humanizing your online course

Humanizing Your Online Course

Slides are available at facdev.niu.edu/fsi2017humanizing

Presenter

Assistant Director

Faculty Development &

Instructional Design Center

[email protected]

@slrichter

Stephanie Richter

Agenda

• What is Presence?

• Why is it important?

• How to build instructor, social, and cognitive presence

Handouts are available at facdev.niu.edu/humanizehandouts

What is presence? Why is it important?

Presence is…

• Sharing perspectives

• Constructing meaning through communication

• Establishing learners and instructor as individuals

• Establishing trust and relationships

Community of Inquiry

Social Presence

Cognitive Presence

Instructor Presence

Educational Experience

Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000)


Social Presence

Cognitive Presence

Instructor Presence

Supporting Discourse

Setting Climate

Selecting Content



Instructor Presence – Setting Climate

You create the climate and culture of your course

Methods for establishing instructor presence

• Introduce yourself with a few personal details

• Record video announcements/introductions each week

• Provide meaningful, supportive feedback on assessments

• Engage with students on the discussion board

Introduce yourself with a few personal details

Record video announcements/introductions each week

Provide meaningful, supportive feedback on assessments

Engage with students on the discussion board

Instructor roles on the discussion board

Prompts provides clarification or directions to encourage students to begin a discussion

Elaboration encourages learners to think more deeply and extend critical thinking skills

Clarification helps learners to restate their ideas more clearly and think more deeply

Weavingpoints out important contributions from a number of learners and shows connections between perspectives

Perspectives encourages learners to take multiple perspectives

Inferences and Assumptions

asks learners to identify their own beliefs and assumptions as well as those of the experts in the field, to build stronger arguments based on verifiable evidence

Implications helps learners see the impact of their line of reasoning beyond immediate implications

Summaries synthesizes the discussion to help learners understand important ideas

Stavredes (2011)facdev.niu.edu/humanizehandouts

Activity - Instructor Presence

Social Presence – Building Culture

Social Presence

• Establishes learners as individuals

• Builds relationships among learners

• Builds trust among learners

• Creates a sense of community where learners construct knowledge and understanding

Strategies for creating social presence

• Have students introduce themselves

• Design thought-provoking, potentially controversial discussions

• Incorporate collaborative learning

Have students introduce themselves

Design thought-provoking discussions

Level of Knowledge Discussion Question Stems

Application Plan, Design, Solve, Utilize, Implement, Apply

AnalysisCompare, Contrast, Differentiate, Outline,

Distinguish, Discover, Classify

Synthesis Dispute, Justify, Support, Verify, Integrate

Evaluative Solve, Predict, Improve, Judge

Stavredes (2011)facdev.niu.edu/humanizehandouts

Paul-Elder Model of Critical Thinking

Clarity

Could you elaborate further?

Could you illustrate what you mean?

Could you give me an example?

Accuracy

How could we check on that?

How could we find out if that is true?

How could we verify or test that?

Precision

Could you be more specific?

Could you give me more details?

Could you be more exact?

Relevance

How does that relate to the problem?

How does that bear on the question?

How does that help us with the issue?

Depth

What factors make this a difficult problem?

What are some of the complexities?

What are some of the difficulties?

Breadth

Do we need to use another perspective?

Do we need to consider another point of view?

Do we need to look at this in other ways?

Logic

Does all of this make sense together?

Does your first paragraph fit in with your last?

Does what you say follow from the evidence?

Significance

Is this the most important thing to consider?

Is this the central idea to focus on?

Which of these factors are most important?

Fairness

Do I have any stake in this issue?

Am I sympathetically representing the

viewpoint of others?

Elder & Paul (2010)facdev.niu.edu/humanizehandouts

Incorporate collaborative learning

• Four premises of collaborative learning:

– Respect for students and belief in their potential for success

– Learning is inherently social

– Learning is an active, constructive process

– Faculty facilitate learning instead of delivering information

Millis (2002)


Collaborative learning combines two key goals: learning to work and solve problems in the company of others, and sharpening one’s own understanding by listening seriously to the insights of others, especially those with different backgrounds and life experiences.

“

”

Kuh (2008)


Tips for successful teams:

– Call them teams, not groups

– Start with a team contract to establish goals, roles, contact information, meeting times/places, expectations

– Focus on process not product

– Check in frequently on team progress

Activity – Social Presence

Cognitive Presence – Encouraging Deep Learning

Cognitive Presence

• Learners share multiple perspectives to construct knowledge

• Requires sustained communication

• Encourages critical thinking and collaborative reflection

Strategies for developing cognitive presence

• Incorporate critical thinking pedagogy/strategies

– Paul-Elder Model of Critical Thinking

– Problem-Based Learning

– Metacognitive/Reflective Thinking

Problem-based learning

Told what we need to know

Memorize itProblem assigned to illustrate how

to use it

Problem assigned

Identify what we need to

know

Learn and apply it to solve the

problem

Traditional Learning

Problem-Based Learning

Metacognitive/reflective thinking

Reflection Questions

• At the Beginning of the Course– Why did I take this course?– What do I hope to gain from taking this course?– How will this course help me in the real world?– On a scale of 1-10, what is my current knowledge and skills in relationship

to each of the objectives of the course?– What objectives will I need to focus more attention and effort ton?– What are my academic strengths?– What are my academic weaknesses?– What type of support will I need from the instructor to help gain additional

academic skills?

facdev.niu.edu/humanizehandouts Stavredes (2011)


• As Learners Complete Major Activities and Assignments in the Course– What did I learn from this activity?– What confuses me?– Where do I need to spend more time on concepts?– What knowledge and skills did I use to complete the activities?– What knowledge and skills do I need to work on?– What strategy did I use to make sure that I understood the requirements

of the activity?– What strategy did I use to break down the components associated with the

activity?– What strategy did I use to ensure I remained on task?



• At the End of the Course– Rate your level of knowledge and skills for each objective for the course.– What objectives were you most successful at achieving?– What objectives do you need to continue to develop?– What objectives did you improve on the most?– What strategy did you use throughout the course to ensure you

understood the course content and associated activities?– What strategy did you use to ensure you met the criteria of the

assignments?– What academic skills did you use to successfully complete the course?– What academic skills do you need to work on to improve your learning?


Activity – Cognitive Presence


Social Presence

Cognitive Presence

Instructor Presence

Supporting Discourse

Setting Climate

Selecting Content



References

• Elder, L., & Paul, R. (2010). The thinker’s guide to analytic thinking. Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking Press.

• Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. Internet and Higher Education, 2, 87-105.

• Kuh, G. D. (2008). Excerpt from high-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Association of American Colleges and Universities.

• Millis, B. J. (2002). Enhancing Learning--and More!--Through Cooperative Learning. IDEA Paper.

• Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Presenter

Assistant Director

Faculty Development &

Instructional Design Center

[email protected]

@slrichter

Stephanie Richter

Slides are available at facdev.niu.edu/fsi2017humanizing