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Instructional Design

Small Course Changes, Big EDI Impacts

By Kristine Pierick
December 20, 2022

Introduction

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Three small words with huge meaning! So what do these words mean to our Instructional Design team? They mean creating courses where students see their lived experiences valued and represented and space for their voices to be heard. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to developing courses with an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) perspective. What this looks like varies from subject to subject and course to course.

EDI can sometimes feel like an all-or-nothing task. It may feel overwhelming to figure out where to start or how to incorporate it into your course. In that regard, EDI is no different than other course design principles. For example, you may start your course development with one or two really engaging, dynamic discussions or one authentic assessment. And that is great! When the next revision comes around, you may find another assessment to modify or resource to update. EDI is similar. The challenge with EDI can sometimes be where to start. To help, we’ve created the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Reflection Document. This document can be used during new course development and revisions to help identify areas where EDI is incorporated well and areas where it could be improved. From that information, we create an EDI action plan for your course.

An Example of Using the EDI Reflection Document

A recent example of how to use this document comes from Lifetime Wellness and Self-Growth, a course that is part of the Collaborative AAS program. Chris Jones (Lecturer of Kinesiology at UW-Eau Claire – Barron County) and I started off the course development by looking at what he wanted to do, where EDI was present in the course already, and where there were opportunities for improvement. One area Chris identified early on was the list of resources provided to students for a semester-long project in the course, the Self-Growth Book Review. Early in the semester, students are given a list of books and are asked to select one related to wellness to read for the assignment. Chris identified that the books on the list were narrow in focus and perspective. Most of the books were written by professional coaches and focused on sports, which wasn’t representative of the professional interests or experiences of students in the Collaborative AAS program. This became the action plan for the semester: to create a more inclusive list of books for students to choose from. We worked with a campus librarian to identify books available to students throughout the program’s partner campuses that would provide diverse voices, perspectives, and lived experiences related to the topic of self-growth.

Along with updating the list of books, we updated the design and layout of the assignment page. The books were organized thematically, annotations for each book were provided, and callouts were added to highlight which of the nine dimensions of wellness each book related to. So not only were the books more diverse in perspectives, but those perspectives were the categories by which the books were organized, making it easy for students to find the books that they were most interested in.

The amount of time it took to make this update was low, and now students have a list of books that represent a more diverse range of voices, lived experiences, and perspectives.

Screenshots of Self-Growth Book Review instructions page on Canvas. Book titles are organized by the perspectives they take on wellness and growth.

Image 1: Screenshots of Self-Growth Book Review instructions page on Canvas. Book titles are organized by the perspectives they take on wellness and growth.

Using the EDI Reflection Document

The reflection document was created to be easy to use for instructors and instructional designers. There are just three steps. Step 1 is to identify the strengths relative to EDI in your current course. The document lists many components of a course and how EDI can be incorporated into each. Step 2 is to identify the opportunities for making the course more equitable and including more diverse perspectives on the subject matter. Step 3 is to identify one of the opportunities from Step 2 and create an action plan for making that course component (and the rest of your course as a result) stronger.

When it comes to incorporating EDI into courses, the most important step is to pick a place and get started. Your instructional designer is here as a resource to help! Make it your new year’s resolution this year to make your course more equitable, diverse, and inclusive.

Four Strategies to Implement Retrieval Practice in Online Courses

By Brian Chervitz
October 20, 2022

Introduction 

In May 2022, Flower Darby was the keynote speaker of the annual Collaborative Faculty Symposium for UW Extended Campus faculty and instructional designers. She spoke about her book Small Teaching Online, which documents ways that instructors can implement small changes to their courses to make big impacts on student outcomes. One important strategy was retrieval practice.  

Retrieval practice is the process of asking students to “retrieve” information from their memory, the repeated act of which strengthens the process of retrieval and improves the recall of that information. For learning that requires memorization and recall (ex. Spanish conjugations, trigonometric values, domain-specific definitions, etc.), retrieval practice is a powerful tool to help students retain information (Roediger & Butler, 2011). Spacing out the instances of retrieval of the information improves the effects (Hopkins et al., 2016; Gurung & Burns, 2018). 

Four Strategies to Implement Retrieval Practice in Online Courses

Retrieval practice can be implemented in an online course in several ways, but it might look different than in face-to-face courses. In traditional course formats, instructors can rely on regularly scheduled meeting times to implement practices at the beginning or end of each meeting. They can also ask students to speak to a peer nearby. Online courses can’t rely on those aspects, so retrieval practice will look different.

1. Knowledge Checks

Rather than asking students to recall previous course content at the beginning or end of a class meeting, instructors can prompt students to recall information at the beginning or end of a module. For instance, at the top of a page in a learning management system (LMS), like Canvas, instructors can ask students several questions about previous content and provide hidden sample answers that students can reveal to compare their answers with the provided answers. 

A callout in a webpage titled "Reflection Check" with 3 reflection questions and sample answers.
Image 1: This course asks students to recall information about the foundations of the US government at the beginning of the next module. Students can click “Show sample response” to see the instructor’s provided answers.

