary goal of the redesign. I invested a lot of work in the new

development, and I was quite pleased with the resulting course.

My students, however, were not.

After teaching the course a few times, a major problem became

increasingly apparent. The course served two master of education

programs, but not all students in these programs are educators. Both

programs had been designed for flexibility, to meet the needs of a

range of learners with varying career goals. This meant that about 50%

of my students were neither college instructors nor K12 teachers, and

they never would be. Many of my students were pursuing a master's

degree in higher education to advance their administrative careers at

the community college or university. That they were required to take

an entire course on teaching with technology made no sense for them.

They complained, and I agreed. The institution had inadvertently

created a clear misalignment of content and learner goals. It was

impossible to create relevance in a course about teaching methods for

students who had never taught and would never teach.

To address this concern, I proposed that we expand the scope of the

course to meet individual learner needs and goals. Those students who

were educators could focus exclusively on how to teach well with

technology. Students who were not educators could take a separate

path, one that allowed them to focus on how to work well with

technology, no matter what their job was.

A curriculum committee approval process ensued, leading to a new

course title, Technological Fluency and Leadership. I embarked on

another major course development project. My overarching goal for

the new course was to allow students to customize their learning so

that whatever their workplace or career goals, they could learn how to

improve their work with effective use of technology. I expanded this

approach to include the use of technology in our personal lives and in

our volunteer roles in the community as well.

In this new course, students have complete freedom to choose where

to focus their learning. They take responsibility for learning what will

benefit them in their unique context. They decide what will help them

achieve personal and professional goals. They are almost completely

autonomous when it comes to how they spend their time and energy in

my course. And just as Reinhard Pekrun's theory would suggest, now

that my students have significantly more control over their learning

experience, they're much more highly engaged as a result.

Students will not succeed in an online class if they do not take

responsibility for their own learning. My new course has been more

successful because I have been able to rebuild the curriculum to meet

multiple needs. Fostering student autonomy is woven into the fabric of

the new design. You may not have the freedom to completely redesign

your course and content, however, so the models in this chapter will

focus on the elements that most instructors can control, especially the

ones that fall at the level of small teaching.

IN THEORY

In Chapter 2, we introduced you to The Meaningful Writing Project, a book that described the conclusions of a massive survey that asked

students about what made writing assignments meaningful to them.

The implications of those conclusions, in our view, extend well beyond

the scope of written assignments, and can help us think more deeply

about what makes any kind of learning experience meaningful to our

students. The Meaningful Writing Project articulates three core

elements that were reported most frequently by students as

contributing to that sense of meaning. We discussed one of those three

items, regular engagement with peers and instructors and course

content, in Chapter 2. A second feature is connections, which means that the students could see connections between the course work and

their own experiences: past, present, and future. We will discuss that

idea in more depth in the next chapter.

The third element is agency, a concept that underpins the models

recommended in this chapter. When students feel like they have some

ability to control or have a say in the process of completing their work,

they are more likely to find that work meaningful. As the authors of

the book point out, we can't give people agency; we can, however,

provide the conditions and support for it to flourish: “We can

intentionally build optimal conditions for agency to emerge. Agency is

strengthened by offering experiences that get students to notice they

have the capacity to direct energies for themselves, in and beyond

classrooms” (Eodice, Geller, and Lerner, 2016, p. 53). This quote

reflects the premise underpinning many of the recommendations in

this book and the original Small Teaching, that our goal as teachers is

to create environments that spur and support learning – not simply to

present content to students and hope they master it.

If we want to motivate students to learn in our courses – in person or

online – we have to provide them with opportunities to be active

agents, just as Flower did in the course described in the opening of this

chapter. But we want even more than that, which is why we are using

the broader term autonomy in this chapter, one that you see more

typically cited in the educational literature. The contrast we would

make here is that students with a sense of agency feel like they have

the power to act in a given situation; students with autonomy have a

broader awareness of themselves as independent learners who have

both the responsibility and control of their own learning.

The findings of The Meaningful Writing Project fit well with what

research on learning and motivation has been telling us for quite some

time now. James Zull's The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the

Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning (2002) , which explores the biology of the brain in relation to teaching and

learning in higher education, argues that “one important rule for

helping people learn is to help the learner feel she is in control” (Zull,

2002, p. 52). You can probably relate well to this idea, since most

college faculty were willing to spend months and years settling into the

pursuit of a question that fascinated them while earning their doctoral

degrees. We don't undertake such pursuits because someone has

commanded us to do so; we undertake them because they fascinate us,

and we get to follow the pathways that interest us. Your students are

no different in this respect; they are more likely to pursue their work

(and find meaning in it) when they are tracking down the questions

that interest them, rather than the ones you have set for them.

At the same time, you of course are the expert in your field, and you

will have a better understanding of the important questions or content

in your field, as well as of the teaching strategies and assessments that

will help them learn. The key is to strike a balance by providing plenty

of support and guidance, while still allowing your students enough

freedom to help them develop that sense of autonomy – which was

exactly what students reported as most helpful to them in The

Meaningful Writing Project. While students valued assignments that

gave them agency, they also valued guidance and support from their

instructors. The authors describe it a sweet spot that falls somewhere

“between allow and require” (Eodice, Geller, and Lerner, 2016, p. 48); one of the students in the survey calls it “guidance without

boundaries” (p. 38).

In the models that follow, we have tried to strike that balance as well.

Throughout the first six chapters of this book we have provided plenty

of guidance for you in terms of how you can create great online courses

for your students, and in this section we encourage you to identify the

places within those course structures in which your students can

exercise some control over their own learning, or the ways in which

they demonstrate their learning to you. Providing those opportunities,

and supporting learners as they take advantage of them, will help them

develop the autonomy that we hope online education can foster in our

students.

MODELS

Helping students develop autonomy has lifelong implications for their

future success. The small teaching strategies outlined here encourage

students to take responsibility for their learning in our online classes

and beyond.

Offer Choice in Online Discussions

Online discussions have potential to significantly impact learning. The

peer-to-peer instruction that can take place there, when prompts are

structured carefully, can go a long way to deepening student

understanding of core concepts. However, discussions can also

become a tedious exchange of required original and reply posts that

bears little resemblance to the lively conversations you facilitate in the

classroom. A simple solution to the challenge of creating engaging

online discussions is to let students choose what they want to talk

about.

We know that students take more ownership of their learning when

they find the task relevant to their personal experiences or intriguing

to them in some other way. Designing for increased agency can be as

simple as helping students feel they have more control over their work,

and therefore, help them see more value in the task. As Cavanagh

(2016) explains, “The most straightforward route to maximizing

students' sense of control and value is quite simply to give them

control by giving them choices in activities and assignments wherever

possible” (pp. 150–151). Cavanagh goes on to explain that providing

students with choices leads to “greater completion, interest,

enjoyment, and perceived competence” (p. 151). These sound like great

benefits, don't they? You can reap those benefits and build an element

of learner agency into an online course by providing options for online

discussion topics.

I like to do this in a whole class discussion. Students in my technology

fluency class have four or five questions to choose from for each

module's discussion. For example, they can write about which of the

readings they selected. As another way to add choice, I provide 12–15

articles related to the module topic; students read five that most

interest them – and then write about what they found significant

about the readings they chose. This way, students inform each other

about the readings so that all articles are covered without each student

having to read all of them.

I always post three or four other discussion questions in addition to

the one related to module readings. Students might choose to write (or

talk, for video discussions) about the online resources that they

contributed to our shared Google Doc, to summarize what they found

and explain why it interested them. Or they might talk about a piece of

content I provided in the module, perhaps my mini-lecture video or

the guest lecturer for the week. They can also discuss the unique

project for that module, reflecting on their process, what they learned,

and how they plan to do things differently as a result.

Each week also includes a question about how what we did that week

impacts them personally. I'll ask how the readings affect my students'

experience at work, or what change they've made in family life as a

result of our activity in class. Students love the opportunity to talk

about themselves (don't we all?). They engage much more

enthusiastically and naturally, as they would in a spirited conversation

you might facilitate in the classroom, simply by way of having a choice

about their contribution. As an added bonus, they often describe tech

solutions to common challenges that I face as a busy working mom.

I'm still using an app that one of my students identified, Picniic, that

helps to organize hectic family life, with options for weekly menus,

recipes, grocery lists, calendars, individual chores and task lists, and

more. This is just one example. Giving students the option of pursuing

topics that interest them means I'm always learning from their

experiences. What better way to keep yourself fresh and enthusiastic

in a course you regularly teach than to keep learning from your

students?

Creating choice in online discussions is quite simple, though it

requires a bit of creativity to devise multiple possible discussion

questions for each module. My forum instructions state that they can

write about any or all of the questions. There's no requirement that

they have to address at least two or three; if they choose to write about

just one, but their contribution is well crafted and substantial, that's

fine. The goal is to allow students to engage with topics they find

interesting, and then interact with other students who likely wrote

about something else of interest. This way there are multiple mini-

conversations happening in the forum. The end result is a rich stream

of conversation that brings out nuanced themes and various angles

and facets of the module's topic. Best of all, I now have 25 co-creators

of content. Student contributions create a far more robust exploration

of the topic than I could ever engineer on my own.

In some weeks I require students to record a video instead of writing

their post. In other weeks, in line with Universal Design for Learning

(UDL) principles, I tell them that they can choose whether to record or

write. Sometimes their replies come via video. The course offers

continual, yet relatively simple, options for students to choose how

they want to engage each week. This helps keep module discussions

fresh and relevant, instead of the stale and forced interactions that

often characterize this component of an online class. Let students

choose what to talk about. Structure multiple ways for them to engage.

They'll contribute more than the minimum, and you'll likely find it

more rewarding to interact there as well.

Create Self-Enroll Scaffolded Groups

Another way to help online students develop independence is to

design a group process that simultaneously allows choice and fosters

self-sufficiency. This strategy weaves together two essential

ingredients of creating autonomy: personal interest or relevance, and

supporting students early in the process to equip them for success

without your active involvement.

Create groups that students can enroll themselves in based on topics

of interest. Each group has a limited number of spots, so enrollment

happens on a first-come, first-served basis. If I were teaching an

educational technology class today, for example, I might create a

group for each of the following topics:

AR/VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality)

Mobile Learning

Universal Design for Learning

Open Educational Resources

Gamification

Based on their interest in the topics, students sign up for the

appropriate group. Because they've chosen an area of interest to them,

students should naturally be more invested in, and take more

ownership of, their learning and contributions to the group.

Once students are in their groups, scaffold their process of becoming a

well-functioning team in which learners honor their commitments

both to themselves and to the others in the group. Robert John

Robertson and Shannon Riggs offer valuable insight into the research

on and implementation of asynchronous online group projects in their

chapter on collaborative assignments in High-Impact Practices in

Online Education: Research and Best Practices (2018). Robertson

and Riggs highlight both the benefits and challenges of online group

work and present a convincing argument for creating effective

collaborative projects, identified by George Kuh (2008) and the

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) as a high-

impact practice, despite the challenges involved:

Interestingly…historically underserved students comprise many of

the same student populations that online providers of higher

education are trying to serve by bringing higher education to where

they are…. Given this overlap between the student populations that

online providers are trying to serve and the student populations

identified as benefiting from high-impact practices (HIPs),

promoting collaborative activities online is becoming more

essential. (Robertson and Riggs, 2018, p. 72)

Although there are good reasons for including group work in online

classes, one of which is their claim that such tasks prepare students to

work in an increasingly global, asynchronous professional

environment, Robertson and Riggs are quite open about the obstacles

involved with collaborative learning tasks, especially those that are

unique to an online course. Of particular interest is their point about

the potential inauthenticity of learning to collaborate, which may not

be as necessary “for mature students, especially those who have been

in the workforce or military” (p. 78). Younger students who are

moving straight from high school to college benefit from more practice

working in teams, they argue, but for students who have already been

on the job, this may feel “forced and unnecessary” (p. 78).

Their advice, therefore, is to carefully design collaborative projects to

promote healthy group functioning and authentic, meaningful

learning that will be valuable in students' future workplaces. Here's a

quick summary of some of the other important characteristics of

collaborative assignments in online classes you'll find in this chapter,

though I encourage you to read it for yourself because it's so rich and

helpful. In order to be effective, a collaborative project in an online

class should:

Reflect your pedagogical purpose.

Begin with a structured team-building activity.

Include a plan to prevent conflict, or work through it

constructively if it occurs.

Require transparent group communication.

Have explicit grading criteria and processes (Robertson and

Riggs, 2018).

With these features of a well-designed group project, you can have

every hope that the task will achieve the learning goals you set for it

and will benefit your students in ways that reach beyond the content of

your course.

So how do you do these things in practice? Here are some small

suggestions to consider. Once students have signed up for their topic

of interest, make sure the task instructions are clear. You may want to

record a short explainer video since students may struggle to read

through lengthy written directions. Next, have students participate in

a team-building activity that functions as an ice-breaker and also helps

students to identify and select team roles. Both the task and the team

roles should ensure a collaborative, interdependent approach in which

the positive contributions of each team member impact the success of

the whole. The 2017 movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle illustrates this concept brilliantly. Without giving too much away, I'll explain that

the main characters find themselves in a video game. In order to

escape the game, they must overcome a series of obstacles and achieve

the objective so they can go back home. As in real video games, each

character has strengths and weaknesses. Through a series of

adventures and mishaps, these characters learn that they must

simultaneously play to their strengths while covering each other's

weaknesses. If they don't work together, they will fail the objective and

physically die in the game. It's an excellent analogy of how we expect

students to work together in groups, maximizing individual strengths

and helping each other succeed.

Sounds good, in theory. To help students achieve this harmony in

reality, you may want to require a team contract in which students

negotiate expectations, agree on standards of respectful and

considerate behavior, and establish a procedure to address conflict or

any failure to honor the contractual agreements. Ask students to

discuss and create their contract in a videoconference call and then

report periodically on their process and progress at the beginning of

the group task and at incremental periods or after staged deadlines

throughout the project.

When you structure the group project with these kinds of supportive

elements, you help students in a group hold themselves and each other

accountable for doing what they said they would do. They learn to take

responsibility for their learning, to develop autonomy, as they uphold

individual commitments and rely on each other for success. Given that

the ability to learn and work both independently and in teams is highly

sought after by today's employers (Agarwal, 2019), we contribute to

our students' future success by helping them develop a sense of

responsibility for their own work and for their contributions to the

team.

Apply Specifications Grading

In Chapter 4, I briefly mentioned Specifications Grading, an

assessment strategy described by Linda Nilson in her book by the

same name (2015). There, I presented one piece of the Specifications, or Specs, Grading approach: Oops Tokens, a way of adding flexibility

to your class and demonstrating caring and support for your learners.

But I didn't really do justice to Specs Grading in my earlier treatment

of it. The real beauty of this approach is that it helps students take

responsibility for their learning by holding them accountable for doing

the work of learning. As author Terry Doyle explains, “The one who

does the work does the learning” (2011, p. 13). Yet, many of our

assessments that truly get to higher-order thinking require us to do

more work while grading these artifacts than our students did while

creating them – at least, it often feels that way. Nilson points out that

there is a flaw in that system, and I think she's quite right.

Nilson presents a compelling argument for holding students to a

higher standard of work; her practical approach shows how to do this

while simultaneously minimizing our grading burden. True to small

teaching form, a couple of years ago I decided to try a few little

elements of Specs Grading in my online technology fluency class.

