Responsiveness to Students' Needs

PRINCIPLE 3: "Effective online teachers respond to student needs and use data for continuous course improvement."

The following are examples of emergent and/or ongoing course adjustments for improvement.

1. Emergency Course Adjustment Incident

I teach Child Development for Merced College. In the summer of 2018, I taught an accelerated, 6-week course in Canvas, that depended upon Pearson Revel, an interactive e-text supplemented with quizzes and assignments. Nearing the end of the course, Revel went down and stayed down for about five days--a significant fraction of this fast-paced, 6-week course. Students were understandably concerned, realizing that a significant fraction of their final course grade was affected by Revel-related activities. I would even say that some students panicked. So, I needed to create and convey an action plan to reassure my students that they would not be harmed by the extended Revel outage.

Here is one of the Announcements I posted in Canvas:

"Hello, Students:

In response to the extended Revel outage, I have made some decisions. I want to share some important information with you now about changes I am making to our course. I expect each and every one of these changes to be favorable for you and support your success.

Some of you may recall that Revel went down not just once this summer but at least twice. When it came back online after an interruption in late June, I found that my assignment calendar in Revel had been somehow disarranged. I was not able to restore the order; and from that time, assignment due dates did not occur in chapter sequence. Therefore, I opened all chapters; and advised you to work on ahead, disregarding the calendar. In a July 1st announcement, I recommended a chapter completion schedule that would have kept you on pace to finish on time. Here is an excerpt:

My Recommendation:

I believe all remaining assignments are open to you. Just keep pushing ahead, so that you can finish all work by the July 26th deadline. Here is my recommended completion schedule:

[Table with recommended completion schedule. Announcement continues:]

Now, Revel had its most recent catastrophic crash on Thursday, July 19th. Those of you who followed my recommended schedule should have completed Chapters 7, 8 and 9 by then. Therefore, I am assuming that your performance on Exam 3, consisting of those three chapters, should not have been affected by the Revel outage. (And of course, the same must be true of the earlier Exams 1 and 2.)

Exam 4, however, is another story. Several of you have told me that you had not yet finished studying Chapters 10, 11 and 12 (for Exam 4) before Revel went down. That is a totally reasonable assertion for those of you who were trying to follow my recommended study schedule. Let's come back to Exam 4 in a moment.

For Exam 5, I have abandoned hope that Revel will be up in time to allow you a reasonable window to study Chapters 13, 14 and 15. But, I have a beautiful alternative! I have found an online open resource textbook (meaning freely available at no cost to you) and I have provided you with the brief chapter (11 pages) on adolescence from that online text. Furthermore, I have created an alternate Exam, based upon that free reading material. Please download the chapter and take this alternate exam before the course closes on Thursday, July 26th at 11:59 PM. Again, this new alternate exam has no connection to Revel. Just study a short chapter, and take (what I believe is) a relatively easy test.

Now, about Exam 4. As explained, this is the only one for which we might reasonably conclude that your performance could be affected by the Revel outage. Here's what I am ready to do: I will drop your lowest TWO exams; so only your best three out of five will count toward your final grade. I will extend the deadline on Exam 4 (which was due tonight at 11:59) to give you more time on Exam 4. There is a rumor that Revel will come back online tomorrow (Monday); but, we've been hearing a lot of rumors lately. So, if and when Revel comes back online, it's up to you whether you want to take Exam 4 or not. I would suggest that you do your best and take it. If it turns out to be one of your two lowest exam scores, Canvas will automatically throw it out.

Okay, so I hope this all seems fair enough to everyone with respect to the exams. You should also be aware that I released a whole gallery of fun and interesting extra credit assignments that should more than make up for any points you may have lost from Revel assignments.

Alright, now get in there and work like a BLUE DEVIL!"

Along with this and other Announcements, I also posted this YouTube video to further explain the plan.

After Revel came back online and the issue was resolved, I launched an anonymous satisfaction survey in Canvas, asking for students' evaluations of how i managed the crisis on their behalf. The vast majority of students responded positively.

2. Canvas Student Feedback Surveys

Also, for general, non-emergency situations, I use anonymous surveys in Canvas to collect student feedback about what is working well or not so well in the class. I typically post these surveys at the end of a major content unit. I use student feedback to consider course adjustments to improve the course. Here are the questions from one such survey:

• Judging from my experiences in WEEKS 2, 3, and 4, I would say that this course so far has: (5 -pt rating scale)
• Considering my comfort level at the end of WEEK 4, as compared to at the end of WEEK 1, my comfort level is now (5 -pt rating scale)
• By the end of UNIT1, WEEK 4, I would say that the amount of work required for the course is (5 -pt rating scale)
• Rating the quality of the weekly Discussions, I would say these have been (5 -pt rating scale)
• Judging the variety and quality of learning materials used (such as review slides, videos, web links, Quizlets, etc.), I would say that I am (5 -pt rating scale)
• Judging the Instructor's success at engaging with me personally and encouraging me to participate with classmates, I would say that by the end of the UNIT 1, I feel (5 -pt rating scale)
• Rating my opportunities to interact with my classmates in the Canvas environment, I'd say I feel (5 -pt rating scale)
• As compared with other Child Development courses I have taken, by the end of UNIT 1, WEEK 4, I would say the overall quality of this course seems (5 -pt rating scale)
• By the end of UNIT 1, WEEK 4, I'm predicting my final course grade will be
• Judging the various activities we do, overall, I'd like for us to do more [activity1] and less [activity2]
• Here are some things that are working well so far... (open-ended, short-answer)
• Here are some things about the course that should be done better... (open-ended, short-answer)

Canvas generates survey statistics so that trends are easily spotted.

3. Applying Course Analytics

Canvas is equipped with tools that allow the instructor to monitor multiple parameters; e.g., how often students view pages, participate, or submit late assignments. Grade distributions are plotted. Besides group statistics, stats are similarly available for individual students.

Suppose, for example, course analytics reveal that many students submitted a particular assignment either late, or not at all. this could indicate a problem with the assignment, such as unclear instructions or more time needed for completion. An instructor finding this might decide, e.g., to extend the assignment deadline.

Or suppose Canvas Quiz results show that many students missed a particular question item. In this case, the instructor should likely take a close look at the item to try to determine whether there might be something problematic about the phrasing or other aspects of that question. (Sometimes, answers from publishers' test banks are just plain wrong!) Logical modifications could include either revision; or deleting the question from the question bank.

Our college requires a series of progress reports each term. In these reports, instructors are asked to indicate which students may be, for example, posting low scores. Canvas Analytics facilitates this reporting; but more importantly, the instructor has an opportunity to reach out to lower-performing students, to offer support o remediation, as necessary and appropriate.

4. Master Course Shells

Sometimes, course changes are difficult or impractical to implement during the current course presentation. However, "great ideas" may emerge that I intend to apply to future course offerings. For such instances, I retain a master shell for each course, where I can save planned changes for the future.

Reflection:

I believe Item #1 above is my best example of ability to respond to students' needs "in the moment". I am satisfied that I managed an unexpected crisis that disturbed several of my students and disrupted the curriculum of the course as planned. I was able to demonstrate for my students that I was "there and aware"; and I modeled resiliency against setbacks and mishaps. This is a "life lesson" for college students--that when trouble comes, they can't afford to become too discouraged; rather they need to look fr the best possible answers. "Easily said" of course; but it can be "done".