July 14, 2022 • 35 mins
RCTLE is excited to present a new podcast series, The Faculty Roundtable: the podcast where faculty discuss faculty development. Each episode, a group of Embry-Riddle faculty members will discuss their most common classroom concerns and share innovative solutions and strategies. In the pilot episode, professors Emily Faulconer, James Sulton, and Patrick Sherman share their perceptions of good instructor engagement, discuss challenges of connecting with students online, and exchange their favorite techniques for building connection and engagement.
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(00:03):
I'm Alyssa DeWees and I'm sure in Sharron DeRosier and this
is Faculty Roundtable, the podcast where faculty
discuss faculty development. This is a production
by the Rothell Center for Teaching and Learning
Excellence. Each episode will feature a new group
of Embry-Riddle worldwide faculty members discussing
teaching strategies and innovative solutions to
common online classroom concerns.
(00:27):
On this episode of Faculty Roundtable, we'll be
talking with three Embry Riddle professors, Emily
Faulconer, James Sulton and Patrick Sherman about
how they engage with their students in the online
environment. Thank you guys all again for joining
us for this pilot episode of Faculty Roundtable.
And I'm Alyssa Dewees. I'm an instructional
(00:49):
consultant over in RCTLE. And I am Sharron DeRosier I am
also an instructional consultant at RCTLE. So
let's turn it over to Emily, if you would like to
go ahead and introduce yourself. Hi. I am an
associate professor in the Department of Math,
Science and Technology, and I have been with Embry
(01:10):
Riddle since twenty twelve. But I came over to the
worldwide campus in twenty sixteen. Go ahead
Patrick. Well, I think I probably come to this
with a unique background compared to most of my
colleagues. My only formal aeronautical training
was earning my private pilot's certificate when I
was in college. However, about 12 years ago, no
(01:30):
one had ever really heard of civilian drones us on
aircraft systems. I became just fascinated with
the nascent technology and just sort of dedicated
myself to it and my background in journalism and
writing. And I think video production sort of led
to me becoming a recognized person and then a
recognized authority within the industry, which
(01:53):
eventually brought me here to Embry Riddle. I've
been at the World Wide campus, gosh, for only
about a year and a half now. So this is all still
relatively new to me. But maybe that helps me
bring an outsider perspective. That is awesome.
James, go ahead. Well, first, let me say that it's
an honor to be part of this group. I am very proud
(02:14):
to title one of every race. I've been affiliated
with the university since 2000 and I've been
teaching as an adjunct instructor at the worldwide
campus since 2010. So one of the reasons I'm
really excited to participate is because I love
giving back. I remember being a student myself and
being connected to the university. Today is an
(02:36):
urgent need to remember those days, but also
provide, I think, some opportunities for the
students that are involved in the programs. That's
awesome to hear. And thank you guys all for being
here today. Let's just go ahead and get into the
topic for today. Student engagement, instructor
engagement. Do you all perceive that there are
challenges with instructor or student engagement
(02:58):
in online education? And you can specifically
speak to your experience here worldwide. But let's
just go ahead and start with Emily. Do you have
any thoughts? Sure. So we don't really have the
roll course monitor anymore, but I can kind of speak
back to what I directly observed as a course
monitor where in that role we were kind of
checking in with the adjuncts that were teaching
(03:19):
the classes in our disciplinary area. And one
thing that I saw was that there were very
different approaches to teaching the online
classes. Some instructors were kind of ghosting,
just like in the background, and they'd only be
engaged when asked to. And then others were like
Swanbank the class, just like they are all the
(03:40):
time, and there's probably a happy medium for it.