First, here's a brief summary of Specs Grading in the way that I've

applied it. Nilson provides a useful analogy from the software

engineering industry. When a customer orders a new product, the

engineers receive a list of criteria, or specifications, for what the

product should be able to do. If the finished software program does

not meet those specifications, the customer does not take it and say,

“Ok, I guess that's about 78% there, that's good enough.” No. “Either a

program meets all these specs, or it doesn't,” Nilson explains. “And if it

doesn't, it fails and must be revised or abandoned” (Nilson, 2015, p.

56).

Yet, this is exactly what we do – that is, accept work that is below par –

when we assess student work on a typical grading scale that allows for

partial credit. We train students to think that they can submit less-

than-standard work, that they can earn a C or a B or even a low A.

What Specs Grading does, by contrast, is to require students to meet

all the basic criteria, or their work is not acceptable. Nilson advocates

for a rigorous all-or-nothing grading strategy – applied strategically,

maybe not for every assessment – that holds students accountable for

doing the work at the level we expect. This might be at 90%; you can

determine that, depending on how you write the task specifications.

Specs Grading requires students to work hard to that meet our high

expectations; simultaneously, our grading load is significantly lighter

since we can use a checklist or rubric to efficiently grade their

submission. If it meets the criteria, the student earns 100% of the

points. If the work doesn't meet all specs, the student earns a zero.

Again, this is a very brief summary of Specs Grading, one that does not

even touch on another element that is a form of contract grading. In

this application, students can determine what grade they want to earn

in the class, then do that amount of work. Although this sounds

intriguing, I've not implemented this component, so I'll limit my

remarks to how I used one small part of Specs Grading in my online

class.

One of the changes I made was to grade all discussion forums on the

all-or-nothing basis that Specs Grading makes so feasible. If you've

taught online classes with a discussion component, you know that it

can be challenging to determine the difference between a low A and a

high B, for example. Or if not difficult, at least time-consuming. We

want students to make meaningful and substantive contributions that

move the conversation forward, not simply parrot the reading or what

their classmates have already said. But drawing distinctions such as

that an “A” post will contain at least 250 words and a “B” post will

have between 175 and 249 words seems arbitrary and meaningless to

me. Students are expert word-count-fillers, having had years of

practice.

Instead, applying Specs Grading to my online discussions allows me to

quickly – I'm talking mere seconds – assess whether students'

contributions are significant enough to get full points. If not, they get a

zero. My discussion rubric has exactly one row and two columns. The

row summarizes the instructions for the forum. The columns are

labeled “Meets Expectations” (full points) and “Does Not Meet

Expectations” (zero points). No longer do I debate whether a

submission is more like an 88% or closer to a 91%. Students earn

100% or zero. I can tell at a glance which one.

In this system I have found that, as Nilson claims, students figure out

pretty quickly that they can't get away with half-hearted effort. The

first time a student earns a zero for what may have otherwise been an

86%, they sit up and take notice. Students can't skate by with minimal

effort. This is not “Cs get degrees.” Specs Grading requires students to

read all the specifications (assignment criteria) and then submit work

that is at least up to that level.

If you've taught for any length of time, you may have developed a

certain skepticism that students actually read assignment instructions.

You may feel that some students require too much hand-holding or

spoon-feeding. Specs Grading is a way to help students mature in their

approach, to grow in their ability and willingness to take ownership of

the quality of their work – a desirable trait for tomorrow's workforce

to possess.

One caveat: Nilson recommends, and I wholeheartedly agree, that you

include a “Get Out of Jail Free” card in the form of one or more Oops

Tokens. Students earn that zero one time, submit an Oops Token to be

allowed to resubmit the task, and from then on invest a whole lot more

effort to produce work that is up to snuff. In Chapter 4 I described

using these tokens for deadline extensions as a way of showing

compassion for students' life circumstances. I find that they add just

enough wiggle room to allow me to hold students to a high standard

while acknowledging that life happens.

Consult Nilson's Specifications Grading (2015) for a more in-depth description of the approach. I've only implemented one small part of

it. I share my method here to show one way in which Specs Grading

and a Learning Management System (LMS) rubric can facilitate

meaningful assignments that require higher-order thinking without

placing an undue grading burden on the instructor.

Annotate, Tweak, and Co-Design Your

Syllabus

One final suggestion for helping your students become autonomous

learners is to get them actively working with your syllabus, even

potentially helping to shape the final document. This is a great way to

give your students some control over their learning and help them see

the value of the work they are doing in your course. Of course, this

strategy can be just as effective in your in-person or blended classes as

in your online ones. All our students can benefit from becoming more

adept at directing their own learning – allowing students to

meaningfully interact with your syllabus can help to accomplish this

goal.

Many of us treasure our syllabus as the heart and soul of our course,

the repository of the essential course design, content plan, and

contractual agreement between ourselves and our students. Indeed, in

his 2018 syllabus creation guide for The Chronicle of Higher

Educatio n, Kevin Gannon writes, “An effective syllabus is a promise

that, as a result of our course, students will be able to do a number of

things either for the first time or at least better than they could before”

(Gannon, 2018b). Sounds great, doesn't it? Quite promising, actually.

However, many of our students don't see the syllabus as full of

“promise.” It's not exaggerating to say they often see the syllabus as a

boring document that fails to provide meaningful guidance. Some of

them (most of them?) don't even read it.

One way to engage students in their own learning and with your

syllabus is to solicit their active feedback and input on its content by

having them annotate the document. Hypothesis, for example, is a free

online program that students can use to annotate any document on the

web.

Researcher and educator Remi Kalir writes about this approach on his

blog in a post titled, “Annotate Your Syllabus” (Kalir, n.d.-a,b). He

outlines multiple benefits to inviting students to annotate your

syllabus. They can ask questions about assignments or course policies.

They can comment on major assignments, indicate where they have

concerns, and ask for potential tweaks. They can share practical advice

with each other about how to be successful in the course. They can

voice opinions on familiar texts and suggest supplemental ones or

optional additions to the course schedule. They can discuss instructor

and institutional policies to get at the nuances of how these play out in

practice.

Getting students to read, think, and talk about the syllabus in a

meaningful way is a challenge in both traditional and online courses.

This assignment addresses that issue. And, Kalir notes, it provides

ongoing benefit throughout the semester. In his blog post on this

topic, Kalir refers to an August 2018 tweet in which he points out,

“Because the annotated syllabus is available to students throughout

the semester, this record of Q&A is a persistent resource. This shifts

the classic ‘It's in the syllabus, did you read?’ approach to a more

constructive ‘We discussed this when annotating our syllabus, pls

revisit our convo’” (Kalir, n.d.-a,b). This step toward building learner independence seems rewarding and purposeful in and of itself.

To truly encourage learner autonomy, however, Kalir recommends

using the annotated syllabus to facilitate course co-design between you

and your students.

In my courses, I seek to create the conditions whereby students

craft their own learning pathways, pursue their interests, and make

the course of use to their immediate and longer-term goals.

Practically speaking, this means that assignments change during

the semester. And that readings are thrown out and replaced. That

units of study are adapted. That instructional activities are created

and facilitated by students. And that I welcome students' critical

feedback and respond respectfully to their needs from one week to

the next. (A Strategy for Course Co-Design section, para. 1)

Consider the value of helping students determine their own learning

pathways to investigate what is most interesting and relevant to them.

What better way to cultivate the self-determination that offers so many

benefits in online classes and beyond? Allowing students to co-create

the course is a powerful means of getting them to take ownership of

their learning.

Kalir acknowledges that this is a “challenging, intensive and

emotionally-present approach to pedagogy and course design.” If this

sounds like giving up more control than you are comfortable with,

consider a small teaching approach to dipping your toe in the course

co-design water. A special education professor I know leaves one blank

course learning objective on his syllabus. Students write their own

objective, then design and execute an assessment to measure their

achievement of it. In this way, he allows students to choose one facet

of what they want to learn in the course and decide how they will

demonstrate that they've learned it.

Practically speaking, you can use Hypothesis to annotate the syllabus

in whatever manner you decide to begin with. Students create a free

account using a personal or school email address, then begin to post

and interact on the syllabus posted in your LMS or on a site like

docdrop.org. Rather than a tired old document that no one ever reads, the syllabus becomes a living document in which you and your

students can “collaboratively discuss learning” (Kalir, n.d.-a, b).

Not sure about using Hypothesis? In a follow-up post, “Annotate Your

Syllabus 2.0,” Kalir encourages us not to let the technology get in the

way of the approach (Kalir, n.d.-a,b). He suggests that Google Docs

may be an effective tool, if that's what you and your students are

already using, or even flipchart paper and markers, if you're teaching a

blended or face-to-face class. Kalir reminds us not to let technology get

in the way of your pedagogical purpose: “Use familiar technology,” he

suggests. “Annotating your syllabus doesn't necessitate that you or

your students learn a new tool or set of technical skills. The goal is to

annotate, ask questions, share thoughts, and start a discussion about

learning together” (Kalir, n.d.-a,b). Excellent advice – a great

reminder to find the right technology tool for the job and resist the

temptation to try a new tool just because it's the latest greatest thing.

Keep your teaching and learning purpose firmly in view. Then find the

best tech – be it an online tool or pen and paper – to help you

accomplish your goal.

PRINCIPLES

Helping online learners develop autonomy should result in increased

engagement and success in your class, and will benefit them in

countless learning and workplace contexts moving forward. We can

draw out a few principles to guide your process.

Offer Choice to Increase Learner Agency

When we are interested in what we're doing, we naturally invest more

time and energy in the task. Take advantage of this by creating

multiple ways for students to choose what they want to work on, talk

about, and create to demonstrate knowledge. When they find

relevance and inherent value in the task, students will be much more

inclined to take ownership of their learning. Offer options wherever

possible to cultivate the autonomy needed for online student success.

Foster Independence

Many college faculty today wrestle with knowing how much support to

provide. At which point does this turn into spoon-feeding? We do our

students no favor by coddling them. Higher education should prepare

students to be self-motivated employees who don't require micro-

managing. However, this way of thinking can lead to the opposite

extreme, where we throw students in at the deep end with no support

whatsoever. It's important to find the balance, and for online learners,

it may be necessary to lean toward providing more support early in the

semester. But we can gently remove the training wheels if we

systematically create mechanisms that help students become more

independent and take more responsibility for their learning over time.

Hold Students Accountable for Their Work

Expect – and require – only the highest-quality work. Raise the bar.

Provide the support needed to help students clear it. Give students

clear expectations for success, assignment criteria, rubrics, and

exemplars. Don't lower your standards in the name of grading

efficiency. Instead, refuse to accept junk effort. Reject work that does

not demonstrate excellence. Teach students the importance of

ensuring their work is on time and meets expectations. They'll benefit

from this lesson for years to come.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

CREATING AUTONOMY

Today's students may come to us with a background that has not

taught them to take responsibility for their actions. As is often

bemoaned by those of us teaching in higher education, our current K12

system does not seem to do enough to prepare students for the rigor of

college classes. Yet we don't want to overgeneralize or blame systems

that may be outside of our control or even our influence. Instead, we

can take responsibility to foster autonomy in order to help our

students succeed in their online classes and beyond.

Provide multiple topics and questions in online discussion

prompts. Include some that allow students to relate the topic to

their personal experience.

Let students sign up for groups based on a topic they want to

delve into. Provide support structures that help groups develop

into productive teams as they increase in independence.

Use Specifications Grading to set a high standard for student

work. Establish an all-or-nothing grading approach for some

elements of your class to help students learn to take responsibility

for their efforts.

Use Hypothesis or other online annotation tools. These will allow

students to become co-creators of the course syllabus with you.

CONCLUSION

Consider the process of raising a child to be a healthy, productive

adult. You pass through countless stages of increasing independence

along the way. Newborn babies are completely helpless, unable to do

anything for themselves. But developing children don't stay that way.

Wise parents guide their learning to enable them to do more for

themselves, from rolling over to scooching around on the floor to

pulling up to taking those first tottering steps. And that's just one

analogy – children go through innumerable other phases of self-

sufficiency as part of growing up.

Let's apply the same intentional approach required of parenting to the

development of our online students. I've come to believe that helping

others increase in autonomy is about more than success in our

individual courses. We have a unique opportunity to help those we

teach, both in class and in life, learn to take more responsibility for

their learning and their actions, to take ownership, to grow in

independence.

Our increasingly interconnected global economy requires critical

thinkers. Creative problem-solvers. Engaged citizens. We can help to

develop tomorrow's leaders now in our online classes. Put the

affordances of the flexibility inherent in online learning to work

toward this end. Acknowledge the challenges presented by the need for

students to direct their own learning. Embed small teaching strategies

that create autonomous learners. You'll do them – and our global

society – a great service.

Chapter 8

Making Connections

INTRODUCTION

Blood, sex, and gore. Love, betrayal, murder. Injustice, bigotry,

revenge. Our responses to society's enduring themes shape who

we become. Join us as we explore legendary heroes and monsters

in iconic classics ranging from Odysseus to Othello to Luke

Skywalker to Harry Potter. In doing so we seek to understand the

potential we each have for both heroism and monstrosity.

So reads the course description for the First-Year Seminar I developed

and taught last fall, Legends, Heroes and Monsters. Was I trying to get

the attention of 18-year-olds? You bet. Did I exaggerate the shock

value of events and themes found in these texts and films? Nope.

These themes and issues not only resonate in the works referenced

above, but in the daily news. I made it my mission in the course to help

my students see how both ancient and contemporary stories reflect

and inform our lived experience today.

In this class, I conducted a running activity throughout the semester.

Every few weeks we would zoom out from the details of the current

text or film and make a list on the whiteboard of heroic qualities

common to one or more protagonists we'd studied. For example, in the

second class meeting of the semester, we listed admirable

characteristics on the whiteboard that we'd observed in the assigned

reading from Homer's The Odyssey. I like to have fun with this

activity, provoking both laughter and debate by adding things such as

Odysseus' fabulous wavy hair or his massive rippling thighs. The

students would eventually persuade me to erase those items and

replace them with more standard traits such as courage and physical

strength. In this way, they practice building a persuasive argument

from a literary text.

As we finished one text and prepared to start the next, I'd carve out a

few minutes of class time to add to or revise our running list. Each

time we engaged in this task I instructed students to copy the lists in

their notebooks, so while I didn't have a permanently saved version,

we could recall earlier discussions and refer back to their notes if

needed.

Little by little, our list of heroic qualities evolved into something

nuanced and debatable. We looked for attributes shared by more than

one protagonist. We looked for opposites, too. Odysseus repeatedly

saves his own skin at the expense of his men. Harry Potter frequently

sacrifices his well-being, eventually his very life, in order to save his

friends. Beowulf never shirks from danger, finally dying in his final

glorious battle with the dragon. Sir Gawain gives in to the temptation

to cheat out of cowardice, a desire to preserve his life.

As we engaged in these pursuits, we were linking course content that

can often seem remote to today's college students – ancient stories

from foreign cultures – with their contemporary heroes from popular

culture.

In addition to the connections we made across content units of the

course, or between the past and the present, we also made connections

between the stories and the human conditions they have faced in their

own lives, or will face in their futures. A main focus of the class, for

example, is to determine how our choices influence our fate. Luke

Skywalker and Harry Potter both share a remarkable set of

circumstances and traits with their arch-nemeses, Darth Vader and

Lord Voldemort. What makes one turn out a hero for the ages and the

other become a super villain? This question fostered a great deal of

reflection on the everyday choices first-year students find themselves

making in their new campus environment.

Finally, we made frequent connections between the course texts and

our current historical moment. We talked about the racism depicted in

Shakespeare's Othello. Years ago, when teaching this play, I drew

parallels with the Rodney King riots of 1992. These days I don't have to

look back so far. Not only do my students typically not know who

Rodney King was, but there are far-too-frequent events sparked by

racial tensions in much more recent history.

