You Had Me At Hello


Course HomepageRecently, I completed the @ONE course, Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning, that was facilitated by Michelle Pacansky-Brock, @ONE’s Faculty Mentor, Digital Innovation. From the moment I logged in to the course, I knew that something drastic was about to change for me. The course homepage had a .gif of Michelle waving and smiling, a banner with colorful and inviting colors, and a greeting that made it seem like someone was talking directly to me. How, I wondered, can I do that? How can I design a homepage so my students feel as welcome and engaged as I did?

It turns out, this was only the beginning. When I first enrolled in this class, I felt a lot of pride about the way I conduct my online classes. I've been complimented in the past for the videos I create to explain essay prompts and welcome students into the class. However, as soon as I logged into our Humanizing course and began exploring, I was amazed by how much I still had left to learn.

Structure

The course started with a helpful orientation module enhanced with 3 instructor-made videos, several images, a Flipgrid assignment, a Google Form, an infographic, Canvas tutorial videos, and consistent, beautiful banners throughout. Naturally, I compared this to the orientation materials that I use, and I discovered that I’m really only using a couple of content pages that introduce students to Canvas. Never had I considered putting an entire module together to get students oriented with the course, Canvas, and policies! Essentially, I learned how I can chunk my traditional syllabus into Canvas Pages and design it into an orientation module! This approach allows students to read through the module in small pieces rather than read, say, a 14-page syllabus!

Sparkly New Toys!

In the Humanizing course,  I was also introduced to a ton of new tools to use in Canvas that can help to humanize us as the instructors and our students as well.

Flipgrid, which is like a video discussion board, was a tool that I felt a little timid about using at first. However, after watching my colleagues post their video responses, I realized it was very similar to having an in-class discussion. As someone who is particularly shy in a student setting, I can empathize with my students who may feel the same way. However, once I got past simply recording my video and talking to the camera, it was smooth sailing!Brianna on Flipgrid

The tool asked me to take a quick photo of myself and add a sticker or two to create picture that would represent my comment. Being able to customize the picture allows for students to have creative license that a text-based discussion simply can’t provide in the same way. I then simply  submitted my recording and could see a grid of all the other participants who had posted their videos. All of the pictures of participants were arranged in a checkerboard grid, so I could become familiar with my peers’ names and faces. This is something that I had never known how to do in an online setting.

After working with Flipgrid for a couple weeks, I used it to create a "Checking In" assignment in my current online class, and my students loved it! I will definitely be integrating Flipgrid on a more regular basis in my classes, especially in the first week as an icebreaker.

Adobe Spark is another tool that has completely changed the way I conceptualize my online teaching. Adobe Spark is free and includes three separate, but equally useful and easy-to-use, tools for digital storytelling: Video, Page, and Post. Not only will I be using the Post and Video tools to introduce course concepts, but I will also be using Spark to integrate project-based learning in my classes. For example, this semester, students will be have the option to create multimedia reflections of an on-campus event as part of their final project using  Spark Video or Page

Last, I had heard of Canva before, but I had never thought to use it in the ways that Michelle did in her course. Canva is a free design tool that allows people to create flyers, resumes, invitations, and so much more. What I didn’t realize, however, is that, as online instructors, we can use the tool to create engaging banners, buttons, and YouTube video thumbnail images to enhance the design of the course. This, to me, is one of the best ways to truly humanize online learning: create a color palette for the course and design consistent banners that use the same color scheme. This creates cohesion in the course and allows students to intuitively follow the structure of the course while also being engaged by the beautiful and professional designs!

Equity

The tools have really made me realize how effectively they can reach, and more importantly, retain students of color and thus begin to reduce the equity gaps that are exacerbated by online classes. These  tools allow students to creatively and personally engage with the material in dynamic and intimate ways that contrast the sometimes cold experience of text-based discussion boards.Rather than simply reading text on a screen, the digital tools allow students to incorporate tone, facial expressions, and gestures, while simultaneously revealing the nuances of their identities as students and human beings. Additionally, by allowing students the creative space to use digital tools to express themselves, instructors and peers can more deeply empathize with each other. For example, in an Icebreaker, if a student discloses on Flipgrid that she is experiencing stress from her course load, work, and children at home, others can respond in a humanized way with an empathetic video.

