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Collaborative Faculty Symposium Session Previews

By Abbie Amadio
April 19, 2022

Session: Community-Building Activities

⭐ Presenter: Eileen Horn

Why did you choose this topic?

I chose this topic because creating an equitable and engaging online learning environment is important but is also challenging. In this session, we will explore what your peers have done and have fun trying out some community-building activities that can be used in your courses. You will leave with a robust resource for finding and implementing inclusive community-building activities, and you will be inspired with new ways to make your course community engaging.

Session: Myths About Learning

⭐ Presenter: Nate Ewings

Why did you choose this topic?

Generally speaking, I love learning about commonly held beliefs that aren’t entirely true. It feels like I’m part of a secret club. So, naturally, I was drawn to a book that aims to dispel common learning myths.

How will this information benefit faculty?

Teaching and learning are both challenging. Faculty and students have limited time and resources to dedicate to the process, so research that can help shed light on what does and doesn’t work is invaluable, in my opinion.

Session: From 2D to 3D: A Framework for Increasing Student Engagement and Critical Thinking in Online Discussions

⭐ Presenters: Laurie Berry and Kristin Kowal

Why did you choose this topic?

  • Discussions are commonly used in online courses, but many of them lack depth.

Discussions are one of the most widely used techniques in online courses to support learning and encourage engagement, and yet they rarely go beyond information sharing to reach knowledge construction. In this session, we’ll share our new framework to help participants create livelier, deeper discussions.

  • Both students and faculty can benefit from new approaches to online discussions.

When discussions are overused or designed solely to mimic the face-to-face environment, students begin to tire of the read-write-post pattern, and their level of engagement begins to dwindle. Faculty can have a similar experience with discussion burnout. Our framework is another tool in the toolbox to help with this problem.

What will faculty walk away with?

  • Framework for Critical Thinking and Student Engagement in Online Discussions

We’ll be your tour guides through the framework, and along the way, you’ll see examples of the framework in action—transforming discussions from 2D to 3D before your very eyes! You will receive a copy of the framework to take with you.

  • Research highlights in the world of online discussions

The presenters are both instructional designers and researchers, so they will provide you with research highlights and their practical implications.

  • Ideas that can be quickly applied to your own course discussions

We’ve built in time to use the framework to come up with ideas to take your discussions from good to great, and time to discuss your experience with other attendees.

Session: Engaging the Disengaged Student: Motivating Change Within

⭐ Presenters: Liz Seitz and Jessica O’Neel

Why should faculty attend our session?

You will walk away with strategies you can use in the classroom immediately. The pandemic has made it so easy to become disengaged in an online course. To help meet the continued challenges facing remote learners and faculty, we will take an interactive approach to re-engaging students, including group discussions and scenarios. In addition to some helpful strategies that we will provide you, we will create resources based on your experiences, too, via a shared Google document that participants can access long after the session is over.

Why did you want to talk about this topic?

The psychology of what motivates people is so interesting. Finding the motivation to change behavior is difficult since change can be hard and scary. Our session will help give faculty clues to recognize where students are at in changing their engagement level in a course and help them understand how to support them as they re-engage in coursework.

Session: Scaffolding: Build Confidence, Build Competence

⭐ Presenters: Kyle Sky and Eric Peloza

Join us to learn energizing and practical tips for implementing scaffolding in your online courses. We will lead you through a series of activities designed to illustrate the ease and importance of this concept. Explore options for breaking down assessments, supporting students, providing quality feedback, and modifying your course to serve your scaffolded assessments.

Session: Level Up: Take Your Online Course to the Next Level!

⭐ Presenters: Amy Lane and Ryan Anderson

Join the over 200+ faculty who have decided to level up their online design and teaching practices by participating in our faculty development courses. Using your feedback, we’ve made major additions related to high-impact practices (HIPs) and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). We’ve also included a more extended array of examples. Together, we’ll actively engage in activities and assess your future needs.

In our interactive session, you’ll:

  • Identify three important additions to three new faculty development courses.
  • Articulate at least one change you want to make in an existing or new course.
  • Collaborate with peers to plan a course addition or revision related to HIPS or EDI.
  • Prioritize future topics of interest and needs related to your online teaching.

