WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.909 Mia Lamm: Everyone is whoop! 2 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:14.230 Mia Lamm: As everyone is joining us. I guess they're gonna be straggling, and as we go we have quite a few registrants. But I think everybody's kind of straggling in. So let's begin 3 00:00:14.940 --> 00:00:22.500 Mia Lamm: welcome and thank you so much for joining today's workshop on connecting learners through facilitated online discussion. 4 00:00:22.630 --> 00:00:38.000 Mia Lamm: I am mia Lam, and I'm joined by my colleague, Carrie Mcavoy, as well as Amy Pinkerton, who is supporting us today. We are all instructional designers at the center for teaching and learning at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. 5 00:00:39.290 --> 00:00:45.500 Mia Lamm: So over the next hour, we are going to tackle some common challenges in online teaching. 6 00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:51.390 Mia Lamm: particularly how to create meaningful connections when studies show 7 00:00:51.510 --> 00:01:15.050 Mia Lamm: somewhere in the realm of 75% of students report missing face-to-face interactions and online environments. So it's a real issue and a researched issue. So we feel it might be helpful to focus on 3 practical strategies. There are many more than that. But 3 practical instructional strategies that we feel work well for connecting learners. And we're going to try to use our time 8 00:01:15.620 --> 00:01:21.000 Mia Lamm: to develop concrete tools. You can implement right away in your courses next slide, please. 9 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:28.290 Mia Lamm: So let's just start with a little bit of a fun. Stop here, and we have a riddle. So see if you can guess it. 10 00:01:28.942 --> 00:01:33.589 Mia Lamm: You can go ahead and chat it if you've if you figured it out. 11 00:01:33.810 --> 00:01:46.879 Mia Lamm: It reads, I am not in real time, but I help you connect. I bridge the gap, though, replies may be checked. I'm built on words that travel in space where you can learn at your own pace. What am I? 12 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:50.170 Mia Lamm: Anybody have any ideas? 13 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:53.200 Mia Lamm: And I know we're small. 14 00:01:56.670 --> 00:02:02.289 Mia Lamm: One more second, Lauren and Melissa. Discussion. Forum. That's right. 15 00:02:02.450 --> 00:02:04.219 Mia Lamm: Good job next slide. 16 00:02:04.700 --> 00:02:10.650 Mia Lamm: And then let's let's move through reading through all the objectives. But they're there for reference if anybody wants it. 17 00:02:11.410 --> 00:02:39.329 Mia Lamm: So here's our agenda for today, we're going to provide a little bit of overview, some of the underpinning theories that we have been looking to to talk about this issue and provide a little bit of context. We're then going to move into some typical common challenges that are experienced in online environments. Then proceed to those strategy examples that I briefly mentioned, as well as take that a little bit deeper and break out into very 18 00:02:39.470 --> 00:03:02.680 Mia Lamm: short breakout rooms. If we stay remain small, maybe we'll just stay in the main room and work together a little bit, and then we're going to talk about how we might look at our courses or courses that we're designing, and think about how to assess that feeling of community and connection. And then, finally, we'll we'll just wrap up with a little bit of a Q&A and provide some resources for you. 19 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:15.759 Mia Lamm: So in the process of developing our materials for the session, Carrie and I found 3 key theories that we felt were essential to guiding online community building. 20 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:36.150 Mia Lamm: First, st social constructivism tells us that knowledge isn't just transfer from instructor to student. It's built through social interactions. So when students engage with each other, they construct deeper understanding together right? And this is why discussions and collaborative activities are so crucial online. 21 00:03:36.510 --> 00:03:44.170 Mia Lamm: So this framework emphasizes creating inclusive spaces where diverse perspectives enrich learning for everyone. 22 00:03:45.260 --> 00:03:59.129 Mia Lamm: and, secondly, the second one is the community of inquiry framework. One of my favorites to explore identifies 3 essential elements for successful online learning, cognitive presence which is engaging with content 23 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:11.220 Mia Lamm: social presence connecting as real people. So that authentic connection and teaching presence which basically refers to guiding the learning process or the facilitation of a course. 24 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:23.979 Mia Lamm: So when all 3 elements work together, meaningful learning can happen, and many of our community challenges and online learning often occur when one or more of these elements is weak. 25 00:04:25.210 --> 00:04:41.990 Mia Lamm: And lastly, connectivism recognizes that in today's digital world learning happens through networks and connections. And this theory emphasizes that knowledge exists in the connections between people and resources, particularly digital resources, and not just in individual minds. 26 00:04:42.330 --> 00:04:49.980 Mia Lamm: So by strengthening these connections in our online courses, we enhance learning next slide, please. 27 00:04:51.290 --> 00:04:56.969 Mia Lamm: So, as I mentioned earlier, particularly from a study by Hollister and Aaron Hill. 28 00:04:57.160 --> 00:05:23.159 Mia Lamm: 75% of online students report missing the social elements of face-to-face learning environments. That's pretty pretty big. Now, this was done in 2022. I'm sure things have grown pretty rapidly, but I still do think this is a pretty pretty solid number. And this statistic underscores. Why intentional community building strategies aren't optional extras, but essential components of effective online course design. 29 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:54.199 Mia Lamm: So again, I know that we're small. But I'd love to hear we'd love to hear from you just your perspective, whether from the perspective of a learner, a teacher, or an instructional designer. Whatever capacity. Let's reflect on a time you may have experienced or witnessed a lack of community in an online setting. So for a personal example, as a master's student, I remember joining a course, a large enrollment course, actually, where we were required to post to a discussion forum, but questions went unanswered. 