September 4, 2024 • 24 mins
We welcome Dr. Crystal Anderson for a conversation about what teaching looks like today, particularly coming off several years of pandemic teaching. We also explore how we engage students across different modalities, whether face-to-face, hybrid, online, or others.
Stearns Center Teaching Online: https://stearnscenter.gmu.edu/knowledge-center/online-teaching/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rachel (00:06):
Hello and welcome to the Keystone Concepts in Higher
Education podcast.
I'm your host, Rachel Yoho.
In this episode, we're going tobe discussing active learning
and engaged teaching and whatthese mean for educators as we
support all students.
So today, I'm joined by Dr.
Crystal Anderson, the AssociateDirector of Engaged Learning at
the Stearns Center for Teachingand Learning at George Mason
(00:28):
University.
Crystal uses her expertise todesign and assess educational
programs and curricula, developsustainable faculty development
programs, and manage program anduniversity level initiatives
using evidence based practices.
As a veteran educator with over20 years of teaching experience,
she employs high impactpractices that utilize digital
(00:49):
tools to foster inquiry basedlearning and develop practical
skills that cultivate thepotential of all students.
She's affiliate faculty inAfrican and African American
studies at George Mason.
As a scholar with aninternational reputation, she
generates cutting edgetraditional research as well as
public scholarship in the fieldsof transnational American
studies, black internationalism,and global ages.
Her book, Soul in Seoul (01:11):
African American Popular Music and K-pop
in 2020, was recently publishedin Korean.
Crystal received her MA inEnglish from the University of
Virginia and her PhD in AmericanStudies from the College of
William and Mary.
So thank you so much for joiningus today, Crystal.
Crystal (01:31):
Thanks, Rachel.
I'm so glad to be here.
Rachel (01:36):
So to get us started in our conversation today, I want
to talk a little bit about, youknow, the pandemic.
The pandemic changed a lot aboutteaching, and students today
really seem to expect differentlearning environments and engage
a little bit differently thanbefore.
So can you start ourconversation off with telling us
a little bit about what some ofthe elements of effective
(01:57):
teaching can look like today?
Crystal (01:59):
Absolutely.
You know, one of the firstthings I want to say is that
these are not brand new things.
These were things that we weredoing before the pandemic.
But one of the things that thepandemic unveiled is that we
needed to deploy thesestrategies in different kinds of
ways.
We know that the pandemic wasunprecedented in higher
(02:21):
education and also other areasof education as well.
Students, no matter where theywere in their educational
journey, had a two yearinterruption in which they were
placed in emergency remotelearning.
That had an impact on the waythat they viewed their education
and is continuing to have animpact today.
(02:43):
So some of the elements ofeffective teaching that we know
particularly have an impact in aquote unquote post pandemic
world, the first has to do withengagement.
During the pandemic, students,even though they tend to spend a
lot of time online, we wereasking students to spend their
(03:04):
time online in an educationalsetting.
And so they began to becomfortable with using various
modes of technology foreducation.
They became comfortable withdifferent modes of information
sharing and transmission.
They also became reallycomfortable with being able to
(03:26):
access not just theirinstructors, but also the
content for classes in an onlinekind of way.
So one of the great shifts thatthe pandemic gave us was being
able to continue to leverage thebenefits of different learning
environments.
Rachel (03:46):
Yeah, that's such a great point, and thank you for
sharing that.
I mean, obviously, such adifficult time within society,
within education, in so manydifferent areas, but we see this
as maybe a little bit of apotential for learning now.
So can you tell us a little bitmore about the shift from these
lecture based classes to theseinstructional practices today?
For instance, I really like howyou mentioned the shift from
(04:08):
online to an online educationalsetting.
Crystal (04:13):
Absolutely.
So we know that lecture is likethe bedrock of the kinds of
education we probablyexperienced, and it was the kind
of education that a lot ofstudents were experiencing pre
pandemic.
And I feel like it's importantto state that no one's trying to
kill the lecture off.
There are definitely ways thatwe can deploy it more
(04:36):
strategically now that we're ina post pandemic environment.
Lectures are really great forgiving students information
because they need information.
It's really concise.
They know what to expect fromit.
But one of the things that wecan do in terms of our lectures,
and one of the things that welearned as a result of the
pandemic, is that attentionspans are getting reduced, and
(05:01):
so we want to interject ourlectures with opportunities for
students to reflect, forstudents to maybe to apply some
of the information we just gavethem in a lecture.
Or even just an opportunity forthem to ask questions.
And these are things that peoplecan do fairly easily.
It's a low bar to just be ableto pause every, you know, 10 to
(05:25):
12 minutes during a lecture togive that space to students.
Rachel (05:30):
Yeah, it seems like a really interesting and really
engaging method to havinglecture be a little bit less,
"Tell me everything I need toknow and I'll sit here and
absorb it," to a little bit moreof a,"We're going to talk, we're
going to discuss the material,but we're also going to interact
a little bit." And so I can seereally how this is fitting
together in an in person, ormaybe even on Zoom, or some sort
(05:55):
of synchronous activity.