And then a little bit more recently, I've been
doing some research on community of inquiry and
cognitive load, and I've been doing student
interviews. And what I've heard from those
interviews is that students really want their
instructors to be present and engaged. That is the
(04:01):
resounding thing. The students want the
opportunity to have conversations and connections
with us. I love that term. Instructor ghosting. Oh,
well, I was just going to say to her, Emily's
comments are fascinating because she had this role
of a course monitor and so presumably could look
in and see what other instructors were doing as a
(04:21):
relatively recent member of the Embry Riddle
family. That's not an experience I've ever had. To
me, that makes it very difficult to answer that
question sort of across the university, across the
world wide campus as to whether or not there's an
engagement problem, because the only group I ever
interact with is my own students and I have no
visibility into other instructors classrooms. And
(04:44):
so so it's it's very hard. In fact, I would say
impossible for me to speak to what's happening
across the entire campus. So I would only speak
for myself and say that. So I so I don't have any
visibility across the entire campus. What I what I
would say is that I think, you know, whenever
you're trying to have a meaningful engagement with
somebody seven thousand miles away from you,
(05:07):
that's going to be a very problematic undertaking.
So I'm not surprised that's something we struggle
with. But I'd love to learn more about your
research. That sounds like exactly the sort of
thing I'd like to learn more about. So I to add my
own personal experiences in the courthouse,
thinking more just as smarter in my research. Just
speaking to the student engagement piece, one
(05:29):
thing that I really think we're in a nine week
course, which is really fast and most of our
students have family life, careers, hobbies that
they're balancing. And so I think when it comes to
engagement, it can be really hard to get away from
the box checking mentality. But for students and
instructors, the great point, I think you're
absolutely right about checking that box and I'm
(05:53):
wondering how much of that is is just an issue
that's really endemic to online education in
general. And and I think that segues into what you
guys are doing or looking into as instructors here
at worldwide to combat that feeling of
disconnection with your students who, as you said,
(06:15):
may be thousands of miles away. Now, one of the
things that I think has been really effective is
starting off with that personal connection,
whether you're in an online environment or in face
to face. I think when the students know that you
care about them, care about their well-being and
their learning, that they will engage back. And so
I think the the foundational pieces of starting a
(06:36):
class the right way by introducing yourself,
responding to those individuals by name and keying
in on their interests, let them know that it's
more than just going through each module and
integrating those assignments, which is what I
think makes them different. And when Emily
mentioned being able to see some of the things
(06:58):
that other instructors are doing, I'm sure that
what she found and perhaps what her research is
showing is that the more that you can build that
relationship, develop the professional learning
community, create a way for students to latch on
to something in addition to the course, content is
really pay volumes when it comes to being able to
(07:20):
have the students respond to the things that
you're trying to put out to engage them in the
learning. And James, you do a lot of videos in
your courses, right? I'm wondering if maybe that
is something that's worked well for you in order
to to establish that connection with your students
and build that relationship like what you were
talking about? I think so. One of the things that
(07:41):
it's really just that I found it is it depends on
the learner. And sometimes you can get people to
turn their videos on and respond to you in of what
some people are more comfortable with the text.
And so it just depends on the individual. So what
I try to do in my classes and right or wrong, but
just in my experience, that if you vary that level
(08:02):
of interaction, so you might start with a video
one week using the voice for different graded
assignment and even using the text so that you
give students all those different avenues to
respond. I think that allows them to feel A more
comfortable, but B and almost more importantly,
able to internalize the feedback that you're
(08:23):
providing, especially thinking about how you're
coming across in terms of tone with your feedback
that maybe having that personal element, using
that audio visual feedback or audio or visual
feedback, you could really convey a little bit
more than you could just writing your feedback
down. I know, Patrick, you use a lot of videos in
(08:43):
your courses. How do you think that's help you
build connection with your students or has it?