Some teachers might view all of these connections to the lives of

students as superfluous to student mastery of the content. They should

know the texts, those critics might suggest, and not worry about all of

that outside stuff. But we now have plenty of research that suggests

that if we want students to master the texts – or course content of any

kind – those kinds of connections between the course material and

their lives outside of the course are one of the best tools we have

available to us.

IN THEORY

For students to learn something deeply, they must make the kinds of

connections described above, both internal (across the course content)

and external (from the course content to the students' experiences).

Doing so has at least two positive benefits for learning, one cognitive

and one motivational.

The cognitive benefits are reviewed pretty thoroughly in the original

Small Teaching. The short version of that explanation is that new

learners within a discipline (and usually we are working with new

learners, at least in comparison to ourselves) have trouble seeing how

all of the different elements of a field of knowledge hang together.

They tend to focus on isolated facts, easily-mastered skills, or quick

formulas instead of gaining the big picture. As an expert in your field,

you have a much clearer view of that picture. You see how everything

connects, and you see the structures that create those connections.

One of the most important effects of your wider view is that it helps

you process new, incoming knowledge. When you have a rich network

of knowledge in place within a particular field, you can extend your

knowledge in productive and coherent ways. Multiple studies have

found, for example, that “when students are provided with an

organizational structure in which to fit new knowledge, they learn

more effectively and efficiently than when they are left to deduce this

conceptual structure for themselves” (Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro,

Lovett, and Norman, 2010). Of course, everything we know about the

power of active learning would tell us that the most effective way to

provide that conceptual structure would be to co-create it with your

students. You provide frameworks, seed in some connections, and

then guide the students as they begin making connections between the

course material and their own experiences and aspirations.

Providing them the opportunity to participate in this process would

help spur the second important benefit of connected learning:

increasing student motivation. The University of California at Irvine

has a Connected Learning Lab that has been actively pursuing and

promoting research in this area, including the link between student

interest in a topic and their ability to see how it connects to their lives.

One of their studies discovered by exploring their resources –

something that we highly encourage readers to undertake as well –

describes a very simple experiment with high school students that

demonstrates how motivation and performance can both be enhanced

through facilitating connections for students.

As they describe it in an overview of the experiment in Science

(Hulleman and Harackiewicz, 2009), the researchers worked with a

group of more than 250 high school students in three different science

courses. In the control condition, the students wrote summaries of the

material they were learning; in the experimental condition, the

students wrote short essays about how the material they were learning

was useful or relevant to their lives. The students in the experimental

condition not only received higher grades at the end of the term but

also reported increases in their interest in science.

This was true in general, but broken down a little more finely, the

results get more interesting. For stronger-performing students who

already reported high interest in science, this experiment didn't do

much for them. The results were primarily observed in the students

who came into the course without much interest in science, and

without much expectation of success in the course. As the authors

explain,

Our results demonstrate that encouraging students to make

connections between science course material and their lives

promoted both interest and performance for students with low

success expectancies. The effect on performance was particularly

striking, because students with low-success expectancies improved

nearly two thirds of a letter grade in the relevance condition

compared with the control condition.

This makes a kind of intuitive sense. Students who come into a course

with a preexisting interest likely already see how it connects to their

lives, and how it might be useful to them in the future. The students

who can't see these things benefit when they are made visible.

If you are teaching all of your online courses to students who are

completely confident in their abilities, have a preexisting interest in

your subject matter, and are excellent all-around learners, then

creating these kinds of connections might not be all that important for

you. (Also, Flower and Jim would like to trade jobs with you.) If, on

the other hand, you are teaching courses to students who need all the

help they can get, and who don't always see the relevance of your

course material to their lives outside of the course, then the

connection-making strategies described in this chapter will help both

inspire your students and improve their learning.

MODELS

Helping online students form connections between class material and

their existing knowledge and experience is vitally important. Without

such connections, new concepts and information are discrete “islets”

of the kind Jim describes in Small Teaching. As novice learners of our

subject matter, our students don't have the organizing framework that

helps them make sense of new information. Without this framework,

learners don't experience the full meaning of what they are learning.

Without finding meaning in their work, students are not as motivated

as they might be otherwise. Help students develop a better

understanding of the meaning and purpose of what they are doing in

your class. Pekrun's control-value theory suggests that increased

motivation to learn will result.

The following models, some of which parallel those Jim presents in the

original Small Teaching, offer ways for students to interact with

content so that they create their own connections – ones that will be

far more meaningful to them than ones we might create for them.

Activate Prior Knowledge

This strategy comes directly out of Small Teaching. It is highly

effective and quite easy to implement online. In his book, Jim

describes ways of helping students articulate their existing knowledge

about your subject. He explains that asking your students what they

already know “fertilizes the intellectual soil for the knowledge and

skills that you will help them build over the coming days and weeks”

(Lang, 2016, p. 101). Such fertilization can occur at the beginning of

the semester as well as throughout the course to connect new concepts

across topics and modules. Modules are a ubiquitous feature of online

courses, and they help us organize course material, but they may also

create a false separation between course concepts. Activating prior

knowledge can help students see how new information relates to what

they already know.

For example, at the end of your Start Here or Orientation module,

students might take a quiz or submit an assignment that represents

what they already know about the topic in order to open the remainder

of the course content. Whether you create a pretest or an assignment

will likely depend on your discipline as well as how many students are

enrolled. For example, if you are teaching a class with upwards of 70

or 80 students, a machine-graded pretest might be the most sensible

option. Be sure to set an early deadline for this activity, such as Days

1–3. Get students engaged with course content and tasks as soon as

possible, which will communicate your expectation that students will

be active frequently throughout each week of the course.

Once students complete the task, the rest of the course content

automatically opens up. This way, students are not waiting on your

feedback before they can proceed with coursework.

Although students are not waiting on you, your response should be

timely. When you set the pre-assessment deadline, evaluate your

availability to create and share a response. Don't make the pre-test due

on Tuesday evening if you know you won't be able to analyze and

respond to the results until Friday morning. Coordinate their deadline

to submit with your own schedule to ensure timely feedback.

Once you've analyzed the pre-assessment data (this may be possible

through increasingly available analytics dashboards), write or record

your reactions and share with your students. Generally, I prefer to

capture an informal video announcement as described in Chapter 3.

Students in online courses welcome hearing your voice and seeing

your face. They gain better understanding when they can experience

nonverbal cues such as vocal intonations and emphasis, and facial

expressions that communicate your interest in their success. Just as

you wouldn't give instruction in the classroom via a handout that

students read silently to themselves, move away from written guidance

and instruction in the online class. Let your students see and hear you

as often as possible.

In this message, share your reactions to what they said they know.

Point out areas of strength in the collective understanding of the class.

Identify one or two common misunderstandings. Let students know

that you'll come back to these points for additional information or

clarification as the semester progresses.

Make sure you follow up on that promise. Periodically throughout the

course, remind students of what they indicated they knew about the

subject matter. When you come to these topics in the course, highlight

areas where they demonstrated good prior knowledge. Direct students

to devote extra attention in modules where the preassessment

indicated gaps in understanding. Weave these references into

discussion replies, announcements, and individual or group feedback.

Help students see how what they are learning this week connects to

their thinking during the first week of class. In so doing, help students

form those connections between and among course concepts for

themselves.

Provide the Framework

In Small Teaching, Jim describes the benefits of providing a partial

outline or other organizing structure for students to complete while

consuming content – that is, reading text or watching a video. He

refers to research in which students who were given partial notes prior

to a lecture performed better on the final exam than did students who

received full notes (Cornelius and Owen-DeSchryver, 2008, p. 8) and

suggests “giving students an organizing framework with hierarchies

and key concepts in advance of the lecture.” Doing so can “help them

build accurate connections without simply handing them an already

completed network and without leaving them to devise the

organizational principles of the material on their own (which, as

novice learners, they will have trouble doing)” (Lang, 2016, p. 103).

Scaffolding the student note-taking process in this way can make a big

impact in online classes. Giving the students something to do while

watching a mini-lecture video, for example, encourages active listening

and attentive processing of new information.

One way you might implement this approach is to post a partially

complete PDF file of lecture notes or presentation slides placed just

before the mini-lecture video in the module. Encourage (or require)

students to print the file and take hand-written notes while they

watch. The first time they do this in your class, point students to the

research on how writing notes by hand leads to better retention of

material than typing notes on a keyboard. Explain that although they

may be surprised to have to print a document, you would like them to

try it to see if it proves helpful to their learning.

If you decide to require that students complete a partial outline, you

can still collect their work. Ask students to take a picture of their

completed notes, upload it to the Learning Management System

(LMS), and submit it as an assignment. Award nominal points for

submission, or set the assignment to show as Complete/Incomplete in

the LMS gradebook. Either way, it should be a quick check-off task to

ensure that students made a good-faith effort to take notes on the

mini-lecture.

Mini-lecture videos are great for making an otherwise text-heavy

course more interesting and dynamic. But students tend to stop

watching after a short amount of time, sometimes only a few seconds

into the video. Or if they play the entire recording, chances are they

are also cooking dinner, doing dishes, folding laundry, or carrying out

a host of other on- or offline activities. Help students actively engage

with your content by providing partial outlines or slides to complete

and submit.

Hate the thought of all that printing? Want to save your students

money? You could have students copy and paste the partial outline

into a Google Doc, complete it there, and submit the link as an

assignment. Or suggest that instead of printing your file, they copy the

headings into a spiral notebook, fill in the additional points, and

submit a photo of their work in that form. With only a little effort and

creativity, you can provide students with just enough of an organizing

framework to help them form connections between and among

concepts for themselves.

Embed Concept Maps

One more idea from Small Teaching is to take advantage of the power

of concept maps. “A rich literature exists on the use of concept maps

(also sometimes called mind maps),” Jim writes, “which present a fast

and easy method to help students visualize the organization of key

ideas in your course” (Lang, 2016, p. 104). He recommends asking students to create concept maps at various points in your online class

or modules to help them create and demonstrate the connections that

are forming in their own minds as they learn and process new

information. According to the Eberly Center of Teaching Excellence

and Instructional Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University,

Having students create concept maps can provide you with insights

into how they organize and represent knowledge. This can be a

useful strategy for assessing both the knowledge students have

coming into a program or course and their developing knowledge of

course material. (Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon University, n.d.)

This visual representation of students' understanding can clearly show

gaps as well as creative associations.

In Chapter 1, I recommended starting the class with an activity related

to the final project. Let me connect that strategy with this one (see

what I did there?) by suggesting that you ask students to create a

concept map with ideas for a major research paper or presentation in

Week 1. Students can create their map with free concept mapping

software (my favorite is Bubbl.us) and submit a link to it or a PDF of it.

Or they could hand-write their concept map on paper and submit a

photo of it. They might use colorful Post-it Notes to create a concept

map on a whiteboard or poster board and then submit a picture of that

artifact. Better yet, let students choose what format they want to create

their map. Allowing students to choose their preferred medium builds

agency and encourages creativity. Since we want them to form and

identify new connections, we should do everything we can to foster the

creative process.

Getting students to generate ideas and possible topics to explore for a

research project in Week 1 is an excellent way of helping them to see

the overall design, or outcome, of your course (for more on that, see

Chapter 1). Allowing students to submit their early thinking in this

format is likely to be far more interesting to them than requiring some

kind of formal proposal. You may assign a written proposal later, but

as a first step in idea generation, concept maps have a lot going for

them.

This is just one example of small online teaching with concept maps. I

could create an entire concept map of other ways to incorporate these

in your online class. Sometimes I take a picture of my class-related

whiteboard- or notepaper-scribbled maps and post those online.

Making my thinking visible in this way can help my students see how I

as an expert connect and organize concepts.

You can also have students create a concept map as the concluding

activity in a module to demonstrate their new understanding of key

ideas. A biology professor I know provides a partial concept map for

processes such as membrane transport. She provides some of the

organizing structure and information to students. As they work

through the topic, they fill in missing elements and blank ovals and

boxes on the map. My colleague provides the complete and accurate

map to her students just before the exam so that they can check their

work. This is a great way to help students construct their own

understanding while simultaneously making sure they have the correct

information to study before taking the module test.

The more you think about how to include concept maps in your online

class, the more potential you will see for these valuable small teaching

tools. Harness the power of student-generated connections to help

your online learners see how key themes and concepts relate within

your course.

Relate Learning to Personal Experience,

Outside Interests, and Goals

This strategy is a great way to help students find relevance in

classwork and therefore be more motivated to engage. Saundra

McGuire, in Teach Students How to Learn (McGuire and McGuire,

2015), describes the importance of getting students to make

connections for themselves in order to make meaning of new

information:

We don't have to make the connections for them; in fact it is much

better if we don't. We can just throw a concept out there, like a ball,

and ask, “What does this remind you of that you've encountered in

your everyday life?” When students hit the ball back, they come up

with the most wonderful examples and ideas that give them not

only an efficient path to learning and mastery, but also the most

efficient path for them. (p. 26)

As McGuire points out, this approach allows each student to relate

new information to existing knowledge and personal interests. The

result is an individualized ability to process and master our content.

One of the affordances of online learning is student access to internet

resources and tools. Students are already online when they're in class.

Encourage them to explore the web, to create new connections and

artifacts that extend beyond the confines of your course into their

personal and future professional lives.

Earlier, I described the connections we make in my First-Year Seminar

between themes in films and literature and current campus, local,

national and global events. I also encourage students to apply what we

are learning to their own personal context. For example, I ask them to

consider the similarities between their current experience as a

freshman at university, away from home and family for the first time,

and that of Harry Potter as a First Year at Hogwarts. What can we

learn from his feelings of uncertainty? From his sense of belonging, or

lack thereof? From his interactions with friends, enemies, or

professors? When will we need to summon courage as Harry does, and

how can we do that?

Online courses provide a great deal of potential for helping students

see that what they learn in your class is not restricted to the walled

garden of your LMS. Using the rich set of resources available on the

internet, empower students to discover that class content applies to

the real world, their own life, other courses, and long-term academic

and career goals. Here are some ways to do this.

Students in my online graduate-level technology fluency class

contribute two current resources each week that relate to that

week's topics. Online news stories, blog posts, informative videos,

and infographics all qualify. They post these in a Google Doc with

a sentence or two about why the content is interesting and

relevant for them as they develop their technical savvy. This

strategy could work in almost any discipline. What is happening

in the world that relates to your subject matter? Ask students to

locate relevant news stories or other content and share in

discussion posts, a blog or journal. Have them describe why this

particularly resonates with them as they apply key ideas to their

interests and activities.

Using their own technology, have students engage in activities

that capitalize on the affordances of learning anytime, anywhere.

What can they do when not restricted to the walls of a physical

classroom? Students in my tech fluency class video a leader in

their chosen career path, someone who has found success at work

and who uses technology well. You would likely not bring all of

these experts into your classroom, but when there are no walls,

opportunities are limitless.

A physical therapy professor I know asks his doctoral students to

follow leading experts in the field of PT on Twitter. This way they

take in the most up-to-date information and developments in

their future profession. If they choose to interact with these

leaders, they're potentially forming the basis of a future personal

learning network (PLN).

Once you begin to see the possibilities of putting the internet and the

wider world to work for your class, you will find endless ways of

helping students connect class concepts with real life.