But the in person lecture, wecan see that.
We can have maybe someinteractions and polls and those
kinds of things.
But how do we, or maybe howshould we, consider different
types of modalities in ourteaching?
Maybe if we're not just inperson or just all in the same
place at the same time.
Crystal (06:15):
Yes, so the post pandemic environment has given
us the opportunity to discernthat there are different
learning environments.
Pre pandemic, we were largelyall teaching in the classroom,
and that's how we would conductour classes.
But now, post pandemic, we cannow leverage the benefits of
(06:38):
different learning environments.
So for instance, if you areteaching in an in person
classroom, you can leverage thebenefits of your LMS to house
your course materials,assignments, discussion boards.
I know at our institution, youcan also kind of use some of the
(07:00):
special tools that we have.
We have a couple of apps in ourLMS, like Harmonize and
VoiceThread, that really getsstudents more engaged in
learning from each other, sothat peer to peer student
engagement, and so even thoughyour primary mode of conducting
your classes face to face, youcan definitely use the benefits
(07:23):
of your LMS to complement whatyou do in the classroom.
Rachel (07:27):
Yeah, that's a great point.
So we can see how we can bringin the online space as a
resource for our in personclasses.
But what about if we're lookingat teaching a hybrid course or a
fully asynchronous onlinecourse?
Do you have any thoughts on theengagement piece across those
types of modalities?
Crystal (07:49):
I do.
I think that it's a really greatmindset to have, that student
engagement is key to any studentin an educational experience.
And so even if we're teachingsynchronous Zoom based classes
or asynchronous online classes,we still have to be cognizant of
the fact that we need to havestudents engage.
(08:11):
And probably the mostchallenging of those is the
asynchronous online class.
Even though you may not be therein person or virtually to engage
with your students, you cancreate opportunities for them to
engage with you, for them toengage with each other, and for
them to really engage with thematerial that you're sharing in
(08:31):
class.
Rachel (08:32):
Yeah, that's a great point, especially with the
online asynchronous.
I know a lot of people tend toview that as very passive, no
matter what.
That it's just going to bepassive learning, I'm going to
record some videos, put it upthere.
And for me, I've taught a lot ofonline asynchronous courses, and
they tend to be very engaging ifyou try to make them.
(08:52):
And so one of the ways would besomething like discussion
boards, where students get tointeract with each other, where
they maybe are expected orgraded in some sort of
discussion board posts andreplies.
Are there other things that youmight be recommending maybe for
a new faculty member or someonewho hasn't taught in that sort
of modality?
Crystal (09:12):
Sure, you know, some of those things like discussion
boards, if you've been doingthem for a while, you can kind
of slap that together prettyeasily.
But if you're new to teaching,that might be daunting.
So one of the things that I liketo use is the good old shared
document, something likeMicrosoft Word, or if you're not
using the Microsoft Suite, youcan use something like Google
(09:34):
Docs.
And I find this to be reallyeffective.
One, because students are fairlyfamiliar with being able to work
in this kind of collaborativeway, even if it's asynchronous.
These tools allow students toall see what they're working on.
It gives students theopportunity to ask questions or
make changes and then be indialogue with each other.
(09:57):
We know that students tend tolearn a lot from each other,
even though we think they learnthe most from us.
So giving them a really lowbarrier tool to be able to get
that kind of asynchronouscollaboration going is really
great even for new faculty.
Rachel (10:15):
Yeah, that's a great activity that can get into that
space of peer to peer learning,even if they're not in those
same physical spaces.
I think that's great.
And so overall, it seems like alot of what we're doing here in
this conversation is talking alittle bit about how we're,
we're really packaging content.
So we, we might be thinkingabout the packaging in terms of
(10:38):
the modality, like we've justbeen talking about, but how do
we think about the, maybe thepackaging in terms of like the
before, the during, and theafter class?
Even if we have a standard sortof lecture room where we're all
meeting.
Crystal (10:54):
Right.
So one of the things again thatwe learned from the pandemic is
that intentionality on our partis really key for enhancing
student learning.
So we tend to think of teachingas happening in the classroom,
but a lot of what makes whathappens in the classroom
successful is your intentionalplanning outside of the
(11:16):
classroom and once again usingthose different and learning
environments, whether that's inthe LMS asynchronously, whether
it's using some kind ofsynchronous instruction, or
whether you're in person in aclassroom using those and
deploying those in ways thathelp your instruction.
So, for example, you can haveyour lecture in class, but you
(11:41):
can utilize the LMS to getstudents kind of primed for the
kind of brief discussion youmight want to have as you pause
for your 10, every 10 to 12minutes, have them have some
discussion questions and set upthe expectation that you will be
using those questions to guidediscussion when you're in the
(12:02):
face to face classroom.