Well, I think it has helped me significantly build
connections with my students. But I think almost
more importantly than that, it's helped me build
connections between the various students. From
what I can discern, it seems like I'm using a
(09:03):
relatively uncommon approach at this point on the
world wide campus, and that is to produce what are
called global feedback videos. This was an initial
suggestion from my department of colleague, Dr
Scott Burgess, but I sort of took it and ran with
it. And that is as opposed to recording video or
audio telling John or Jane what I think of their
work this week. I record one video that we just
(09:27):
directed to the entire class. And out of that
week's assignment, I pull up representative
samples of things that work very well and maybe
some things that didn't work really well. I think
in addition to obviously never sharing a classroom
with our students. Another big disadvantage of
this online format is that our students are
disconnected from one another. They can't sort of
(09:47):
compare notes on their papers as they walk out of
class together. So by share, by allowing them to
see one another's work anonymized, of course, when
you know, when appropriate, they can I think they
can get a sense for you, obviously, what's working
and maybe they can even be inspired by their
fellow students who are doing an especially good
job and that they're also able to learn from
(10:10):
others mistakes, which is in many ways, I think
the most valuable, because that's a mistake. They
don't have to make themselves so on. Speaking to
that point about students not having connections
between each other, I think it's awesome to try to
find. Ways to do that, to make those connections
in our classes, but I did want to kind of share
something that has come up twice now independently,
(10:32):
and all faculty members that I have spoken with
have been completely unaware of it. Our students
are very, very active in a Dischord server. So we
don't think that they're interacting with each
other outside of class. But they are a lot. They
have a version of my professor. They are taking
classes and cohorts together where they're getting
(10:53):
together and saying, I'm in this degree program,
let's take these four classes together. So
students have kind of built a network of support
and collaboration through a Dysport server, which
don't ask me how it works. I don't know. I've
never done it. That's awesome. This is really good,
but I have to see how I'm rated on their family.
But one of the things that you're talking about
(11:14):
and I think that you're really pointing to is that
they will find a way, students will find a way to
engage, they'll find a way to enhance their
learning, and they find a way to to build those
networks. And how great would it be to be able to
tap into that and put some information out there
and say, you know, what do you want to see? And
perhaps that would give us an opportunity to go
(11:34):
through the things that are working and perhaps
should the things that are not. And I'm wondering,
is there anything or any tips and tricks that you
guys use in your course right now to tap into that
student to student connection that you were
talking about or foster the student to student
connections in addition to something like global
feedback videos? Well, James had mentioned like
(11:56):
getting to know your students at the beginning of
the class. And so one thing that I try to do is I
lean into the idea that I'm not always the expert
in the room. So a lot of my students are very,
very knowledgeable in how some of these
introductory chemistry or environmental science
class concepts, because those are the classes they
teach. They're very knowledgeable about how that
(12:17):
looks in a very specific setting. I'm not an
aviation person. And so they might have a lot more
expertise in depth about what those concepts look
like in that very specialized setting. And so I
often refer back to who the experts in the room
are on those topics, like, hey, you actually work
(12:37):
with hydraulics. Let's talk about that now,
because that's really relevant to what we're
talking about in this module. So and if there's
more than one student, I'll ask them like, hey,
can you guys both share your perspectives on what
this looks like in your job? Yeah. And to back up
what Emily just said, I also find that's true. I
mean, my my expertise is incredibly narrow being
small civilian US operations, drones. However,
(13:01):
we've got obviously a lot of military students
enrolled at Embry Riddle and a lot of military
drone operators. And no surprise, some of those
want to transition their military skills into the
civilian world. Now, with civilian drones are a
thing. Yeah, I'm always grateful when somebody
with that background can step into the classroom.
I very much try to engage them, just as Emily
suggests, to share their experience and expertise.
(13:23):
And like she said, I think that's exactly right. I
never assume, you know, I'm sitting up on the
mountain handing down wisdom. I assume I'm just
part of the crowd. You guys were referring earlier
to the ways that you defer to students when they
have specific types of expertise. And I'm
wondering where exactly you're doing that. Is that
(13:45):
happening in discussions or an optional Zoome
Sessions? Where is this communication taking place?