30 00:05:54.250 --> 00:06:12.959 Mia Lamm: It really felt like I was just shouting into a void, and it felt not as meaningful, even though I was a pretty motivated student. So you know, if you could just take a moment and think, reflect on your own experience and just share with us? Did the absence of connection? What was that absence? If you could put words to it? And what was that impact on your learning journey? 31 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:14.710 Mia Lamm: And you can just go ahead and chat 32 00:06:29.860 --> 00:06:30.780 Mia Lamm: anybody 33 00:06:34.850 --> 00:06:38.009 Mia Lamm: I know we're small. So there's a lot of pressure on you guys. 34 00:06:39.390 --> 00:06:59.410 Mia Lamm: So thank you, Lauren. So Lauren is sharing. Sorry I just moved this over a little bit. Lauren has shared that. She was in a course where almost all the students would post on the due date where the discussion post was due. Right? That's a common problem. And it was challenging to build the connections when everything felt last minute. And that's true. I think I think 35 00:06:59.730 --> 00:07:14.658 Mia Lamm: we often talk like, you know, as instructional designer working with faculty. We often might talk about having 2 different due dates or something like that, to try to scaffold students in that discussion process. But it gets tricky in our short 8 week terms at the school. So that's definitely a great 36 00:07:15.150 --> 00:07:22.889 Mia Lamm: a great example. And Celine is sharing live talks where discussion times, plans for question answers were left silent. Yeah, that's a great one, too. 37 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:37.700 Mia Lamm: I think it matters because it on. Yeah, also said it. You know that's synchronous and don't know doesn't know if it matters. And I I do think it applies very well, because it's an online environment where we're creating some kind of synchronous time. And it, you know, definitely 38 00:07:38.209 --> 00:07:48.040 Mia Lamm: and another one from Lauren Yan. The lack of nonverbal feedback and communication makes it really difficult to be motivated and offer thoughts agreed. 39 00:07:48.420 --> 00:08:02.330 Mia Lamm: And then Amy has shared. I was a student online course from my Ma program similar. I remember that the students just said, Yes, I agree or good point. So they didn't dig in. They didn't go any deeper. Thank you and Melissa. 40 00:08:02.330 --> 00:08:20.260 Mia Lamm: I felt the opposite in my graduate program when it was online, but I have witnessed many as an Id, because the discussions are less structured. Yeah, that's great that you had a program that was fostering good practice. But yeah, we work all the time with faculty that are struggling with this question. Thank you very much for 41 00:08:20.410 --> 00:08:22.060 Mia Lamm: all of your comments. 42 00:08:22.770 --> 00:08:26.010 Mia Lamm: I'm gonna move into the next. 43 00:08:26.300 --> 00:08:44.179 Mia Lamm: So okay, so tagging on to some of our recent reflections, really great, really great comments. Thank you. Online learning environments as we have started discussing present unique community building challenges that directly impact student success. 44 00:08:44.660 --> 00:09:06.499 Mia Lamm: So many instructors report that discussions often remain surface level. Amy mentioned that in her own experience, and that means that like students are making required posts. Maybe they're doing it on time, but they're rarely engaging deeply with peers like peer ideas right? And there are several specific barriers that consistently emerge in asynchronous spaces. 45 00:09:06.670 --> 00:09:15.769 Mia Lamm: That's lack of trust and rapport that prevents authentic sharing, while isolation leads students to feel disconnected from both peers and instructors. 46 00:09:16.660 --> 00:09:38.809 Mia Lamm: Many learners submit low risk responses. That's what we were talking about earlier that meets requirements without really demonstrating critical thinking and the absence of social presence, the ability to project oneself as a real person in an online space, particularly self-paced, it could significantly diminish community cohesion. It's difficult 47 00:09:39.110 --> 00:10:00.729 Mia Lamm: and similarly insufficient instructor presence. So that's our investment in our own voice in the course, as instructor can leave students without direction or motivation to engage meaningfully. So that is a big piece as well, and these challenges are often magnified for students from 48 00:10:00.730 --> 00:10:27.399 Mia Lamm: marginalized backgrounds, those with disabilities or non-native English speakers without thoughtful, inclusive design. These online spaces can unintentionally reproduce or amplify existing inequities in participation and belonging. So there, you know, really is an important issue. So, keeping all these challenges in mind, Carrie is going to share some instructional strategies that we can look to for solutions. 49 00:10:28.350 --> 00:10:29.910 Keri McAvoy: Great. Thank you. Mia. 50 00:10:30.090 --> 00:10:30.710 Mia Lamm: Sure. 51 00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:45.620 Keri McAvoy: Now that we've gone through some theories and challenges regarding learner connections and online courses, I'm going to walk you through some strategies that can help lead to facilitating meaningful discussions that foster a deeper connection between learners and the course content. 52 00:10:45.830 --> 00:10:52.600 Keri McAvoy: Those strategies include creative introductions, purposeful grouping and peer feedback 53 00:10:54.840 --> 00:11:04.980 Keri McAvoy: course, introductions are often seen as routine and sometimes uninspiring, but with thoughtful creativity they hold the potential to come to become powerful tools. 54 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:18.820 Keri McAvoy: When designed intentionally, they can spark curiosity, foster meaningful connection, and excuse me, foster meaningful connections among students, and establish a strong foundation for engagement with the course, content 55 00:11:20.900 --> 00:11:32.079 Keri McAvoy: course. Introductions are a common practice in many styles of courses, and for good reason. There are many benefits to having students participate in course, introductions because they build trust. 