Forward to normal

#1 Encourage contact between students and faculty

Research conducted in 1985 found that meaningful and frequent interaction with teachers is more strongly related to student satisfaction with their university experience than any other type of involvement, or, indeed, any other student or institutional characteristic. (Astin, 1985).

Fast-forward to the 21^st century, and not much is different. Trolian et al. (2016) found that the quality and frequency of contact with teachers, combined with discussion, research and out-of-class interactions with academic staff all positively influence student motivation, and (Beckowski & Gebauer, 2018) note that this is particularly true for academically at-risk students.

How to do this:

• Schedule synchronous discussions via web-conferencing at a time that suits the majority of the class. Make sure you record the discussion for students who can't attend at that time.
• Provide personal feedback on assessments. Use rubrics and marking guides to ensure that your assessment is reliable and transparent, but add individual comments to each student's work highlighting something that they did well, and how to improve an area of weakness.
• Hold virtual office hours. These can either be 'drop-in', or you can set up a booking system so that students can schedule an appointment. Students may seldom attend, but they like to know you are available.
• Participate in the discussion forums you set for your students. ​​​​​​​

Ideas for online engagement.

#2 Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students

​​​​​​​It’s not just contact with academic staff that improves student outcomes. Collaboration and group work activities which generate contact and engagement with peers has also been shown to have a positive impact on student retention and success. This can include improved knowledge acquisition and retention and better critical thinking and problem-solving skills (Johnson et al., 2014). Of course, as the current situation shows us, many of our students will also find themselves in workplaces which require them to work remotely in groups. The skills developed through collaborative classroom experiences are also critical to collaborative teamwork in the workplace.

Be warned though, online students often dislike group work, especially when it requires them to work synchronously on a task. Make sure that tasks you set are purposeful and manageable in the time available, especially at the moment when students are managing even more demands on their time than usual. Remember also that many of the positive outcomes of group work can also be achieved by the formation of study groups – these are often more palatable to online students than formal (and graded) group tasks.

How to do this:

• Introduce any formal group task with an activity that helps students to get to know one another and establishes the rules for the group.
• Encourage the group to formalise group roles and deadlines.
• Ensure that you provide a process for resolving conflicts.
• Provide rubrics and marking guides so that your expectations are clear.

Ideas for collaborative learning

#3 Encourage active learning

"​​​​​​​Learning is not a spectator sport. To internalize learning students must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves (Chickering and Ehrmann, 1996)."

Active learning approaches prioritise developing students' skills rather than knowledge transmission and require students to engage in higher-order activities, such as reading, writing and discussion. Active learning also places emphasis on reflection and students' exploration of their own learning experiences and attitudes.

Remember that online students experience their learning interactions differently to those in a traditional classroom. Build your learning activities around authentic problems, projects and tasks instead of a lecture.

Whatever forms and activities you use, the 4A model is a useful one to keep in mind when you are designing your learning activities, and we strongly recommend you consult the Guide for Good Teaching Practice: Considering Māori Learners.

#4 Give prompt feedback

"Knowing what you know and don’t know focuses your learning. In getting started, students need help in assessing their existing knowledge and competence. Then, in classes, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive feedback on their performance. At various points during college, and at its end, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how they might assess themselves (Chickering and Ehrmann, 1996)".

Feedback is a lot more than just telling students what they did right or wrong, and it is not about the grading. Hattie & Timperley (2007) describe feedback as a process that allows the student to know:

1. how am I doing (feed-back)
2. where am I going (feed-up)
3. where to go next (feed-forward).

Although constructive feedback on assessments is an important part of the feedback process, setting this up in the online environment can feel a bit intimidating. The strategies recommended in #1 are also helpful in providing students with feedback on their progress.