The other thing that I think isimportant is this may not work
the first time you do it.
The other thing that you want todo is to repeat this, have a
schedule or a expectation thatstudents know, okay, if we're
going to have lecture in class,there are going to be some
(12:24):
discussion questions in the LMSthat I want to take a look at.
And slowly but surely, studentswill fall into that routine.
Rachel (12:32):
So here we're really talking about basically creating
a pattern in our teaching,having a predictability, but
predictability to make itengaging and for students to be
able to follow along a littlebit, right?
Crystal (12:45):
Yes, absolutely.
And it's important to note thatstudents crave that kind of
context and structure in aclassroom and they benefit from
it.
This is one of the ways in whichit enhances their learning.
So the more structure we canprovide to students, the greater
chance we have of having thatlearning that we want to take
place actually take place.
Rachel (13:07):
Yeah, that's a great point.
And so when we're talking aboutthis, you know, with the
packaging and the structure andthe patterns, one of the things
that you mentioned was settingup the expectation.
So setting up the expectationaround what would be happening,
where things would be, but alsohow do we, or how would you
recommend maybe to a newinstructor or someone
considering this type ofpackaging or modality approach
(13:31):
for the first time, how wouldyou recommend that they orient
the students to where thingsare, what's going on?
What would this look like maybein practice at the beginning of
the semester?
Crystal (13:42):
Sure, I often tell new faculty, especially, that first
day of class sets theexpectation for the rest of the
semester.
And whereas sometimes we areused to the first day being
syllabus day, and you definitelywant to cover some high points
of the syllabus, I like to usethat first day to show students
(14:03):
where these learningenvironments are and how to
access them.
So I will either take studentsinto the LMS space and show them
how our course is organized inthe LMS space, or, once again,
you can utilize thatasynchronous space and record a
video that gives them a tour ofwhere information is in the
(14:25):
space.
That gives you more time in theface to face to be able to model
how discussion might look inyour class.
I know some people are like,"What?
Having discussion on the firstday?" Yes, you can have
discussion on the first day,because when you do it on the
first day, students are morelikely to start to understand,
(14:47):
"Oh, this is how this is goingto go.
Okay." And they're much morelikely to be on board with it.
Rachel (14:54):
Absolutely.
We can even have activities onthe first day.
The more engagement, I think,the better.
I mean, I've done a number ofengaging activities with my
students on the first day toshow that this is not going to
be one of those courses whereI'm just going to talk at them
and we're really going to engagewith the material.
We're really going to do, do thethings while we learn about the
content.
(15:15):
And so let's, let's shift over alittle bit.
You know, we've talked about ourmodalities, we've talked a
little bit about packaging, butone of the things that we might
hear about is considering thealignment in our teaching.
So can you tell us, Crystal,more about what does this mean?
Crystal (15:33):
Sure, so alignment is simply us being intentional, but
being intentional in a certainkind of way when it comes to
course design.
I'm going to tell you, I taughtfor quite some time before I
encountered the idea ofalignment, and it completely
changed my life and the way thatI approach teaching because it
was just so simple and elegantin the way that it was presented
(15:56):
to me.
Alignment means that we want totake our student learning
outcomes, those things we wantstudents to know or be able to
do by the end of the course, andmake sure that they are
connected or aligned to theactivities that we have for
students.
This can be homework.
This can be where students learnand practice the things that
they are learning in the course.
(16:19):
And then we want those to beconnected or aligned to those
opportunities where we evaluatestudent performance.
Usually these are higher stakesthings like exams, they can be
research papers, they can begroup projects at the end of a
(16:39):
course.
So that we're making sure we'regiving students an opportunity
to practice before we'reevaluating them in a way that
results in a grade.
Rachel (16:51):
That's a great point, and it sounds a lot like
backwards design.
And so we, we might hear that indifferent spaces of basically
working backwards from thoselearning outcomes and through,
just like what you were justtalking about, Crystal, with the
activities and the readings andlectures and, and seeing how all
of those align.
And so when we're talking aboutthis, the alignment in our
(17:12):
teaching, how do we do thataround managing, for instance,
student expectations.
You know, students are veryoften grade focused.
And so looking at formativeassignments, for example, might
be seen as like a waste of time.
So how are we, managing some ofthe expectations around that
(17:33):
type of procedural buildingtowards the learning outcomes?
Crystal (17:38):
You know, Rachel, when we were coming through school, a
lot of this was hidden.
We were just told,"Do thisassignment, get this grade." But
we have found that the moretransparent we are in why we're
asking students to do aparticular thing, the more
receptive students are to that.
So instead of viewing thoseformative assignments as busy
(17:59):
work, when we explain to themthat this is the opportunity for
them to make mistakes withoutbeing penalized for them, this
is the opportunity for them toexpress their curiosity and kind
of go outside the box, when wetell them the reasons why these
things exist in our courses andhow they relate to other things
(18:19):
in our courses, we increase theopportunity for them to be more
motivated to be able to do thosethings.