Assign Personal Learning Networks

We all use our PLN for much of our ongoing learning and growth even

though we might not use that exact label for it. For example, when you

are curious about the newest developments in the smartphone world,

who do you talk to? If you are unsure what to do about a pest problem

in your house, who do you ask? If you're considering a smart home

assistant, where do you go to inform yourself? To find out about the

latest innovations in educational technology, are there people or

organizations you follow on Twitter or LinkedIn? If you engage in any

of these activities, you're working within your PLN.

I see the value of helping students create connections beyond the

confines of my class, so we actively attend to developing PLNs in my

technology fluency class. We all know that technology is changing

rapidly. There's a constant learning curve if we want to stay current

with the tech that we use at work and at home. We formalize this idea

in my online course, first reading a bit about what PLNs are and why

they are important for the lifelong learning that is so necessary for

thriving in the twenty-first century. Then, over a few weeks' time, my

students actively seek out colleagues, experts, and friends and family

to become part of their learning network.

Higher education thought leader Bernard Bull articulates the value of

PLNs in a 2013 blog post, “Helping Students Develop Personal

Learning Networks.” He recommends taking “the idea of a personal

learning network, combining it with the promise and possibility of

self-directed learning and starting to think more about how we might

empower and encourage students to cultivate their own personal

learning networks” (Bull, 2013). Bull's take on engaging students with

their PLNs to help them develop the ability to direct their own

learning is of particular interest, since it emphasizes the value of

helping students develop into lifelong learners.

Indeed, this is the very name of the PLN assignment in my class.

Students write Lifelong Learning Log (journal) entries each week to

describe actions they've taken to formalize and expand their PLN.

They tell me about connecting with people on LinkedIn, about setting

up a structured mentorship with a supervisor at work, about attending

local politicians' campaign rallies in order to explore public service. As

they find increased connections between the course and the world

beyond the LMS, they engage with class material in striking new ways.

You can find more ideas for getting students engaged with their PLNs

in Bull's blog. For example, consider a few of his suggestions:

Create a concept map of your own PLN and share it with your

students.

Ask students to depict their PLNs in their own concept maps.

Assign tasks that require students to build new contacts in their

PLN or ask existing ones for help.

Any of these ideas would be an effective yet small way of helping

students develop and see the value of their PLNs, and in so doing,

fostering their growth as lifelong learners.

PRINCIPLES

As Jim writes in Small Teaching, “Connection exercises provide a

bridge between your expert comprehension of your subject matter and

the novice understanding of your students” (Lang, 2016, p. 109). I

would add that connecting course material and their daily experience

can also foster increased value, deep processing, and rich

understanding. Enable students to develop a bigger perspective

regarding key ideas, and they'll form the neural networks that will help

them move toward expertise in your discipline.

Tap into Prior Experience

To prepare students for a new course or a new topic, get them thinking

about what they know about the subject and what they think they

know. Identify collective areas of fairly well developed understanding.

Point out concepts about which the class has little knowledge or active

misunderstanding. Show students how their current knowledge about

the topic can prime the pump for learning new information. Then,

weave references to your students' input throughout the module or

course. Adjust your instruction. Remind students to pay extra

attention to topics where there was a gap in collective understanding.

Contextualize content within your students' frame of reference to help

them see the value of their learning.

Provide Organizing Structure

As we have seen, novice learners lack the framework to understand

how concepts relate to one another. Giving students an organizing

structure helps them sort and connect new information with

previously acquired knowledge. Scaffold the ability to organize and

store key ideas to help them identify how this week's concepts relate to

those learned the week before and the week before that. Make these

connections explicit for your students while they learn to make them

for themselves.

Foster (Unlooked-for) Connections

Helping students recognize how course material relates to lots of other

things (especially surprising things) inspires and engages students in a

unique way. We should absolutely help the students connect new

information to content from preceding modules. But if that's all we do,

we miss an important opportunity to help students situate new

learning in their existing set of experiences. What better way to

develop the critical and creative thinkers we need in today's society

than by helping students relate concepts to things they're learning in

other courses, what they experience at work, events that unfold in the

news? Guide students to discover how class content extends beyond

your class. You'll contribute to their lifelong ability to analyze,

synthesize, create.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

MAKING CONNECTIONS

Because your students lack expertise in your discipline, they will not

naturally see how concepts relate and fit together. Because they may

be used to thinking about classes as silos of information, they may not

realize that what they learn in your class can inform what they're

experiencing elsewhere. When we help students form these

connections, we help them find increased meaning and worth in what

they're learning. Motivated to engage, students will process, organize,

and work with new information in powerful new ways.

Activate prior knowledge by asking students to take a short pre-

test to describe what they know about your subject matter.

Submitting this quiz or assignment releases the rest of the course

or module content.

Provide a partial outline or slides for students to print and fill in

the missing information. They can upload a photo of their

completed notes and submit as an assignment.

Assign concept maps to help students see the connections

between ideas. Let them decide whether to create their map

online or on paper. Students submit a link to an online map or a

photo of a physical one.

Take advantage of the affordances of online learning to extend

learning beyond the confines of your course. Assign students to

curate online articles or blog posts, for example, to explore how

class concepts relate to what's happening in the world outside of

class. They can post these in a Google Doc, discussion forum, or

journal as a repository of their learning.

Assign PLNs. Help students see the importance of cultivating a

web of people and sources of knowledge to direct and expand

their own learning moving forward.

CONCLUSION

A biology professor friend of mine, the one who assigns partially

complete concept maps, tried something new on her first day of class

this past fall. Students in her general education course often struggle

to see the relevance of topics like the structure and function of the cell

nucleus. They're not interested and not engaged. But last August, my

friend conducted an activity to introduce major course topics and

explain how each one keeps us alive. She calls this first-day activity

Ways to Die. “This is how you would die if this function didn't

happen,” she told me, as we discussed her planned activity, “and this is

why you would die without this other process working correctly.” For

instance, she told me that people die of hyponatremia at the Grand

Canyon, though they have plenty of water, because they don't eat

enough. Electrolytes lost through sweat are not replenished.

Membrane transport doesn't function without salt.

My friend suspected that relating seemingly boring biological

processes to a general morbid fascination with death would capture

the interest and attention of her students. And she was right. I

observed her first day of class; I saw for myself the tangible shock that

her first-year students experienced when she instructed them to get

into groups so they could discuss Ways to Die. They couldn't believe

this was an actual class assignment. What I found especially

interesting is that not one student in the large enrollment class

googled the answers to the matching activity, though she hadn't told

them they couldn't. Instead, they dove right in to the task with their

neighbors, complete strangers a moment before, now motivated

partners investigating the life-and-death importance of various cell

functions. The activity set the tone for a whole semester of interesting

and engaging learner-centered pedagogy. It was a phenomenal

success.

Helping learners connect our content – our passion – with topics that

interest them, with their prior experience, with things they have

already learned, is sure to enhance student motivation as they find

increased value and worth in what they are studying. The result?

Richer and more engaged learning for all.

Chapter 9

Developing as an Online Instructor

INTRODUCTION

My entry into college teaching was through the back door. I earned a

bachelor of arts in English literature, then did the typical liberal arts

thing of not knowing what to do with the degree. I had no desire to

teach when I first declared my English major as a first-year college

student. I knew there would be too much grading.

Immediately after graduation, my husband's student worker job

developed into a full-time staff position. We weren't going anywhere

any time soon. His new position afforded excellent tuition benefits. I

applied for the master's program in English literature, deciding it

couldn't hurt.

One of my undergraduate faculty mentors, on learning that I intended

to pursue a master's degree, encouraged me to apply for a graduate

teaching assistantship. I did so on a whim. It seemed like that's what

all the good students were doing, those who were serious about their

studies. That was about all the thought I put into it. I decided to apply

because all the cool kids were doing it.

Though I never intended to teach, I discovered a passion for it. I had

declared an English major in the first place because I figured that no

matter what profession I ended up in, the ability to read, think, and

write would only serve me well. As it happened, this became a guiding

principle in my English teaching. Strong reading, critical thinking, and

effective communication skills are essential no matter where life takes

you. These overarching values shaped my course design, my

interactions with my students, my very teaching persona.

Like many of you, I love teaching in the classroom. I am so energized

by teaching that it's the best part of my day. However, about 10 years

ago I was offered an online English course. I thought I might not like

teaching online, but on another whim I decided to give it a try. It

seemed like online learning was only going to grow. I figured I might

want to be ahead of the curve, so I decided to teach one section and see

how it went.

To my amazement, I found that I really enjoyed teaching online. Just

like you, I appreciated the flexibility: being able to teach from home,

the local coffee shop, or from overseas. I eventually moved to teaching

exclusively online, which allowed me to stay home with my young

daughters. This was certainly rewarding and worthwhile – not to

mention that I enjoyed my online interactions with students far more

than I expected.

Eventually, after 17 years of in-person and online teaching, I was ready

for a change. I'd honed my online teaching practice to a fine art, but it

was still the case that there was too much grading, just as I had

suspected as an undergrad. On yet another whim (it seems like I make

a lot of life-changing decisions on a sudden fancy. Huh. Call me

adventurous), I attended a faculty professional development workshop

on the topics of instructional design and quality online teaching.

During the course of those two days, I discovered my new passion:

effective learning design and teaching practice.

My discovery spurred a career change. Six months later, I found

myself supporting faculty across the disciplines in their online and in-

person teaching. One day, when I was only a few weeks into my new

role of instructional designer, I was consulting with a faculty member

from the College of Education. She was new to our campus and not

particularly excited about the class she'd been assigned to teach,

because it didn't align with her research focus and area of expertise.

“You should really be teaching this course,” my colleague told me.

“You're way more qualified than I am for this.”

Although I was quite new in the role, my faculty colleague didn't know

that. The class under discussion was Educational Technology in the

College Classroom. My colleague felt neither qualified nor enthusiastic

about the topic. Me, though? She thought I could bring valuable

professional experience to the class, based solely on my title. The idea

of teaching in a new-to-me discipline appealed to my sense of

adventure. I was intrigued.

I was offered the class and asked to update it. I accepted without really

knowing what I was signing on to do. I was English faculty. I taught

literature, writing, critical thinking, argumentation. What did I know

about educational technology in the college classroom?

As it happened, quite a lot.

It was, however, a lot of work to winkle it out of the hidden recesses of

my brain. Developing and teaching this class proved one of the biggest

challenges of my career. But I was deeply engaged. I worked hard. I

thought hard. I stretched myself to create an exemplary online course

that modeled best practice in design and delivery.

I had lots of help. The resulting course showcased the best thinking

from several of my colleagues, seminal research in the area, and

purposeful yet innovative use of technology tools. I had become bored

with teaching online composition courses. I wasn't bored anymore.

Elsewhere in this book, I've described the evolution of my educational

technology course. To meet the needs of a newly defined student

population, it became what is now called Technological Fluency and

Leadership. This was yet another stretching process that helped me

stay deeply engaged in my teaching. I'm proud of the new course,

again developed with valuable input from my colleagues.

As online instructors, we can easily disengage from our teaching.

Without that physical energy we feel in the classroom, we can slip into

neutral. Not bring our best selves to our online teaching responsibility.

So what can we do? How can we actively remind ourselves of the value

in what we are doing? How do we make sure we are not losing sight of

what our students are experiencing? How do we make sure that we are

doing what we ask our students to do: being self-aware, analyzing our

performance, and trying to get better?

IN THEORY

The models that follow are recommendations for how to grow and

improve as an online instructor, and we hope you are motivated

enough that you don't need much theoretical justification for that.

Most faculty are driven by a passion for their work – we're certainly

not in it for the big salaries. But we still want to make two cases for

why you should work deliberately at your own practice as an online

instructor.

The first of those is a hazard for teachers everywhere, at every level, in

every format: burnout. While you might have entered academica as a

result of your passion for your discipline, and then become a teacher

because of your desire to share that passion with others, you might

have wandered less directly into online teaching and learning, as

described above. You may have found yourself drawn into it by your

own curiosity or experiences, nudged into it by financial need, or you

might have been dragooned into it by your institution. In every case,

chances are good that you did not envision online education as your

life's work, at least initially.

Teaching is also an incredibly challenging profession, and online

teaching has its own particular ways of being difficult. So the

combination of your potentially accidental entry into this work and the

challenges you will face within it can be a potent force for creating

burnout. Burned-out teachers don't do well for their students, as one

can certainly imagine intuitively, but as research has also

demonstrated (Klusmann et al., 2016). Burnout negatively impacts our

own well-being, and that seems to have ripple effects into our courses

and with our students.

In an article specifically dedicated to helping online instructors avoid

burnout, Edna Murugan and Noura Badawi point to “instructional

vitality” as one of the core strategies that can push back burnout and

keep you engaged and committed to your work as an online teacher. In

a variation of one of our recommendations below, for example, they

suggest that online faculty “call a fellow online instructor to discuss

curriculum/teaching strategies” (2018). Faculty teaching within the

same institution, living in the same hallway, can pick up a great

teaching idea from a neighbor and feel instantly revitalized and excited

to get back into the classroom and try it out. As an online instructor,

you have to work more deliberately to create those moments of

excitement and renewed energy for your teaching. Talking to other

teachers, exploring new resources, creating a personal learning

network—all of these tactics will work toward that end.

Our second and more fundamental argument for continuing to grow

and explore as an online teacher is that this field of teaching and

research is young and growing fast. Almost every aspect of face-to-face

teaching has been studied and analyzed by dozens or hundreds or even

thousands of researchers. Prior to the rise of such experimental

research, we still had two thousand years of smart thinkers and

educators thinking and talking to one another about how to educate

other human beings, such as Aristotle, who wrote about the necessity

of learning by doing – as in, active learning – in his Ethics. We've been

talking about active learning ever since. For most of those two

thousand years, however, that talk has been focused on face-to-face

education.

We just haven't had much time to study how our existing educational

methods can translate into online teaching and learning, or to develop

new methods that we can analyze and debate. We view this as a cause

for interest and excitement, and we hope you will as well: much about

online teaching and learning still remains to be discovered, and you

might even contribute something to that field of knowledge. In any

case, some of those potential discoveries will have implications for

your specific teaching context. Taking some modest steps to keep

abreast of new developments in online teaching and learning will help

ensure that you are using the most effective learning strategies for

your students.

MODELS

It's truly important to continue growing as an online instructor in

order to avoid stagnating in the role. Perhaps because we don't

experience the communal energy of the physical classroom, it's easy to

withdraw or do the minimum. Without intending to do so, we may

experience a tempering of our teaching enthusiasm. Online teaching

can remain fresh, however. We can continue finding ways to make our

online teaching stimulating and enjoyable. The following simple

strategies can help keep us challenged, stay inspired, and find

satisfaction in our work.

Take an Online Class

This strategy, like some others in this book, is so simple that it might

not occur to you. Yet it is probably the most impactful action you can

take in order to improve your online teaching: Take an online class.

See how it feels to be a student in an online learning environment.

You'll learn more about online learning in general, and online teaching

changes you want to make in particular, than you will about the

content itself.

Recently, I had an opportunity to live the student experience in a class

setting that was completely foreign to me: the large lecture hall. For a

major active learning redesign project, I attended BIO 181 with 240

freshmen during the first week of the fall semester. I was fascinated.

All of my in-person teaching experience has been in seminar-style

classes capped at 25 students. Being in a lecture hall with such a large

number of apprehensive students proved a new and uncomfortable

situation. Though I was there to do a class observation, I paid

attention to my own experience sitting among the 18- and 19-year-olds

in the back of the room.

Through some kind of energy osmosis, I tuned in to their anxiety. It

was the first day of class, indeed the first day of the fall semester. We

didn't know exactly what to expect. We couldn't quite hear the

instructor at the front of the hall. The projection screens were hard to

read. We weren't sure we had what it took to be successful in this

challenging course in our first semester in college. We didn't know if

we belonged there. Most of us in the room were nervous. Anxious.

