Tag: challenge

Student Engagement Challenge 4

admin1 Comment

Dear Faculty,

Wow. Can you believe it is the final week of the Student Engagement Challenge – and Spring Break is next week!? Kudos to you for all the care and compassion you show in serving your students. I hope you can find some time to serve yourself and get some rest over this break. 

The third and final pillar for building a strong foundation for student engagement is all about encouraging students to pursue their goals. One of my favorite encouragement quotes comes from John Maxwell. He says, “You should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous is changed by it.” Inspired by this quote, I have an engagement challenge assignment AND A BONUS template you can use for an essential practice you should be trying in your classes around now. 

Challenge 4: Pillar 3 – Applying Content to Student Goals – Time: 5-10 min to assign

As an activity, this challenge works well for asynchronous and synchronous classes – this one is a great discussion board or live discussion topic. 

  • Prompt: Challenge students to take something they have learned in your class and discuss how it applies to their future career goals. 

This prompt gets students to think about what they have learned and find relevance to their future goals. It can also help them identify transferable skills and see value in the content they might not have before. Having the opportunity to discuss with peers gives them the chance to encourage each other and see your course content through different lenses. 

Now as a BONUS, I have YOUR HARDEST CHALLENGE YET!  

BONUS Challenge: Feedback – Course Feedback Survey – send THIS SURVEY to your students. (Be sure to edit it to the specifics of your class before you send it)

Asynchronous Version – You will need to edit the first couple of questions about meetings, but otherwise, the survey will work just fine for you.

Introduce it by saying something like this: “I am sharing a course feedback survey with you, and I would appreciate it so much if you were to take a few minutes and fill it out earnestly. I work hard to make this course as great as possible. Your input helps more than almost anything else. The survey is anonymous, and I will read every entry. I ask that you are honest but also constructive. Statements like “You’re the WORST TEACHER EVER!!” tell me nothing. WHY am I the worst teacher ever? THAT helps me improve. Be sure to highlight positive and negative aspects of the course.”  – I like adding a dramatic statement like that. It cuts the tension and gets a few laughs. If it’s not your thing, go ahead and cut it. 

Knowing what is working and isn’t working in your class is CRITICAL to running a successful and engaging course. An ANONYMOUS course feedback survey can:

  • Allow students to voice opinions
  • Let them feel they influence the course – especially if they see you implement their feedback.
  • Highlight the useful parts of your course, alongside the ones that aren’t working.
  • Take a bit of work off your shoulders in discovering how to improve your course. Students are smart! They want to enjoy the class and succeed, and they will have great ideas on how to make that happen.
  • Facilitate a better understanding of students. Students will often share personal information that they may not otherwise. 

I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for being a part of this challenge. You worked hard to increase engagement in your classes, and you should feel exceptionally proud of that. 

Stay tuned to the FDEV Podcast on March 25th, where Dr. Jamie Gunderson and the FDEV faculty fellows will recap and reflect on the challenge. If you haven’t already, mark your calendars for the Friday Forum discussion of this engagement challenge on March 26th (10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.).

A Final Cheers,

Dustin Bakkie
FDEV Fellow
Kinesiology Lecturer

Student Engagement Challenge 3

adminLeave a comment

Hello Chico Faculty! (hey, it’s still Tuesday, right??)

I am so excited for Week 3 of the Student Engagement Challenge, as it has one of my favorite assignments that will work in ANY class. 

This week, we will focus on getting students excited about your material. We are going to help you create an easy assignment to implement that allows students to explore their connections with your content and your discipline.

The next Pillar of Engagement is Getting your students excited about learning. This one can be tricky, especially if you teach a required course that everyone has to take.

So, how do we get students excited about our content? First of all, the energy and excitement you bring to class and your content influence how your students feel about it. While this plays a huge role, a personal connection to the content DRIVES engagement. 