Rachel (18:28):
Absolutely.
And so really here what we'relooking at is a bit of alignment
and showing that alignment toour students, being a little bit
more transparent about whatwe're doing and why we're doing
it and how it maybe helps theircareer preparation or maybe
helps them to just successfullycomplete the course if the
course is not maybe specificallyaligned with their career
(18:49):
trajectory at the moment.
And so, you were talking earlierabout how alignment was really
transformational for you.
I really agree.
I think it is for a lot ofinstructors.
And it seems to represent ashift from We're covering
content to We're teaching tohelp students meet learning
(19:09):
outcomes, and the contentsupports that.
And we see a lot of that shift,or a lot of that focus, from,
I'm going to cover 14 chaptersof this textbook, or something
like that, an approach likethat, into, I'm going to help
students do these things, and bethese things, and meet these
outcomes, by the end of thesemester, or over the course of
(19:29):
the semester.
And so when we're thinking aboutthat shift, or maybe making our
first steps in that sort ofshift, how do you recommend
instructors go about looking atthe course alignment
logistically?
Like, where would I start?
Crystal (19:44):
Right, so one of the things that I like to do with
faculty is to give thempermission.
It is okay if you do not coverall 14 chapters of the book.
I think that they need to hearthat because they never hear it
anywhere else.
Because the fact of the matteris we know that after a certain
point, students stop learning.
(20:05):
They reach that cognitive load,and then no more learning takes
place.
So if we know that happens, thenwhy would we want to waste our
time adding more content whenit's not getting us anything in
terms of a return?
So one of the things that I liketo give faculty is the
permission to take a step backand kind of ease up off of that,
(20:29):
I have to cover all the things.
I think also logistically, andthis is something we should be
able to do as content experts,take a look at our content and
decide what's the mostimportant.
If we know students aren't goingto get everything, we should
make sure they get the mostimportant things.
And then once we narrow thatdown, we can start talking about
(20:50):
how we can structure our coursesso that we deploy that most
important content in ways thatalso allow us to have students
actually engage with thatcontent.
Rachel (21:03):
That's a great point.
And so when we're thinking aboutwhat they engage with, I think
one of the places where we see alot of concern with perhaps not
covering all 14 chapters orsomething like that are in the
fields that have some sort ofsecondary accreditation or often
maybe in the STEM fields wherestudents are preparing for
(21:24):
medical school, graduate school,different types of entrance
exams.
And so a lot of times there, orfor instance, with those fields
with secondary accreditation,how might we go about thinking
about the learning outcomesversus the content?
Are we looking at really cuttingcontent?
(21:44):
Are we looking at how we helpthe students meet the learning
goals that our accreditors orthe secondary accreditation
body, the professional societiesprovide?
Or what are your thoughts onthat sort of balance?
Crystal (21:59):
I really like that question, and I think that a
really great way to look at thatis once again to draw on the
expertise that we have asinstructors.
We are ostensibly working in thevery field or in the fields that
are related to where thesestudents want to take themselves
after they leave our classrooms.
(22:21):
And so when we say,"Hey, I don'tknow all the things either, but
here's how I functionally usethis knowledge in my day to
day," or"This is how someone inthe field uses this knowledge,"
they don't know all the thingseither, which is why it's more
important for you to understandwhat the skills are and how to
(22:43):
get that knowledge and lessimportant about how much stuff
you can actually retain in yourhead.
Rachel (22:48):
Exactly.
In so many fields, we're lookingat less of a memorization, but
knowing what we know and what wedon't know, and then where to
find that information that wedon't know.
And so here in this in thisepisode, we've covered some
really great content.
We've talked a little bit aboutalignment.
We've talked a little bit aboutthe shift, particularly coming
(23:10):
from the pandemic in modalitiesand how we package course
content or how we look at evenlecture.
And so as we're thinking aboutall of these different, really
useful things that you'veshared, Crystal, and as we wrap
up for today, can you just tellus very briefly, how does this
conversation represent akeystone concept in teaching to
(23:31):
you?
Crystal (23:33):
I think the keystone concept it represents is
engagement.
We've talked about that shiftfrom content to student
engagement.
This looks really different indifferent fields.
It's really ripe for beinginnovative and on the part of
faculty.
Students are really going tobenefit from being involved in
(23:56):
their own learning, whetherthat's in communication or
discourse with you as theinstructor, or the way that they
can, as I like to call it, gettheir hands into the content.
This is really something that weknow is beneficial to students.
And this knowledge, again, isnot new, but it definitely has a
greater impact in a postpandemic world.
Rachel (24:19):
That's great.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Crystal, I look forward
to continuing our conversationin the future.
Crystal (24:26):
Thank you so much, and I really enjoyed talking about
these topics with you.