I can't emphasize enough how much I am taking way from this @ONE course. I am thrilled to rework my online assignments and begin integrating these tools on a weekly basis. I'm even more enthusiastic to see how these changes will influence the dynamics in my courses and how many more of my students I will be able to retain!

If you are looking for a way to make your online class more warm, inviting, and community-oriented, I highly recommend Humanizing Online Learning. You’ll be engaged and learn ways to reach your students that are dynamic, creative, and authentic. You’ll have your students at “hello.”

Learn more about Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning.

Being Present for Our Students

Being present for our students is a true gift we can offer and these experiences with students are one of the reasons why I’ve loved teaching and being part of an academic environment my entire professional career. As teachers, we have the capacity to change lives in ways that we may not always be fully aware of in the moment. I’m certain we’ve all experienced that moment when a student returns to share some action or word we said that had a deep impact. Our engagement with students can be a big responsibility that can be fostered in many ways: a kind word, a thoughtful smile, a note of encouragement, and even a criticism that comes from a place of wanting to push a student to learn something new.

For those who have taught classes in person, we may have an easier time being in touch with our students and the energy of the classroom. I may notice when a student is having a difficult day or week or even the entire semester. I can linger after class, arrive early, or have a student crying in our office. In those moments, my hope is I am able to practice with empathy and with understanding.

Beginners’ Mind

This being present for students may come naturally for you, and for others it may take some effort. But I know we all have this capacity for empathy and understanding. In my life, I have found cultivating this for myself first has allowed me to extend this more easily to my students. It has been through 25-years of meditation practice, allowing for a deeper understanding of my mind, that I’ve been able to bring this directly into the classroom. And just like our students, a beginners’  mind in myself can keep things fresh and help me to discover new ways to work with students.

How does this all extend into my online classroom? Do I know my students in the same way I might as if we are spending three hours per week in person? Am I able to identify a student in need or crisis through the work posted online so that I might reach out and connect to the student? And, within a primarily written medium, how am I being present for my students? We can create the conditions in our online classes that allows us to know our students better and be tuned into their overall learning experience.

Creating the Conditions for Learning

It’s the humanizing work. It’s the touchy-feely stuff that can help the student feel connected to the course material, to me, and to the college as a whole. The classes I’ve taught online – library science, technology, social media and marketing – are not necessarily touchy-feely topics. But as the teacher, we set the tone. In the online environment we need to offer a little bit more of ourselves explicitly. With in-person  classes, students know I have a deep sense of humor, that I always wear black, that I like to pause in class and listen to student sharing, and that I like using the white board. These characteristics are part of my character. Online students don’t easily get this part of me, but these characteristics are critical for building a classroom relationship for our semester journey.

Creating a space where communication can be open and responsive to both student learning and student needs is key to building instructor-student relationships online. This means taking risks, and it certainly means taking more time. I write about myself, I share photos or videos so they know who I am as a person, and I incorporate personal life antidotes into the learning materials. More importantly, I create as many opportunities for students to interact with me so that I know who they are as humans. This can achieved through  discussion, writing assignments, or video posts. I encourage students to share content they find that is exciting for them. Anything we, as instructors, can do to bring regular, meaningful student interactions into our online class is valuable. And we can build on this foundation to create a learning environment that is grounded in communication and trust. Creating an online classroom that is similar to how I spend 3-hours a week engaging with my students in a classroom is what I try to cultivate. My goal as an online instructor is to foster these human connections to inspire learning. In the end, when I support, guide, and inspire my students, I am nourished by our deep connections as they experience life's difficulties and joys.

Customizing Modules to Guide Student Learning

Ever get the sense students are jumping straight into quizzes and assignments without first taking the time to read or watch your carefully designed content? This Byte-sized session explores an often-overlooked way to use modules to easily guide students along the learning path you want them to follow.