Discussions for me. I have to rein myself in
because I like the discussions a little bit too
much, so I try not to swap the discussion you have
for me. It's been interesting. I have to first of
(14:06):
all, to Emily's point, I really enjoyed the
discussions too. However, what I found as I began
doing these global feedback videos was that if I
participated too much in the discussion initially,
that ironically gave me less to say when it came
to the feedback video because I had already made
some of my points in writing. So I found myself
(14:26):
actually sort of pulling back on that in favor of
essentially adding my comments to the discussion
through the video. I think that's valuable because
they can hear me talk about the issues in my own
voice. I can make connections between multiple
points in the discussion. And so how I've done it
is if I know somebody is a real expert in
something that's going to be discussing that week,
(14:47):
I will reach out to the student privately and say,
hey, you know, I know that you know a lot about
this subject. I'd really appreciate it. This
week's discussion, if you amplified talked about
your personal experience relevant to the topic
we're talking about, how do your students respond
to that? With me, I'll be I'll be excited to hear
what Emily's experience has been. But with mine,
(15:09):
though, they typically seem very engaged. I think
I think students like being acknowledged and
respected for the knowledge and expertise they
possess, just just like the rest of us, I suppose,
when I call on students individually as experts on
a topic. They even if they're already, quote
unquote, done in the discussions, they've already
(15:30):
checked those boxes if they see it, if I didn't
post it too close to the end of the discussion,
then they usually respond and we'll go into great
detail and often get into side conversations with
each other about it. That's awesome. And I'm
thinking, I know you, Emily, do a really
interesting I suppose I should call it an
(15:51):
introductory activity for your students to replace
the introduction discussion. I think you use mural
for that. Right. And I was just thinking to myself
that I'm wondering if going into that extra detail
and having students introduce themselves and
introduce a lot of details about their lives in
the beginning of the course would then help you to
(16:14):
make those connections and discussion. But if you
could maybe speak a little bit to what you do for
these introduction activities and how maybe it
helps you to build those connections and maintain
those connections with students through the
through the course. Sure. I'm actually pretty new
to mural, so I have I've played around with it a
(16:36):
couple of times. I will say that building it takes
a lot of work. Once it's built, it's done and it's
easy to recycle for future use, but it was
definitely a learning curve for me. So anybody is
curious about using just go into it with the
understanding that it's going to take a while to
get used to doing it the right way. And you're
going to end up like because you end up
(16:57):
accidentally moving things around, not on purpose
and put them back and all that. Within the classes
that I have used it in, the students really liked
it because it was so different. I have a lot of
different types of get to know you type activities
and there were some of them or share a picture of
this or describe yourself in three words here or
(17:19):
different things to try to help them get to know
each other. One of them was like, leave a quote
that you like. I like, quote, inspirational quotes.
So the students responded positively to it. Not
only could you briefly describe what mural is or
how it works, it's a platform that has a ton of
free options for online collaboration. And the one
(17:43):
that I used was one of the they have a lot of it.
They have hundreds of templates you can choose
from and as a template for introducing yourself to
a class. So I just I modified it because I didn't
like all of the props that were in the template.
So I modified it to make it what I wanted that
introduction to be. But essentially it kind of
(18:03):
walked the students through a room like it's got a
bunch of connected rooms and it's like it starts
them at number one. And number one, they do this
little get to know activities. And then when
they're done with that, it moves them over to room
number two. They do that and they're in rooms by
themselves. If somebody else is doing it at the
same time, they will be able to see if somebody
(18:23):
adds something because it's real time. So if I'm
in it and somebody is also in room two and just
added a picture, I can see it as soon as that
picture shows up. But it's not necessarily
designed to be a synchronous activity. It's
intended to be an asynchronous get to know you and
the students can look through and easily see what
their classmates have shared about themselves.
(18:44):
Thank you. One thing I really enjoyed about it is
that it allowed students to, I guess, get to know
a little bit about the common interests, the
common careers, the common hobbies that they share
with other students in the classroom. So I know
what I briefly took a look at your mural page.