56 00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:41.120 Keri McAvoy: foster a sense of community connect students to course, content and provide a low stakes, opportunity to engage with the technology of the course. 57 00:11:41.430 --> 00:11:53.719 Keri McAvoy: One key thing to remember about course introductions is that they should serve as fun and non-threatening icebreakers to ease students into the course, the course technology and the learning community. 58 00:11:55.890 --> 00:12:19.410 Keri McAvoy: The main goal, of course, intros is to get students to feel comfortable enough to share information about themselves, to their instructors and peers and many facilitators find it difficult to come up with creative ways to accomplish this goal. We often focus on being creative when asking students what to share. But instead try focusing on how they could share it. This really allows students differences to shine. 59 00:12:19.750 --> 00:12:25.279 Keri McAvoy: You could allow students to share their responses using written audio or video delivery. 60 00:12:25.630 --> 00:12:33.640 Keri McAvoy: Ask learners to post, an image like a photo, a drawing, or a meme that represents them, or something they love and explain why 61 00:12:34.400 --> 00:12:48.550 Keri McAvoy: you could use tools available in your learning management system to help students get comfortable with commonly used technology tools. And if accessible to all students in your course, you could also use outside technology like Padlet 62 00:12:48.730 --> 00:12:53.899 Keri McAvoy: Google maps to create a collaborative map that showcases where students are located 63 00:12:54.050 --> 00:12:58.000 Keri McAvoy: or even something like spotify, have them make a class playlist. 64 00:12:58.510 --> 00:13:19.600 Keri McAvoy: Whatever route you take to design your course intros, 2 things need to stay true, one make it interactive, meaning students should respond to one another, and 2 faculty and Tas should participate. This helps students get to know who you are, and it provides strong examples of what a response should look like. 65 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:28.770 Keri McAvoy: This slide shows a creative course, introduction for Drph students in a class here at the School of Public Health. 66 00:13:29.190 --> 00:13:43.220 Keri McAvoy: The directions are on the screen in front of you. So first, st there's a little bit of background information, followed by directions that ask the students to introduce themselves and describe a challenge that they hope to confront during the course. 67 00:13:43.390 --> 00:13:51.999 Keri McAvoy: it then says, be specific about the challenge, and describe how you think teaching, learning, and are leading might contribute to positive progress. 68 00:13:52.530 --> 00:14:04.710 Keri McAvoy: Post your response and leave a greeting and comment on 2 classmates posts, and then there's a note at the bottom of the instructions that say, we will take your introduction post and responses into consideration for peer grouping. 69 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:12.439 Keri McAvoy: This course, introduction was structured with 5 key elements in mind. First, st it provides context to the course. 70 00:14:12.650 --> 00:14:17.800 Keri McAvoy: There's also application that connects course concepts to students. Professional realities. 71 00:14:18.130 --> 00:14:25.640 Keri McAvoy: specificity and clearly stated expectations require students to introduce themselves and identify a specific challenge. 72 00:14:26.230 --> 00:14:33.260 Keri McAvoy: Structure has been made clear which guides students to analyze how course concepts might solve their identified challenge. 73 00:14:33.630 --> 00:14:41.249 Keri McAvoy: And then there's weight to it. Participation requirements have been established, including expectations to engage with peers posts. 74 00:14:41.850 --> 00:14:44.630 Keri McAvoy: This approach builds community from day. One 75 00:14:44.880 --> 00:14:52.670 Keri McAvoy: connects students with peers facing similar challenges and gives the teaching team early insights into students, professional contexts. 76 00:14:54.770 --> 00:14:59.289 Keri McAvoy: The second strategy we'll review with you today is purposeful. Grouping 77 00:14:59.650 --> 00:15:18.889 Keri McAvoy: group work is often a hot topic in online courses, because it can be challenging for many reasons, like differences in time zones, different schedules, communication, and collaboration styles. While these challenges can definitely be present, these obstacles can often be overcome with thoughtful design, and the right tools. 78 00:15:19.070 --> 00:15:35.239 Keri McAvoy: asynchronous collaboration platforms, clear guidelines, and assigned roles can be some strategies to help manage barriers and make group work a really great great way to facilitate strong discussion and help learners feel connected to the content and to each other. 79 00:15:37.330 --> 00:15:54.129 Keri McAvoy: There are some clear benefits to having students participate in group work, including knowledge, pooling, improved communication, broadened perspectives, enhanced critical thinking, networking, and socialization in an otherwise solitary setting. 80 00:15:54.440 --> 00:16:05.960 Keri McAvoy: But the reality is that just because we tell students to work together. That doesn't automatically mean that they'll participate in meaningful discussions that foster strong connections to each other and the content. 81 00:16:07.680 --> 00:16:12.980 Keri McAvoy: There's a few things you'll want to think about to help students succeed in a group assignment setting. 82 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:29.779 Keri McAvoy: 1st determining how students will be grouped can really make or break an assignment. Decisions on grouping are not to be taken lightly, as you really have a lot of options. Just some are listed here on the left side of the slide mixed ability, grouping student choice. 83 00:16:29.900 --> 00:16:32.780 Keri McAvoy: subject-based or schedule based. 84 00:16:33.410 --> 00:16:41.600 Keri McAvoy: Once you've determined how to group the students, you'll also want to set some criteria ahead of time so that they have guidance towards success in their groups. 85 00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:45.199 Keri McAvoy: It's really important to set clear expectations from the beginning. 