Rachel (24:32):
Be sure to catch our next episode where we dig a
little bit more into someaspects of our design.
We'll talk a little bit aboutcourse design overall and using
feedback effectively.
Hello and welcome to the Keystone Concepts in Higher
Education podcast.
I'm your host, Rachel Yoho.
In this episode, we're going tobe discussing active learning
and engaged teaching and whatthese mean for educators as we
support all students.
So today, I'm joined by Dr.
Crystal Anderson, the AssociateDirector of Engaged Learning at
the Stearns Center for Teachingand Learning at George Mason
(00:28):
University.
Crystal uses her expertise todesign and assess educational
programs and curricula, developsustainable faculty development
programs, and manage program anduniversity level initiatives
using evidence based practices.
As a veteran educator with over20 years of teaching experience,
she employs high impactpractices that utilize digital
(00:49):
tools to foster inquiry basedlearning and develop practical
skills that cultivate thepotential of all students.
She's affiliate faculty inAfrican and African American
studies at George Mason.
As a scholar with aninternational reputation, she
generates cutting edgetraditional research as well as
public scholarship in the fieldsof transnational American
studies, black internationalism,and global ages.
Her book, Soul in Seoul (01:11):
African American Popular Music and K-pop
in 2020, was recently publishedin Korean.
Crystal received her MA inEnglish from the University of
Virginia and her PhD in AmericanStudies from the College of
William and Mary.
So thank you so much for joiningus today, Crystal.
Crystal (01:31):
Thanks, Rachel.
I'm so glad to be here.
Rachel (01:36):
So to get us started in our conversation today, I want
to talk a little bit about, youknow, the pandemic.
The pandemic changed a lot aboutteaching, and students today
really seem to expect differentlearning environments and engage
a little bit differently thanbefore.
So can you start ourconversation off with telling us
a little bit about what some ofthe elements of effective
(01:57):
teaching can look like today?
Crystal (01:59):
Absolutely.
You know, one of the firstthings I want to say is that
these are not brand new things.
These were things that we weredoing before the pandemic.
But one of the things that thepandemic unveiled is that we
needed to deploy thesestrategies in different kinds of
ways.
We know that the pandemic wasunprecedented in higher
(02:21):
education and also other areasof education as well.
Students, no matter where theywere in their educational
journey, had a two yearinterruption in which they were
placed in emergency remotelearning.
That had an impact on the waythat they viewed their education
and is continuing to have animpact today.
(02:43):
So some of the elements ofeffective teaching that we know
particularly have an impact in aquote unquote post pandemic
world, the first has to do withengagement.
During the pandemic, students,even though they tend to spend a
lot of time online, we wereasking students to spend their
(03:04):
time online in an educationalsetting.
And so they began to becomfortable with using various
modes of technology foreducation.
They became comfortable withdifferent modes of information
sharing and transmission.
They also became reallycomfortable with being able to
(03:26):
access not just theirinstructors, but also the
content for classes in an onlinekind of way.
So one of the great shifts thatthe pandemic gave us was being
able to continue to leverage thebenefits of different learning
environments.
Rachel (03:46):
Yeah, that's such a great point, and thank you for
sharing that.
I mean, obviously, such adifficult time within society,
within education, in so manydifferent areas, but we see this
as maybe a little bit of apotential for learning now.
So can you tell us a little bitmore about the shift from these
lecture based classes to theseinstructional practices today?
For instance, I really like howyou mentioned the shift from
(04:08):
online to an online educationalsetting.
Crystal (04:13):
Absolutely.
So we know that lecture is likethe bedrock of the kinds of
education we probablyexperienced, and it was the kind
of education that a lot ofstudents were experiencing pre
pandemic.
And I feel like it's importantto state that no one's trying to
kill the lecture off.
There are definitely ways thatwe can deploy it more
(04:36):
strategically now that we're ina post pandemic environment.
Lectures are really great forgiving students information
because they need information.
It's really concise.
They know what to expect fromit.
But one of the things that wecan do in terms of our lectures,
and one of the things that welearned as a result of the
pandemic, is that attentionspans are getting reduced, and
(05:01):
so we want to interject ourlectures with opportunities for
students to reflect, forstudents to maybe to apply some
of the information we just gavethem in a lecture.
Or even just an opportunity forthem to ask questions.
And these are things that peoplecan do fairly easily.
It's a low bar to just be ableto pause every, you know, 10 to
(05:25):
12 minutes during a lecture togive that space to students.
Rachel (05:30):
Yeah, it seems like a really interesting and really
engaging method to havinglecture be a little bit less,
"Tell me everything I need toknow and I'll sit here and
absorb it," to a little bit moreof a,"We're going to talk, we're
going to discuss the material,but we're also going to interact
a little bit." And so I can seereally how this is fitting
together in an in person, ormaybe even on Zoom, or some sort
(05:55):
of synchronous activity.
