This long weekend was full of gardening and playing outside… and cleaning! It was a lot of fun, though I am now exhausted. Tonight, we watched another session from the Elon Teaching and Learning Conference. The session was entitled “Continued connections: using community-and technology-rich education post-pandemic” with several presenters from Elon: Patti Burns, Senior Lecturer in French in the Department of World Languages and Culture, Elon University; Sabrina Thurman, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Elon University; and Anne-Marie Iselin, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Elon University. The presenters have taught online and redesigned their courses over the last year. Thurman began by displaying a series of images and having the audience identify an image that resonates with them. I have done a similar activity and enjoyed the creative and thoughtful responses. Burns defined their online teaching as synchronous remote sessions. Iselin then defined community in their classroom in mental health very differently from another classroom in a different discipline, though all communities are grounded on core values. Using Metimeter, the audience contributed core values and the presenters created a word cloud. Relationships, engagement, compassion, passion for students, inclusivity, and co-construction were among the values shared. Thurman explained that they based their community in online classroom settings on the Community of Inquiry Framework. Citing work from Dr. Anthony Jack, Thurman explained help-seeking behaviors and how to create a welcoming syllabus that “frames help-seeking as a sign of strength.” I love this and need to keep the wok by Jack in mind. Iselin explained how in their classes they co-create community agreements for how they will work together in brave ways… and there is a commitment for learning. Iselin talked about how this activity includes self-reflection, small group discussion, and prioritizing agreements. The class shares with Iselin the agreements to which Iselin added options to leave the class if topics are triggering. I thought the power-sharing that Iselin talked about is very important: I believe you can still be respected as an instructor and fulfill your duties as facilitator of learning while sharing power with students to co-create. Thurman explained how she uses the chat to create connections between students and the courses they are taking. Iselin talked about values affirmation as a way of promoting equity and building community. Iselin asks students to identify value that they believe are important to them and how they relate to the coursework. Iselin includes a post-session reflection: how did students embody the values they shared is the prompt used. Intention setting is another way that Iselin promotes reflection. Iselin shares her intentions too and the check in mid-way thru the session. Thurman uses reflections to connect content to the lived experiences of participants AND revisits reflections to build on them. Thurman uses “introduce yourself” forums for students to respond to the prompt: “share a photo of yourself as a child and explain…” Using video (or audio) in the discussion board, students learn how to pronounce each others’ names too.
Thurman uses digital whiteboards to engage students in sharing research designs and ideas and then saves the images for discussion in the online forums. Burns talked about how being intentional in the design of online courses can save time with content production and then devote this time to building community and strengthening relationships. Burns also mentioned that online courses allow us to “cast a wider net” and invite students from other institutions to participate. Virtual guest speakers and alumni can more readily participate in online courses. This is an important point, and Burns mentioned that in the chat all students have direct access to these valuable contacts. The session wrapped up with breakout rooms to discuss topics (guest speakers, service learning…) and share resources. Then participants edited a GoogleSlide deck to share what they will try to implement next. I thought the wrap up was timed perfectly and allowed participants to learn from each other and share out. This longer session was interactive and shared several ideas I will try to implement. The community agreement is one I have been trying in the smaller courses I teach, though the delivery still needs work. Nevertheless, I agree with the presenters that students to contribute and take it seriously!