Challenge 3: Pillar 2 – Personal Course Connection – Time: 5-10 minutes to assign – As an assignment, this works synchronously or asynchronously. 

This week’s assignment is inspired by ideas in Flower Darby’s Small Teaching Online book, with just a slight twist. You can check her book out by clicking the link below – it’s an excellent read for anyone wanting to make their online teaching more impactful. 

Access a digital version of Small Teaching Online, by Flower Darby. Chiara worked hard to get everyone access to it. Be sure to say thanks!

Ask your students to do one of the three following tasks:

  • Find Two Current Resources – Students find and post two current resources related to the recent course content or topics. These can be online news posts, blogs, podcasts, youtube videos, Tik-Tok, infographics, etc., as long as they are related to your class and informative. 
  • Find an Expert – Students find a leader in their chosen career path and reach out to them for a chat or curate a portfolio of the leader’s work they would like to learn from. 
  • Develop a Personal Learning Network – Students follow, subscribe, or connect to 3 individuals they can learn from and ask at least one content-related question they have. 

I have a ready-to-use Assignment Template for you to use (It’s a google doc).

Take it up a notch: Have a google doc ready to go (or use Zoom Chat) at the start of class and ask students to share their resources, who their expert was, or someone in their learning network with a sentence or two about its relevance to the course and why they chose it. 

Just like that, you’ve helped students draw connections between course content and their interests. You have also given them avenues to pursue the content on their own and supporting them in chasing down their goals. That sounds a lot like Pillar 3… TWO FOR ONE BONUS!

This is one of my favorite assignments. Allowing student autonomy to navigate their interests surrounding your topics is always a hit! 

Cheers,
Dustin Bakkie 
FDEV Faculty Fellow
Lecturer, Kinesiology

EVENTS AND RESOURCES

  • Join the Go Virtual Community meetings (every Wednesday, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in Zoom)

Student Engagement Challenge 2

admin1 Comment

Welcome back to Week 2 of the 4-week FDEV Student Engagement Challenge!

So, how did the first challenge go? Did using names more granularly feel a bit weird or out of your comfort zone? If so, good. Keep doing it! It will feel more natural, and your students will feel connected, which leads to engagement.

This week we are doubling-down on that first pillar of engagement – because it is just that important. Below you will find two planned activities designed to help you and your students connect even more. 

We encourage you to choose one to implement this week and see how it goes. Take 5-10 minutes to plan these out to ensure they go well. However, we need to encourage students to engage by letting them do it safely. This means no points attached and anonymity. 

Challenge 2: Pillar 1 (care about students as people)

OPTION 1 – The Two Word Check-In 

Synchronous – Ask your students: “I would like everyone to describe how they are feeling today in just two words.”

  • I encourage this to be an anonymous response and not have any point value attached.
  • Remember, we are playing the long game here. These strategies and tactics may boost engagement a bit at first, but HOW YOU RESPOND is critical to promoting FUTURE engagement. Students see you respond to others with kindness, care, and value, and then they will decide to engage as well. 
  • Students need to know engaging is SAFE and VALUABLE – Your actions prove this.
  • Share your own, too – Be sure the class response is visible to everyone. You can do this by using: 
  • A Poll-Everywhere Word Cloud: https://www.polleverywhere.com/word-cloud
  • Google Doc / Jamboard
  • Your Response: Respond & Empathize – Let students know you hear them, and recognize their feelings. Empathize and encourage or affirm.

Asynchronous: Two Word Check-In & Response Use this Google Slides Template.

  • Create a copy and add enough slides so that each student has their own.
  • Be sure to change the “Share” settings to “Anyone with link can edit”
  • To ensure anonymity, encourage students to log out of Google before they edit
  • Each student will put their two words in the title box
  • Each student will then spend a few minutes anonymously offering encouragement and thoughtful responses to classmates’ two words in the text box on the slide.
  • If you notice any slides not getting responses, give some encouragement there yourself.