86 00:16:46.110 --> 00:16:53.919 Keri McAvoy: Consider assigning group roles, have continuous check-ins, provide feedback 87 00:16:54.400 --> 00:17:00.039 Keri McAvoy: and allow students to participate in peer assessments during or after the group work. 88 00:17:02.750 --> 00:17:07.620 Keri McAvoy: This example of a group assignment comes from a problem solving course at the School of Public Health. 89 00:17:08.030 --> 00:17:15.380 Keri McAvoy: At the start of the course the students were asked to rank their top. 3 topic choices that were related to the final assignment. 90 00:17:15.550 --> 00:17:21.759 Keri McAvoy: The faculty and Ta then reviewed their choices and placed students into groups based on student choice. 91 00:17:22.170 --> 00:17:30.220 Keri McAvoy: Then with guidelines and expectations provided by the faculty students participated in discussions weekly with their group members. 92 00:17:30.610 --> 00:17:41.069 Keri McAvoy: Each week a different student in the group was assigned as the role of a moderator. So it was their job to post the discussion questions that would guide the group discussion throughout the week. 93 00:17:41.530 --> 00:17:50.380 Keri McAvoy: These discussion discussion questions were related to their chosen topic and helped the students gain knowledge that would prepare them for their final group assignment 94 00:17:50.770 --> 00:18:03.970 Keri McAvoy: students then worked together with their group to create final presentations to record and post in courseplus their learning management system, but they also used voicethread to record their presentations. 95 00:18:05.290 --> 00:18:10.680 Keri McAvoy: I'm going to pass this back to Mia. Who's going to talk about our 3rd and final strategy for today. 96 00:18:13.030 --> 00:18:16.829 Mia Lamm: Sure, thanks so much, Carrie. So you could go to the next slide. 97 00:18:18.710 --> 00:18:37.450 Mia Lamm: So this screenshot shows an example from the same class at the School of Public Health that Carrie showed for the creative course introductions. It's a course that I actually co-taught in the past with Ira Gooding, and was originally developed by Gundala, Bosh and Beth Resnick. 98 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:48.500 Mia Lamm: I think it's a great example of a really robust, meaningful peer feedback activity. And in this example you can see that students are 99 00:18:48.780 --> 00:18:59.299 Mia Lamm: walking through a weekly cycle, and that weekly cycle is consistent every week, which can be important for a feeling of kind of settling into the course and engaging 100 00:18:59.340 --> 00:19:21.279 Mia Lamm: in this course. Students are developing an educational plan meant to meet a gap in an environment of their choice. So it might be academia. It might be a hospital. It might be a nonprofit organization. It's up to them, and they get to connect and choose from related to their field or interest. 101 00:19:21.791 --> 00:19:29.500 Mia Lamm: And the weekly feedback cycle creates and scaffolds their structured peer collaboration as well. So 102 00:19:30.360 --> 00:19:40.499 Mia Lamm: as you can see at the top of the top circle. At the start of each week students engage with the didactic content and then post their 1st draft to a wiki tool. 103 00:19:40.820 --> 00:19:52.459 Mia Lamm: This makes their thinking visible to their group and to the teaching team. And remember, this is pulling off of that 1st introductory kind of conversation that was had the 1st week of class 104 00:19:53.290 --> 00:20:06.540 Mia Lamm: in the peer and faculty feedback stage, small groups of 3 students that were grouped according to their area of interest. As much as possible. They review each other's works and provide suggestions to each other's 105 00:20:07.120 --> 00:20:15.480 Mia Lamm: work, each other's educational plan that they're building. So during the draft revision students make changes based on feedback. 106 00:20:16.195 --> 00:20:28.320 Mia Lamm: or document, why certain recommendations were not implemented. So this accountability is really important, and students must either incorporate suggestions or justify their decisions. 107 00:20:29.210 --> 00:20:35.990 Mia Lamm: The reflection and response phase closes a loop with students explicitly addressing how feedback influenced their thinking. 108 00:20:36.170 --> 00:20:59.580 Mia Lamm: And this iterative process has really been successful in building critical skills and connections while giving constructive feedback, evaluating peer suggestions and making decisions about the revisions. The students are also building very important skill sets that our Drph students in particular need in their current and future leadership roles. 109 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:08.279 Mia Lamm: And in the next slide I'm going to talk about a few tools we we have provided to these students to help them walk through this intensive process, and it is intensive. 110 00:21:09.280 --> 00:21:10.580 Mia Lamm: Next slide, please. 111 00:21:11.060 --> 00:21:20.810 Mia Lamm: So one of one of the tools that we choose to use are objectives. So this slide that you're looking at emphasizes that students look to 112 00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:30.680 Mia Lamm: assignment learning objectives to guide both the creation of their work as well as their peer review processes. So it serves these these 2 dual purposes. First, st it guides students 113 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:52.110 Mia Lamm: in creating their own work, and, second, it's key for the fear feedback process. In that these same objectives provide structure, criteria for reviewing classmates work so access a guide right, and by anchoring feedback to objectives, reviews become more targeted and actionable rather than vague or just, purely stylistic. 114 00:21:52.310 --> 00:22:06.299 Mia Lamm: And this approach also helps both the reviewer who has a clear who has clear criteria to assess, and the recipient of that feedback who receives the feedback directly tied to their course goals. So it also is a help next slide, please. 115 00:22:08.530 --> 00:22:22.699 Mia Lamm: and then we also provide a structured framework optional, of course. But we will kind of walk through this. 4 C's A, 3 C's rather, and a Q approach about giving effective peer feedback. In the wiki. 116 00:22:23.130 --> 00:22:47.020 Mia Lamm: This framework suggests starting with a compliment and acknowledging what works well with their peers can like using specific language like I like how or I like that with a little bit of detail. And this helps to build trust and kind of lays a foundation for a starting conversation, and it really highlights some effective elements in the students work. 117 00:22:47.370 --> 00:22:50.790 Mia Lamm: Next, we suggest providing a comment 118 00:22:51.760 --> 00:23:04.160 Mia Lamm: by offering substantive feedback like I agree, or I, or disagree, followed by, because with some detail, and this requires justifying observations with evidence right? 