Guiding Online Learning
Chapter 2 of Small Teaching Online focuses on "Guiding Learning Through Engagement."
The chapter begins by reviewing a study on student perceptions of meaningful writing projects. They surveyed students and faculty about the elements of those meaningful assignments, and they found that "meaningful work allowed students multiple opportunities for engagement throughout the completion of their assessments. In other words, the faculty member did not simply hand out an assignment sheet and then send students away to complete it. Instead, the faculty member built into the assessment many small steps along the way" (30).
Darby has four strategies to guide online learners. Here's the short video that provides an overview of those models.
Resources
Here are a few resources to support some of the small strategies suggested in this chapter.
If you are interested in learning more about how to add "prerequisites" to your modules - the strategic or adaptive content release approach - the Canvas help page on the topic describes the process here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-26267-415241433 (Links to an external site.)
If you want to learn more about how to embed quizzes in your Panopto lectures and videos to increase engagement, our eLearning team has on-demand training on the topic. Make sure to visit the eLearning Faculty Development page (https://ccs.instructure.com/courses/1181412/modules,) and look for the "Panopto Training" module.
If you would like to know more about the research behind faculty interactions in discussion boards, here are Darby's references:
- Belcher, A., Hall, B.M., Kelly, K., and Pressey K.L. (2015) An analysis of faculty promotion of critical thinking and peer interaction within threaded discussions. Online Learning, 19(4). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1079570 (Links to an external site.)
- Blake, C. (2017) An online instructor's guide to better discussion boards. The Resilient Educator. https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/online-instructor-discussion-boards/ (Links to an external site.)
- Zhou, H. A systematic review of empirical studies on participants' interactions in internet-mediated discussion boards as a course component in formal higher education settings. Online Learning, 19(3). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/979f/fdb50a323668d7b7fc37055ff912a09f62fe.pdf Links to an external site.
Small Teaching
Flower Darby's book, Small Teaching Online, is modeled on James Lang's 2016 book, Small Teaching. Both texts focus on a simple principle: making small, meaningful changes leads to student success:
"Paying attention to the small, everyday decisions we make in teaching represents our best route to successful learning for our students, in almost any learning environment we can imagine" (xxii).
The concept is one well established in many fields, like sports. It's really difficult to change everything about a player's habits all at once; focusing on one small, fundamental skill at a time is much more effective. Similarly, no faculty should feel pressure to revise everything about a course or curriculum all at the same time. It simply doesn't work. People feel overwhelmed and never get started, or they find it so time-consuming and intimidating that the changes are ineffective.
Both books focus on making small, incremental revisions based on the best research about teaching and learning available.
Resources
For more information about the book, you can listen to aninterview with the author (Links to an external site.)
(voice only) with Flower Darby.
Or, read this Inside Higher Ed article (Links to an external site.) about the book.