Scared.

It didn't take much imagination for me to recognize how those same

emotions might occur for my online students. When we create our

online classes, we know exactly where everything is in the course site.

The organization, navigation, and instructions make perfect sense to

us. We know when we intend to communicate with students or grade

their work, so we're not worried about it. But when we put the shoe on

the other foot, when we are the student in an online environment that

we did not design, we have rather a different experience.

Suddenly we may be confused about the layout of the class. We may

not understand the scoring system. It may not be clear where to

submit an assignment or when the test will be open. We might be

waiting for an answer from our instructor, with no sense of when or

whether we'll hear back. We can experience a million little anxieties

when we take a class online. Doing so motivates us to improve our own

approach to online teaching.

There are lots of ways to take on online class. Find one for personal or

professional development. I don't recommend a massive open online

course (MOOC) for this purpose unless that is actually the format in

which you teach. Instead, take an online foreign language or a

photography course offered at your institution. Take a class in Adobe

Photoshop or web design. Or, enroll in one of the many faculty

professional development offerings from the Online Learning

Consortium, Quality Matters, Magna Publications, or Educause,

among others. You will see some great examples of new things to try,

and you'll also learn what not to do.

A few months ago, my husband took an online graduate course. He did

not enjoy his experience very much, as the instructor was not very

engaged in the class. But he learned an important lesson from that

lack of instructor presence. This semester, he's teaching online for a

local community college, and he's much more present and responsive

than he was before taking that course. He checks in more often. He is

more patient with students who have questions. He is more

encouraging. In sum, he has more empathy for his online learners, and

it has transformed him as an online instructor.

Ideally, you won't have a poor experience when you take an online

class. But I bet it will be eye-opening in some regard. You might find

inspiration for things you want to try, things you want to improve.

You'll certainly grow as an online instructor.

Seek Exemplars

The 1989 film Dead Poets Society has inspired countless instructors to

strive for the teaching excellence portrayed by Robin Williams in the

role of John Keating. Who among us can forget the moving scene in

which his students stand on their desktops to declare their loyalty as

Keating departs? Which of us has never dreamed of hearing “O

captain, my captain” from the lips of a transformed pupil?

Until we have a Hollywood movie depicting an inspiring online

professor, however, we have to look closer to home. Fortunately, this is

quite doable, with a little investment of time and effort.

As already noted, learning about the methods used by excellent online

faculty requires intentionality. You are less likely to bump into your

colleague in the hallway and strike up a conversation about online

approaches than you might be to compare notes about what happened

in class that day. Yet there are many small actions you can take to

discover exemplary online teaching approaches to emulate. Consider

one or more of the following:

Make time to attend faculty professional development workshops,

book discussions, or learning communities at your institution.

Many schools offer remote opportunities such as webinars or

participation via videoconference. As a seasoned presenter of such

opportunities, I can tell you that the conversations you have with

your colleagues from other disciplines, who are with you in the

online teaching trenches, are just as valuable as the topic of the

event itself.

Ask your department chair if you may observe the online class of a

great instructor in your unit. Notice details such as the

organization of the course, how the instructor interacts with

students, how often they are present in the class. Determine what

to copy in your own approach.

Visit your Center for Teaching and Learning. Ask if there are

examples of online courses you can explore. Many institutions

showcase courses from a range of disciplines to help you see

different approaches that work in different subject areas.

Seek online sources of inspiration. One example is the Teaching

Online Pedagogical Repository offered by the University of

Central Florida. This rich resource presents evidence-based

practical strategies with examples of how to do them from real

courses.

With a bit of effort, you can find numerous ways to expand your online

teaching approach. Prevent stagnation by seeking inspiration.

Fortunately, there are numerous ways of doing this – even without the

influence of Hollywood.

Build Self-Efficacy

The premise of this book is that you can make small, incremental

changes to your online teaching that have an outsized impact on

student learning and success. I'd like to slow down and reinforce this

idea here. I have had innumerable conversations with new online

faculty who think they have to do it all right out of the gate. Such an

approach almost guarantees significant problems in your online class.

I intentionally labeled this model with the same name as one in

Chapter 6. There, we consider how to help students gain confidence

with simpler tasks before tackling more complex ones. We can

structure our own learning and development in the same way.

As we wrap up this book, let's remind ourselves to take our online

teaching growth one small step at a time. Identify one challenge you

have in your online class. Think carefully about when you want to

address that challenge: next week? Next semester? Then select an

approach in one of the preceding chapters that will help you address

your issue in a way that you – not your colleague down the hall, not your instructional designer, but you – can manage.

Years ago, a friend told me that she'd successfully lost weight following

the Change One diet. The premise is simple: pick one thing about your

nutritional habits to change, something you can sustain. Make that

change for one week. Maybe it's substituting carrots for potato chips

with your sandwich. Maybe it's having a banana instead of a brownie

for an afternoon snack. Whatever the change is, maintain it for a week,

then change something else.

We can do the same thing in our online teaching. Change one thing.

Develop a new practice you can sustain. Get good at it. Next semester,

change something else.

As you consider which new strategy to adopt, be careful not to bite off

more than you can chew. If a strategy overwhelms you, it's not a good

strategy. If you aren't confident using a technology tool, don't use it.

You'll only cause yourself stress and harm your credibility with your

online students if you do.

Instead, choose one manageable action that you feel confident about.

Want to increase your presence in your online class? You don't have to

be in class 8 hours a day, 5 days per week. Rather, make a weekly

schedule of 30-minute blocks when you will post in the discussion

board.

Want to learn to use video to make your class more engaging? Don't

set out to record mini-lectures for each week. Start with a short video

welcome message. If that goes well, try a handful of video

announcements as your course progresses. You'll work up to creating a

comprehensive set of video lectures, but first practice recording

yourself giving two-minute casual messages. Build your confidence

before tackling the bigger task.

We know from the literature that learners get frustrated and want to

give up when an undertaking is too challenging. Breaking down a

complex task into manageable chunks makes it more feasible. Yet

many faculty members neglect to apply this thinking to their own

development as an online teacher. Don't set out to scale Mount Everest

in your next online class. It'll only make you want to quit. Surmount a

small hill. Then set your sights on the next one, slightly higher than

the last. Keep climbing.

Certify Your Course Design and Teaching for

Quality

The concept of online course quality has gained a lot of momentum in

recent years. My personal theory is that the field of online learning

expanded so rapidly that, initially at least, little attention was paid to

how to create effective online classes in which real learning takes

place. This is also why online learning suffers from a bad reputation,

and why employers have considered fully online degrees with

skepticism as not being equivalent to traditional degrees earned in

person. That perception is changing, but slowly (Etherington, 2018).

But online learning is changing. Now there are various course quality

rubrics, based squarely in the research, to help course developers and

faculty authors design and teach effective, rigorous online classes. As a

next step in your growth as an online teacher, get your course certified

for quality.

Two of the current leading rubrics are the Quality Matters (QM)

Higher Education Rubric and OSCQR, affectionately known as

“Oscar,” the Open SUNY (State University of New York) Course

Quality Review Rubric. Your institution may subscribe to one of these

approaches. Some schools have developed internal quality checklists

or standards. You can also use the QM or OSCQR rubric as an

individual if your school isn't pursuing this idea at this time.

Seeking quality certification enhances your online teaching in many

ways. You will likely undergo some professional development to equip

you to successfully meet the standards. As I said earlier in this chapter,

simply having time and space during a course design quality workshop

to talk with other online instructors will improve your practice. But

these rubrics or checklists also provide a systematic structure for

considering design elements that you may not have critically examined

before.

As I noted earlier in this book, our online class often makes perfect

sense to us. We understand the logic, the design thinking, behind

every component. A quality rubric helps us take a big step back and

consider the course from a student's perspective. This change in

vantage point identifies gaps or areas for improvement in the course

design that we may never have seen otherwise.

Even if you don't seek the actual course quality certification, both the

QM and the OSCQR rubric can be used for a focused self-review.

Simply work through the quality standards as you honestly assess your

own online course for areas where you can strengthen the learner

experience. Make (small) improvements where you can.

To be clear, most of these rubrics are centered on the quality of design,

not how well you teach the class. There's a difference. The course

design consists of everything you do to create and prepare the class

before Day 1. The delivery of it, or teaching, is what takes place as you

interact with students while the course is in session. Many online

course quality rubrics only address the planning of the class, not the

teaching of it. Still, with deliberate attention to the design of your

online class, you set the stage for better teaching of it. Working toward

quality certification demonstrates your commitment to student

success in your online class. This commitment is sure to come out in

the way you teach the online class as well.

That said, you may want to critically examine your online teaching

practice as well. Your institution might have a process in place to

evaluate online teaching, but many do not. To address this gap,

Thomas J. Tobin, B. Jean Mandernach, and Ann H. Taylor present

arguments for developing such processes – and practical suggestions

for how to do so – in Evaluating Online Teaching: Implementing Best

Practices (2015). These authors share various reasons why online teaching evaluation might be somewhat neglected at many schools.

For example, “the private, behind-a-password nature of online

teaching” (p. 76) does not lend itself to another faculty member

dropping in to class the way they might visit your in-person classroom.

Tobin and his colleagues identify another challenge that is unique to

online teaching evaluation, namely, that we don't have as many norms

for this process as we do for peer evaluations in the classroom.

Typically, when colleagues observe our classroom, they attend one

class session, then complete an evaluation form or provide feedback

using some other mechanism. “What is the online equivalent,” ask the

authors, “to visiting a colleague's classroom for 90 minutes?” (p. 15).

Here, Tobin and his colleagues propose that an observer might think

about “how much content to observe, (e.g. one week or unit worth of

materials and interactions)” since “class period is not a meaningful

term within an online course” (p. 16). Clearly, peer evaluations of

online teaching require some creative approaches, especially if we're

more accustomed to observing teaching in person.

However, we can always conduct self-evaluations, and Evaluating

Online Teaching provides useful suggestions for doing so. Formative

evaluations, that is, gathering feedback from students while the course

is in session, so that you have an opportunity to adjust your approach,

can be particularly useful. Consider these suggestions:

For formative evaluation to be effective, it must be goal-directed

with a clear purpose, provide feedback that enables actionable

revisions, and be implemented in a timely manner to enable

revisions within the active teaching-learning cycle. Formative

evaluations are most effective when they are focused on a specific

instructional strategy or concern…. For example, rather than ask a

general question such as “How can the instructor be more effective

in the online classroom?” one might ask about a specific aspect of

the online classroom, such as “What can the instructor do in the

asynchronous discussion threads to foster more engaged dialogue?”

(Tobin, Mandernach, and Taylor, 2015, p. 78)

Do you want to know how you can be a better online teacher? Ask your

students. I have a feeling they'll let you know. In response, make

minor adjustments to your teaching practices. Your students will

appreciate that you asked, and made changes, in time for them to

enjoy an improved learning experience in your class.

One final note: some institutions are moving toward certifying

effective online teaching as well. Northern Arizona University is

currently engaging in numerous initiatives in the teaching success

movement. Some schools are developing internal certification

programs of teaching excellence. Others are partnering with

organizations such as The Association of College and University

Educators (ACUE) to certify exemplary instructors through their

Course in Effective Teaching Practices. Either way, a focus on excellent

teaching for student success is emerging nationwide. Growing as an

online instructor, motivating yourself to continuously improve, falls

right in line with this movement. And you'll likely experience

increased personal and professional satisfaction as well.

Pursue These Resources (or Others)

Prioritizing your professional development is key to continuing your

online teaching journey with any degree of personal and professional

satisfaction. I've provided many small approaches already in this

chapter, but I want to leave you with a list of additional resources to

help you take those crucial next steps as you grow in this area.

Compared to in-person teaching, which has been happening

informally since the beginning of time, and formally for millennia,

online teaching is in its infancy. Yet we know it's not going away – and

that there is much to be done to improve this new realm of teaching

and learning. Establish yourself as a leader in this field by pursuing

some of the resources below (some of which I've mentioned elsewhere

in this book). You may find this will set you on course for a new,

stimulating, and personally and professionally rewarding journey of

online teaching excellence.

Read Books on Relevant Topics

As Jim noted in Small Teaching, recently we have seen tremendous

growth in the field of higher education teaching and learning. You can

find many new books on relevant topics that have the potential to

improve your day-to-day teaching practice. Here are a few that I think

will make a big impact on the quality of online educational

experiences.

Online Teaching at Its Best: Merging Instructional Design with

Teaching and Learning Research (Nilson and Goodson, 2018).

Linda Nilson and Ludwika Goodson identify a real gap in

conversations about teaching and learning in online courses: that

the instructional design literature and teaching and learning

research are often not in dialogue with each other. Read this book,

which is solid in both theory and practice, to remedy that lack.

Thrive Online: A New Approach for College Educators (Riggs,

forthcoming in 2019). What I love about this book is Shannon

Riggs's enthusiastic vision for all that online teaching can be – not

as inferior to teaching in person, but rather, joy-giving in its own

right. Get inspired and discover practical ways to “hit your stride”

as an online instructor.

The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical

Pedagogical Tips, 2nd ed. (Boettcher and Conrad, 2016). If you

like a handbook approach, this is the book for you. Judith

Boettcher and Rita-Marie Conrad offer extremely practical

suggestions for faculty who want to improve their online teaching

practice, helpfully organized by what to do when as you prepare,

teach, and conclude an online class.

Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for

Learning in Higher Education (Tobin and Behling, 2018).

Thomas Tobin and Kirsten Behling provide convincing arguments

for applying UDL to every college learning experience as well as

student services and interactions to help all students in higher

education succeed. Even better, they recommend feasible

strategies for doing so. This book is a must-read for anyone who

wants to increase access to higher ed.

Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology (Miller,

2014). Cognitive psychologist Michelle Miller explains how to take

advantage of the affordances of technology to maximize what we

know from learning science. Full of solid research and pragmatic

suggestions for applying it, this book deserves pride of place on

any online instructor's bookshelf.

Access Other Resources for Ongoing

Development

I love to read the latest book on excellent evidence-based teaching, but

it's difficult to find the time to read more than one or two each year.

These resources allow you to keep learning and growing in the midst

of all of your other commitments.

Faculty Focus: https://www.facultyfocus.com This is my go-to website for practical teaching advice and easily digestible

summaries of new research. Sign up for the free eNewsletter to

keep up with the latest developments and find inspiration for

excellent in-person and online teaching.

Teaching in Higher Ed podcast:

https://teachinginhighered.com/episodes/ A recent discovery for me, I wish I'd known about this invaluable resource for

professional growth a lot sooner. Enjoy weekly episodes featuring

interviews with educators who are passionate about their

vocation. At 40 minutes or less, these are perfect for your

commute to campus, your walk across campus, or your time on

the elliptical trainer.

Your local teaching and learning support professionals. Get to

know your colleagues in your center for teaching excellence or

equivalent. Often underutilized, these experts on teaching and

learning research and practice can help you successfully

implement small changes in your online, blended and in-person

course design and teaching. Educational developers, instructional

designers, educational technologists, media specialists and

Learning Management System (LMS) help desk heroes are all

uniquely situated to support your success.

The Teaching Professor Conference hosted by Magna

Publications. Put this annual event on your calendar. You'll find

hundreds of like-minded new friends, professionals who care

about their teaching as much as you do. After you experience

stimulating and invigorating conference sessions and informal

networking opportunities, you'll leave with renewed energy and

practical approaches, based on research and experience, to

reinvigorate your online and onsite teaching practice.