(19:05):
Some of the students were bonding about a love for
similar animal shows. And I believe two students
discovered that they had the same motorcycle. And
it did kind of foster that sense of connection
that you guys were talking about earlier as being
so important. How are the rest of you going about
learning and remembering all these little details
(19:27):
about your individual students, who has expertise
where and what career someone might be in? Are you
do you do anything, anything special? You know,
one of the things that I try to do is to make sure
that those students have an opportunity to share
those things. And usually in the questions that I
asked them outside of the general, where you from?
(19:49):
But how are you doing more about the personal
aspects of their lives that than just talking
about that is the highlights the individual, but
also allows them to come together to find those
common interests and start sharing out on their
own. And that's been my experience, is when they
start sharing those little tidbits that are
personal, that's what energizes the class and
(20:11):
that's what keeps people really involved longer
term throughout the course. I know we talked
earlier a little bit about how you use video in
your courses and how video can build connections
with. You and the student, but also connections
between student to student, and I'm wondering if
any of you use either video sessions or maybe
(20:35):
optional sessions to incorporate direct
instruction into your classes, meaning that you
are teaching in a way that is similar to what you
would do in the face to face classroom kind of
teaching directly to the students. So I've been
very fortunate to have that opportunity providing
(20:58):
an alternative to the discussion board. And what
I've done is try to offer it at least twice a term
and not making a mandatory but just say here's a a
opportunity to learn. And by and large, I'm
usually able to get 50 percent of the students to
sign in to that session where they get a chance to
learn about something related to the larger
(21:20):
objective or the learning outcome for that
particular course. And that really has proven to
be very successful in getting people to not only
buy in, but to facilitate that discussion. The
important thing is to provide an alternative,
because as we talked about, students are thousands
of miles and separated from each other. And so
that includes time zones by providing them with
(21:42):
that opportunity for synchronous learning, but
certainly not harming the student by if they're
not able to participate. So that's been something
that's been very helpful. One other thing that
I've done, which isn't true secret is but it does
help is using either the canvas studio or even
another software that called Bloom. And what that
(22:05):
software does is allow for a screen recording in
addition to recording the video, so I can go
through a PowerPoint presentation, provide some
voiceover or show a website or even a text or
video where I can add my own comments in my
perspective and pasting that, whether it be a link
or an embedded HTML code as an announcement or
(22:27):
discussion board posting that allows students to
log in and get that lecture and asynchronous
fashion in this case. But sometimes they're able
to respond and provide questions and start even a
separate discussion based on that. Sort of in that
vein, I maybe I should have describe in more
detail what I do is typically in my global
feedback videos that begin with me on camera, sort
(22:50):
of talking about whatever the subject was that we
can sort of shourie for my own insights and ideas
regarding that. But then the bulk of the video is
spent looking at the student's work. And by that I
mean I screen capture sounds very much like what
James was doing, samples of the student's own work.
And then I will highlight a particular passage in
a written thing, or I'll bring up a slide from a
(23:12):
PowerPoint presentation, again, anonymized as
appropriate to sort of highlight what the students
are doing. So I'll bring up a chunk of somebody's
definitely. And I'll I'll talk about what I think
works really well. What maybe could have been done
better than what some of my own thoughts and
reflections are on the point they're making. And
so I think that's I think James was making an
(23:33):
excellent point about how you can use your voice,
along with an image captured, in my case of the
students work to engage with them and to sort of
reinforce that learning. Patrick, I think you make
such an excellent point about the value in sharing
student work. One of the things that I was almost
remiss and not showing earlier is just about those
(23:55):
constant those constant announcements. I think
oftentimes if you can provide that introduction to
the module, it goes a long way in providing some
context. But throughout the module, if you could
post once or twice in addition to that welcome
announcement, I do think it goes a long way. What
I've gotten to the habit of doing is on Saturdays
(24:16):
for the second to last day of the module is I will
pose the kind of a series that I call shout outs
and call outs. And in that series I do find an
opportunity and I use the attendance list. I'll be
honest, as I make sure that every student gets a
shout out during the term, but I will highlight
that work. Whether it be a discussion board
(24:37):
posting, it'll be an assignment, it'll be a paper
that they've written. But I will actually do a
screen sharing and show that work and show why it
was exemplary during that last module. What I also
do is to call out a student who needs I don't want
to say attention, but just that I want the class
to take a look at their discussion board posting.