YOU Matter - Online and Face-to-Face

Student-instructor relationships matter in community college classes -- regardless of whether a course is taught on-campus or online. But when you teach online, you need to be more intentional about crafting your online presence to convey yourself as a real person who cares about your students' learning.

Data shared by the Community College Research Center shows there are some concerning gaps between the instructor-student relationships in face-to-face and online classes. Research shows that community college students feel their relationships with instructors in their face-to-face courses are more "personal," "immediate," "detailed," and "solid" when compared with their relationships with their online instructors. When learning online, students report feeling the need to teach themselves. One student in a large research study shared, "It just seems ... when you do it online, if you need help, your teacher is basically not there."

We know these student takeaways are not ok. We know instructor-student relationships are the foundation of meaningful, supportive community college learning experiences -- regardless of a course's modality. And to support faculty, @ONE is now offering a online professional development course, Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning, to introduce faculty to the relevant research about instructor presence, social presence, and culturally responsive teaching; experience a humanized online class through the lens of a student; experiment with creating micro-videos; see examples of how other faculty are applying humanizing practices in their online classes; and work through the nerves we all feel when speaking to a webcam (it really does get easier!).

Recently, I sat down with Tracy Schaelen, from Southwestern College, to explore her views about humanizing online teaching and learning. As always, Tracy provided invaluable insights about why the instructor-student relationship is so important for supporting the needs of our students, especially those from underserved populations. In the 17-minute video embedded below, Tracy also provides us with a tour of some of her own humanizing practices, which we hope will inspire you to check @ONE's course catalog and register for the next offering of Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning. Tracy will be one of the facilitators of this new course!

Banning Boring Announcements!

Announcements are an important tool in promoting regular and effective contact in an online course. But if students aren't reading your announcements, the time and effort you put into them is to no avail! In this edition of Byte-sized Canvas, we'll talk about one strategy to make sure your announcements are getting read.

Teaching with OER OpenStax Canvas Course Shells

In this 9-minute video, Dr. Jennifer Carlin-Goldberg from Santa Rosa Junior College shows how she uses Canvas Commons to import sample course shells with free OpenStax textbook content. Jennifer also gives us a tour of her hybrid Statistics class in Canvas and explains how she integrated OpenStax content with her own materials along with shared quizzes and YouTube videos designed to go with the OpenStax textbook.

OpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University that creates peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks available in free, digital formats to students and for a low cost in print. Since it launched in 2012, OpenStax has produced 45 textbooks in Math, Science, Social Sciences and Humanities that are free for faculty to use “as is” or to download and modify. Starting in December 2017, Canvas users can use Commons to import OpenStax content that the California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative (OEI) has embedded in Canvas course shells.

The Power of Announcements

Regular and effective contact is such hot topic these days, isn’t it?

Canvas’s Announcements tool not only lets you send out fully customized class messages, but stores your communications in an easy-to-retrieve archive list. Using Announcements also supports quality course design by aligning with a number of OEI Course Design Rubric criteria. It's also a great way to create the connection that keeps students engaged and on track. What's not to love?

Let's explore the power of Announcements (in under 4 minutes!).

Nuances of Online Counseling

Via the Online Counseling Network (OCN), counseling faculty statewide are participating in synchronous online counseling which allows them to replicate a face-to-face (f2f) meeting. Working this way has revealed nuances that counselors need to be aware of. I will share two today.

Eye Contact

The position of your computer camera can impact your eye contact as it can present a nonverbal appearance that you are distracted or uninterested even though you may be staring directly at the student on your computer screen. Camera placement can make a significant difference in how you build rapport online. If you have a camera embedded in your computer monitor, I recommend you adjust your monitor to a position where your camera and eyes are horizontally aligned and level. Positioning your camera in such a manner will present a level of eye contact similar to your f2f counseling appointments. If you have a camera separate from your computer monitor, I recommend you either purchase a stand so that you can place the camera at eye level or buy a camera that you can place on the top of your computer monitor and adjust to your eye level.