The ACUE Course in Effective Teaching Practices:

https://acue.org/ This practical professional development course from ACUE offers a wealth of evidence-based strategies in a

comprehensive curriculum that addresses everything from

syllabus design to engaging underprepared students, from

embracing diversity to facilitating great discussions. This course is

great for both online and in-person teaching, but currently it's

only available for institutional cohorts. Take advantage of this rich

learning experience if your school offers the course; if it doesn't,

talk to your academic leadership about the possibility of doing so.

PRINCIPLES

The overarching principle for this chapter is to put deliberate effort

into challenging yourself to keep growing in your online teaching

abilities. Find ways of impassioning yourself so that you don't become

stale in your online classes.

Critically Examine Your Online Teaching

Practice

Many of us accidentally fell into online teaching, or were pressed into

it against our will. I suspect many faculty members view their online

classes as somehow not as valid as their in-person ones. I fear some

instructors put forth minimal effort, viewing their online classes as a

burden to be borne or merely a source of supplemental income. We do

our students a great disservice with this attitude. Embrace the

challenge of becoming an excellent online instructor. Reflect on the

moral obligation to help these learners succeed, earn a degree, and

enjoy multiple benefits related to their well-being. Think critically

about how you can get better at teaching online. Experience increased

engagement and satisfaction as a result.

Make Time to Grow

It's hard to bump into a fellow online instructor in a virtual hallway

somewhere and begin conversing about your online teaching

challenges and solutions. It just doesn't happen as naturally as the

parallel experience might in the physical world. Given the very

newness of online learning, however, it's even more vital to seek to

learn from others who are engaged in the same pursuit. Since this

won't likely happen serendipitously, create the time to invest in your

own development. Attend workshops and programs offered by your

faculty development center. Request access to exemplary instructors

and courses—then take the time to look around in the online class to

see what's so effective. Knowing that learning doesn't just happen by

accident, create time and space to cultivate your online teaching

practice.

Seek to Energize Yourself

Our students struggle to feel the person-to-person energy in an online

class. If we're honest, so do we. There's a call-and-response kind of

energy in the physical classroom, a tangible feeling of (hopefully)

positive synergy between ourselves and our students. This energy

doesn't build as naturally in the online classroom. But it's still possible

to create – you might just have to bring it yourself. So find ways of

keeping yourself challenged, inspired, motivated. Seek new

opportunities. Strive to always be improving. Invest active energy into

improving your online teaching skills. Bring that renewed energy into

your online class. You can positively impact the atmosphere in your

online class as tangibly as you can in the classroom. It just takes a little

more proactive effort.

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS:

DEVELOPING AS AN ONLINE INSTRUCTOR

Online learning has become an integral part of higher education. If

you haven't tried teaching online already, you might be doing so

sooner than you imagine. Embrace the unique opportunity we have

not only to improve this new modality but to improve equity and

access for a newly diverse population of learners. These small

strategies can help.

Take an online class, be it credit-bearing, personal interest, or

professional development. There's no better way to improve your

online teaching practice than to become an online learner.

Look for models and examples of best practice. Observe an

excellent online class, or request access to showcase online course

designs.

Add complexity after you build confidence with simple

techniques. To avoid burning out in your online teaching, play the

long game. Make one small change, master it, try something more

adventurous next semester.

Seek quality certification for your online course design, and if

possible, your online teaching. Commit to your personal

continuous improvement by striving to meet quality standards in

your online course.

CONCLUSION

I worked closely with a colleague and friend for several months to help

her prepare to teach her first online class. As seasoned, tenured faculty

in social work, she was confident in her in-person teaching skills. But

teaching online would be entirely new.

We spent several weeks altering the content she was given to make it

her own. Along the way I had many opportunities to coach her in

online teaching methods and best practices. Indeed, most of the

suggestions I made in these sessions found their way into this book.

My colleague was very receptive to my guidance as she prepared for

her first online class. She listened with an open ear and a teachable

attitude. She told me that because she was coordinating the

department's new online master's program, she wanted to learn as

much as she could about online teaching best practices.

However, my friend also told me numerous times that she only

planned to teach this online class one time. After this, she asserted,

she would find someone else to teach the class. As I write, she is only

one week into teaching online. I'd like to think she'll discover a sense

of professional satisfaction in this new challenge. That she'll change

her mind. Continue to teach online, learning and improving with every

subsequent class. Time will tell, I suppose, but I remain hopeful that

she will rise to the challenge.

Whether in our first semester teaching online or our fifteenth, we

should challenge ourselves to keep getting better. We should seek

inspiration to keep seeing the value, the purpose in this worthwhile

pursuit. Doing so will contribute to this growing field, your students'

success, and your own personal satisfaction in a job well done.

Conclusion: Finding Inspiration

Most of the examples and stories about college teaching in this book

come from my experience at NAU. Just like many online instructors,

however, I also adjunct at a nearby two-year institution, Estrella

Mountain Community College. Teaching in this context has convinced

me of the importance of investing in these learners – hard-working

individuals who will constitute tomorrow's workforce, who want a

better life and are willing to work for it. To inspire us to keep moving

forward in our pursuit of online teaching excellence, I want to share

two final stories that come out of the community college setting.

The first one has large implications for my motivation to write this

book in the first place. As we know, online learning has grown

exponentially in the last decade. It's on track to continue to do so.

Many online learners only have access to college classes because they

can go to school online. In the past, a percentage of our current online

students may have gone to night school in order to further their

education and improve their career prospects. A much larger

percentage of the population who can't attend college in a traditional

way are now enrolling online.

I believe deeply in the importance of improving online education for

all of these students. I'd like to tell you why.

About three years ago, I led an online course review for Quality

Matters (QM), a nonprofit quality assurance organization that

promotes effective online courses. This particular review was of an

English composition course at a rural community college in an

economically depressed area. My charge was to lead the review and

provide feedback for improvement to the course developer, who in this

case was also the instructor. QM highly recommends providing

professional development to enable the course creator to design the

course up to standard in the first place, prior to review. Due to the

desire of enthusiastic college leadership to get courses QM certified,

however, this step had been missed.

What I observed was the very best effort of a well-intentioned online

professor, undeniably with a heart of gold, to help her students learn.

But without adequate preparation for designing and teaching an

online class, the course was woefully under par. I was hit hard with the

sense that students at this college, seeking personal improvement,

would struggle to pass this class. The institution and instructor simply

hadn't provided the support required to help them succeed. I imagined

that other online classes at this college would be similarly challenging.

It seemed likely that defeated students would drop out. They might

give up on their dream of earning a college degree, and of using that

degree to make a better life.

I have no wish to criticize one school in particular. I commend any

institution that seeks to improve its online course offerings, because

that work is essential. Instructors who diligently apply themselves to

getting better at teaching online deserve our highest respect. The task

can feel isolating and unrewarding. But when I think of our

underrepresented students, perhaps underprepared for success in

college, who only wish to improve their situation, I find renewed

energy for the challenge. We have to focus on helping these learners,

for whom online learning may be their only option, achieve success.

The other story from which I draw inspiration, like many others in this

book, is not explicitly related to online learning. But it is about helping

our learners, all of our learners, attain their goals.

Several months ago, my brother told me about a bright young guy who

had recently joined his network engineering team. A few years earlier,

this young man came to a realization that his aimless life of bordering-

on-criminal pursuits would only lead him into trouble. He enrolled at

the local community college.

Instinctively recognizing his need for extra support, this student went

to the Computer Commons where my good friend, then the

department chair of Instructional Computing, was providing tutoring.

My friend helped to turn this man's life around. He was there when he

was needed. He showed personal interest. He contributed to the

successful reorientation of this young man's life. My brother wanted

me to pass on the thanks of his new co-worker to the community

college faculty member who cared enough to invest in him as a person,

who helped him transform himself and the path he was taking.

Although this student's interactions took place on campus, we can

have the same impact on our online students' success.

At the end of Chapter 3, I briefly mentioned a report published in 2017

by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, titled The Future of

Undergraduate Education, The Future of America. I want to slow

down and consider in just a bit more depth the report's argument that

we are in “a critical moment in our nation's history, when so many

long-standing assumptions about who we are as a people, and where

we are headed, have been called into question.” The authors proceed

to summarize the aim of the commission's work:

This report offers practical and actionable recommendations to

improve the undergraduate experience. But in its practicality, it is

motivated by the highest ideals: faith that every person, from

every background, can succeed in America when given the proper

training and preparation; confidence that our existing institutions

of higher education can and will evolve to meet the needs of

today's and future students; and an unwavering commitment to

the free exchange of ideas as the basis of a creative, productive,

and democratic society. (2017, p. v)

This pursuit is the ultimate in social justice. We have the ability to

empower our students to succeed. We know that online classes may be

the only option for learners juggling full-time work and family

obligations.

We also know that college graduates enjoy benefits ranging from

improved health to more rewarding work to more time with family to

increased community engagement – not to mention increased earning

potential (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017, p. 3).

I hope you will join me in the effort to improve online teaching and

learning in higher education in order to help as many people as

possible achieve these benefits in their lives. But I also want to make

sure you won't get overwhelmed. So think about your online class this

week, and your online students right now. What can you do tomorrow

to help them succeed?

Maybe you'll post a two-minute video announcement encouraging

your learners about how far they've come in the course. You may

decide to email select students and suggest a short phone call to

provide additional support. Perhaps you'll schedule a bit of extra time

this week to interact with students in discussion, to ask questions,

praise contributions, and highlight overarching themes or important

concepts. If you carve out an extra 30 minutes this week to implement

these or any other of the suggestions presented in this book, you can

impact your students' ability to learn new concepts.

Then consider the online class you're teaching next semester. What

small modifications will you make to your course design, instructional

activities, or communication strategy to help your students learn?

What small adjustments are warranted based on the research

presented in this book?

You could decide to activate prior knowledge by adding a conditional-

release pre-test that opens remaining module content upon

submission. You may choose to implement a new technology tool such

as video mini-lectures or Hypothesis to engage students in their

learning. Perhaps you will increase learner autonomy and your

application of UDL principles by weaving in choice in assignment

topics and formats.

Finally, think critically about how to promote your own growth and

development in this area. How will you keep yourself motivated? How

do you plan to assess the impact of your efforts? How can you

contribute to the development of online teaching excellence, both at

your institution and more broadly? Maybe you gather a group of

colleagues to meet regularly and discuss small improvements in online

teaching. Maybe you write. Publish. Present. The time is right to

develop ourselves and help others do the same. For the sake of our

increasingly diverse online student population, prioritize your

professional learning. Share your discoveries with the rest of us.

But let's bring it back home. Let's focus on the here and now. Your

online class is taking place today. You have students who, this very

moment, want and need your guidance and expertise.

As you put down this book and log in to class, consider: How will you

begin?

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Index

A

Accountability: assessments and, 12; building-in and expecting,

56–57, 69, 176; group work encouraging, 168; scheduling and,

xxvii, 9; Specs Grading and, 99, 169–170

Activities. See Assignments and activities

ACUE. See Association of College and University Educators

Adaptive courseware, xxviii

Adaptive release. See Conditional release

Agency. See Autonomy and control, student

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 70, 223–224

Anderson, T., 79

Anderson, Virginia Johnson, 110–112

Anxiety: for faculty in creating change, xxii; with feedback time,

114; with instructor video making, 59; for new students, xv–xvi; for nontraditional students, xvi; for online students, xvi–xvii; with student video making, 146–147

Apprenticeship of observation, xix

Archer, W., 79

Aristotle, 204

The Art of Changing the Brain (Zull), 160

Assessments: accountability and, 12; clarity in objective of, 34–

35; in course design, role of, 2–3; course learning objectives

alignment to, 6, 9; of course learning objectives understanding, 11,

18–19; CR use with and prior to, 36–37; first week, 11–13, 24; low-stakes, feedback from, 110–111, 142–143; mastery quizzes as,

142–144, 150; mini-assignments as cumulative, 45;

preassessment, 22, 24, 185–187; prior knowledge, 185–187, 189,

196–197; student engagement with, approaches to, 12, 30–32,

57–58; on syllabus understanding, 11, 18–19; with videos for

student engagement, 57–58, 69. See also Feedback; Final

assessments; Formative assessments; Grades/scores; Summative

assessments

Assignments and activities, xxx; for beginning and end of course

connection, 23–24; course learning objectives alignment with, 15;

CR approach to, 35–38, 45; for cultural inclusion and awareness,

95, 104; cumulative assessment with mini, 45; first week, 12–13,

20; incremental and manageable steps for, 27–28, 32–35, 43–44; Oops Token for, 98–99, 104, 168–169, 171; PLN, 193–194, 197; prior knowledge, 185–187, 189, 196–197; prompt template for,

16–17; rationale transparency for, 15–17, 24; reflection fostered by, 24; reflection on goal of, 33; reflection on meaningfulness of,

30–32; reminders about, 22–23; scaffolding of, 145–148, 150; for student accountability, 12; Three Takeaways, 20–21; for writing instruction, 16

Association of College and University Educators (ACUE):

certification, 214; Course in Effective Teaching Practices, 41, 217

Attention span, 53, 60

Attrition rates, xxvi, 136, 150

Autonomy and control, student: agency contrasted with, 160;

choice relation to, 162–164, 175–176, 177, 189; course design considering, 159; in forums/online discussions choice, 162–164,

177; in group work enrollment, 164–168, 177; increasing, approaches to, 155; models for encouraging, 161–175; motivation relation to, 154–155, 158, 159–160, 184; principles for developing,

175–176; Specs Grading for, 168–172, 177; support and guidance fostering, 161, 176, 177–178; syllabus co-creation and, 172–175,

177; theories and research on, 154, 159–161, 184; tips overview for creating, 177

B

Backward design, xxv–xxvi; alignment of elements as priority in,

10–11, 14, 25; course learning objectives primacy in, 3, 7, 8–9; course materials selection in, 9; course schedule in, 9; for final assessments, 11–13, 22, 23, 24; intentionality with, 3; models for,

10–21; principles of, 22–25; questions/decisions in starting, 8–9; theory of, 7–10; tips overview for, 24–25; transparency for students, 10, 11, 13–15

Badawi, Noura, 203

Bandura, Albert, 145

Behling, Kirsten, xxiv–xxv, 215

Best Practices in Online Faculty Development (Hanover

Research), xx

Blake, Caitrin, 42

Bloom's Taxonomy, 64–65

Boettcher, Judith V., 63–64, 65–66, 215

Books, recommended. See Resources and books

Bowen, José, 37–38

Brown, P. C., xxiii, 13, 17–18

Bruff, Derek, 48–49

Bull, Bernard, 194

C

Canvas, 53, 125

Captioning, video, 15, 54–55, 68, 92

Caring/empathy (for students): in community building, 95–101;

in feedback, 127–128; flexibility relation to, 98–99, 104, 168–169; for marginalized/underserved populations, 223; phone/video

conference calls impact in, 99–100, 118–119; in student support and guidance, 95–101, 118–119, 131–132, 149, 151

CASEPS. See Council for At Risk Student Education and

Professional Standards

Cavanagh, Sarah, 154, 162

Certification, quality, 210–214, 219, 221–222

Chat function, 114

Chickering, Arthur, 111

The Chronicle of Higher Education (Gannon), 172

Classroom response system (clickers), 48

Cognitive presence, 79–80, 88

Cohen, Zoë, 137–138, 139

Collaboration: in learning process, research on, 77–78; on

syllabus creation, 172–175, 177. See also Group work

Communication: clarity, cues indicating, 34, 45; of course learning objectives, 3, 10–11, 13–15, 24; in group work, 167; nonverbal, challenges with lack of, xxx–xxxi; nonverbal, in

instructor videos, 61, 69, 186; in video announcements, styles of,

58–61, 91–92; in video lectures, styles of, 54. See also Forums;