Meet the Instructional Design Team at UW Extended Campus
See the full schedule for the UW Extended Campus 2022 Faculty Symposium

Meet Flower Darby: 2022 Collaborative Faculty Symposium Keynote Speaker

By Abbie Amadio

Flower Darby speaks, writes, and presents on topics in online education across the world. She has over two decades of experience in higher education and is a seasoned educator in both online and in-person classrooms. A regular columnist for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Darby writes about a variety of topics in online education, including how to be a better online teacher, using small teaching strategies online, and making the virtual classroom more inclusive. (You can learn more about her thoughts on all of these topics below.) Her keynote presentation at this year’s collaborative faculty symposium, “Rejuvenate, Revitalize, Reenergize: Rediscovering Our Fizz in Online Teaching,” is meant to motivate, inspire, and remind instructors that teaching online is a rewarding and transformative experience for both educators and students.

What makes a good online teacher?

In her advice guide ”How to Be a Better Online Teacher” for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Darby says the qualities that make great teachers in person make great ones online as well. It may seem like common sense, but Darby says that showing up to class, being yourself, and empathizing with your students go a long way in making better online teachers. In her guide, Darby also suggests practical ways to increase student engagement in the online classroom—from using scaffolding throughout a course to creating assignments with real-world application. According to Darby, these are just a few of the practices that engage students (and instructors) and make for a productive and pleasant classroom online.

From sticking to a schedule to authentically communicating with students, Darby provides key strategies for teaching online in her recorded seminar “How to Be a Better Online Teacher”

Access the The Chronicle of Higher Education via your subscription or home campus library to read Darby’s article “How to Be a Better Online Teacher”

What is small teaching?

In her book Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes with James M. Lang (who coined the term “small teaching”), Darby modified Lang’s small teaching strategies for the online classroom. Small teaching describes how research-based incremental changes to instruction can increase student understanding. For example, tasks like “retrieving,” “interleaving,” and “self-explaining” (to name a few) can be built into short (or “small”) activities that can improve student learning. According to Darby, these “small” strategies put less demand on instructors and are significantly beneficial for students. They can also be easily built into the online classroom. As she says, an instructor can make “one small change to [their] in-class activities, for example, an exercise that takes five minutes at the beginning or end of class and that requires no grading” and “this insignificant change can have an outsized impact on student learning when we base it on evidence-based principles such as retrieval practice or interleaving, both of which help students retain new information over time.”

Listen to Darby talk about small teaching online on the Trending in Education podcast

How can the virtual classroom be more inclusive?

Institutions around the world are figuring out ways to make their classrooms more inclusive—and that includes the online classroom as well. In “It’s Our Duty to Teach More Inclusively” in the Times Higher Education, Darby details the many ways online classrooms can be more inclusive—from ensuring that the viewpoints of historically underrepresented scholars are included in course materials to offering more choice to students in general (from completing assignments to participating in discussions). Another way Darby suggests instructors make their online classrooms more inclusive is by incorporating Universal Design for Learning. In her article, “6 Quick Ways to Be More Inclusive in a Virtual Classroom” for The Chronicle, she puts it this way: “With UDL, you can plan your course from the outset in ways that, while they lower barriers to learning for students with certain needs, benefit all students.”

Watch a recent seminar presented by Darby on principles and strategies that promote equity and inclusion in the online classroom

Access the The Chronicle of Higher Education via your subscription or home campus library to read Darby’s article “6 Quick Ways to Be More Inclusive in a Virtual Classroom”

Learn more about Flower Darby at flowerdarby.com/.

Flower Darby, “Rejuvenate, Revitalize, Reenergize: Rediscovering Our Fizz in Online Teaching”
Tuesday, May 24, 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Event details: https://ce.uwex.edu/faculty-symposium/
Free; register at https://ce.uwex.edu/faculty-symposium#registration/

Course Changes: Out With the Old, In With The New

By Kristin Kowal
February 27, 2020

Spring is upon us and growth and change is a fitting topic to explore this time of year. Here are four changes we saw in courses that we’d love to share with you, as well as the instructor’s perspective on these changes.

Adding Choice to Invigorate a Boring Assignment

Course: Introduction to Sociology, UW Flexible Option

Old: Students reviewed graphical U.S. census data and compared racial and ethnic populations over time.