119 00:23:04.290 --> 00:23:16.899 Mia Lamm: And the connection component invites deeper thinking through open-ended questions. I wonder why? How, who, what? Where? These questions all prompt the students to consider perspectives they might have missed. 120 00:23:17.530 --> 00:23:47.079 Mia Lamm: And lastly, we've added a 4th element to the 3 C's model, which is the more traditional model, which is that context piece prompting students to dig in for more context and deepen the conversation and resulting work, and I just happened to notice a chat by Melissa that she also recommends this framework, and have found AI helpful to customize examples for courses and instructors. They understand how it works. And that's that's a great, a great suggestion. Thank you. 121 00:23:48.250 --> 00:23:52.479 Mia Lamm: I think the students have really it has really been helpful to use it. 122 00:23:52.610 --> 00:23:54.070 Mia Lamm: And next slide, please. 123 00:23:55.720 --> 00:24:12.749 Mia Lamm: Great. So. And finally, here's an example of the Wiki assignment in action. I apologize if it's hard to see. I got it as big as I could could have done, maybe a little smaller. But this screenshot shows actual peer feedback exchanges using the Wiki comment function in our course, plus Lms. 124 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:16.630 Mia Lamm: And you might notice, if you can read properly 125 00:24:16.840 --> 00:24:35.190 Mia Lamm: that students are applying the 3 C's framework here, as we just discussed the top comment complements the thoroughness of the survey questions while expressing a specific concern about response rates to the survey. The middle comment, prompted by faculty, connects to the educational intervention concept and suggests formatting improvements for readability. 126 00:24:36.030 --> 00:24:59.539 Mia Lamm: So when group your, you know, when groups begin working together, it's really important to establish clear feedback norms. So that's why I'm taking the time to show you this kind of whole cycle. And it was through a lot of trial and error to build these different components in, because we weren't seeing what we needed to see in a course, an assignment that was so focused on that peer connections. 127 00:25:00.470 --> 00:25:27.440 Mia Lamm: We also provide an optional peer feedback agreement template it used to be required, moved it to optional. We post it in the online resources for students to help structure their conversations, so they're welcome to use it as a tool, and some of them do. Some of them don't. And then we offer office hours for either faculty questions or a space for them to meet. So sometimes that structure can be helpful for them. 128 00:25:27.940 --> 00:25:48.829 Mia Lamm: And the ultimate goal here is creating a collaborative learning community where constructive feedback drives investigation and improvement. And I think this assignment has worked pretty well in our short 8 week term. So now that we've peeked at a few of these examples, let's dig in a little more and speak to what may be a little more specifically meaningful for you. 129 00:25:49.180 --> 00:25:50.330 Mia Lamm: Carrie. 130 00:25:50.330 --> 00:26:12.090 Keri McAvoy: Yeah, thanks. Mia, thank you so much for that. So we just reviewed 3 strategies that we think will help facilitate thoughtful discussion in these online courses. And they are just as a reminder using creative introductions, purposeful grouping and leveraging peer feedback. So I'm going to ask you guys to give us another chat response here 131 00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:23.680 Keri McAvoy: of these 3 strategies which one resonates with you the most meaning. Which one do you feel like you want to implement, or have already seen implemented. 132 00:26:23.770 --> 00:26:42.509 Keri McAvoy: Which one do you think would make the greatest impact on your class or class that you work on? So we don't need you to actually give an explanation. Just take a second, sit back, think through it, and choose one of those 3 strategies that resonates with you the most and type that strategy in the chat. 133 00:26:56.620 --> 00:27:06.589 Keri McAvoy: Great. Thank you guys. So I'm seeing a couple of create so creative introduction group and good, it looks like we have a a lot of different 134 00:27:07.187 --> 00:27:09.902 Keri McAvoy: answers here, which is great for us. 135 00:27:16.230 --> 00:27:19.019 Keri McAvoy: Just take another few seconds to think about that 136 00:27:30.980 --> 00:27:32.759 Keri McAvoy: awesome. Thank you. Guys. 137 00:27:33.250 --> 00:28:01.569 Keri McAvoy: okay, so what we're going to have you guys do now, now that you've already kind of thought about which strategy resonates with you the most we're gonna get you into breakout rooms. So I'm just gonna create I think just because we have a smaller group, I'm just gonna make 2 breakout rooms. There should be about 3 to 4 of you in that breakout room, and we're gonna get into these breakout rooms so you can participate in small group discussions about the 3 strategies shared today. 138 00:28:01.660 --> 00:28:14.490 Keri McAvoy: you can discuss which one resonates with you the most, but give further explanation as to why and feel free to share your experiences with these different strategies with the peers in your discussion group. 139 00:28:14.620 --> 00:28:25.569 Keri McAvoy: So we'll probably give you about 5 or so minutes to have this discussion, and when you return, we'll take some time to share out what you discussed in your small groups. 140 00:28:26.850 --> 00:28:30.289 Keri McAvoy: Are there any questions before I open up those breakout rooms? 141 00:28:33.790 --> 00:28:35.660 Keri McAvoy: Great? So I'm gonna open those up 142 00:28:38.410 --> 00:28:40.689 Keri McAvoy: and you can go ahead and join. 143 00:28:51.280 --> 00:28:56.689 Mia Lamm: Amy, you may want to stop the recording for 5. I don't know. 144 00:28:58.520 --> 00:29:03.750 Keri McAvoy: Thank you, Amy, so we'll give a few more 145 00:29:04.450 --> 00:29:08.599 Keri McAvoy: seconds for everyone to join us, and then we'll chat. 146 00:29:30.380 --> 00:29:32.589 Mia Lamm: I hope that's some good discussion going on there. 