Transparency

Community building, xxvi, 72; with care and support for student,

95–101; cognitive presence in, 79–80, 88; cultural inclusion and awareness in, 92–95; debates role in, 75–76; instructor sharing personality for, 90–92, 103–104; intentionality in, 77; models of,

81–101; principles of, 101–103; social presence in, 79, 80–87, 92,

102–104; student interaction structuring for, 81–86, 101, 103; teaching presence in, 79–81, 86–92, 101–102, 103–104; theories and research behind, 77–81; tips overview for, 103–104; zones of proximal development and, 77–78, 101, 104

Community of Inquiry framework, 79–81, 86, 104

Conceição, Simone, 90

Concept maps, 188–190, 194, 197

Conditional release (CR): assessments and, 36–37; for feedback,

37–38; student engagement aided with, 35–38, 45

Conferences, teaching development, 217

Confidence, student: assignments/activities in increments for,

27–28, 32–35, 43–44; scaffolding impact for, 146–147

Connections, making, xxiii, 155; between beginning and end of course, 23–24; cognitive benefits in, 181–183; concept maps for,

188–190, 194, 197; film and literature used in, 62, 179–181, 191–

192; framework for, providing, 187–188, 195–196, 197; historical parallels in, 181; models of, 184–194; PLN assignment for, 193–

194, 197; principles of, 195–196; prior knowledge activation in,

185–187, 195, 196–197; with student goals and interests, 183–184,

191–193, 196, 197–198; technology and media tools for, 191–192,

197; theories and research on, 181–184; tips overview for, 196–

197; for value/relevance, 183–184, 191–193

Conrad, Rita-Marie, 63–64, 65–66, 215

Content release, 35–38, 45

Control. See Autonomy and control, student

Control-value theory, 154, 184

Copyright permissions, 62, 63

Council for At Risk Student Education and Professional Standards

(CASEPS), 93

Course design: assessments in, role of, 2–3; change in increments,

209–210, 219, 224–225; Community of Inquiry established in,

80–81, 104; core challenges of, xxvi; cultural inclusion in, 92–95,

104; “enduring understanding” in, 8; fundamentals of, xxv–xxvi; intentionality in, 2–3, 22, 71, 104; modifications from session to session, xxx; patience and persistence required in, xxxiii; peer relationships considered in, 80, 103; quality certification and rubrics for, 210–214, 219; recommended reading on, 7–8; student autonomy considerations in, 159; UDL principles in, xxiv–xxv, 14,

37, 164, 215. See also Backward design

Course evaluations: rubrics and organizations for online, 210–

214; teaching presence relation to student, 86–87

Course learning objectives: assessments alignment with, 6, 9; assessments on understanding of, 11, 18–19; assignments and

activities alignment with, 15; backward design focus on, 3, 7, 8–9; communicating, 3, 10–11, 13–15, 24; end-of-course reflection on,

20–21, 25; of “enduring understanding,” 8; feedback aiding in, 9;

GTAs training and, 6; module goals alignment with, 14, 23; reminders about, 22–23; student goals alignment with, 20–21; student reflection on, 17–21, 24–25; student supported for and informed of, 3; in syllabus, 9; teaching development/training on,

6; technology and media tools alignment with, 51, 63–66, 67;

transparency of, 11, 13–15, 24

Course materials, selection of, 9

Course plan: for new instructors, 5–7; for online compared to

physical courses, 71

Courses/classrooms, physical: communication differences

between online and, xxx–xxxi; course plan for online compared

to, 71; CR impact for online compared to, 36; furniture significance in, 49; for GTA, 5–6; new student anxiety in, xv–xvi; norms and routines of online compared to, xvii–xviii; online

hybrid with, xxix; relationships online compared with, 71–72; student motivation online compared to, 153, 156; student support challenges online compared to, xvi–xviii, 3, 10, 11;

techniques/principles of, applied online, xxi–xxii, xxvii

Covey, Stephen, xxiii

CR. See Conditional release

Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching (Lehman and

Conceição), 90

Creating Engaging Discussions (Herman and Nilson), 83

Creating Significant Learning Experiences (Fink), 8

Creativity, fostering, 84, 189–190, 196

Critical Multicultural Pavilion Ed Change project, 95

Cultural inclusion and awareness: activities and resources for, 94,

95, 104; for community building, 92–95, 104; monitoring forums for, 94–95

D

Dance instruction, 27–28, 133

Deacon, Andrea, 96–97

Deadlines: allowances with, 97–99, 104, 168–169, 171; for forums/online discussions, 83; setting, 113–115, 128

Debates, community building with, 75–76

Discussion in the College Classroom (Howard), xvii–xviii

Diversity. See Cultural inclusion and awareness; Universal Design

for Learning principles

Doyle, Terry, 169

Dweck, Carol, 134, 135

E

Effective Grading (Walvoord and Anderson, V.), 110–111

Email nudges, 137–139, 150

Empathy. See Caring/empathy

Enrollment rates, xviii–xix

Eodice, M., 30–33, 159–160, 161

Evaluating Online Teaching (Tobin, Mandernach, and Taylor),

212–213

Eyler, Joshua, 81–82, 85

F

Faculty. See Instructors/faculty

Faculty Focus (website), 216

Faculty training. See Teaching development/training

FAQs. See Frequently asked questions

Feedback: course learning objectives aided with, 9; CR for

nonevaluative, 37–38; deadlines relation to, 113–115, 128;

empathy in giving, 127–128; grading rubrics for, 121–123, 127,

129, 172; on incremental tasks, 34, 44; intentionality with, 115,

126; lack of, examples and impacts of, 107, 108–109, 129; from low-stakes assessments, 110–111, 142–143; models for, 112–126; phone/video conference, 114, 117–119, 128; principles of, 126–

128; prior to final assessment, 33, 34–35; rationale for, 111–112; real-time, 114, 115–119, 128; for student engagement, significance of, 31, 44–45, 46, 103, 110–111; on student satisfaction relation to teaching presence, 86–87; in student support, significance of, 9,

72–73; on syllabus from students, 172–175, 177; in teaching development/training, 109; theories and research on, 110–112,

124–125; time factors and management with, 88–89, 103, 107–

108, 111, 113–121, 127; tips overview for, 128–129; video and/or audio, considerations, 123–126, 127, 129; virtual office hours for,

116, 119–121, 128

Films and literature, connection-making with, 62, 179–181, 191–

192

Final assessments: backward design for, 11–13, 22, 23, 24; clarity in objective of, 34; feedback opportunities prior to, 33, 34–35; first week work on, 11–13, 23, 24; preparation for, lack of, 28–29

Fink, Dee, 8, 10

Fixed mindset, 134–135

Flexibility: considerations of, xxi, 73; downfalls with, 73; in grading and deadlines, 98–99, 104, 168–169, 171; in teaching online, 200

Formative assessments: course schedule inclusion of, 9; defining,

110; examples of, 9; summative assessments impact compared to,

29

Forums/online discussions: autonomy in choosing, 162–164, 177; creativity and authenticity fostering for, 84; deadlines for, 83; discussion highlights from, 41–42, 45; grading, 83–84, 170–171; instructor interaction in, 40–41, 42–43, 44, 88; key points and questions outlined in, 42–43; monitoring for cultural sensitivity,

94–95; monitoring for student engagement opportunities, 40–41,

42–43, 44, 88; question-and-answer, 39, 64; small groups creation benefits for, 84–85, 101; Specs Grading for, 170–171; student interactions fostered with, 82, 103; student-made videos for, 164; tips for structuring, 83–84; UDL principles in designing,

164

Frequently asked questions (FAQs), inclusion of, 39

Furniture, classroom, 49

The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America

(American Academy of Arts and Sciences), 70, 223–224

G

Gamson, Zelda, 111

Gannon, Kevin, 96, 172

Garrison, D. R., 79

Geller, A. E., 30–33, 159–160, 161

Gender diversity, 93

Gernsbacher, Morton Ann, 84–85

Gilliard-Cook, Theresa, 142

Girante, Joana, 60–61

Goals. See Course learning objectives; Module goals; Student

goals

Goals contract, 139–142, 150

Goodson, Ludwika, 90–91, 143, 215

Google Docs and Slides, 51, 65, 117, 163, 175, 188, 192

Gorski, Paul C., 95

Grades/scores: CR impact on, 36; feedback rationale beyond, 111–

112; flexibility and allowances for, 98–99, 104, 168–169, 171; for forums/online discussions, 83–84, 170–171; rubrics for, 121–123,

127, 129, 172; time factor considerations in posting, 89, 108. See also Specifications Grading

Graduate teaching assistant (GTA): classroom experience for, 5–

6; inspiration from experience as, 199

Group work: accountability encouraged in, 168; assignments in

incremental steps for, 33; autonomy in enrollment in, 164–168,

177; example of structuring, 167–168; Google Docs for, 51, 65; practice, 166; scaffolding, 165–166; transparency in communication in, 167; value/relevance in designing, 166

Growth mindset, 134, 149

GTA. See Graduate teaching assistant

Guo, Philip, 53, 60

H

Habits, change relation to, xxiii

Hanover Research, xx

Herman, Jennifer, 83

High-Impact Practices in Online Education (Robertson and

Riggs), 165–166

How Humans Learn (Eyler), 81–82

How People Learn II (National Academy of Sciences), 93

Howard, Jay, xvii–xviii

Hybrid courses, xxix

Hypothesis, 65, 172–175, 177, 225

I

Improvisation: course planning balanced with, 6–7; in physical

classrooms, 71

Instructors/faculty: anxiety in creating change, xxii; biographies,

creating, 91; course plan for new, 5–7; first online course experience for, 28–29; forums/online discussions participation

of, 40–41, 42–43, 44, 88; personal sharing of, impacts of, 90–92,

103–104; self-efficacy of, building, 208–210; student satisfaction

relation to participation of, 86–87; technology and media tools comfort of, 65–66; video introductions/announcements from, 14–

15, 58–61, 68, 87–88, 91, 102, 186; video lectures tools and tips for, 52–56, 69. See also Motivation and growth, instructor;

Teaching development/training; Teaching presence

Intentional Tech (Bruff), 49

Intentionality: with backward design, 3; in community building,

77; in content release, 35–37; in course design, 2–3, 22, 71, 104;

with feedback, 115, 126; in technology and media tools selection,

3–4, 48, 62–63, 69

Isolation, student, 3, 44, 72, 76

J

Joyner, David, 55–56

K

Kalir, Remi, 173–175

Kauffman, Heather, xxi

Kuh, George, 165–166

L

Ladyshewsky, R. K., 86–87, 88

Large-enrollment classes, 48, 84–85, 117

Learning Management System (LMS): challenges with, xvii; class

interactions monitored through, 39; CR function in, 35–38; grading rubrics, 121–123, 127, 129, 172; group projects with, 33;

for hybrid courses, xxix; instructor video announcements in, 15,

87–88; mastery quizzes set-up in, 144; new instructor benefit in using, 65–66; note-taking framework in, 187–188; one-directional uses of, xxix; platform/tools outside of, considerations

with, xxviii, 66; small discussion groups creation in, 84–85; video tools in, 53, 55

Learning science principles: Community of Inquiry framework

relation to, 79–81, 86, 104; major divisions of, xxv–xxvii; peer relationships relation to, 77–78, 81, 104; in small teaching approach, primary, xxiii–xxiv; on task attempt before readiness,

12–13; UDL relation with, xxv

Lecture-capture systems, 52–53

Lehman, Rosemary, 90

Lerner, N., 30–33, 159–160, 161

LGBTQ students, 93

Literature. See Films and literature, connection-making with

LMS. See Learning Management System

Lortie, Dan, xix

Lowenthal, Patrick, 119–121

M

Magna Publications, 206, 217

Make It Stick (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel), xxiii, 13, 17–18

Mandernach, B. Jean, 212–213

Marginalized/underserved populations, 166, 221; care and empathy for, 223; inclusion in course design, 92–95; teaching presence importance for, 89

Maris, Mindy, 49–50

Massive open online course (MOOC), xxxii, 206

Mastery quizzes, 142–144, 150

Math instruction, 36

Mayer, Richard, 62

Mazur, Eric, 49

McDaniel, M. A., xxiii, 13, 17–18

McGuire, Saundra, 191

McTighe, Jay, 7–8, 10

The Meaningful Writing Project (Eodice, Geller, and Lerner), 30–

33, 159–160, 161

Media tools. See Technology and media tools

Milheim, Karen, 94

Miller, Michelle, 49–50, 54, 62–63, 215–216

Mind in Society (Vygotsky), 78

Minds Online (Miller), 62–63, 215–216

Mindset, xxiv; fixed, 134–135; growth, 134, 149; theory, 134–136

Module goals: course learning objectives alignment with, 14, 23;

student reflection on, 19, 23

MOOC. See Massive open online course

Motivation, student, xxiv; approaches for increasing, overview of,

xxvi–xxvii; interest relation to, 160–161; in online compared to physical classrooms, 153, 156; student control relation to, 154–

155, 158, 159–160, 184; theories and research on, 154, 184;

value/relevance of content impact on, 154, 184–185. See also

Autonomy and control, student; Connections, making

Motivation and growth, instructor, xviii, xxvi, 155; burnout role in, 202–203; challenge and change increasing, 201–202; critical examination of teaching for, 217–218, 225; exemplars for, Seeking out, 207–208, 219; incremental and manageable, 209–210, 219;

models for, 204–217; passion relation to, 199–200, 223–224; principles for, 217–219; proactive effort for, 218–219, 220, 224–

225; quality certification and rubrics for, 210–214, 219; resources and books for, 214–217; self-efficacy for, building, 208–210; taking an online class for, 205–207, 219; theories and research on, 202–204; tips overview for, 219

Multimedia theory, 62

Murugan, Edna, 203

N

“Name Stories” activity, 95, 104

National Academy of Sciences, 93

National Survey of Student Engagement, 31

Nilson, Linda, 83, 90–91, 98, 143, 168–171, 215

Nontraditional students, xvii, 221. See also

Marginalized/underserved populations

Norms and routines, xvii–xviii

Note-taking framework, 187–188, 197

Nudge (Thaler and Sunstein), 138

Nudges, 137–139, 150

O

Office hours, virtual, 116, 119–121, 128

Online discussions. See Forums/online discussions

Online Teaching at Its Best (Nilson and Goodson), 90–91, 215

The Online Teaching Survival Guide (Boettcher and Conrad), 63–

64, 215

Oops Token, 98–99, 104, 168–169, 171

Orlando, John, 84

P

Pacansky-Brock, Michelle, 89

Peer instruction, 49

Peer relationships, 71; course design consideration of, 80, 103; debates and, 75–76; in learning, research on, 77–78, 81, 104. See also Student interactions

Pekrun, Reinhard, 154, 184

Personal learning network (PLN), 193–194, 197

Personalized learning, xxviii

Phone/video conference calls: care shown through, 99–100, 118–

119; feedback through, 114, 117–119, 128

Pilates instruction, 132–133

PLN. See Personal learning network

Plotts, Courtney, 93–94

Plus-One design model, xxv

Podcast, teaching development, 216

Practice: group work, 166; for instructor video making, 54, 56, 59,

60, 61, 210; learning skills relation to, xxiii, 27–28; preassessment, 22, 24; for student video making, 147–148