#5 Emphasise time on task

This may seem obvious to all, but implementing it is harder than it seems! Students working online face a number of challenges that are less evident (or absent) in the physical classroom. Because online environments tend to be aesthetically complex, online students experience higher levels of confusion before they have even started learning. This is why the use of consistent Stream designs and educational technologies is so important. Students only have 150 hours in which to complete everything required for a 15-credit course. You want them to spend this time on engaging with the learning, not in looking for where resources have been hidden or learning (unless essential to the learning outcomes) how to use your favourite piece of freeware rather than the standard Stream toolset!

How to do this:

• Follow the college Stream template.
• Provide clear instructions and rubrics for assessments (ask a colleague or NCTL staff to read your assessments.
• Organise resources clearly on Stream - use clear file names and label supplementary resources clearly so that students know what is essential and what they can leave out if they are short of time.
• Pay attention to multimedia design principles.

#6 Communicate high expectations

Another one which seems obvious at first glance, but which has more to it than one would think! Most of us will be familiar with the 'Pygmalion Effect' (Rosenthal & Jacobsen, 1968), which shows that teacher expectations influence student performance, but understanding how we do this is challenging, and doing it in the online environment, where the effects of body language and tone, for example, are muted, is even more so.

Communicating high expectations doesn't mean expecting students to dive into the deep end with difficult content. It means that students are expected to make an effort to come to grips with new knowledge through a carefully scaffolded process with you as the guide.

How to do this:

• Model the behaviours you want to see.
• Act as though you expect your students to be motivated, hardworking and successful.
• Set realistic expectations for activities and assessments.'Realistic' means that your standards are high enough to make students stretch to achieve them, but not so high that they can't use the steps you have provided to reach them.
• Provide clear rubrics and grading criteria for assignments.
• Give clear descriptions of what you expect for class participation - for example, the level of detail you require for forum posts, or the frequency of posting or accessing the course.
• Make your expectations of academic integrity clear and model these throughout your own practice (reference slides, put a reference list in Stream, etc.)

#7 Respect diverse talents and ways of learning

Our students come from increasingly diverse backgrounds, and they bring with them different life experiences, skills and worldviews. Traditional academia, however, tends to be very narrow in its views and expectations of knowledge and how it is measured. For example, most of our assessment practices still fall into the 'essay/report/written exam' category, which tends to privilege 'English first language' students from high decile New Zealand schools. In a wider sense, this principle also includes the decolonisation of the curriculum - and that requires us to reconsider who is teaching, and what and how it is being taught. Whose 'mode of mana' is being privileged in our classrooms?

The asynchronous online environment offers opportunities for different teaching and assessment approaches with the potential to greatly democratise learning in higher education. Of course, as with everything, there is a downside as increasing our reliance on technology may exacerbate the digital divide, so think critically about what you are expecting of your students and the tools you require them to use.

How to do this:

• Set activities and assignments in non-text formats (video and audio recording, posters)
• Provide course materials (or ask students to locate for the class) in formats other than textbook readings or journal articles (videos, expert blogs, etc.)
• Ensure you follow the college templates and that your course materials are accessible to screenreaders; videos are accompanied by transcripts.
• Use the H5P activity in Stream to build interactive learning activities. Follow Clark & Mayer's Multimedia Principles in your learning design.
• Ensure the course workload is reasonable, and that assessment tasks can be completed within the weekly time allocations. (See #5)

References

Astin, A. (1985). Achieving educational excellence. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Beckowski, C. P., & Gebauer, R. (2018). Cultivating deeper life interactions: Faculty – student relationships in a nonresidential learning community. Journal of College Student Development, 59(6), 752–755.

Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann. S.C. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever, AAHE Bulletin, October, pp. 3-6

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1999). Development and adaptations of the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. New directions for teaching and learning, 1999(80), 75-81.

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of educational research, 77(1), 81-112.

Trolian, T. L., Jach, E. A., Hanson, J. M., Pascarella, E. T., Trolian, T. L., Jach, E. A., (2016). Influencing academic motivation: The effects of student – faculty interaction, Journal of College Student Development, 57(7), 810–826.