Student Engagement

During an online counseling appointment, student participation is an essential component to address student learning outcomes (SLO). For example, many counseling departments include an SLO focusing on applying educational planning so that students can identify course requirements that enable a student to pursue their educational goal/s (e.g., associate degree and transfer requirements). A vital nuance is to allow students the ability to moderate some of the session so they can navigate resources such as your online catalog, key websites (e.g., assist.org), and other vital components that enable students to build a meaningful educational plan that is collaborative and critical to the learning process. As a result, students are increasing their educational cultural capital which contributes to their success and college readiness. Educational cultural capital is student’s mastery or preparedness of the college student role (Aschaffenburg & Maas, p.573, 1997). 2008), so the more educational cultural capital a student has then, the students will gain a more in-depth knowledge of their academic expectations.

One of the aspects as a community college counseling faculty I enjoy is growing my knowledge base and implementing new strategies in my counseling sessions, as this helps me become effective in my approach with students. The more you take time to engage in online synchronous counseling  the more you will implement effective practices that address the nuances of online counseling. Stay tuned for future posts that discuss other nuances when providing synchronous online counseling.

To learn more about Online Counseling check out our webpage. 

 

Using Video to Communicate Instructions Clearly

 

Using Video to Communicate Instructions Clearly

Video is powerful communication tool for online teaching. Instructors often naturally gravitate towards using video to deliver presentations to their online students, but video can be an effective way to clearly communicate instructions, as well. In the 3-minute video below, Xochitl Tirado, from Imperial College, shows how she uses a screencast (a video recording of her computer's screen) to deliver the instructions for the discussion to her students. The video doesn't replace her written instructions, however. Instead, it augments them and provides students with the choice to read or listen. Xochitl explains how she uses the same instructions in each discussion. Designing a course with consistency like this is an effective way to ensure students gain confidence in their abilities and can focus more exclusively on their contributions, as opposed to how to engage in the discussion.

Give 'Em a Clear Learning Path

Give 'Em a Clear Learning Path

A single path opening into two paths

Not all online courses look the same. That may seem a rather obvious point but it’s one that instructors may not realize regularly presents a barrier to learning for their students.

The Syllabus is over here in one course, and over there in another. The Home page may tell the student how to get started or it may be a Spartan declaration of the instructor’s contact info, the textbook title and nothing more (in some cases, there may be no Home page at all). The discussions in this course are part of the modules, but in that course, they’re accessed through a separate link in the navigation.

The differences aren’t inherently wrong but all this variety can translate to “I’m lost!” for our students.

And when a student is lost, they’re not learning.

5 Tips for Designing Usable Online Courses

There’s a great web usability book entitled, Don’t Make Me Think. Author Steve Krug’s main point is that “when you’re creating a website, your job is to get rid of the question marks.” In other words, make what your web visitor should do so obvious they won’t get distracted by having to think about it (otherwise they’re likely to leave). This principle holds true when creating an online course. Students are more likely to interact with and be successful in a well-designed, intuitive course.

In the 1980s, John Sweller’s research pointed out that extraneous cognitive load (the amount of mental energy expended to deal with non-essential information) can be reduced by good course design. While we don’t want our students to stop thinking entirely ;-), we do want all their thinking powers directed at absorbing our wonderful content, not on figuring out where to find the discussions or how to submit their assignment.

In the spirit of “don’t make me think,” here are five easy-to-implement sign posts that will guide your students to success in your course.

  1. Make sure there’s a clear starting point
    This might be a big Start Here button or a “Do This First” list of steps on your Home page.
  2. Clean up your course navigation menu
    Disable any links you’re not asking students to use. For example, there’s no need to include the Discussions, Assignments and Quizzes links since they can get to those through your modules.
  3. Create an intro video for your Home Page
    Do a short screencast (not more than 3 minutes) in which you show students how to find the important elements of your course. This does double-duty, as it also builds your “online presence.”
  4. Follow a consistent module structure and naming convention
    Inconsistency brings with it confusion. Pay attention to how course elements are titled and placed within your modules to help students avoid spending time figuring out what’s what or what’s next.
  5. Include contextual instructions for activities
    Just as you offer some kind of context when introducing an activity in a face-to-face class, it’s important to do the same online. Why are you having them watch this video, what ideas or details should they glean from this article, when will they be expected to use this information?

