Tag: student engagement

Summer Opportunities for Professional Development and Training

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Dear faculty,

I know I mentioned in my last Tuesday Tip that you might be tired of opportunities for professional development and that you might prefer a nap at this stage, but….

We do have a great series of summer programs available and I want to make sure you know where to find them and how to apply. Below, you will find information about three different opportunities that we hope you will consider!

2 Ps in 2 Days: Increasing Student Engagement (Hosted by: Office of Civic Engagement)

May 27-28, 2021

Faculty will develop plans to increase students’ engagement through assignments that highlight a sense of place and community partnerships. Learn how you can tweak a single course to better align your assignments with the 2 Ps, or work with a group of interdisciplinary faculty on university-community partnerships. Campus and community presenters will share their experience and expertise. Participants will be provided blocks of time to work with a more experienced colleague to apply the 2 Ps in ways that are meaningful for their discipline and deepen student learning.

Contact Ann Schulte for more information or questions.

Institute on Active & Experiential Learning (Hosted by the Office of Faculty Development)

June 8-10, 14-15

The Office of Faculty Development will be offering an Institute on Active & Experiential Learning in Summer 2021 (June 8-15). The Institute is designed to offer faculty practical tools, resources, and ideas to use in the classroom to facilitate and promote more active methods of learning. The institute will be offered virtually, via Zoom.

The Institute will provide faculty the opportunity to work in cohorts and explore best pedagogical practices that promote:

  1. student research;
  2. innovative use of classroom space;
  3. civic and global engagement;
  4. application of learning to professional fields
  5. collaborations with local institutions and businesses. 

The institute will also offer resources in relation to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and faculty will have a chance to explore successful examples of SoTL. 

Faculty development is looking for both faculty participants and faculty that can facilitate workshops in the areas listed above.

Full Call for Applications

Application for Participants

Application for Workshop Facilitators 

Contact Chiara Ferrari for questions.

GoFlex Summer Institute (Hosted by: TLP, FDEV, and CST)

Session #1 – June 22, 23, 24, 29, and 30; approx 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Session #2 – July 27, 28, 29, August 3 and 4; approx 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

In fall 2021, there will be over 100 classrooms equipped with new tracking cameras and microphones installed in the ceilings that allow students online in Zoom to communicate with the faculty and students in-person in the classroom. These classrooms are called hyflex classrooms. 

ChicoFlex is the Mode of Instruction (MOI) we created that gives students flexibility in attending their classes in-person and/or online. ChicoFlex classes are noted in the Class Schedule and are taught in hyflex classrooms. More information on hyflex classrooms and ChicoFlex modes of instruction can be found here.

For faculty to prepare to teach in hyflex classrooms in fall 2021 or spring 2022, we are offering a GoFlex Summer Institute. This call for applications is for faculty participants and mentors. Faculty participants will learn about how to manage the classroom equipment, the features and configurations to engage in-person and online students at the same time. Faculty mentors will lead and facilitate a cohort of up to 15 faculty. GoFlex will support faculty in leveraging tools (e.g. Poll Everywhere for polling students both online and in-person at the same time), sharing templates for student activities and best practices for classroom rules of engagement in this new environment.  

Full call for applications

Application Form

DRAFT Schedule at a glance

Contact Kathy Fernandes or Chiara Ferrari for questions.

Student Engagement Challenge 3

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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

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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

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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

Poll Everywhere & Student Engagement

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Hello? Anyone out there? 

Wondering if anyone is behind those black screens? Looking for new ways to check-in and engage students or colleagues online?  Poll Everywhere might be able to assist you! Poll Everywhere is Chico State’s new online polling software available to all instructors, staff, and students for free. Come and learn the various engagement activities available to you and how they can easily be incorporated into your PPT presentations, Google Slides, and into Blackboard.   

Faculty, staff and students must use their Chico State campus email address with the account.  

BROWN BAG SESSION: Poll Everywhere 

WHO: Claudine Franquet, ITC in TLP 

WHEN: Friday, October 16th 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Zoom 

Meeting ID: 919 3973 8505 

Password: Chico 

This Tuesday Tip is brought to you by Claudine Franquet, instructional technology consultant in the Technology & Learning Program. 

Poll Everywhere & Student Engagement

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Hello? Anyone out there? 

Wondering if anyone is behind those black screens? Looking for new ways to check-in and engage students or colleagues online?  Poll Everywhere might be able to assist you! Poll Everywhere is Chico State’s new online polling software available to all instructors, staff, and students for free. Come and learn the various engagement activities available to you and how they can easily be incorporated into your PPT presentations, Google Slides, and into Blackboard.   

Faculty, staff and students must use their Chico State campus email address with the account.  

BROWN BAG SESSION: Poll Everywhere 

WHO: Claudine Franquet, ITC in TLP 

WHEN: Friday, October 16th 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Zoom  

Meeting ID: 919 3973 8505 

Password: Chico 

This Tuesday Tip is brought to you by Claudine Franquet, instructional technology consultant in the Technology & Learning Program. 

RSVP For What Enriches You

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Today’s tip is a friendly reminder about a few of the development and recognition invitations this semester for faculty. I know your schedules are very busy so please only RSVP to what nourishes and interests you.

Have a great last few days before Spring Break!!

Make Office Hours An Accessible Resource

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“Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement.” This is first of Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education at Chico State. One relatively untapped resource to increase student involvement outside of class is office hours.

In a low-stakes office meeting with you, students can learn about resources they need and ask questions in a safe environment without their peers present. Investing time with students can actually be a long-term time-saver if you can address problems before they get worse or help with initial drafts of papers before they’re submitted. So, why are office hours seldom utilized by students? Maybe they’re nervous. Maybe they don’t feel their reason for visiting is worth your time. Maybe they don’t want to appear to need extra help. Whatever the reason, helping students access your office hours is a great way to boost student engagement. Here are a few ways to help students access this valuable resource.

  • Prop your door open during scheduled office hours and warmly greet them. Display your Safe Zone Ally placard on your door if you earned one from the Office of Diversity & Inclusion. If students apologize for bothering you, remind them that office hours are devoted to them and you’re glad they stopped by.
  • Stagger office hour days and times to enable students with varied schedules to access you.
  • Post office hours on your syllabus, on Blackboard, on your office door, and remind students about the benefits of office hours at key points in the course when you know students will need them most.
  • Consider making an office hour visit an assignment with points attached to it. If necessary, you can give students a specific purpose for visiting (e.g. bring your most recent assignment and the single biggest question you have about the topics covered so far).
  • Consider occasionally holding office hours off-campus at a coffee shop, the library, or a park as long as the location is accessible to all your students. If you regularly hold some of your office hours outdoors, you could have a “walking meeting” which might be less intimidating to some students.
  • Offer some office hours online. Zoom is a great platform for this and you have a free account through Chico State. Contact TLP if you need assistance.
  • Consider offering some group office hours to be held in an empty classroom. Perhaps these could be theme-based office hours (e.g. test prep, participating in research, finding internships, applying to graduate school)

Faculty are partners with students in the learning process. The more resources students can access, the more successful the partnership.