9. Management of Time Online

Scaffolding assignments is all about breaking them down into smaller assignments. This gives opportunities for faculty to provide feedback and guidance to students, who in turn, can action that feedback. This helps them develop their skills in self-reflection and constructively criticizing their own work.

Ideas:

• The simplest way to achieve this is to take a large assignment you have and split it into two parts.

  • The first part is a draft, which you provide feedback on.

  • And the second part is the final version.

    • You can add the incorporation of feedback into the grading scheme.

• If you have a research based assignment, consider assigning an annotated bibliography first.

• If you have a presentation assigned, consider asking for a copy of the slides or speaking notes prior to the presentation, as a component of the mark.

• If a final project is creative based, ask for status updates or to see preliminary versions mid-way through the timeline.

• Consider giving assignments that hone in on critical skills that you'd like students to develop:

  • Reading comprehension assignments

  • Reflective writing

  • Assignments asking students to do research, but not necessarily to synthesize it (yet).

Not all courses allow their assignments to be neatly split into smaller ones. In this case, it is always a good idea to provide ample time for students to complete the assignment, and encourage students to reach out with questions and concerns.

If you have the time, you can let students know that they can e-mail me you with their ideas and plans and you can provide comments on them.

During synchronous components, devote a few minutes at the start or ending for assignment questions. Consider going over expectations and instructions with students during this time as well.

Metacognition refers to an awareness of how thinking and learning happens. Student awareness of their own learning assists them in planning, monitoring and evaluating their learning.

Self-regulation is the motivation and ability to independently use meta/cognitive strategies during learning.

Metacognition is often summarized as 'thinking about thinking' or 'learning about learning' and is an important skill to develop in students. Metacognition and self-regulation are usually discussed together as one process informs the other; developing an awareness for how we learn will inform strategies we use to optimally carry out a learning task.

A Student's Approach

The three stages of metacognition are: planning, monitoring, and evaluating. In each stage, a student may ask themselves:

• Planning

  • How have I solved similar problems before?

  • Which strategy will work best to solve this problem?

  • What steps do I need to show to get to the answer?

• Monitoring

  • Has this improved my understanding of the task?

  • Is this the type of problem I am familiar with?

• Evaluating

  • What are the gaps in my understanding?

  • What are the next steps?

Supporting Metacognition and Self-Regulation in your class

• Ask students what they find confusing and acknowledge the difficulties.

  • Various tools for formative and diagnostic assessments can be employed effectively here. See the pages, 'Assessment Strategies for a Virtual Classroom' and 'Engagement and Communication in a Virtual Space' for specific strategies.

  • A common activity is to ask students, 'what is the muddiest point?'

    • This can help students reflect on their own learning, and also inform you about what concepts need to be reinforced.

• Use short reflection prompts to ask students what they found challenging and what questions arose during a learning task.

  • Small, reflective questions can be incorporated into larger assignments.

  • For example, if you ask students to complete an annotated bibliography, you might also require them to answer questions such as, 'What part of this assignment was most challenging?', 'How will you approach a similar assignment differently in the future?' or, 'What about this assignment played to your strengths?'.

  • The final question of an exam or test could be, 'How did you prepare for this exam?', or 'What should I do differently next time?', or, 'What worked well for this exam?'.

    • The same can be used for presentations, asking students about their work process and encouraging them to reflect on it.

  • At times, it might be better to wait until marks are released for a particular assignment to better facilitate self-reflection on the student's part. When and how to use such questions is up to you.

• Incorporate reflective questions such as, 'What do you already know about this topic that could guide your learning?' into diagnostic assessments.

  • Diagnostic assessments are those instructors ask to gauge student knowledge before a lesson. See 'Assessment Strategies for a Virtual Classroom' for more information and suggestions on tools to use.

  • By combining content questions ('are you familiar with concept x') with reflective questions ('What other concepts are you familiar with that are related to x'), instructors can both gauge student knowledge and encourage metacognition.

Many of the examples above have been sourced from 'Promoting Student Metacognition' by Kimberly Tanner. Read the article here.

The bottom line with metacognition is to encourage students to reflect on their own learning approaches and identify successful and unsuccessful strategies and habits.

When it comes to course continuity, the first thing is to structure the course intuitively. This refers to student facing and content organization. Be sure to keep resources, discussion boards and general course content open throughout the entire semester. Assignments and quizzes may be closed when their due date has passed, but things like resources, lectures, and discussion boards should remain open for students to go back and engage with the material.

Student Facing Organization

This refers to the actual layout of the course in Blackboard. Creating clear menu items and well organized content helps students stay on track and ensures they don't get confused or lost. For suggestions on how to arrange your Blackboard course, see the Orientation of the Virtual Space page and the Structuring the Online Course page.

Content Organization

The order in which you introduce content is important. Content should flow in a logical pattern. Skills that are required for an assignment should be introduced before or at the same time as the assignment is. A lesson or concept that relies on prerequisite lessons and concepts should be introduced after those prerequisites are introduced.

One good way to address this is to ask whether students have the skills and knowledge required to complete an assignment or understand a lecture. If they do not, and this prerequisite information is part of your course, arrange it so that the prerequisites are dealt with first. If the prerequisite content comes from an earlier course, consider providing review materials for students who may want to refresh themselves.