This weekly series–a continuation of the CFD summer publication and workshops–will showcase faculty discoveries, strategies, and innovations emerging from HyFlex/remote teaching.
If there is a teaching tip you would like to share, email Mary Balkun, Director of Faculty Development, at <mary.balkun@shu.edu>.
Sanna Fogt, English Department
In order to make sure students are keeping up with the reading assignments in Core English I, I’ve implemented quick (3-minute) quizzes in my classes. These quizzes ask that the students take 3-minutes to quickly summarize the reading as best they can and with as much detail as they can recall. This way, if there are students who are in-person and students who are remote, the remote students cannot simply have the text open to look up specific questions, thus giving them an advantage over my in-person students. I set up the quiz using a Blackboard Discussion Board and set the specifics of the forum so that students cannot see other threads created until they create and post their own threads.
Eric Johnston, Undergraduate Theology Department
I know—from my own experience—that our attention can tend to drift when we’re in an online meeting where we don’t talk much. My solution is to make sure that students are talking and to keep them on their toes, so that they have to be ready to talk at all times, not just once or twice when they happen to check in. I use several means to make this happen:
- I let discussion be a little random. I even encourage a little randomness. Just because a student doesn’t have an idea that exactly follows what the previous student said shouldn’t prevent them from speaking. If you have something to add, please add it. Maybe on topic, maybe a little off topic. Some people are very sequential learners, some aren’t. Although academia often treats sequential learners as the privileged class, for the purposes of discussion, a bit more of a scattered approach gives students the opportunity to participate, even if they can’t summon the exact sequential idea that should follow next. Say anything, anything at all! “What are you thinking about?” I ask. “What can you add?” “Good,” I say, to absolutely every contribution. And I try to knit them together a little, and amplify their best points, in my own responses to their comments, even if they are scattered. Anything to keep students involved in the conversation; anything to avoid them feeling like they have no contribution, nothing to say, no reason to be part of it. (I do note—and sometimes email them after class about—cases where their response suggests that they weren’t paying attention. But there is often a very clear difference between someone who is not paying attention and someone who knows that their comment is not sequential.)
- I call on students who have not raised their hands. I try to alternate between in class hands, online hands, and students not raising their hands. I try to focus especially on students whose faces are not on the screen, students who have fallen into that faceless tray at the bottom of the screen. I know that professors are nervous about calling on people who are shy. But I think we should also be nervous about shy students disappearing off the screen, nervous about confirming their belief that they have nothing to say and should not be part of the conversation. I try to be extremely nurturing, to give the greatest compliments to the weakest or most frightened students—and, especially, as I said above, to allow them to say anything at all. I email and talk to them outside of class if they seem to be having trouble, try to help them come up with strategies for having something to say. But I do not let them disappear. On that note, I also demand that all cameras stay on, unless there is a very serious reason to the contrary. Disappearing is not an option, and I do not believe it is kind to our students to let them fade away. By all means, cover your background—but we want to see your face; we don’t want to treat you as faceless.
- Finally, I use “the cards.” A colleague suggested this idea to me years back, and I have found it especially helpful for HyFlex. I have a deck of playing cards. With permanent marker I wrote each student’s name on a card (and set aside the rest of the deck). I shuffle the cards and pull them out at random. If Theresa’s name comes up, it is Theresa’s turn to talk. This helps avoid my over-preference for particular students—and sometimes to remind me of students I have forgotten. Sometimes I reshuffle the cards half way through the deck—you should never have the idea that if you’ve spoken once, you’re done for the day. I typically fiddle with my cards all through class, turning them up one by one, returning to the back of the deck people who are talking on their own, finding a card of someone I ought to call on, calling on people with hands raised, calling on people at the bottom of the screen, calling on people from the cards—anything to “shuffle the deck,” and make sure that I don’t get predictable, so that students feel they can check out.
Anecdotally, many of my students have told me they really enjoy this level of participation, really enjoy, even, the way it keeps them on their toes, knowing that they have to keep paying attention. It makes class fun, and makes sure they keep thinking, rather than checking out. Or at least it helps a little.
TECH UPDATE:
Seton Hall is implementing two-factor authentication for all students and adjunct faculty, beginning November 2, 2020. To enroll, simply log into PirateNet, open the Duo 2FA app, and follow the on-screen instructions. More information can be found here: https://www.shu.edu/technology/news/two-factor-authentication-at-seton-hall.cfm