147 00:29:32.590 --> 00:29:33.390 Keri McAvoy: No, that's. 148 00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:34.980 Mia Lamm: That's great! 149 00:29:37.090 --> 00:29:48.279 Keri McAvoy: Alright. So I think we're all coming back now. So I'm gonna actually just a heads up. If you didn't hear Amy started recording again for us. Thank you, Amy. I'm gonna stop sharing my screen so that we can 150 00:29:48.280 --> 00:30:09.570 Keri McAvoy: all see each other, and also I can easily see the chat as well. So I would just love for us to share out either something that someone else in your group said that you found to be interesting, intriguing new information to you, or something that you shared with your group members that you would love to share to those who were not a part of your group. 151 00:30:09.893 --> 00:30:22.520 Keri McAvoy: And we could talk about, you know which of those 3 instructional strategies resonated with you in past courses. So if you want to. You can raise your hand, or you can just simply type it in the chat. 152 00:30:38.790 --> 00:30:43.109 Keri McAvoy: I'm having a hard time finding my raise hand thing because I'm also eating a sandwich. 153 00:30:43.110 --> 00:30:46.230 Keri McAvoy: Well, you know you will let you go. 154 00:30:46.620 --> 00:30:47.609 Celine Greene: That's okay. 155 00:30:48.840 --> 00:30:51.939 Celine Greene: Thank you. Since apparently none of my clicks are working other than the mic 156 00:30:54.900 --> 00:30:58.509 Celine Greene: like. Now, like, I just think that 157 00:30:59.150 --> 00:31:03.889 Celine Greene: one of the things that was hit upon when Lauren was sharing 158 00:31:04.750 --> 00:31:08.170 Celine Greene: about like a creative introduction on the faculty's part. 159 00:31:08.910 --> 00:31:12.670 Celine Greene: As an undergrad. So much of this is 160 00:31:12.980 --> 00:31:32.010 Celine Greene: specific, to whom it is whom the students are whom the faculty is, what are the affordances in the class, the the demographics of the student body, the demographics of the faculties again, the affordability of time and planning. And 161 00:31:32.850 --> 00:31:33.820 Celine Greene: but. 162 00:31:34.130 --> 00:31:48.320 Celine Greene: Lauren, you were. Excuse me if I'm incorrect, but I think you said you were a student when the faculty met with each student before the course, like literally took the time. And it's like, that's amazing. That's like over and above. But it's something that 163 00:31:48.740 --> 00:31:59.479 Celine Greene: I don't see a graduate student making time to meet with each faculty. If they're in like 4 courses like God, I have to have 4 pre-class meetings, or something like that. 164 00:32:00.064 --> 00:32:10.119 Celine Greene: But as an undergrad, and it's 1 out of 5 classes, and you're a full-time student. That might be perfectly fine. I don't know, but I just think like again, even the peer. 165 00:32:10.430 --> 00:32:17.159 Celine Greene: the the grouping, the peer feedback, and the introductions. I just think it's all very 166 00:32:17.370 --> 00:32:22.789 Celine Greene: specific to whom the audience is and the context in which you're teaching and learning. 167 00:32:23.040 --> 00:32:25.589 Celine Greene: It's gonna vary. Not one size fits all. 168 00:32:25.760 --> 00:32:47.339 Keri McAvoy: No, definitely not. Thank you, Celine, for that. I 100% agree. And I think for all of those strategies we've shared hopefully. They are. We're giving you these strategies that are specific enough to give you ideas to take away something from this, but also broad enough that you're able to morph them into what works best for the courses that you work with. 169 00:32:47.820 --> 00:32:49.170 Keri McAvoy: Thank you, Celine. 170 00:32:49.660 --> 00:32:50.920 Keri McAvoy: Anybody else 171 00:33:05.380 --> 00:33:08.109 Keri McAvoy: I'd love to get one more before we move on. 172 00:33:13.270 --> 00:33:16.472 Keri McAvoy: Yeah, thank you. Crickets for the cricket. 173 00:33:18.390 --> 00:33:25.269 Keri McAvoy: Okay, that's okay. So we can keep it moving. Then. I'm gonna go ahead and start sharing my screen. 174 00:33:30.540 --> 00:33:56.959 Keri McAvoy: Great. So thank you guys for participating in that discussion. I hope that you you got something out of it. And you learned something from it. So we really really appreciate that? Just to kind of wrap all of this up, we do want to talk about assessment of engagement and community assessing community engagement in an online course involves evaluating how actively and meaningfully students interact with their peers and contribute to the learning environment. 175 00:33:57.010 --> 00:34:14.169 Keri McAvoy: This is an important step in the process because it reinforces the value of collaboration, connection, and active participation in the learning process and helps faculty understand. If students are feeling connected to their peers, because that often leads to connection to the course content. 176 00:34:15.770 --> 00:34:35.279 Keri McAvoy: You can assess engagement and community in your course by simply reviewing assessment strategies that you probably already use. You could look at your formative assessments and performance based assessments, any self assessments that you're asking students to complete, or those peer assessments that we talked about 177 00:34:35.420 --> 00:34:56.919 Keri McAvoy: taking a look and monitoring the discussion and making sure that students are participating in it at the level that you're asking them to, as well as using the analytics and tracking tools that exist in your learning management system. These are all great options to help you assess that community and engagement in your course. 178 00:34:57.215 --> 00:35:05.770 Keri McAvoy: But I do want to pass it back to mia. Who's going to share another helpful resource that she's created for you to help assess for that community engagement. 179 00:35:07.880 --> 00:35:08.830 Mia Lamm: Thanks, Carrie. 180 00:35:10.069 --> 00:35:10.990 Mia Lamm: So 181 00:35:11.450 --> 00:35:20.499 Mia Lamm: as we've gone over, you know it, all this really depends on strong community connections. Right? So making those connections, we're going to 182 00:35:21.098 --> 00:35:28.091 Mia Lamm: hopefully improve the experience in many different ways for our students. And also, you know, for instructors and 183 00:35:28.590 --> 00:35:30.630 Mia Lamm: from kind of every perspective. So 184 00:35:31.620 --> 00:35:35.700 Mia Lamm: when I I was looking for tools that 185 00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:42.030 Mia Lamm: that like a rubric that might be a helpful 186 00:35:42.504 --> 00:36:10.129 Mia Lamm: guide that we could use as we look at some of these elements, and I wasn't exactly finding things that I liked, so I thought I'd give it a try on my own. I'm sure there's a lot of building we can do here and improvement. But I think it hits upon some of these main points that we've been discussing today. So this is a simple rubric that is meant for the teaching side to kind of 187 00:36:10.950 --> 00:36:14.849 Mia Lamm: look informally at their what's going on in the course. 