But the in person lecture, wecan see that.
We can have maybe someinteractions and polls and those
kinds of things.
But how do we, or maybe howshould we, consider different
types of modalities in ourteaching?
Maybe if we're not just inperson or just all in the same
place at the same time.
Crystal (06:15):
Yes, so the post pandemic environment has given
us the opportunity to discernthat there are different
learning environments.
Pre pandemic, we were largelyall teaching in the classroom,
and that's how we would conductour classes.
But now, post pandemic, we cannow leverage the benefits of
(06:38):
different learning environments.
So for instance, if you areteaching in an in person
classroom, you can leverage thebenefits of your LMS to house
your course materials,assignments, discussion boards.
I know at our institution, youcan also kind of use some of the
(07:00):
special tools that we have.
We have a couple of apps in ourLMS, like Harmonize and
VoiceThread, that really getsstudents more engaged in
learning from each other, sothat peer to peer student
engagement, and so even thoughyour primary mode of conducting
your classes face to face, youcan definitely use the benefits
(07:23):
of your LMS to complement whatyou do in the classroom.
Rachel (07:27):
Yeah, that's a great point.
So we can see how we can bringin the online space as a
resource for our in personclasses.
But what about if we're lookingat teaching a hybrid course or a
fully asynchronous onlinecourse?
Do you have any thoughts on theengagement piece across those
types of modalities?
Crystal (07:49):
I do.
I think that it's a really greatmindset to have, that student
engagement is key to any studentin an educational experience.
And so even if we're teachingsynchronous Zoom based classes
or asynchronous online classes,we still have to be cognizant of
the fact that we need to havestudents engage.
(08:11):
And probably the mostchallenging of those is the
asynchronous online class.
Even though you may not be therein person or virtually to engage
with your students, you cancreate opportunities for them to
engage with you, for them toengage with each other, and for
them to really engage with thematerial that you're sharing in
(08:31):
class.
Rachel (08:32):
Yeah, that's a great point, especially with the
online asynchronous.
I know a lot of people tend toview that as very passive, no
matter what.
That it's just going to bepassive learning, I'm going to
record some videos, put it upthere.
And for me, I've taught a lot ofonline asynchronous courses, and
they tend to be very engaging ifyou try to make them.
(08:52):
And so one of the ways would besomething like discussion
boards, where students get tointeract with each other, where
they maybe are expected orgraded in some sort of
discussion board posts andreplies.
Are there other things that youmight be recommending maybe for
a new faculty member or someonewho hasn't taught in that sort
of modality?
Crystal (09:12):
Sure, you know, some of those things like discussion
boards, if you've been doingthem for a while, you can kind
of slap that together prettyeasily.
But if you're new to teaching,that might be daunting.
So one of the things that I liketo use is the good old shared
document, something likeMicrosoft Word, or if you're not
using the Microsoft Suite, youcan use something like Google
(09:34):
Docs.
And I find this to be reallyeffective.
One, because students are fairlyfamiliar with being able to work
in this kind of collaborativeway, even if it's asynchronous.
These tools allow students toall see what they're working on.
It gives students theopportunity to ask questions or
make changes and then be indialogue with each other.
(09:57):
We know that students tend tolearn a lot from each other,
even though we think they learnthe most from us.
So giving them a really lowbarrier tool to be able to get
that kind of asynchronouscollaboration going is really
great even for new faculty.
Rachel (10:15):
Yeah, that's a great activity that can get into that
space of peer to peer learning,even if they're not in those
same physical spaces.
I think that's great.
And so overall, it seems like alot of what we're doing here in
this conversation is talking alittle bit about how we're,
we're really packaging content.
So we, we might be thinkingabout the packaging in terms of
(10:38):
the modality, like we've justbeen talking about, but how do
we think about the, maybe thepackaging in terms of like the
before, the during, and theafter class?
Even if we have a standard sortof lecture room where we're all
meeting.
Crystal (10:54):
Right.
So one of the things again thatwe learned from the pandemic is
that intentionality on our partis really key for enhancing
student learning.
So we tend to think of teachingas happening in the classroom,
but a lot of what makes whathappens in the classroom
successful is your intentionalplanning outside of the
(11:16):
classroom and once again usingthose different and learning
environments, whether that's inthe LMS asynchronously, whether
it's using some kind ofsynchronous instruction, or
whether you're in person in aclassroom using those and
deploying those in ways thathelp your instruction.
So, for example, you can haveyour lecture in class, but you
(11:41):
can utilize the LMS to getstudents kind of primed for the
kind of brief discussion youmight want to have as you pause
for your 10, every 10 to 12minutes, have them have some
discussion questions and set upthe expectation that you will be
using those questions to guidediscussion when you're in the
(12:02):
face to face classroom.
The other thing that I think isimportant is this may not work
the first time you do it.
