#HumanizeOL
The Anatomy of Learning: Sending Cues of Trust & Belonging from the First Click*
with Michelle Pacansky-Brock
To navigate through these unknown and traumatic times, educators must be knowledgeable about how learning happens (and why it often does not). Recognizing the affective and cognitive dimensions of learning illuminates the need to understand our students as humans with rich, complicated stories and foster positive instructor-student relationships at a distance to ensure all students are poised for success. This session will illuminate how humanized online teaching provides a foundation of trust you can build upon in your course and foster rigor through empathy.
Archive of The Anatomy of Learning
Taking Off Our Emotional Armor: Reflections From First-time Online Instructors*
with Dayamudra Dennehy, Gayathri Manikandan, and Michelle Pacansky-Brock
Join us for a heart-to-heart conversation about teaching online for the first time. Dayamudra and Gayathri will share their successes and candidly reflect on how leaning into vulnerability resulted in professional growth in their teaching.
Archive of Taking Off Our Emotional Armor
Self-Guided Activities
Import the Getting to Know You Survey into Your Course
When you teach online, it is critical to develop strategies to discover the rich, diverse realities that each student brings to your course. Knowing your students as humans is the first step towards supporting their unique needs.
One helpful way to do this is the have your students complete a Getting to Know You survey in week one (and give them points for it – small successes like this are confidence builders). After your students complete the survey, review their responses. Enable the Notes column in the Canvas Gradebook and make notes about each student next to their name so you can refer to them throughout your course. The Notes column is only visible to you. This helps you identify your high opportunity learners and adapt your teaching to ensure they receive your high-touch communications.
View the following 2-minute video to learn how to import a sample Getting to Know You Survey from the Canvas Commons into your course.
Unpack Your Emotional Armor
- After critically reflecting on today’s live sessions, complete the sentences below:
- When I enter a conversation about racial equity, I feel _____________.
- It is important for me to ensure my students feel _________ in my online course. One way I do this in my face-to-face classes is ________. One way I could do this in my online classes is to _____________.
- My emotional armor looks like ____________ and it may prevent me from __________________.
- After filling in those blanks, proceed to our digital bulletin board and post a reflection about your takeaways from the day.