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Community college students are more likely to come from underserved populations and are inclined to feelings of self-doubt in academic settings. When learning online, our students need to know they have an instructor who cares and is there to support them, and that they are part of a vibrant learning community. Effective online teachers mindfully cultivate their presence at the course level and one-on-one with students. These interactions foster a relationship based on trust, which is the foundation of a learning community.
Reflections
Reflections
Where I was.
Where I was.
When I first began teaching, I didn't distinguish how I taught for different audiences, nor was anything especially tailored for my community college students. Nowhere was this more true than for my online classes. The very first iterations were embarrassing from what I now know. They were almost literally attempts to replicate my face to face classes but in an online setting. This meant, simply uploaded powerpoint lectures and text only. 508 what?
Where I am.
Where I am.
I have converted almost every document in my classes into Canvas pages. Within the Canvas pages, the images (there are images now!) have alt tags. The headings are H2s, H3s and H4s. There are no all caps words unless they're intended to be read that way (for example I teach at COC). I have learned tricks to clean up my pages using the rich text editor.
I have begun to implement more and more of me into the course. While I was reluctant initially because of my personality, I quickly learned it is what is best for the students. And I was aware that one of the most successful strategies for learning was being human. This came quite easily in the face to face courses but had to be actively inculcated in my online classes.
To do that, I leaned more into my voice when writing anything in the course. Announcements were usually conversational but I had to change up a lot in the syllabus especially. I made it far more supportive and warm. I did similar things in the assignments as well.
I added recurring nudges. I added more supportive videos (and more videos overall). I added a welcome video of me introducing them to the subject and the course.
Where I'm headed.
Where I'm headed.
I want to continue everything I have been doing. Many of the changes made, I pilot tested in my Introduction to Sociology class because I teach it the most. Once refined there I want to introduce them all into my other courses fully.
My welcome video is generic and broadly applicable to all of my courses. I would like to have specific ones for each courses that take students on a virtual tour through the course.
Examples
Examples
In the example on the left, you can my use of lines to separate relevant sections within a Canvas page.
You can also see the Revised 'Dos and Don'ts' Section, sans 'Don'ts'.
Finally, my custom made Canva button for 'Start Here' in my newly implemented 'Orientation' module. I began creating my own Canva buttons. I use them for the 'start here' button, the 'modules' one, the 'Discussions' one and the 'Grades' button.
One of the first attempts I made at humanizing has been one of my favorites. I made an 'intro to my sociology' course video (with correct closed captions). I made it broad enough that it could apply for any of my online courses.
More recently, I made a friendly 'nudge' video. It is very short but it let's the students know I am there and I am rooting for them.
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