Relationships are key to fostering culturally responsive online teaching practices that support the success of our diverse student population in the California Community College system. This is especially true for Latinx students, whose concept of educación is predicated on such a relationship. Relationships are founded on trust and that can be difficult to establish in an online class, especially when students experience self-doubt about whether they have what it takes to succeed in a college class.
The Wisdom Wall is a practice that helps to reduce student anxiety at the start of an online class and build a foundation of trust upon which meaningful relationships are more likely to develop. Online instructors should take a variety of approaches to ensure students feel welcome at the start of a class and leveraging the power of student voices in this effort is especially powerful. When students hear messages about your class from their peers, they're more likely to be convinced by them. This is why the Wisdom Wall is such a powerful community-building practice. The concept is simple.
At the end of an online course:
Reflect back: Ask your students to reflect on their semester-long experience. Encourage them to think back to how they felt that first week as they were getting oriented to the course, their new instructor, and their peers. How did they feel? And how did things change over time? What helped them succeed? What do they know now that they wish they had known then?
Share forward: Provide a place for student to share these reflections. Make it clear to them that their audience is not you, but your future online students. The tool you use to create the place to share can be as simple as a Canvas Page that students are granted edit access to or a Google Doc. For extra community-building power, use a tool that invites students to comment in video or voice: like Flipgrid or VoiceThread. When students can hear each others' inflection and emotion, messages resonate on a deeper level. Voice and video also helps our students because it allows them to see and hear other students that are like them. This common bond helps student feel that they do belong and they can succeed! If you use a voice or video tool, these comments will need to be captioned or transcribed.
At the start of an online course:
Share: Give your incoming students access to the comments from your past students. Include this in your Getting Started module/area of your course. Make it one of their first assignment for them to complete so they feel a sense of connection and empowerment right off the bat!
Reflect: In a discussion forum or other student-student interaction tool, ask students to discuss on one thing from the Wisdom Wall that helped them feel more comfortable and why.
Bonus! Not only will the Wisdom Wall support your students' successful start to your online class, but you will also learn a great deal about your students' experiences and how they experience your online class!
Here is an excerpt of one of my past Wisdom Walls (designed with VoiceThread):
Have you used the Wisdom Wall in your online class? Please leave a comment below to share your experiences or tips for modifying this practice. Thanks for sharing.
Community Ground Rules
From the first moment a student accesses your course, the tone is set. Your course homepage, syllabus and other "getting started" materials play key roles in the how your students begin to relate to their experience in your online class. Setting an inviting and supportive tone is especially important in supporting the success of our first-generation college students and other underserved groups, who are more likely to feel self-doubt and exhibit engagement apprehension in academic environments. Including a set of Community Ground Rules in your course syllabus is a great way to communicate that your students will be valued participants in a learning community and articulate what that means.
Below is a set of sample Community Ground Rules I have used in my online classes. They are included in my book, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies, and I have shared them in the Public Domain, which means you are free to re-use and adapt them in your own class without permission or attribution. Do you have modifications to share? Please share your ideas in a comment at the bottom of the page!
Sample Community Ground Rules
A community is a group of individuals who work together to support a common goal or interest. In this online class, we work together to support the successful achievement of our learning outcomes. In an effort to ensure our community develops, thrives and sustains throughout our time together, the following ground rules will be in effect at all times.
Treat contributions made by other members of the class with respect.
Reach out and help when you see the need. And ask for help when you need it.
Have patience and a sense of humor with technology. There will be hiccups, expect them.
Keep an open mind. If you’re feeling reluctant, that’s ok. Take it one step at a time and look at this as an opportunity to learn something new.
Contribute regularly to collaborative activities to ensure other members of the community have ample opportunity to read/listen, reflect, and respond to your ideas.
Respect the diverse opinions and viewpoints of each member of our community. Differences allow us to learn and grow together.
Understand that communications shared through text have a higher likelihood of being misinterpreted than the spoken word. Therefore, when you type a thought or a comment, read it carefully before you submit it. If you question the way it is worded, read it out loud to yourself. If you still question the way it’s phrased, rewrite it.
Contribute regularly to group dialogue, including blog posts and replies. The contributions of each individual play a role in the collective strength and diversity of our community.
Members of our community are restricted to enrolled members of our class, in an effort to maintain a safe, trustworthy discussion environment. [If students will be engaging in interactions in the public web, note those activities here (and in other parts of your course where those activities are explained) to ensure they know who their audience is before they contribute. Learning to share appropriately in the public web is an important component of developing of digital citizenship and it’s your job to ensure students are clear about who has access to their work.]
All image and video content shared within this community will reflect acceptable academic standards. You are expected to use discretion and, if asked, you will be expected to demonstrate how your content supports the theme of our community: “[enter a description of the community’s theme here].”
Any community member has the ability to create a new discussion forum in our course. However, the individual who creates the forum immediately takes on the responsibility of moderating it. This means you have committed to regularly responding to new comments and greeting new members of the forum.
If, at any time, you feel that any of these ground rules have been violated by a member of our community, you are encouraged to bring your concern directly and immediately to [enter your name], our community leader. Clearly identify which ground rule has been violated and include specific evidence of the violation in your email. Your concerns will be addressed promptly with careful consideration in an individualized manner.
These Sample Community Ground Rules by Michelle Pacansky-Brock are shared in the Public Domain and may be re-used and adapted without permission or attribution.
Introduction to Humanizing Online Learning
In this @ONE webinar archive,Michelle Pacansky-Brock examines why humanized online learning is critical to closing equity gaps in the California Community College system. Michelle discusses how faculty can cultivate presence, empathy, and awareness to achieve humanized online facilitation.
In this @ONE webinar archive, Fabiola Torres, Ethnic Studies Instructor at Glendale Community College, asks, "We all need a nudge sometimes, right?" Nudges are an important part of supporting the success of our online students. And when you use video to infuse your nudges with your human presence, students are more likely to trust you and less likely to drop your class. Fabiola will demonstrate why it’s important not be perfect, but to be human!