Dr. Kate Shoulders, Associate Professor, Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology, presented April 15th, 2020 on “Getting Closer through Distance: Using Technology to Connect to Students.”

The video of this presentation can be accessed by visiting the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center (TFSC) Blackboard course and clicking on Archived Presentations.

Dr. Shoulders likes to keep in mind that students have varying needs and interests.  Some will be in need of more connection with their professors while others just want the assignments.

The most imp0rtant thing to remember in this is being authentic.  She has children who will suddenly appear on camera for videos.  She doesn’t try to hide them.  This helps her students to understand that she knows that they’re going through the same kinds of things in their lives while trying to go to school. She doesn’t feel that communications have to be nearly as finished as they would be in a normal academic situation.

5 Things that Have Been Helpful in Connecting with Students

  1. Video Recorded Feedback – She uses Kaltura to record her feedback as she goes through the assignment.  This feels more personal to the students and more like a meeting about the assignment rather than just written feedback, and the students have been very happy with it.
  2. Facebook Messenger Groups – Dr. Shoulders creates a Facebook Messenger group for her students so that they can use to converse among themselves and she can keep up with it and also contribute to the conversation.
  3. Visual Reflection Assignment – This assignment asks students to submit any type of image that they find online that reflects their current feeling. Some students choose an image about that week’s assignment and others choose one that reflects other aspects of their life. It allows them to really think about and evaluate how they are currently feeling.
  4. The Marco Polo App – Marco Polo is a video app that allows for threaded conversations that she is using with her students to converse about either daily life or assignments as a way of staying connected.
  5. Podcasting – She is doing a podcast with Chris Estepp for Ag Teachers across the state and also for her undergraduate students.  She edits her Podcasts with Adobe Premiere Pro, which faculty at the University of Arkansas have access to.  She recommends that you make sure that it sounds like a conversation and have fun with it! She publishes the podcast with PodBean.

Related Links

If you would like more information on how to incorporate technology into your courses, reach out to us at tips@uark.edu.

This content was developed from a presentation by Dr. Kate Shoulders which was sponsored by The Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center (TFSC) at the University of Arkansas.