2. Quizzes

In quizzes already used in the course, instructors can include a few questions from previous courses as retrieval practice. No more than around 25% of the quiz should come from past modules, though. In addition, the quizzes themselves can be spaced out throughout a module, rather than clustered at the end, to specifically design spaced retrieval practice in the course.

3. Reflective Activities

Ongoing reflective activities have a variety of benefits for a course, one of which is opportunities for retrieval practice. Prompts for the reflections can require students to use specific content from past modules, such as to connect it to the most recent content. The reflections don’t necessarily have to be written either! Students could record their thoughts in audio or visual formats, too.

4. Flashcards

Flashcards are a classic method of retrieval practice, and if structured well, of spaced retrieval practice, too. Many online tools for creating flashcards can be easily embedded on a Canvas page. Quizlet, for example, provides not just traditional flashcards for vocabulary terms, but also games that can prompt students to retrieve information over and over to improve their recall. 

Flashcards from Quizlet showing one vocabulary term ("essential fat") and directions how to use the flashcards.
Image 2: This course uses flashcards embedded on the Canvas page for students to practice important vocabulary terms.

In Summary 

For information that students should be able to recall quickly, such as definitions or vocabulary terms, retrieval practice is an effective, evidence-based practice to teach students that information. Retrieval practice may look different in online courses than in face-to-face courses. Incorporating past content into knowledge checks, quizzes, reflective activities, and flashcards are four ways to prompt students to continually recall important information, which improves their long-term memory of it. 

References 

Gurung, R. A. R., & Burns, K. (2018). Putting evidence-based claims to the test: A multi-site classroom study of retrieval practice and spaced practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33(5), 732-742. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3507.  

Hopkins, R. F., Lyle, K. B., Hieb, J. L., & Ralston, P. A. S. (2016). Spaced retrieval practice increases college students’ short- and long-term retention of mathematics knowledge. Educational Psychology Review, 28, 853-873. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9349-8.  

Roediger, H. L., & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003. 

A Framework for Increasing Critical Thinking, Student Engagement, and Knowledge Construction in Online Discussions

By Laurie Berry
July 15, 2022

Many faculty at UW Extended Campus use discussion strategies to engage their students and push them into higher levels of learning. From research, we know such strategies are necessary because most discussions do not naturally lead to higher levels of thinking (Darabi et al., 2011). Many instructors we have talked to have noticed this problem in their own courses—discussions can often feel like busywork or small talk. To achieve deeper discussions that show evidence of critical thinking and promote student engagement, research shows that your best bet is to provide the structure to make that happen (Brokensha & Greyling, 2015; Jarosewich et al., 2010). How do you create that structure? The Framework for Student Engagement and Critical Thinking can be used to provide the structure and support that will guide students into a deeper and more meaningful discussion and engage not only with the content but also with their peers. This five-component framework, developed out of research performed by Laurie Berry and Kristin Kowal (Berry & Kowal, 2022), can be used as a guide to help you add more dimension to your discussions.

High-Level View of Framework
The Framework for Student Engagement and Critical Thinking

Framework Component 1: Detailed Instructions and Clear Expectations

What is it?

Just like we can set up someone for success on a cross-country road trip with a good map, we can set up students for success with detailed instructions and clear expectations on how to approach the discussion. Research shows that when clear guidelines are in place, students can reach higher levels of learning (Gao et al., 2009). As instructional designers, we might see a discussion prompt where the instructions are clear enough so students will know what to do and where. However, the part worth pointing out is that the instructions and expectations can go further than one might think. For example, we can enhance a prompt that asks students to participate in the activity (post, reply, and how often) with information about why we are doing it (purpose statement) and specifics of how to be successful in the post. It’s not that most of the instructions are unclear to begin with, but that it’s useful to add a little more direction and detail to start off with since we’re in an asynchronous environment and have limited time. Back to the map metaphor, it’s the difference between a general map that would serve the purpose well for meandering or spontaneity, versus a map with identified tour stops pointed out for someone that has limited time or specific travel goals. The aim is to get students to show evidence that they are thinking more critically. Therefore, adding a purpose statement and criteria for success encourages students to push further and move beyond superficial discussion. An example of how you might include this is shown below.

Example

Below is what clear and detailed instructions might look like in a course:

Example of Instructions

Framework Component 2: Share Thought Process

What is it?

The next framework component invites students to share their thought processes in their posts. This is comparable to the think-aloud process, which you might already be using in your courses, or to showing your work, like when solving a math problem. Urging students to share their thought processes of how or why they might have arrived at the answer or conclusion can uncover more detail and depth, which, in turn, can create more opportunities for meaningful discussion. The following is an example of language you can include in your instructions: “Show evidence of critical thinking by sharing your thought process in doing the activity for all to see.” This framework component encourages students to share their thought process from the start.

