Embedded Files
Effective teaching is inherently dynamic. Each time we teach a course, present a lecture, or engage our students in a learning activity, we teach when we respond to student questions and feedback “in the moment.” Effective teachers use experience to modify a lesson from semester to semester. Great online courses are not simply copied from semester to semester without significant changes, or allowed to run on autopilot, but rather are taught dynamically and improved with each iteration.
Reflections
Reflections
Where I was.
Where I was.
Before my @ONE courses, I answered students' questions via messages and left them feedback comments, but I think I just barely met regular effective contact. I typically only taught online during the summer and I wasn't required to hold office hours. I also didn't quite understand how to hold digital office hours.
Luckily, my @ONE courses taught me how to use zoom, how to make more videos, and how reach out to students in more varied ways.
Where I am.
Where I am.
I have so many ways of communicating with my students! I use video/audio/text in announcements, feedback comments, and in Flipgrid assignments. I send out reminders about due dates using the "Message Student Who" option in grades to help give student nudges for assignments due that day.
I use zoom for my office hours and use Pronto to text students, send announcements, facilitate group work, and have impromptu video chats.
Where I'm headed.
Where I'm headed.
My hope is that I can increase the amount of opportunities where students take on ownership and agency in shaping their learning experience.
I would also like to create more opportunities to get student feedback on the course in which I can use it more effectively in that particular course as well as more in the future.
Examples
Examples
Atalanta Myth Group Project
Atalanta Myth Group Project
Introduction to Theatre students have a group project that spans almost half the semester. This project asks groups to take material, adapt it to a plot, and then apply directing and design elements to their "new play." Each week the groups are given the next step, which coincides with what we are studying that week. By the time the project is done the students have worked together to work on dramatic structure, make directing decisions, and implement design elements in a "practical on paper" way.
There is no right way to do this group project, and so I let the students decide how to organize, delegate, and make all the decisions in how to go about this project. I do facilitate the groups' work by checking in on them via Group Discussion Boards, looking at their Google Docs, and group chats via Pronto. I also review each week's group work and offer helpful tips to finesse their ideas.
Take Away/Reflection Assessments
Take Away/Reflection Assessments
At the end of most weeks, I ask students to reflect on what they learned that week. It can be in the form of a weekly reflection, as shown here, or a quick Take Away assignment asking to highlight the muddiest point or highlighting what they found to be the most important point.
Sometimes I also ask students to create a quiz question with answers based on something they learned in that week's module. I then take these quiz questions and use them as a formative assessment that is low stakes.
These reflections/take aways allow students to reflect on what they learned or didn't learn, and what they found frustrating or inspiring. As long as they follow the prompt, they receive full credit. I don't grade these assessments based on content, but completion in order to free up hesitations about being honest.
Flipgrid Feedback Videos
Flipgrid Feedback Videos
For my acting students, I respond to their rehearsal and performance work in video format. Acting asks students to be in a very vulnerable and exposed and I believe that they need the same type of energy and presence they would receive in a F2F setting. It takes a lot of time, but I put in a lot of effort to respond to their performance work via video so that my feedback resonates more than if I just typed up a response.
Google Sites
Report abuse