188 00:36:16.452 --> 00:36:32.890 Mia Lamm: To kind of help identify what's working and what needs improvement. So by measuring community health, we can make targeted adjustments that directly impact the engagement and the learning outcomes in our class. And this rubric examines 5 essential dimensions of online community. 189 00:36:33.420 --> 00:36:48.150 Mia Lamm: That's the social presence. How students connect personally, if you recall back to our community of inquiry model, the cognitive engagement which is the depth of thinking and critical thinking and connections being made with content. 190 00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:50.750 Mia Lamm: the discourse quality. 191 00:36:51.370 --> 00:37:07.379 Mia Lamm: how discussions develop, how robust are they? Are they hitting the mark? Are they creating connection, or is there sort of excitement, and back and forth, right? And then, instructor facilitation? That's the guidance provided, and then 192 00:37:07.500 --> 00:37:23.463 Mia Lamm: also inclusivity, that participation, equity, have we looked at making it available and easy for students to engage from all different all different perspectives, and each dimension is evaluated on a 3 scale 193 00:37:24.280 --> 00:37:39.150 Mia Lamm: basis, beginning, developing proficient with clear behavioral markers in the criteria. So this assessment could be used a midterm, maybe, to get a little feel for the faculty, just kind of an internal check, and at the end to track community development 194 00:37:39.190 --> 00:37:54.510 Mia Lamm: and the interventions really should begin by starting with the lowest scoring dimensions. First, st right, we'll provide this tool a link to this tool as well as some other resources in our follow up email to you all. 195 00:37:59.220 --> 00:38:18.859 Mia Lamm: So we're a little early in wrapping up. But they were a small group. So I think that's okay. I'm sure everybody won't be unhappy to get time back today, but just to wrap up what we've talked about, some of our core challenges, low engagement, isolation and equitable participation challenges as well as looking at 196 00:38:19.230 --> 00:38:28.660 Mia Lamm: 3 out of sort of unlimited example, instructional strategies. We kind of focused on creative introductions, purposeful grouping, peer feedback. 197 00:38:28.780 --> 00:38:33.629 Mia Lamm: And of course, the recommendation to always assess, evaluate, and revise. 198 00:38:35.090 --> 00:38:38.230 Mia Lamm: Let's go next slide. Thank you. 199 00:38:39.120 --> 00:38:58.290 Mia Lamm: So just as starting resources. And we're going to provide more in-depth ones in our email follow up. But just so, you know, for those of you that are at the School of Public Health, you can contact Ct help for any technical help. There's also the course plus guide is a really great resource for working with tools. When you're setting up some of these strategies 200 00:38:58.340 --> 00:39:12.560 Mia Lamm: as well as our Ctl teaching toolkit website, which has a lot of different instructional strategies and best practice guidelines as well as we'll have a recording of this workshop available there as well in our events. Page 201 00:39:13.450 --> 00:39:14.810 Mia Lamm: next slide, please. 202 00:39:16.310 --> 00:39:40.990 Mia Lamm: And we have some which will provide links in the email. We have some great resources, essentials, of course, design, development, and teaching. At Bsph, we'll walk through particularly for new faculty. We'll walk you through from beginning to end. Of course, development and some best best pedagogical practices. It also will connect you with instruction. Designer, if you so choose. It's self-paced. You can do as much as or as little as you want. 203 00:39:41.140 --> 00:40:07.769 Mia Lamm: We also have a teaching assistant course. So here at the school, if you are running a course and have a ta team highly recommend, if they're not required by their department to take that, to go ahead and encourage them to take it. It can be very helpful, and again connects them with instructional designers. And then, of course, we have workshops like this one on demand videos available on that toolkit site. And we have a Ctl blog all, what will be in the email for your convenience 204 00:40:09.660 --> 00:40:27.319 Mia Lamm: next slide? Thank you. And lastly, we really appreciate. We look at it, we read it, and we use it to improve. So please feel free to go ahead, and there's a link in the chat, or you can use the QR code to give us some feedback on your experience today with the workshop. 205 00:40:27.965 --> 00:40:39.019 Mia Lamm: And I guess we have a few minutes if anybody would like to. If anybody has any questions or want to stick around and have a little discussion. We're here and happy to talk more. 206 00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:44.409 Mia Lamm: But thank you so much for joining us today. 207 00:40:47.730 --> 00:40:48.630 Mia Lamm: Celine. 208 00:40:50.550 --> 00:40:54.069 Celine Greene: Look at me. I found my hand so. 209 00:40:54.370 --> 00:40:58.429 Celine Greene: and I apologize. If I wasn't paying close enough attention to this. 210 00:40:58.910 --> 00:41:07.890 Celine Greene: Where is the student buy in like, where's the selling this to students like, why they want to? Why they should want to be part of the community. Yeah. 211 00:41:07.890 --> 00:41:26.210 Mia Lamm: Well, I think, and that's a really good point. But I think it goes back to meaning making. So you know, when it's meaningful, when it's valuable like that. It's transparent from the faculty like we're building these connections. I mean, I know my experience just as an I mean as an instructional designer. I see it when 212 00:41:26.832 --> 00:41:38.699 Mia Lamm: let's say, faculty are running a discussion forum that just for one example, a discussion forum that isn't scaffolded and doesn't have. This comes up all the time. I'm sure all of you have seen it doesn't have 213 00:41:38.810 --> 00:41:55.989 Mia Lamm: the structure and requirements in place to create connection. Students often. Why are you giving this busy work? But I think if it's busy work, it's felt like busy work. It's not going to be important. Who wants to just engage with, not, you know, something that doesn't get you anywhere right? So I think the buy-in is 214 00:41:56.140 --> 00:42:14.849 Mia Lamm: partly, I'm sure there's many answers to this, and I'll let somebody else speak. But to me the buy-in is that it actually has value, that you've created something that has value, like just one more example, the example of the peer feedback for the educational plan that we briefly went over 215 00:42:16.170 --> 00:42:25.220 Mia Lamm: when that that back and forth is shown, and the iteration is kind of done together in support. 