Advising Faculty about Student Engagement

by Linda Deneen

What is the single best thing that faculty can do to engage students in the learning process? In addition to asking staff at my university this question, I posed it to a few CIOs and asked them to share it with their colleagues. A number of educational technologists, instructional designers, and other IT staff who assist faculty with teaching and technology shared their responses. Their answers came in three categories: philosophy, strategies, and engaging technology tools.

Philosophy

Educational technologists who have a background in educational theory recognize the importance of putting pedagogy before technology. In particular, they work with faculty to develop goals for a course before starting to talk about the technology tools that can help meet those goals.

Bruce Reeves of the University of Minnesota Duluth starts with a set of questions that help faculty step back from the technology to think about the learning:

"What do you want your students to be able to do?"
"How will your students be different at the end of this activity?"
"How will you know if a student was successful?"
"How will the students know if they are successful?"

Bruce believes, "Engagement with the student begins in the mind of the faculty member, and it should be made explicit to increase the likelihood of a desired outcome."

Amanda Evans, also from the University of Minnesota Duluth, offered a similar set of questions to set the stage:

"When you think back to your prior learning experiences, when did you feel engaged?"
"What was it about that experience that made you feel engaged or involved? Was it the process, the activity, the teacher's disposition?"
"What would you like students to learn while taking this course? When you picture a student who has completed this course, what does that look and feel like?"

Some further advice from Amanda:

"I encourage faculty to design an environment or an experience that allows the learner to tap into the various ways information is processed. Also, I promote designing for the experience they want to create, starting with the end result or outcome they are seeking to achieve and working their way backwards. Finally, I encourage them to create an environment where the learners have some choices in the learning process."

Dr. Yadi Ziaeehezarjeribi of Black Hills State University discussed the prior learner experience:

"As educators examine the use of digital learning contexts, prior learner experience must be taken into account. As education policy and theory continues to shift instructional paradigms and incorporate new pedagogy into classrooms, instructional designers should take into account that many students respond more positively to cognitively challenging environments. When classroom activities do not provide challenging and entertaining conditions for learning, educators may continue to struggle to engage a number of students who have high expectations of their media in all settings. If educators seek to enhance academic learning through the use of online learning, using high expectations associated with learning objectives and goals may encourage student-learning approximations with corrective, positive feedback."

Educational technologists are well positioned to assist faculty in thinking about what they want their students to learn before they begin to talk about how students might learn.

Strategies

Educational technologists are also well positioned to assist faculty in planning ahead for appropriate and engaging classroom and online strategies. Multiple strategies can provide ways to capture the imaginations of more students.

Amanda Evans of the University of Minnesota Duluth recommended strategies and activities from the book Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 20 Instructional Strategies That Engage the Brain by Marcia L. Tate.¹ She further explained, "When advising faculty on how to engage students, I remind them that engagement is a two-way street. The learner has a role as well."

Dr. Ziaeehezarjeribi offered these strategies for engaging students, with an emphasis on working in online environments:

"Encouraging full participation: students must be active participants in online learning environments."
"Providing multiple avenues for learning: online learning should include varied opportunities to learn new skills or content concepts."
"Developing a compelling digital story line, with more challenging activities that match or exceed a face-to-face learning environment."
"Propelling students toward inquiry and discovery or experiential learning."
"Providing an appropriate level of challenge."
"Supporting students' general learning."
"Encouraging interaction and problem solving."
"Using new media in different learning environments."
"Developing relevant and alternative activities to traditional learning."

Engaging Technology Tools

After a philosophy and strategies are developed, faculty can choose from a wide variety of technology tools that enhance learning and engagement. Faculty are advised to avoid technology for the sake of technology and instead to choose technology solutions that enhance their goals for the course.

LeAne Rutherford of the University of Minnesota Duluth offered this engaging technology tool:

"One thing we know about students is that they are attracted to brevity. For example, they prefer texting over e-mail, visual over verbal, tweets over treatises. Consequently, I advise faculty to capitalize on that student preference when possible. That means instructors have to keep a weather-eye out for useful electronic applications that cross their visual paths. For instance, a link to National Punctuation Day was lightheartedly sent to me as a 'sister in grammar guardianship.' When I opened the link (which I urge you to do), I was immediately taken by the idea of sending this to all writing instructors as a means of liberating their students from the notion that 'an ellipsis is when the moon moves in front of the sun.' The visual representations of the marks of punctuation, which give entrance to the rules about using them, are clean, clear, appealingly accessible and brief. The succinct and snappy electronic format makes it easier to attract students and engage them."