Challenge 2: Pillar 1 (care about students as people)

OPTION 2 – The  Entry Ticket 

Works for synchronous or asynchronous classes – Entry Ticket Template

  • Create a copy of the Entry Ticket Google Form above. Edit as you see fit.
  • At the start of class, share the link to the form and ask students to fill it out, letting them know you hope to quickly get a sense of where everyone is today, both personally and academically. 

The key to the entry ticket is to view class results as a whole and discuss them afterward. You can screen share the results as you discuss (just be sure to skip the section where they put their names). 

One of Entry Tickets’ great things is that it allows students to ask CONTENT and ADMINISTRATIVE questions safely. You can devote some time in the class to answer them, as they are directly relevant to the course. I encourage you to try it out more than once.  

Asynchronous Version: Do a weekly check-in ticket. Use the template above, but make some edits to apply to a week rather than asynchronous classes. 

Take it up a notch: Add a specific question you want to ask your students before sharing the form with them. Making it personal to you and what you care about improves authenticity.

I can’t wait to hear how it goes!

Cheers,

Dustin Bakkie
FDEV Faculty Fellow
Lecturer, Kinesiology

Student Engagement Challenge

adminLeave a comment

The FDEV team is excited to announce the launch of a 4-week student engagement challenge! 

Beginning this week, and continuing up to Spring Break, we will be issuing a small weekly challenge that you can do in your next class to help improve connection and engagement with your students. Each challenge will take just a few minutes to prepare for and about five minutes of class time to implement. Don’t feel locked into our instructions or time frames. Making each task your own will only improve your results. We will also give you a short explanation of why this strategy enhances engagement. 

In the next three weeks, keep an eye out for the Tuesday Tip to access the easy-to-implement task or activity for each week. FDEV Faculty Fellow Dustin Bakkie, from the Kinesiology Department, is going to be our guide and facilitator throughout this challenge. 
We will wrap this all up in Episode 4 of the Rise, Teach, Learn Podcast (released on March 25th) and in a Friday Forum on March 26th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. so, stay tuned!

We are going to ask you to step out of your comfort zone a little bit. There will need to be some vulnerability on your part. Engagement is a two-way street. You will have your colleagues and the FDEV team with you the whole way to support you.

So are you in? Are you ready? 

Let’s just dive into Week 1 – The 3 Pillars of Engagement.

This week, we’re going to have you try the subtle Power of Names challenge in your class. It’s SUPER SIMPLE and involves building the personal foundation needed for high-quality engagement.

Framework: In 2014 the Gallup-Purdue Index Report surveyed 32,000 college-level students determined 3 Pillars of Engagement were necessary to foster a sense of engagement and wellbeing. 

·         Pillar 1 – Instructors need to care about students as people first * Most Important

·         Pillar 2 – Instructors need to make students excited about learning

·         Pillar 3 – Instructors need to encourage students to pursue their goals.

Challenge 1: Pillar 1 – The Power of Name

Synchronous Class: Use student’s names as often and granularly as possible. “Great question Tom”, “Good morning Halima”. 

·         Being as intentional as possible about acknowledging students and USING THEIR NAMES. You might be like, “DUH”, but I mean REALLY GRANULAR. Every student who says “hi” in the chat gets named, and I say good morning. Research shows that better social presence from instructors improves student learning and satisfaction. We can do that by using names more often and expressing gratitude. (Ladyshewsky, Richard K. (2013) “Instructor Presence in Online Courses and Student Satisfaction,” International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 7: No. 1, Article 13. Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2013.070113)

Asynchronous Class: You can use students’ names in feedback. If you are leaving video or audio feedback in the Blackboard or Turnitin Suite be sure to use their name. If you are responding to discussion posts or emails include their name. 

That’s it, you’ve now taken the first step to improve engagement in your course! Engagement comes with connections and using someone’s name is a powerful way to do that!

We look forward to hearing your experiences in the classroom, so let us know how it goes!

