Chris Shields, faculty member of the Sociology and Criminology Department in the Fulbright College spoke with faculty about engaging students in the classroom and online.
Shields started the discussion with the reminder that we are here teaching because we love engaging with our students.
TFSC: Chris Shields, Wally Cordes Chair Discussion, Student Engagement
Chris Shields, faculty member of the Sociology and Criminology Department in the Fulbright College spoke with faculty about engaging students in the classroom and online.
Shields started the discussion with the reminder that we are here teaching because we love engaging with our students. It can be easier to focus on engagement when you have your course set up fully ahead of time so that students know what you expect of them and what they can expect from you. Keeping an honest contract with your students that follows your syllabus throughout the semester leaves room open for focusing on the material and being excited to educate your students.
It’s also important for you to share your excitement for the subject matter with your students. We may not all walk in every day excited about the particular subject matter we need to cover but we can make it relevant and important for our students.
Part of engaging with students is being prepared to explain a concept multiple ways and to find the positive in repeated questions in the classroom. One positive is that this can lead to opportunities to meet with students one-on-one and give them the feedback that makes them feel seen. One way you can give this feedback to students without meeting with them during office hours is to respond to their papers on Blackboard with comments and feedback. Shields recommended starting your feedback process with a document of common responses that can be personalized for each student’s work. Other faculty commented that they include feedback for students on test questions for both correct and incorrect answers that emphasizes the important elements of the question that the students got right or wrong!
Students need our feedback. We need to give feedback to really see our students. It can be easy to reach out to the students that are excited and love the subject matter but we’ve all seen those “back row diamonds” that are just waiting for us to recognize they have potential. Give those students the chances to develop the skills that can help them be amazing. One of the ways that Shields encourages students is to have students rewrite papers until they get a grade that reflects their capability. Sitting down with these students and going through papers line by line and letting them know where resources are on campus can really make a difference in our students’ lives and can help make us the best professors we can be.
Faculty Question: When you think about the ‘performance’ of enthusiasm for teaching do you have rituals that help you get ready?
Use stories that engage your students, when you see the ‘glaze’ happening, get them laughing and involved! This can be through competition, storytelling, jokes (even at your own expense!) – just bring them back to you. For online courses I record lectures and try to keep them short and manageable, use Discussion Boards that require thoughtful replies and I contribute to those discussions as well, and set up weekly Collaborate sessions that students know they can use to talk to me about upcoming lessons, study for quizzes, or to go over their papers. Also, let your online students know that you are a real person. Use Announcements and let them know that you’re working on grading their papers, sometimes they forget that we aren’t magic grading machines.
Faculty Question: Do you use Kaltura video feedback?
I use this for my lectures but not for feedback – students do love to get feedback so this would be a great way to add that personal touch. They may even start to recognize you in public! These little videos can be used to show them how to edit and turn in papers, anything to help your students complete their work.
Faculty Tricks:
- Provide feedback for both correct and incorrect answers
- Do weekly short quizzes so students are familiar with your questions before the midterm
- If you’re doing quizzes in class be aware of CEA students and read your questions out loud and put them on the projector – remember you can register quizzes with CEA if students need extra time.
- Set time frames where your students know that you are available – especially if you have large classes you need to make it clear that you won’t respond at 2 am. Including e-office hours in your syllabus can really help you manage student expectations!
Need help providing feedback? This post sharing the ways our faculty provide feedback on assessments in Blackboard may help!
This content was developed from a presentation by which was sponsored by the The Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center (TFSC) at the University of Arkansas.