216 00:42:25.650 --> 00:42:39.319 Mia Lamm: The value definitely grows like when they're getting good feedback when they're having that conversation. The students are seeing the value and the help. So I I think it's about a lot of facilitation and structuring. Honestly, that's my answer. But I'll let somebody else 217 00:42:39.470 --> 00:42:46.520 Mia Lamm: go a little. They might have a different perspective on that, Carrie Kathy. 218 00:42:47.240 --> 00:42:48.469 Keri McAvoy: Yeah. Go ahead. Kathy. 219 00:42:48.750 --> 00:42:53.900 Kathy Gresh: Oh, okay, well, I think about student buy in. I think you. 220 00:42:53.930 --> 00:43:15.430 Kathy Gresh: That's again why I was in Celine's group. But I got went with the creative comments at the creative introductions at the beginning. Because I think that's where you can really start the student buy-in. So say so, if and I know it. Scale has to. You know, we have classes that go from, you know, 5 to people to 300 people at the school. 221 00:43:15.430 --> 00:43:38.160 Kathy Gresh: and it has to be scalable. But you have to think of strategies to make it effective. But if you, just how many classes do we see? Might have these student introductions at the beginning they might not ask anything specific. It might be the same old thing, but then there are classes, even large classes, that the faculty or and the teaching teams pay attention to those introductions. Maybe they ask 222 00:43:38.240 --> 00:43:45.250 Kathy Gresh: something specific. And maybe then during the course, students see that payback, the buy-in, because 223 00:43:45.250 --> 00:44:09.819 Kathy Gresh: maybe oh, I have these students who do this. They're working at em. Maybe they're in something up in New York City with hospital emergency. And so they start throwing different examples or applicable things down along the course. And I think it can just build from there. I think all 3 things are important, though, if you're going to do the peer feedback, I think it can be extremely valuable. 224 00:44:09.820 --> 00:44:14.559 Mia Lamm: Yeah, I agree with that. I think I think, too. And then I'll go to Amy. I think. 225 00:44:14.610 --> 00:44:20.139 Mia Lamm: like, actually one of the examples that peer feedback assignment that I was talking about. 226 00:44:20.180 --> 00:44:46.759 Mia Lamm: It starts with that introduction process, and it's tied to an assignment they're doing throughout the term. Now, that's kind of a luxury, and we'd always get the luxury to do an assignment that builds throughout the term right? It really depends on the course, like like I think Celine might have mentioned it. This isn't a 1 done deal like these are all. It depends on what the whole scope of the big picture is. But in that, in that regard that introductory assignment actually weighs into 227 00:44:46.760 --> 00:45:01.019 Mia Lamm: what they're going to do. It helps them begin the conversation. So there's value added in that, and they really engage in it because it matters. They're getting feedback from both the teaching team and their peers right off the bat day, one or 1st week. 228 00:45:01.850 --> 00:45:02.760 Mia Lamm: Amy. 229 00:45:03.220 --> 00:45:07.008 BSPH CTL Teaching Toolkit: Great related to that. I've had really great 230 00:45:07.980 --> 00:45:33.739 BSPH CTL Teaching Toolkit: outcomes with having that creative introduction work for the Ta training course. So that's an online course. It's self paced. And it's very like, not all the students are going through the course at the same time, but they tend to do it in little spurts. So it's a little bit hard to create community. And it's different from an academic course. But we noticed that when we change the way that we do. We organize our course introductions. 231 00:45:33.740 --> 00:45:42.499 BSPH CTL Teaching Toolkit: and we've had a little bit more engagement. And in particular, this year or this this current offering, I'm the lead facilitator for that course. 232 00:45:42.500 --> 00:46:06.209 BSPH CTL Teaching Toolkit: And I've made connections with Tas, who are students who are taking the course. For example, I have one as one of the students mentioned, because I put Wvu as where I got my master's another student mentioned that they're also from West Virginia. So we had, like a little nice little connection point there. But one of the questions. Another question that I asked them in their introduction is, Why are you taking this course? 233 00:46:06.380 --> 00:46:12.462 BSPH CTL Teaching Toolkit: And from that if I look at that when I'm grading the students, then I can kind of 234 00:46:12.940 --> 00:46:38.580 BSPH CTL Teaching Toolkit: address some specific points that maybe they want to have highlighted in their feedback. So, for example, I had a student who said, I want to get better at grading, and so whenever I provided them feedback for a grading assignment. I paid particular attention to that, because I knew that was important to the student, but I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't asked it in the introduction. So that was an example of how that can really help build those connections. 235 00:46:38.710 --> 00:46:50.130 Mia Lamm: Yeah, and also makes the students. I mean, gives gives the student the message that you care. And you're invested in them. Versus, let's just get through this. I mean, not that faculty do that, but sometimes it can. That impression 236 00:46:50.260 --> 00:46:57.890 Mia Lamm: it can come across like that without the right kind of facilitation. So I'm sure it's made a big difference. That's a great example. 237 00:47:00.010 --> 00:47:05.519 BSPH CTL Teaching Toolkit: Alright. And then on that note, I'm gonna stop the recording. But we can continue. QA. After that. 238 00:47:06.530 --> 00:47:06.880 Keri McAvoy: Thank you.