The other thing that you want todo is to repeat this, have a
schedule or a expectation thatstudents know, okay, if we're
going to have lecture in class,there are going to be some
(12:24):
discussion questions in the LMSthat I want to take a look at.
And slowly but surely, studentswill fall into that routine.
Rachel (12:32):
So here we're really talking about basically creating
a pattern in our teaching,having a predictability, but
predictability to make itengaging and for students to be
able to follow along a littlebit, right?
Crystal (12:45):
Yes, absolutely.
And it's important to note thatstudents crave that kind of
context and structure in aclassroom and they benefit from
it.
This is one of the ways in whichit enhances their learning.
So the more structure we canprovide to students, the greater
chance we have of having thatlearning that we want to take
place actually take place.
Rachel (13:07):
Yeah, that's a great point.
And so when we're talking aboutthis, you know, with the
packaging and the structure andthe patterns, one of the things
that you mentioned was settingup the expectation.
So setting up the expectationaround what would be happening,
where things would be, but alsohow do we, or how would you
recommend maybe to a newinstructor or someone
considering this type ofpackaging or modality approach
(13:31):
for the first time, how wouldyou recommend that they orient
the students to where thingsare, what's going on?
What would this look like maybein practice at the beginning of
the semester?
Crystal (13:42):
Sure, I often tell new faculty, especially, that first
day of class sets theexpectation for the rest of the
semester.
And whereas sometimes we areused to the first day being
syllabus day, and you definitelywant to cover some high points
of the syllabus, I like to usethat first day to show students
(14:03):
where these learningenvironments are and how to
access them.
So I will either take studentsinto the LMS space and show them
how our course is organized inthe LMS space, or, once again,
you can utilize thatasynchronous space and record a
video that gives them a tour ofwhere information is in the
(14:25):
space.
That gives you more time in theface to face to be able to model
how discussion might look inyour class.
I know some people are like,"What?
Having discussion on the firstday?" Yes, you can have
discussion on the first day,because when you do it on the
first day, students are morelikely to start to understand,
(14:47):
"Oh, this is how this is goingto go.
Okay." And they're much morelikely to be on board with it.
Rachel (14:54):
Absolutely.
We can even have activities onthe first day.
The more engagement, I think,the better.
I mean, I've done a number ofengaging activities with my
students on the first day toshow that this is not going to
be one of those courses whereI'm just going to talk at them
and we're really going to engagewith the material.
We're really going to do, do thethings while we learn about the
content.
(15:15):
And so let's, let's shift over alittle bit.
You know, we've talked about ourmodalities, we've talked a
little bit about packaging, butone of the things that we might
hear about is considering thealignment in our teaching.
So can you tell us, Crystal,more about what does this mean?
Crystal (15:33):
Sure, so alignment is simply us being intentional, but
being intentional in a certainkind of way when it comes to
course design.
I'm going to tell you, I taughtfor quite some time before I
encountered the idea ofalignment, and it completely
changed my life and the way thatI approach teaching because it
was just so simple and elegantin the way that it was presented
(15:56):
to me.
Alignment means that we want totake our student learning
outcomes, those things we wantstudents to know or be able to
do by the end of the course, andmake sure that they are
connected or aligned to theactivities that we have for
students.
This can be homework.
This can be where students learnand practice the things that
they are learning in the course.
(16:19):
And then we want those to beconnected or aligned to those
opportunities where we evaluatestudent performance.
Usually these are higher stakesthings like exams, they can be
research papers, they can begroup projects at the end of a
(16:39):
course.
So that we're making sure we'regiving students an opportunity
to practice before we'reevaluating them in a way that
results in a grade.
Rachel (16:51):
That's a great point, and it sounds a lot like
backwards design.
And so we, we might hear that indifferent spaces of basically
working backwards from thoselearning outcomes and through,
just like what you were justtalking about, Crystal, with the
activities and the readings andlectures and, and seeing how all
of those align.
And so when we're talking aboutthis, the alignment in our
(17:12):
teaching, how do we do thataround managing, for instance,
student expectations.
You know, students are veryoften grade focused.
And so looking at formativeassignments, for example, might
be seen as like a waste of time.
So how are we, managing some ofthe expectations around that
(17:33):
type of procedural buildingtowards the learning outcomes?
Crystal (17:38):
You know, Rachel, when we were coming through school, a
lot of this was hidden.
We were just told,"Do thisassignment, get this grade." But
we have found that the moretransparent we are in why we're
asking students to do aparticular thing, the more
receptive students are to that.
So instead of viewing thoseformative assignments as busy
(17:59):
work, when we explain to themthat this is the opportunity for
them to make mistakes withoutbeing penalized for them, this
is the opportunity for them toexpress their curiosity and kind
of go outside the box, when wetell them the reasons why these
things exist in our courses andhow they relate to other things
(18:19):
in our courses, we increase theopportunity for them to be more
motivated to be able to do thosethings.
Rachel (18:28):
Absolutely.