New: Students can choose to conduct research on stratification or attend and analyze a community experience through the lens of race and ethnicity, gender, or social class.

Read more »

Mid-Course Surveys: Asking Students How Your Course is Working

By Amy Lane

Diverse group of students holding signs that say "survey".
Mid-course surveys capture formative feedback from students.

Mid-Course Surveys

Now that you are midway through a course, how would you say your course is going for students?  Do students have suggestions that could be incorporated to make it a better experience for current and future students? Rather than waiting until the end of the course for feedback, instructors can ask for formative feedback from students midway through a course.

Although it may be hard to ask for feedback, the fact that you are asking shows how much you care about your students. The mid-course feedback is a way for instructors and students to share and respond to formative feedback, which can improve a course that is in progress and have a positive impact on learning now and in the future.

How to Design Questions

It is easy to create and set up a mid-course survey in Canvas. The survey should be anonymous (Canvas has a setting for anonymous responses) and can be as short as three short answer questions.

To motive students to provide feedback, it is important to emphasize in the survey’s instructions that student feedback is valuable and will be used to improve current and future learning experiences. If you would like to ask students for formative feedback, please contact your instructional designer for help in setting up a survey in your course.

Example of formative feedback survey questions:

  1. What is one significant insight you have gained thus far in this course?
  2. What is one question about this course’s subjects that you still have?
  3. Please give your instructor one or two specific, practical suggestions of how they could help you improve your learning in this course.

Benefits of Conducting Mid-Course Surveys

There are several benefits to asking students for feedback in a mid-course survey:

  • By asking open-ended questions during the course, instructors can show that they are interested and open to students’ feedback, which can help motivate students.
  • The survey gathers the overall student perspective and gives the instructor time to respond to constructive feedback that can be implemented in the last half of the course.
  • The instructor can serve as a good role model for students by constructively responding to both positive and negative feedback.
  • Some students will be more receptive to formative feedback because they will see that the instructor is open to feedback as well.
  • Responding to feedback acknowledges the students that provided feedback and manages student expectations for the remainder of the course.
  • Instructors demonstrate that student feedback is valued with their willingness to incorporate recommended changes into the course and explain procedures or policies that may be confusing to students.

Tips for Follow-Up

After you ask students to complete the mid-course survey, it is important to respond to the formative feedback that you receive from students; we suggest that instructors respond by the end of the next week. Carefully consider what students say and look for themes that you can categorize their suggestions into for follow-up, such as:

  • Items you can change during the semester and when you will make the changes.
  • Suggestions that need to wait until the next time the course is revised because of the impact on the remaining instruction in the course.
  • The aspects that you either cannot or will not change because of instructional reasons (e.g. assessments).

Talk to your instructional designer about creating a mid-course survey today!

Resources

Faculty Symposium: Feedback, Discussions, Revisions, and Introduction Videos, Oh My!

By Kristin Kowal
August 13, 2019

UW Extended Campus held its third annual faculty symposium this year in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 3 and 4. The instructional design and multimedia teams had a blast presenting our breakout sessions. While we can’t re-create the warm, fuzzy feeling of mingling and sharing ideas with our faculty in a blog post, we can at least share our presentation materials.

Connections and Reflections: Feedback in Canvas

Session Overview

A group activity during the Connections and Reflections breakout

Instructional Designers Stephen Beers and Eric Peloza chose this topic because it was focused on tools in Canvas, and it was timely and relevant because many of our faculty are just getting started in Canvas; Stephen and Eric also chose the topic because they wanted to highlight how important and influential faculty are in the student experience.