Sarah Bryans Bongey of The College of St. Scholastica talked about these tools:

"At The College of St. Scholastica, faculty make use of a rich array of technology tools (both hardware and software) to promote student engagement. Technologies used include SMARTBoards, student response systems, and the supplemental use of podcasts, websites, blogs, and Learning Management Systems (LMS), such as Blackboard Learn. Web-based tools are extensive, ranging from the LMS and subscription-based tools such as Webspiration, Atomic Learning, and StudyMate games to Web 2.0 tools like Google Docs, blogs, wikis, and more. Using the same LMS, classroom-based, hybrid, and fully online formats have tremendous options, with powerful new tools making it possible for faculty to provide engaging features with a minimum of training."

Sarah also provided some experiences from others at The College of St. Scholastica:

"I was interested to experiment with the new Blackboard LMS," said Jeremy Craycraft, a music instructor who used a supplemental site in the LMS to support his teaching of a course on Music of the Caribbean. "After a short training session, I was able to start providing students with images of festivals, maps, and musical instruments, as well as audio clips and videos that provided context and increased student engagement and appreciation of the material."
With the easy inclusion of YouTube videos and images, a popular strategy for providing students with multiple means of engagement is threaded discussions. "We use them to build community and to get students interacting with one another early in any course," said Dr. Chery Takkunen, an instructor and program director in The College of St. Scholastica's School of Education.
Joelle McGovern, an instructional designer and recent recipient of St. Scholastica's Certificate in Online Instructional Development, suggested that faculty use asynchronous discussions as icebreakers in hybrid or fully online courses. In a recent training course, she received some intriguing responses when she used a Time Travel icebreaker that she found on the Internet: Where you would go if you could write your own round-trip ticket on a time machine? The answers were diverse and illuminating.
According to Dr. Diana Johnson, web conferences provide teachers and students with an opportunity to make presentations and to engage and interact in real time. "This was the 'missing link' in online instruction, but now with Wimba it is possible to conduct live sessions with students," said Johnson. "I'm always certain to archive my sessions, ensuring that students have a chance to revisit the material or to view it for the first time if they were unable to attend the original session." This increases engagement among those students who thrive on interactive experiences.
The construct of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is gaining increased recognition at the higher education level. In 2008, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (reauthorized) defined UDL as a "scientifically valid" framework. Based on this and other endorsements, professionals in Disabilities Services and Academic Technologies at The College of St. Scholastica collaborated with an innovative professor to explore how technology can be used to promote the instructional approaches outlined in the UDL framework. In 2009, Dr. Gerald Cizadlo used technology to support multiple means of engagement, which is one of the three main tenets of UDL. In addition to the standard lecture and lab sessions and his ongoing use of an LMS, Dr. Cizadlo articulated concepts and content using videos, podcasts, outlines, learning games, supplemental websites, and a weekly online office hour. Students were surveyed at the end of the semester, and a vast majority of them stated that they would go out of their way to register for future classes that involved a similar array of engaging features and enhancements.

Vrushali Moghe, an instructional designer at the University of Minnesota Duluth, emphasized the importance of collaboration tools:

"I emphasize student empowerment by using interactive, open and collaborative tools such as Google Docs, blogs, wikis and discussion forums. I encourage faculty to give students the option to communicate and express themselves in a variety of ways (photos, audio, video recordings, screen captures) in addition to the traditional essay writing and quizzes. We present live via Adobe Connect or Skype, where the presenter uses a web cam and shares the computer screen. After or during the presentations, students discuss questions from the instructor and classmates. Another option for students who can't attend a live session is for faculty to simply upload the presentation to a discussion forum in Moodle and then respond to questions in an asynchronous manner. The presentation can be a video of the person presenting, a narrated PowerPoint presentation, a photo essay, or any form the student finds most effective.

"Many instructors and advisers also are opting to use instant messaging tools, such as Skype or Google Talk, where they have a one-on-one conversation (audio and visual), share electronic materials, or go through an assignment together virtually. Instructors use the built-in chat tool in Moodle for weekly meetings with the class to address any questions and for a general update. Guest speakers also use Skype or Adobe Connect to deliver presentations (which can also be recorded for later viewing) and to respond to questions by the students. If there are events that are available in a live stream, instructors send out reminders or announcements and provide links to the live events."

Conclusions

Educational technologists and instructional designers help faculty develop a philosophy of pedagogy, including setting goals and developing strategies to capture the imaginations of students. This includes setting expectations for student participation, which should lead to greater engagement. They then assist faculty in choosing from a wide variety of available technology tools in a thoughtful way. They help faculty avoid the trap of using technology because it is there. Instead, technology is most engaging when it is most appropriate to the goals of the course, the philosophy of the faculty member, and the needs of the students.

Endnotes