Invite Someone to Test Drive Your Course

Before publishing your course this coming semester, it’s a great idea to take yourself through it with the eyes of a student who’s unfamiliar with both your topic and with Canvas. Better yet, ask a friend or colleague (or even some Joe off the street) who knows next to nothing about your content to spend 10-15 minutes exploring your course as if it’s their first day of class. Then “interview” them:

I say, “Vive la différence!” when it comes to instructional methods. Variety is the spice of life and, arguably, the essence of a well-rounded education. (It also makes your job more fun!) But save your creativity for your content, not your course structure. It’ll free up your students’ time for learning.

 

Drinking From the Fire Hose… Or Making it Real: In Support of Accessibility in Online Education

Hello! We are Liezl Madrona and Jayme Johnson, and we support faculty with accessibility in the Online Education Initiative. We are happy to bring you the first in an ongoing series of blog posts about accessibility in online education. It is our hope to build awareness and provide support so that all students can benefit from online instructional technologies.

Where to Begin?

The question of accessibility in online education brings up so many different issues and concerns that it can be a bit difficult to know where to begin. Whether you're a content creator seeking guidance or you're an accessibility specialist trying to provide guidance, the number of different considerations surrounding accessibility in online education can be overwhelming. However, there is good news in that we are not alone, and that there are growing numbers of people learning ever more about accessibility and usability. With this increase of interest comes greater understanding and more helpful resources for everyone.

'tis the Season for Captioning!

While the holiday season is upon us, we also know many faculty are working on their online courses, adding content and making adjustments based on their experiences in this last term. This is a great time to create your welcome videos for the new term, to curate and create new instructional videos, and to get them all captioned for your incoming students.

Here are some other incredibly helpful resources to support your accessibility needs:

 

In our work with the Online Education Initiative there is one common necessity that drives our efforts - the ultimate usability of the information and resources we provide. We appreciate your attention and effort, and it is our sincere hope that we can assist you in your efforts to ensure that all students have the same opportunity to benefit from online education. Please follow our blog for more accessibility support, updates, and news!

Thank You!

Liezl & Jayme

Video Captioning Conundrum

Captioning instructional videos can be a time-consuming process.  But it doesn't have to be! Here are a couple of "What if..." scenarios with some solutions to help you create an inclusive learning environment.

What if I...need a YouTube video captioned that is not mine?

  1. First try contacting the author who posted the video via the Comment section in YouTube. (Note: You may not receive an answer quickly or none at all, but being able to edit the existing captions would be the path of least resistance! Also - we know the link below is non-descriptive, unfortunately YouTube captions do not allow us to hyperlink. Also, make sure the link below if updated and working before using as YouTube may update their resources.) You may want to adapt this template: “Hi, thanks for posting this video! I’ve been using this in my ____ class, and for educational purposes, we’d like to provide captions to create an inclusive environment for all students. Do you have a captioned version of this video? If not, may my institution caption this video? To help our students out, you can easily turn on community-captioning contributions: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6052538?hl=en  Thank you and hope to hear back soon!”
  2. Use Amara to caption the videos.

What if I...need a video captioned that I created?

  1. If the course is part of the California Community College system, faculty-created videos used for instructional purposes can be uploaded to 3C Media Solutions to be captioned for free! All you need to do is create a free account to get started.
  2. Is the video short, and are you feeling proactive? YouTube has a couple of features that can help:
    • Have YouTube auto-generate captions to get you started. However, you must check captions for accuracy, and add in punctuation. Click here to learn how to edit auto-generated captions in YouTube.
    • Have a script of your video? You can copy and paste your script into the caption editor in YouTube, and YouTube will time-sync your words to your video in the form of closed-captions. 
  3. Amara offers a crowd-sourced solution that you may use to create captions and a transcript.

Hopefully these solutions can help you as you curate new (or have existing) instructional videos that need captioning. What are some other resources or strategies you use to help you caption your videos? Please let share your experiences and resources! We're interested to learn how you caption your videos!