Heidi Echols and Mary Estrada from NC State University spoke about “The Courage to Unclench: Thriving in ANY Classroom. Estrada is a Language Professor and Echols is an instructional designer. Estrada spoke about the Pratfall Effect: “the tendency for interpersonal appeal is to increase after someone makes a mistake.” Estrada explained that “we are credible… because of our humanity.” Echols then spoke about uncleanching by letting go, revealing our humanity. Who are we as humans by being vulnerable, asking questions, willing to learn and be flexible… and honoring our students, explained Echols. These relationships, according to Echols, build trust and willingness to engage. The research that Echols focused on was from Pacanski-Brock (2021): “Instructor-student relationships lie at the heart of humanizing online courses, serving as the connective tissue between students, engagement, and rigor.” Echols asked instructors to reinvigorate discussion forums, humanize language in the syllabi, and gathering early feedback from students. Estrada shred text from a syllabus with a “before and after” that showed clarity about late assignments and also humanity. I thougth Estrada’s example was really great: it started with why late assignments make timely feedback more challenging. The language is conversational. Estrada offered a glimpse of Pacanski-Brock’s liquid syllabus as a webpage with videos and information about the course.
The next part of the workshop had a fantastic statement: “Take your forums from dreadful to joyful.” Echols explained that lively face-to-face conversations can happen online by “reconceptionalizing the space.” They encouraged allowing posts to be photos, memes, voice memos, or text and elminating word count and reply to two students. Oh, I need to do something about the reply to one… Echols suggested “promise to ‘helicopter in’ ” and consider grading for completion. I have to rethink this summer the prompt or expectation for a replies to posts. The last part of the session emphasized the importance of asking for feedback early in the course and being agile. Anonymous surveys were mentioned with some example questions:
- What has hindered you from learning in this class?
- What can Mary do better?
- What do you want Mary to know about you?
I had not considered the last two questions and appreciate the inclusion of the name. Echols asked viewers to pause the video and think about one tiny action to change the course. Estrada hoped that “we spill the coffee!” and renew our passion and joy for teaching. This was such a great talk and, ironically, timely since I went to the dentist today!