(25:00):
And so I'll provide some additional resources or
readings or things like that that I will post in
their discussion to encourage deeper thought. And
so that student will then say, OK, Dr. Sullivan is
calling me out this particular module, I'm going
to go in sometime over the weekend or during those
last two days of the module and respond to his
question or look at that reading and ensure that I
(25:22):
found that it has been pretty successful and.
Being able to get the students to know that, hey,
I'm paying attention as the instructor, but also
that they have an opportunity to know that their
work and their contributions are valuable to the
learning experience of the entire class. Oh, yeah,
that I mean, that that sounds very, very familiar
to what I'm doing. So I do it almost every week,
(25:43):
depending on the size of the class. I don't get
every student every week, but I try to highlight a
good sampling of them. My segment similar to your
shout outs and call outs, what's called the good,
the bad and the ugly. And there I take a look at
obviously, well, the good, the bad, the ugly. But
with the with the let's say the more problematic
entries, I always try and take a very positive
coaching approach to, you know, I mean, part of it
(26:05):
is if the students are not receiving a great grade,
they want to know why. So I describe mechanically
or whatever it may be, how something could be done.
Better to get that better grade next time out. But
I also want them to understand why this is
happening. And like I said, I think they learn so
much from seeing one another's mistakes. Really,
(26:26):
James or Emily, I'd be curious to hear both of you.
But to me, the single biggest advantage of the
global feedback approach I've seen is that the
students work improves so much better then so much
more quickly than by providing individual feedback.
And I think it's because they can build off each
other's strengths, not just their own. Well, I
(26:47):
would love to know what you're doing to get
students to actually listen to the those videos,
because I have I've had trouble with those videos
in my classes where I was doing global feedback.
And then I was having students ask me questions
that was answered in the global feedback because
they weren't using it. So any advice that you have
(27:08):
for driving students toward that global feedback
would be greatly appreciated? Sure. I don't know
that I have any you know, there's there's no magic
bullet. And indeed, I would like to work with our
friends at Arkley or, you know, running the IMF to
to sort of fortify this position, which is, for
example, I have no way of tracking who's watched
(27:29):
the videos. But but sort of the opposite of the
experience, it sounds like you've gotten is that
I'm that I'm getting emails and responses which
indicate to me that the majority of them are
watching the videos and I don't do anything
special. I just put them out as an announcement in
the course. And maybe this is another thing that
helps is really at the beginning of the class in
(27:49):
the welcome video, I say, listen up. The
essentially the only feedback you're going to get
from me in this whole class is going to take the
form of these feedback videos, which are going to
come out every week. If you do not tune into the
feedback videos. This is going to be a very, very
difficult and lonely class for you. So please
watch the feedback videos. I think it would be
(28:10):
great if we could be equipped with some tools by
the technical people who would let us see how many
times the videos are being watched or even who's
watching them. If I was really to get audacious in
the questions I'd like to ask, but I think part of
it is just frankly not giving them any other
option. Other feedback videos are the only source
of feedback. Therefore, if you want to know what's
(28:31):
going on, better watch the feedback videos.
Although I'm fascinated by your discovery that
there is a Discord Channel now, I wonder if
there's some back channel discussion saying, hey,
you better watch these things and the students
really seem to enjoy them too. I do want to point
to something you said earlier, and that is,
Patrick, that you set a culture around watching
(28:52):
these videos at the beginning of the course. And I
know for for for some people, it might be a bit
extreme to kind of take all of the feedback in
your course and move it into these optional
feedback videos. I know some listeners might be
more interested in maybe just kind of gradually
incorporating some global feedback videos in
addition to individual feedback. But if you set
(29:16):
that culture and that expectation at the beginning
of the course, it's much more likely that students
will continue to tune into those videos if they
realize right at the beginning that these are
going to be happening regularly and that they will
consistently have useful, excellent information
that the students will be able to use and and
(29:39):
derive benefit from as they continue through the
course. But to your point about what you are able
to to see in the campus videos, who's watched them,
how many people have watched them? Campus is now
built in what's called canvas insights. And if you
go toward the bottom of your embedded video, you
(30:01):
should be able to click on that Insight's tab. And
this will show you how many how many times the
video has been watched, how many unique viewers
have watched the video, meaning, say, individuals?