Preassessments: practice with, 22, 24; of prior knowledge, 185–

187

Prediction, xxiii

Presence, areas of, 79–81

Prior knowledge: assessments, 185–187, 189, 196–197; concept maps for assessing, 189; connection-making and, 185–187, 195,

196–197

Purpose. See Course learning objectives

Q

QM. See Quality Matters

Quality certification and rubrics, 210–214, 219

Quality Matters (QM), 211, 221–222

Question-and-answer forums/tools, 39, 64

Quizlet, 64

R

Radford, Alexandria Walton, xvii

Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone (Tobin and Behling), xxiv–xxv,

215

Redundancy effect, 50

Reflection, student: on assignment meaningfulness, 30–32;

assignments fostering, 24; on assignments/activities goals, 33;

cognitive benefits of, 17–18; on course learning objectives, 17–21,

24–25; end-of-course, 20–21, 23–24, 25; on module goals, 19, 23;

private compared to public, considerations, 21; self-

discipline/regulation benefits of, 18; student support aided with,

148; Three Takeaways assignment and, 20–21; videos for, 18

Relationships: attention to, 71–72; learning fostered in, 76, 81–

82, 89; online compared to physical classroom, 71–72; on social

media, 105; teaching development, 216. See also Community

building; Peer relationships; Student interactions

Reminders, 22–23

Research. See Theories and research

Research universities, teaching development at, 1

Resources and books: on course design, 7–8; cultural inclusion

and awareness, 94, 95, 104; teaching development, 206, 214–217

Retrieval, xxiii, 17, 37

Riggs, Shannon, xx, 165–166, 215

Robertson, Robert John, 165–166

Roediger, H. L., xxiii, 13, 17–18

Rubrics: course-quality, 210–214, 219; grading, 121–123, 127, 129,

172

S

Scaffolding: of assignments, 145–148, 150; confidence impacted

by, 146–147; with connection-making strategies, 187, 195–196;

CR function for, 35–36; group work, 165–166; in student video

creation, 146–148; theory behind, 29–30

Scheduling: accountability and, xxvii, 9; of formative assessments,

9; tools, 117, 118, 120. See also Deadlines; Time factors and

management

Schoolteacher (Lortie), xix

Self-discipline/regulation, xxi, 151; flexibility impact on, 73; goals contract aiding, 140; reflection aiding, 18; Specs Grading impact on, 99, 169–170; student support and guidance impact on, 73

Self-efficacy: instructor, building, 208–210; student, building,

145–148, 150; theory, 145–146

Self-explanation, xxiii

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey), xxiii

Sexual orientation, 93

Small teaching approach: overview of, xxiii–xxiv; structure and

categories of, xxix–xxxii. See also specific topics

Social justice, 223–224

Social media: relationships and engagement on, 105; tools, 66,

126

Social presence: challenges with, in online courses, 80–81, 102;

establishing, 79, 80–86, 102–103; with instructor personal sharing, 92, 103–104; student satisfaction relation to, 86–87; teaching presence relation to, 80–81

The Spark of Learning (Cavanagh), 154

Specifications Grading (Nilson), 98, 171

Specifications (Specs) Grading: application overview for, 169–

170; for autonomy and control, student, 168–172, 177; for forums/online discussions, 170–171; self-regulation and

accountability impact of, 99, 169–170

Sports instruction, 28

Student engagement: with assessments, approaches to, 12, 30–32,

57–58; assignments broken into increments for, 32–35, 43–44; CR of content and, 35–38, 45; experience of lack of, 28–29; FAQs aiding in, 39; feedback significance for, 31, 44–45, 46, 103, 110–

111; forum discussions highlights for, 41–42, 45; forum

monitoring and interaction for, 40–41, 42–43, 44, 88; instructor personal sharing impact on, 90; models for, 32–43; principles of,

43–44; reflections from students on, 30–32; reminders for, 23; scaffolding for, 29–30; student interactions as opportunities for,

38–41, 44; technology and media tools to spur, 56–58; theories and research on, 29–32; time factors and management in, 34–35,

40–41, 58; tips overview for, 44–45; video announcements impact for, 14–15; during video lectures, 55

Student goals and interests: content connection with, 157–158,

183–184, 191–193, 196, 197–198; content misalignment with,

157–158; course learning objectives alignment with, 20–21; in goals contract, 141–142; motivation relation to, 160–161

Student interactions, xxx; debates impact for, 75–76; forums role in, 82, 103; identification of online, 38–41; monitoring for cultural sensitivity, 94–95; monitoring for student engagement

opportunities in, 38–41, 44; structuring for feedback, 116–117; structuring in community building, 81–86, 101, 103; technology use considerations for, 85–86; video introductions by students for

fostering, 82–83, 103. See also Forums/online discussions

Student support and guidance: accountability expectations in,

176; assignments scaffolding for, 145–148, 150; attrition rates relation to, xxvi; autonomy and independence fostered in, 161,

176, 177–178; care and empathy shown in, 95–101, 118–119, 131–

132, 149, 151; on course learning objectives, 3; creativity fostering with, 84, 189–190, 196; encouragement importance in, 132–134,

148–149; feedback significance for, 9, 72–73; goals contract for,

139–142, 150; lack of, xv–xvi; mastery quizzes for, 142–144, 150; models of, 136–148; nudges for, 137–139, 150; online compared to physical classrooms, xvii–xviii, 3, 10, 11; principles for, xxiii–xxiv,

148–149; scope of, 131–132; self-reflection role in, 148; structure significance for, 149; theories and research on, 134–136; tips overview for, 150; UDL principles role in, xxiv–xxv Students, online: anxiety for, xvi–xvii; attrition rates for, xxvi,

136, 150; backward design transparency for, 10, 11, 13–15; characteristics of successful, xxi; isolation for, 3, 44, 72, 76;

motivation challenges for, 153–154; relationships for, 71–72; self-discipline skills for, xxi, 151; statistics of, xvii; support and guidance challenges for, xvii–xviii, 3, 10, 11

Summative assessments: course learning objectives and, 9;

defining and examples of, 9, 110; formative assessments impact compared to, 29

Sunstein, C. R., 138

Syllabus: annotating, benefits of and tools for, 172–175, 177;

assessments on understanding of, 11, 18–19; learning objectives in, 9; student autonomy and co-creation of, 172–175, 177

Synchronous live web meetings, 119–121

T

Taylor, Ann H., 212–213

Teach Students How to Learn (McGuire), 191

Teaching development/training: “apprenticeship of observation”

role in, xix; commitment to, 204, 218; course learning objectives discussions in, 6; on cultural inclusion, 94; feedback in, 109;

forum discussion highlights impact in, 41–42; lack of, impacts of,

222; for new instructors, xix, 2–3, 6–7; opportunities and requirements for, xx, 1–2, 222; passion and career in, 200–201; patience and persistence required in, xxxiii; relationships for, 216;

resources and books for, 206, 214–217; on technology in classrooms, 201–202. See also Motivation and growth, instructor

Teaching in Higher Ed (podcast), 216

Teaching presence: establishing, 79–80, 86–92, 101–102, 103;

personality revealed in, 90–92, 103–104; social presence relation to, 80–81; student course evaluations relation to, 86–87; for underserved populations, importance of, 89; video

introductions/announcements to build, 87–88, 102

The Teaching Professor Conference, 217

Technology and media tools: access to, considerations of, 68, 92;

alternatives to use of, 49, 68; Bloom's Taxonomy and selection of,

64–65; challenges with, xvii, xviii; connection-making using online, 191–192, 197; copyright considerations for, 62, 63; course learning objectives alignment with, 51, 63–66, 67; downfalls with,

50; for feedback, 125–126, 127, 129; Google Docs and Slides, 51,

65, 117, 163, 175, 188, 192; grading rubrics and, 121–123, 127, 129,

172; Hypothesis, 65, 172–175, 177, 225; instructor comfort with, importance of, 65–66; intentionality in selection of, 3–4, 48, 62–

63, 69; for lecture videos, 52–56, 69; models for using, 51–66; outside of LMS, xxviii, 66; personalized learning, xxviii;

pervasiveness of, 47–48, 70; principles of incorporating, 67–68; problem-solving with, examples of, 51–52; scheduling, 117, 118,

120; sourcing existing, 61–63, 69; student barriers with, awareness of, 66, 67–68; student engagement creation with, 56–

58; student interaction consideration with, 85–86; for syllabus

annotations and co-creation, 172–175, 177; task/objective-targeted, examples of, 64–65; tasks and objectives alignment

with, 51, 63–66, 67; teaching development/training on, 201–202; theories and research on, 48–51, 61; tips overview for using, 68–

69; for video conferencing, 117–118; for video creation, 52–56, 69,

91, 125–126, 127, 129, 147

Thaler, R. H., 138

Theories and research, xxiii; of backward design, 7–10; on collaboration in learning process, 77–78; on community building,

77–81; on connection-making, 181–184; on feedback, 110–112,

124–125; on instructor motivation and growth, 202–204; mindset, 134–136; multimedia, 63; on peer relationships in learning, 77–78, 81, 104; scaffolding, 29–30; self-efficacy, 145–

146; on student autonomy and control, 154, 159–161, 184; on student engagement, 29–32; on student motivation, 154, 184; on student support and guidance, 134–136; on technology and media

tools, 48–51, 61. See also Learning science principles

Three Takeaways assignment, 20–21

Thrive Online (Riggs), xx, 215

Time factors and management: balance for personal, 109; in

deadline setting, 113–115, 128; in feedback, importance of, 88–89,

103, 107–108, 111, 113–121, 127; in posting grades/scores, 89, 108; in student engagement, 34–35, 40–41, 58

Tobin, Thomas, xxiv–xxv, 212–213, 215

Transcripts, video, 15, 54–55, 68, 92

Transparency: in assignments and activities rationale, 15–17, 24; backward design, 10, 11, 13–15; of course learning objectives, 11,

13–15, 24; creating, examples of, 14–15; in group work communication, 167; resources for increasing, 16

Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Ed project, 16

Trial and error approach: in course design, xxxiii; experience of,

27; structured learning compared with, 45–46

U

UDL principles. See Universal Design for Learning principles

Underserved populations. See Marginalized/underserved

populations

Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe), 7–8

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles: aligning with,

37; benefits and resources on, xxiv–xxv, 215; forums design and,

164; video introductions consideration of, 14

V

Value/relevance: connection-making strategies for, 183–184, 191–

193; in group work design, 166; maximizing, approaches to, 162; motivation for student and, 154, 184–185; student goals and content, 157–158

Video conferencing. See Phone/video conference calls

Videos/video making: assessments in tandem with, 57–58, 69;

attention span considerations for, 53, 60; communication styles for, 54, 58–61, 91–92; connecting elements between, downfalls in,

55–56; copyright considerations for, 62, 63; feedback with, 123–

126, 129; instructor introductions/announcements, 14–15, 58–61,

68, 87–88, 91, 102, 186; lecture, 52–56, 69, 210; polished and scripted instructor, 60–61; practice for instructor, importance of,

54, 56, 59, 60, 61, 210; practice for student, importance of, 147–

148; real-time and real-life, response to, 59–60; sourcing existing

media, 61–63, 69; student engagement tips for lecture, 55; for student reflections, 18; student-made, scaffolding for, 146–148; student-made forum, 164; student-made introduction, 82–83,

146–147; synchronous live web meetings, 119–121; text transcript and/or captioning for, 15, 54–55, 68, 92; tools for creating, 52–

56, 69, 91, 125–126, 127, 129, 147; with YouTube, 68

Virtual office hours, 116, 119–121, 128

Vygotsky, Lev, 77–78

W

Walvoord, Barbara E., 110–112

Warner, John, 16

West, Brandon, 142

Wiggins, Grant, 7–8, 10

Winkelmes, Mary-Ann, 16

The Writer's Practice (Warner), 16

Writing instruction: assignments for, 16; instructor experience for

first online course on, 28–29; interactive writing processes for,

31; survey on assignment meaningfulness in, 30–32

Y

YouTube: feedback using, 126; video announcements with, 68

Z

Zone of proximal development, 77–78, 101, 104

Zoom, 54, 64, 117

Zull, James, 160

WILEY END USER LICENSE

AGREEMENT

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Document Outline

- About the Authors

- Acknowledgments

- Introduction: Small Teaching Online

- THE CHALLENGE OF ONLINE COURSES

- THE GROWTH OF ONLINE LEARNING

- THE SMALL TEACHING APPROACH

- APPLYING SMALL TEACHING ONLINE IN MULTIPLE CONTEXTS

- THE STRUCTURE OF SMALL TEACHING ONLINE

- A NOTE ON OUR COLLABORATION

- FINAL THOUGHT

- Part I: Designing for Learning

- Chapter 1: Surfacing Backward Design

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: SURFACING BACKWARD DESIGN ONLINE

- CONCLUSION

- Chapter 2: Guiding Learning Through Engagement

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: GUIDING LEARNING THROUGH ENGAGEMENT

- CONCLUSION

- Chapter 3: Using Media and Technology Tools

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: USING MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

- CONCLUSION

- Part II: Teaching Humans

- Chapter 4: Building Community

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: BUILDING COMMUNITY

- CONCLUSION

- Chapter 5: Giving Feedback

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: GIVING FEEDBACK

- CONCLUSION

- Chapter 6: Fostering Student Persistence and Success

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: FOSTERING STUDENT PERSISTENCE AND SUCCESS

- CONCLUSION

- Part III: Motivating Online Students (and Instructors)

- Chapter 7: Creating Autonomy

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: CREATING AUTONOMY

- CONCLUSION

- Chapter 8: Making Connections

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: MAKING CONNECTIONS

- CONCLUSION

- Chapter 9: Developing as an Online Instructor

- INTRODUCTION

- IN THEORY

- MODELS

- PRINCIPLES

- SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: DEVELOPING AS AN ONLINE INSTRUCTOR

- CONCLUSION

- Conclusion: Finding Inspiration

- References

- Index

- End User License Agreement

Table of Contents

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Small Teaching Online

THE CHALLENGE OF ONLINE COURSES

THE GROWTH OF ONLINE LEARNING

THE SMALL TEACHING APPROACH

APPLYING SMALL TEACHING ONLINE IN MULTIPLE CONTEXTS

THE STRUCTURE OF SMALL TEACHING ONLINE

A NOTE ON OUR COLLABORATION

FINAL THOUGHT

Part I: Designing for Learning

Chapter 1: Surfacing Backward Design

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: SURFACING BACKWARD DESIGN ONLINE

CONCLUSION

Chapter 2: Guiding Learning Through Engagement

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: GUIDING LEARNING THROUGH ENGAGEMENT

CONCLUSION

Chapter 3: Using Media and Technology Tools

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: USING MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

CONCLUSION

Part II: Teaching Humans

Chapter 4: Building Community

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: BUILDING COMMUNITY

CONCLUSION

Chapter 5: Giving Feedback

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: GIVING FEEDBACK

CONCLUSION

Chapter 6: Fostering Student Persistence and Success

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: FOSTERING STUDENT PERSISTENCE AND SUCCESS

CONCLUSION

Part III: Motivating Online Students (and Instructors)

Chapter 7: Creating Autonomy

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: CREATING AUTONOMY

CONCLUSION

Chapter 8: Making Connections

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: MAKING CONNECTIONS

CONCLUSION

Chapter 9: Developing as an Online Instructor

INTRODUCTION

IN THEORY

MODELS

PRINCIPLES

SMALL TEACHING ONLINE QUICK TIPS: DEVELOPING AS AN ONLINE INSTRUCTOR

CONCLUSION

Conclusion: Finding Inspiration

References

Index

End User License Agreement