It was great to hear faculty share their feedback and knowledge of Canvas and its tools. For example, one faculty member mentioned how they used the mute feature, which many faculty found beneficial. Overall it was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the unique questions and topics that came out of each session. —Eric Peloza, Instructional Designer

 

Main Takeaways

I asked Eric Peloza about his main takeaways of the presentation. He highlighted four:

  1. Yes, feedback does matter. Our teams hear about the wonderful job our faculty do with feedback and how much students value feedback.
  2. The frequency and timing of feedback matters. This is a challenge for faculty and the good news is that Canvas has tools that faculty can leverage. Course level reports (course analytics) and announcements are great ways to reach or review the class as a whole. Templated feedback is another great way to help faculty. Using rubrics or automatic feedback in Canvas is a great way to improve the immediacy of feedback.
  3. Feedback is improved when it is specific. Canvas gives faculty options across all of assignment types in Canvas. This includes general feedback by way of text, video, or file upload, along with using specialized tools such as DocViewer in Canvas.
  4. Sometimes, questions work better than statements. This is best best leveraged in discussions. Interrogative questions can open up or keep discussion going among students. Again, Canvas can be leveraged here in facilitating feedback. Another great feature is that faculty can view all of a student’s submissions at once.

Download the Presentation Materials

You can download the Connections and Reflections: Feedback in Canvas Presentation here.

Part Deux: Discussion on the Rocks? Add a Twist of Fresh Alternatives!

Faculty connecting over how they use discussions in their courses in this group activity

Session Overview

My fellow instructional designer Laurie Berry and I presented on ways to add a little “zest” to online discussions by varying the discussion format. We reviewed the two most popular strategies that we presented at the symposium last year (you can get a full explanation of these strategies in my blog post “Five New Twists for Online Discussions”). Then, we presented three new “twists” faculty used in their course during the spring semester. There may have been some light dancing as well.

[The faculty] seemed interested in trying at least one, if not more, of the presented twist ideas. They also liked the format/layout of the presentation where it showed the traditional question and seeing how the twist can transform the question into something new without too much effort. I think they also liked seeing their colleagues’ testimonials of student engagement as well as tips and tricks for success. —Laurie Berry, Instructional Designer

Main Takeaways

Laurie summarized the key points of the presentation:

Providing the same type of discussion throughout the course multiple times can become repetitive and boring to students and faculty. Adding a twist to at least one discussion provides unique ways to get students to interact with course content and to engage with each other. Also, don’t be afraid to try something new or different with a discussion board activity.

Download the Presentation Materials

You can download the Part Deux: Discussion on the Rocks? Add a Twist of Fresh Alternatives Presentation here.

Extreme Course Makeovers

Ryan Martinez and Kristin Pierick lead a group activity in their Extreme Makeovers session.

Instructional designers Ryan Martinez and Kristine Pierick presented on a topic that nearly all instructors will encounter: how to prioritize course revision tasks. Ryan and Kristine used the metaphor of renovating a house and examples of how to pick specific projects to fit your time and budget to bring this presentation to life.

We had several faculty members express their own difficulties when revising their courses. We also shared several examples from faculty that were in the audience, so they were also able to elaborate more on our points, which was very helpful. All in all, it was also a good session because faculty were very willing to walk through some of their troubles and to also help some of the faculty who have not done a revision yet navigate some of their potential issues. —Ryan Martinez, Instructional Designer

Main Takeaways

Ryan summarized the main takeaways:

The main takeaways from our presentation are for faculty to be considerate of their time and resources when they are ready to revise a course, and reconcile what they can actually do in the time frame versus what they would like to do.

Download the Presentation Materials

You can download the Extreme Course Makeovers Presentation here.

Meet the Instructor: Building a Social Connection

Nick Meyer explains why “Meet the Instructor” videos are important.

Nick Meyer and Bryan Bortz from the media services team presented on how “Meet the Instructor” videos can build a social presence in your course. They demystified the process of working with media services to create a “Meet the Instructor” video. This session was recommended for faculty who are new to online learning and/or developing a course in the next one to two years.

Main Takeaways

The main objectives of the presentation were that faculty will:

  • Gain an understanding of the purpose and importance of “Meet the Instructor” Videos.
  • Acquire knowledge of the planning process.
  • Obtain tips and tricks for generating ideas for “Meet the Instructor” videos.
  • Gain an understanding of the filming process.

Download the Presentation Materials

You can download the Meet the Instructor: Building a Social Connection Presentation here.

You can view Nick and Bryan’s highlight reel of introduction videos here.

For even more examples of what the media services team can do, view their Faculty Showcase here.

Future Topics

Do you have an idea for a future topic that you want to see us present (or to present yourself)? Comment on this post or email me at kristin.kowal@uwex.edu!