How many individuals have watched it? Because you
could have one person who's viewed that the video
seven times. That would be seven views, but one
(30:22):
unique viewer. And you can also, if you scroll
down a little further, see the exact names of
people who have watched the video, so if you were
to be extra bold, you could, in fact, go to the
level of emailing Joe Smith and saying, hey, I've
noticed you haven't been watching my video
feedback announcements. Why is that show that?
(30:46):
Well, that is a tool that is newly available to
you and campus. Well, thank you so much for
letting me know. I am now exiting this podcast to
go check on my videos. Thank you. It's been a joy
talking to you, of course. Do you currently upload
your videos into Canvas Studio before you post
them to your students? No, I just upload them. I
(31:07):
mean, maybe I probably should be based on what you
told me, but no, I just upload them straight in.
Just load up the announcement on the other bar.
There's a load video. So I just then upload them
to canvas studio first and then post them into
your course from canvas studio. That is how you'll
get the insight, like you can edit and everything
(31:28):
off of canvas studio tours and just upload it
there and try it and see what you get there,
because that's really cool. I'm wondering, Patrick,
do you feel like your students really respond a
little bit more to those videos because they are
so visually engaging and and incorporate so many
fun, popular culture references? I really think
(31:51):
what the students key into is back when I worked
at the newspaper, I sort of developed an operating
theory of humanity. And rightly or wrongly, and I
don't mean this could come across to be very
cynical, but I don't mean it that way is what
humans want in all of life. What all of us humans
want is to see ourselves reflected in the world
(32:12):
around us. We want to know that something we've
done, something we've contributed, has made a
difference and has appeared in other people's
lives. And so I think with a global feedback video,
you as the instructor get the opportunity to
deliver that you can produce something where they
(32:32):
can see their own work being seen by others. And I
really think that's the key, is that they have
that opportunity to know that what they've done is
being viewed and appreciated by a wider audience
of their peers. As you think back on your own
experiences. What's one thing you wish you knew
(32:52):
earlier in your career about teaching or creating
those meaningful learning experiences for your
students? You're never going to get a perfect
teaching evaluation. You're going to be judged for
being too easy and too hard and too middle of the
road in the exact same class that you'll be judged
for providing too much feedback and not enough in
(33:15):
the same class. Every student is different, and
your style can't possibly be ideal for each
student in your class, even if it's a small class.
So just do your best and try to cater to the
student preferences as you're able to and as it
aligns with your ideals. I think that was so well
said. One of the things that we talked about
earlier is just the ability to know that you're
(33:37):
not the expert all the time. You certainly are
bringing some skill sets and some experiences to
the classroom and understanding that students
really can benefit from that. But the more that
you can allow for students to learn from each
other, the better your class will be. And I think
it took a while for me to not only humble myself,
(33:58):
but also to understand how to get the class engage
with each other so that I could learn and they
could learn and that we would all be able to come
together and have the best learning experience for
the group, not just for an individual. I think for
me it comes to and here comes another pop culture
reference. And if you Ted Lasso lately, I think
(34:18):
it comes from recognizing that I'm not the star of
the show. I'm not dreaming that I'm I'm the coach.
I'm the guy standing on the sidelines. And it's
the students who are out there making the big
moves. And and really my job my only job is to
facilitate them being as best as they possibly can
(34:39):
when they're trying to do those things. It's not
about me. I'm I'm a facilitator. I'm I'm there to
help them achieve their goals, not not in the
classroom context, to achieve my own goals.
