Review the pedagogical and technical information below to inform your progress in Week Two. Have questions about what you learned here or ideas for future tips? Join Coffee & Answers (open support Zoom sessions with the Academic Technology Team) or email the Office of Teaching and Learning.
Pedagogical
How can I support student success in my class?
Learning happens both in what you convey through your lectures, discussions, and readings, but also by reaching students where they are. Creating structures in your class to support all learners can ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed.
Some basics to consider:
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How will you show students how to succeed in your class?
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How will you foster students’ sense of belonging?
Our traditionally-aged students have had much of their secondary school education during the pandemic, and the pandemic spurred the greatest pedagogical changes in the 21st century. Faculty and students experienced varying degrees of trauma as a result of pandemic conditions, and trauma-informed pedagogy became a way to address this trauma.
Technology became ubiquitous in pandemic classrooms. In addition to Zoom, instructors quickly learned to use learning management systems creatively. And in the last couple of years, AI has become ubiquitous (see The New Yorker). All of these changes affected students’ expectations and levels of engagement and the way they think about learning. While it is impossible to summarize the complexity of these changes, here are a few things to keep in mind:
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The majority of students meet the criteria for at least one mental health problem.
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Students may be less familiar with reading complicated, challenging, or long texts.
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Students learn best belonging
We’ll come back to these issues in future teaching tips, but for now, here are some ways to foster students’ success and sense of belonging in your classroom.
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Explain to students how they can get the most out of your class. You could have some language on your syllabus that helps explain how learning happens or you can do this during one of your first lectures. You can see some sample language for that in the course policies for my courses (select “Ways to Succeed in This Course,” the tab with the trophy icon on the side).
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Invite the Office of Learning Resources for a class visit. The OLR can do a full class presentation on study skills, how to read a textbook, or how to take notes, or simply do a 10-minute presentation to students about the services they offer (supplemental instruction, one-on-one peer tutoring, or individual learning strategies consultations). You can find faculty resources or learn more about workshops and request one (scroll down to the Workshop section). You can request a workshop or you can contact Kris Goldberg, the director, directly.
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Learn students’ names and pronouns. Some research has shown that relationships between students and faculty and students and students are key to their success in college. This begins with names. You can do this with name cards on desks, icebreakers and name games, or whatever strategy works best for your course content. For more on ideas for how to start your first day creatively, including “syllabus speed dating,” see this resource from DePaul. For a more indepth look at this, consider assigning a chapter from this recent e-book: Connections Are Everything: A College Students Guide to a Relationship Rich Education.
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Consider how to create conditions that facilitate students’ belonging. You can find slides on this in a recent presentation from the Office of Teaching and Learning.
Technical
How can I use Announcements, Inbox, or Zoom to communicate?
There are tools to help you create community and communicate with your students both directly and indirectly.
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Canvas Announcements: Once published, you can use your Canvas course to send announcements with important information to your students. These can include formatted text, links to resources, or even attached documents. These announcements will show on your course homepage and send a copy to the student's email if notifications are enabled.
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Canvas Inbox: Canvas also offers Inbox, a built-in messaging system that allows you to keep track of communications with individuals or groups of students. These messages will also come to their email if notifications are enabled.
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Zoom: If you need to meet live, and online, Zoom is the teleconferencing tool of choice. Zoom allows students to ask questions, participate verbally or via chat, and engage directly with instructors and peers. Zoom can also be set up directly in your Canvas course to allow easy access to meeting links or recordings.
Vocabulary
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Learning Management System (LMS) - a website that allows students and instructors to interact. Instructors can share course content, administer assessments, grade assignments, and more. Students can take exams, submit assignments, complete course readings, and more.
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Canvas - the LMS that Saint Joseph’s University uses
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Canvas Course - a digital space to house content for each section of a course, also referred to as a shell
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Knowledge Base - SJU’s internal database of articles and service requests
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The Nest - SJU’s internal website, which houses many helpful links, including a direct link to Canvas
Additional Resources