Example

An effective way to illustrate this would be to apply it to subject domains. For example, students discussing a programming problem on the discussion board would not only provide solutions, but also why they proposed their answer; students working on a case study in a management course would be prompted to share not only their opinions or solutions but how they arrived there. We are asking students to make their thinking visible, not just their solutions.

Framework Component 3: Prompt Discussion with Questions

What is it?

The third framework component asks students to pose questions to invite more discussion with their peers. Asking students to probe deeper and include questions or share reflections in their posts can uncover areas that they may be struggling with or thinking about. Include language like the following in your instructions: “Ask questions of others in your post or reflect on something you may be struggling with or thinking about.”

By directing students to do this, you will invite others to easily join in the conversation and allow students to engage with both the content and each other. Using this technique, you may even notice the discussion includes elements of problem-solving and critical thinking, which are strong indicators of the students digging deeper into a topic. It can be rare to see students asking questions in their posts. However, when students post questions, it opens the door for others to easily join in the discussion.

Example

Students discussing optimal health and wellbeing might pose questions such as, “How can I best design a wellness program to ensure others will have the time and energy to use it?,” “How does technology impact an individual’s health and wellness?,” or, “Why does the environment play a role in one’s overall wellbeing?” Prompting students to pose questions to their peers not only invites conversation but enables the opportunity to share solutions.

Framework Component 4: Weave Evidence into Post

What is it?

You may have noticed this, but often when students are directed to use sources within a discussion, they merely post a link at the bottom of their post without referencing or citing it in the body of the discussion. This framework component instructs students to weave evidence or sources into the body of the discussion to allow you and others to quickly identify where or how they learned the information rather than assuming the information is tied to something they may have read. While you want to encourage students to form their own thoughts and opinions, you also want them to be able to support their thinking with evidence. To urge students to cite their source of information within their discussion itself, include language in your instructions such as: “Post an opinion or solution from your point of view and weave in your found evidence to support it.” or “Remember to reference the resources used to provide the evidence.”

Example

Students discussing individuals whom they think portray leadership or powerful influencer characteristics would state their personal claims while weaving in trusted sources to support and justify their thinking. An example post might be, “Oprah Winfrey comes to mind when I think of powerful influencers because according to Evans (2016), she exhibits the following characteristics…” While we are asking students to share their personal thoughts and opinions, we are also asking them to identify and support their reasoning.

Framework Component 5: Reflection

What is it?

It can be powerful to ask students to reflect on how they might have changed based on a learning experience. Adding a reflection component to your discussions can illuminate where construction of new knowledge has occurred. We recognize that including this component will take more time for students, but it is helpful for them to be able to synthesize not only their thoughts but also the thoughts and perspectives they gain from others. In a discussion post, you can include a reflection component with questions like these to uncover any kind of transformation that has happened during the activity: “Did you learn anything new? Did you change your mind about anything? How have you deepened or expanded your own thinking?”

Example

Students discussing their personal sense of purpose and developing a strategy to help them achieve their goals might include statements such as: “I never thought of it this way, maybe I need to go in a different direction or involve myself in a new community.” or, “I never thought of myself being in this particular role, perhaps this is something I need to consider if I do want to pursue this in more depth.” Encouraging students to reflect on the activity could lead them to creating new connections to both the content and to themselves.

Summary

The process of digging deeper and constructing new knowledge commands a level of attention from students that signifies their engagement. Whenever students can interact with content in ways that allow them to construct new meaning, they form a deeper connection to the content itself and are able to interact more meaningfully with others (Brokensha & Greyling, 2015; Galikyan & Admiraal, 2019; Jarosewich et al., 2010; Wang & Chen, 2008).

Download a PDF handout of the Framework for Student Engagement and Critical Thinking to use as a resource.

References

Berry, L. A., & Kowal, K. B. (2022). Effect of role-play in online discussions on student engagement and critical thinking. Online Learning, 26(3), 4-21.

Brokensha, S., & Greyling, W. (2015). Dispelling e-myths and pre-empting disappointment: Exploring incongruities between instructors’ intentions and reality in asynchronous online discussions. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(4), 50–76.

Darabi, A., Arrastia, M. C., Nelson, D. W., Cornille, T., & Liang, X. (2011). Cognitive presence in asynchronous online learning: A comparison of four discussion strategies. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27, 216–227.

Galikyan, I., & Admiraal, W. (2019). Students’ engagement in asynchronous online discussion: The relationship between cognitive presence, learner prominence, and academic performance. The Internet and Higher Education, 43, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2019.100692

Gao, F., Wang, C. X., & Sun, Y. (2009). A new model of productive online discussion and its implications for research and instruction. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange, 21(1), 65–78. https://doi.org/10.18785/jetde.0201.05

Jarosewich, T., Vargo, L., Salzman, J., Lenhart, L., Krosnick, L., Vance, K., & Roskos, K. (2010). Say what? The quality of discussion board postings in online professional development. New Horizons in Education, 58(3), 118–132.

Wang, Y.-m., & Chen, V. D.-T. (2008). Essential elements in designing online discussions to promote cognitive presence – A practical experience. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 12(3-4), 157–177.

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/