Facilitate, Engage, Enhance & Guide Online
Teaching has always been a complex mixture of art and science, which can be effective in many forms and modes. Recent world health issues have added a more fluid dimension of uncertainty. As we near the beginning of the fall term, many universities are challenged with instructional mode (F2F/Online, A/Synchronous). Although there is no one best approach, I would like to share recent research, which can assist in creating teaching methods that could be most beneficial to all of our students.
I would like to summarize and connect four articles that were published last month in The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. My hope is that the findings will provide concrete suggestions for how we could prepare flexible courses.
Muir, Douglas and Trimble (2020) studied how to facilitate access to all students, particularly those enrolled in online programs where progression rates are low. They share potential reasons for a sense of isolation and disconnection which may be assisted when instructors offer effective facilitation. The authors used design-based research to evaluate the impact of facilitation strategies on instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement and learning in math and science. Findings indicate that focusing on social, managerial and technical facilitation strategies resulted in an increased active involvement, which in turn were influential in motivating students to engage with learning online.
Douglas, James, Earwaker, Mather and Murray (2020) explored the perceptions of facilitators in asynchronous online discussions to improve engagement. Fostering student engagement requires rethinking traditional off and online teaching. Facilitators participated in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that, with appropriately prepared facilitators, online discussion can improve engagement and enhance learning outcomes.
Patterson, Schultz, Wood-Bradley, Lanham and Adachi (2020) collated quantitative data on engagement with different video types, drew further insights from an online survey and combined data from an institutional evaluation survey. The authors report the preferred enhancements of short premium videos (SPV) were watched many more times than full lectures, and 85% of students agreed that SPV were more beneficial and effective. The students’ self-assessed video attention span varied greatly, with a mean of 10 minutes. Students perceived that SPV helped them to retain and apply concepts.
Biggers and Luo (2020) examined the effects of scaffolding for students or guided notes (fill-in-the-blank outlines, partially-completed outlines, partially-completed slides or notes with metacognitive guidance) to learning and the impact of modality. Results of 22 peer reviewed articles found that students perceive guided notes in a positive light, and improve results. They found that modality does not influence the efficacy of guided notes.
References
Biggers, B. & Luo, T. (2020). Guiding students to success: A systematic review of research on guided notes as an instructional strategy, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 17(3).
Douglas, T., James, A., Earwaker, L., Mather, C., & Murray, S. (2020). Online discussion boards: Improving practice and student engagement by harnessing facilitator perceptions, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 17(3).
Muir, T., Douglas, T., & Trimble, A. (2020). Facilitation strategies for enhancing the learning and engagement of online students, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 17(3).
Patterson, N., Schultz, M., Wood-Bradley, G., Lanham, E., & Adachi, C. (2020). Going digital to enhance the learning of undergraduate students, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 17(3).