Dustin Bakkie
FDEV Faculty Fellow
Lecturer, Department of Kinesiology

Together We Will

adminLeave a comment

In her inaugural address President Hutchinson provided us with perspective on our history and our future that moved and inspired. Towards the end of her remarks she gave us this promise:

“Together, we will work as one University; breaking down silos, removing institutional barriers, and encouraging innovations so that we serve our students better and promote their success through applied instruction and engaged learning, community service and civic engagement, and global and multicultural education. And, we will improve upon and make sustainable the means by which we provide support for students’ personal well-being.”

I left the address with those words stuck on repeat in my head. I was thinking about the ways we rise to meet those challenges and how we try, fall short, and get up to try again. Mainly I thought about the phrasing. This is not a directive or a question, it is a promise, which led me to think about who we are making this promise to and how we will make sure we keep it.

Faculty Development relies on an empowerment model rather than on expertise. If you were looking to us for answers, the best tool we have to offer is a mirror. Today I want to point you to the currently active options for enrichment offered through our office and encourage you to think about them as opportunities to learn and teach. More than anything, think of them as ways to keep our promise not that we can, or that we will try, but rather that we will.

Faculty Development Spring 2017 Program Offerings

Feel free to apply for multiple offerings. General questions can be directed to Zach Justus
zjustus@csuchico.edu. All applications due on 3/31/2017.

Academy e-Learning 9.1: Teaching with Help

Leadership: Faculty Development and the Technology and Learning Program
Compensation: $750 (taxable income)
Workload: June 1-2, 5-7 9am-4pm intensive plus assessment reporting
Brief Description: You are invited to participate in Academy e-Learning (AeL) Cohort 9.1, launching with the first of this summer’s one-week institutes –Teaching with Help. During this intensive institute, we will explore highly effective strategies for mentoring and working with TAs/mentors so you can realize their full potential and value in your course(s). Your work during this institute will focus on incorporating assistants, in all their forms, into your courses in meaningful ways.

Full RFP Link
Application

Academy e-Learning 9.2: Best Practices for Working with Student Writing

Leadership: Faculty Development and the Technology and Learning Program
Compensation: $750 (taxable income)
Workload: August 3-4, 7-9 9am-4pm intensive plus assessment reporting
Brief Description: You are invited to participate in Academy e-Learning (AeL) Cohort 9.2, the second of this summer’s one-week institutes. In recognition of the campus’ on-going interest in high impact educational practices, this institute is focused on supporting students’ writing.

Full RFP Link
Application

 Writing Boot Camp

Leadership: Chris Fosen
Compensation: $500 (taxable income)
Workload: May 23-26 8am-4pm
Brief Description: You are invited to take part in a one-week writing boot camp. Applicants are expected to be physically present and participate all day.  Since our goal is substantive writing, it is most suitable for projects that are already well under way.

Full RFP Link
Application

Learning Enhancement Grants

Brief Description: The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) is offering faculty awards of up to $5,515 to improve quality and productivity in learning and teaching in a course or program. Projects that strongly enhance student learning and have a demonstrable impact receive priority consideration. Proposals should address relevance to the University Strategic Plan. Funds awarded in spring of 2017 must be expended between July 1, 2017 and May 30, 2018. Proposals are due by Friday, March 31, 2017 at 5pm.

Full RFP Link
Application

Just in time Professional Development

Brief Description: The Faculty Development Program is offering faculty awards of up to $1,000 in Professional Development Funds to support faculty who need to attend a conference or support a project. The funds must be expended by 5/30/2017.

Full RFP Link
Application

Faculty Development is searching for the next director!

Got feedback on this tip? Got an idea for a tip? Send it along. Check out our new and improved wordpress site here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! Our newest episode is out now! Mary, Tracy, and I discuss the past, present, and future of alcohol at CSU, Chico with CADEC staff member Morgan Rosen. Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.