And so really here what we'relooking at is a bit of alignment
and showing that alignment toour students, being a little bit
more transparent about whatwe're doing and why we're doing
it and how it maybe helps theircareer preparation or maybe
helps them to just successfullycomplete the course if the
course is not maybe specificallyaligned with their career
(18:49):
trajectory at the moment.
And so, you were talking earlierabout how alignment was really
transformational for you.
I really agree.
I think it is for a lot ofinstructors.
And it seems to represent ashift from We're covering
content to We're teaching tohelp students meet learning
(19:09):
outcomes, and the contentsupports that.
And we see a lot of that shift,or a lot of that focus, from,
I'm going to cover 14 chaptersof this textbook, or something
like that, an approach likethat, into, I'm going to help
students do these things, and bethese things, and meet these
outcomes, by the end of thesemester, or over the course of
(19:29):
the semester.
And so when we're thinking aboutthat shift, or maybe making our
first steps in that sort ofshift, how do you recommend
instructors go about looking atthe course alignment
logistically?
Like, where would I start?
Crystal (19:44):
Right, so one of the things that I like to do with
faculty is to give thempermission.
It is okay if you do not coverall 14 chapters of the book.
I think that they need to hearthat because they never hear it
anywhere else.
Because the fact of the matteris we know that after a certain
point, students stop learning.
(20:05):
They reach that cognitive load,and then no more learning takes
place.
So if we know that happens, thenwhy would we want to waste our
time adding more content whenit's not getting us anything in
terms of a return?
So one of the things that I liketo give faculty is the
permission to take a step backand kind of ease up off of that,
(20:29):
I have to cover all the things.
I think also logistically, andthis is something we should be
able to do as content experts,take a look at our content and
decide what's the mostimportant.
If we know students aren't goingto get everything, we should
make sure they get the mostimportant things.
And then once we narrow thatdown, we can start talking about
(20:50):
how we can structure our coursesso that we deploy that most
important content in ways thatalso allow us to have students
actually engage with thatcontent.
Rachel (21:03):
That's a great point.
And so when we're thinking aboutwhat they engage with, I think
one of the places where we see alot of concern with perhaps not
covering all 14 chapters orsomething like that are in the
fields that have some sort ofsecondary accreditation or often
maybe in the STEM fields wherestudents are preparing for
(21:24):
medical school, graduate school,different types of entrance
exams.
And so a lot of times there, orfor instance, with those fields
with secondary accreditation,how might we go about thinking
about the learning outcomesversus the content?
Are we looking at really cuttingcontent?
(21:44):
Are we looking at how we helpthe students meet the learning
goals that our accreditors orthe secondary accreditation
body, the professional societiesprovide?
Or what are your thoughts onthat sort of balance?
Crystal (21:59):
I really like that question, and I think that a
really great way to look at thatis once again to draw on the
expertise that we have asinstructors.
We are ostensibly working in thevery field or in the fields that
are related to where thesestudents want to take themselves
after they leave our classrooms.
(22:21):
And so when we say,"Hey, I don'tknow all the things either, but
here's how I functionally usethis knowledge in my day to
day," or"This is how someone inthe field uses this knowledge,"
they don't know all the thingseither, which is why it's more
important for you to understandwhat the skills are and how to
(22:43):
get that knowledge and lessimportant about how much stuff
you can actually retain in yourhead.
Rachel (22:48):
Exactly.
In so many fields, we're lookingat less of a memorization, but
knowing what we know and what wedon't know, and then where to
find that information that wedon't know.
And so here in this in thisepisode, we've covered some
really great content.
We've talked a little bit aboutalignment.
We've talked a little bit aboutthe shift, particularly coming
(23:10):
from the pandemic in modalitiesand how we package course
content or how we look at evenlecture.
And so as we're thinking aboutall of these different, really
useful things that you'veshared, Crystal, and as we wrap
up for today, can you just tellus very briefly, how does this
conversation represent akeystone concept in teaching to
(23:31):
you?
Crystal (23:33):
I think the keystone concept it represents is
engagement.
We've talked about that shiftfrom content to student
engagement.
This looks really different indifferent fields.
It's really ripe for beinginnovative and on the part of
faculty.
Students are really going tobenefit from being involved in
(23:56):
their own learning, whetherthat's in communication or
discourse with you as theinstructor, or the way that they
can, as I like to call it, gettheir hands into the content.
This is really something that weknow is beneficial to students.
And this knowledge, again, isnot new, but it definitely has a
greater impact in a postpandemic world.
Rachel (24:19):
That's great.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Crystal, I look forward
to continuing our conversationin the future.
Crystal (24:26):
Thank you so much, and I really enjoyed talking about
these topics with you.
Rachel (24:32):
Be sure to catch our next episode where we dig a
little bit more into someaspects of our design.
We'll talk a little bit aboutcourse design overall and using
feedback effectively.
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