Obviously, I have those. I pursue those. But
within within the context of being a teacher, a
professor, an instructor, I'm not there for me.
(35:00):
I'm there for them. That is fantastic. And thank
you all for joining us again today. We're here
with James Sulton, Patrick Sherman and Emily
Faulconer. Thank you for participating in this
pilot episode of Faculty Roundtable.
I'm Alyssa DeWees and I'm sure in Sharron DeRosier and this
is Faculty Roundtable, the podcast where faculty
discuss faculty development. This is a production
by the Rothell Center for Teaching and Learning
Excellence. Each episode will feature a new group
of Embry-Riddle worldwide faculty members discussing
teaching strategies and innovative solutions to
common online classroom concerns.
(00:27):
On this episode of Faculty Roundtable, we'll be
talking with three Embry Riddle professors, Emily
Faulconer, James Sulton and Patrick Sherman about
how they engage with their students in the online
environment. Thank you guys all again for joining
us for this pilot episode of Faculty Roundtable.
And I'm Alyssa Dewees. I'm an instructional
(00:49):
consultant over in RCTLE. And I am Sharron DeRosier I am
also an instructional consultant at RCTLE. So
let's turn it over to Emily, if you would like to
go ahead and introduce yourself. Hi. I am an
associate professor in the Department of Math,
Science and Technology, and I have been with Embry
(01:10):
Riddle since twenty twelve. But I came over to the
worldwide campus in twenty sixteen. Go ahead
Patrick. Well, I think I probably come to this
with a unique background compared to most of my
colleagues. My only formal aeronautical training
was earning my private pilot's certificate when I
was in college. However, about 12 years ago, no
(01:30):
one had ever really heard of civilian drones us on
aircraft systems. I became just fascinated with
the nascent technology and just sort of dedicated
myself to it and my background in journalism and
writing. And I think video production sort of led
to me becoming a recognized person and then a
recognized authority within the industry, which
(01:53):
eventually brought me here to Embry Riddle. I've
been at the World Wide campus, gosh, for only
about a year and a half now. So this is all still
relatively new to me. But maybe that helps me
bring an outsider perspective. That is awesome.
James, go ahead. Well, first, let me say that it's
an honor to be part of this group. I am very proud
(02:14):
to title one of every race. I've been affiliated
with the university since 2000 and I've been
teaching as an adjunct instructor at the worldwide
campus since 2010. So one of the reasons I'm
really excited to participate is because I love
giving back. I remember being a student myself and
being connected to the university. Today is an
(02:36):
urgent need to remember those days, but also
provide, I think, some opportunities for the
students that are involved in the programs. That's
awesome to hear. And thank you guys all for being
here today. Let's just go ahead and get into the
topic for today. Student engagement, instructor
engagement. Do you all perceive that there are
challenges with instructor or student engagement
(02:58):
in online education? And you can specifically
speak to your experience here worldwide. But let's
just go ahead and start with Emily. Do you have
any thoughts? Sure. So we don't really have the
roll course monitor anymore, but I can kind of speak
back to what I directly observed as a course
monitor where in that role we were kind of
checking in with the adjuncts that were teaching
(03:19):
the classes in our disciplinary area. And one
thing that I saw was that there were very
different approaches to teaching the online
classes. Some instructors were kind of ghosting,
just like in the background, and they'd only be
engaged when asked to. And then others were like
Swanbank the class, just like they are all the
(03:40):
time, and there's probably a happy medium for it.
And then a little bit more recently, I've been
doing some research on community of inquiry and
cognitive load, and I've been doing student
interviews. And what I've heard from those
interviews is that students really want their
instructors to be present and engaged. That is the
(04:01):
resounding thing. The students want the
opportunity to have conversations and connections
with us. I love that term. Instructor ghosting. Oh,
well, I was just going to say to her, Emily's
comments are fascinating because she had this role
of a course monitor and so presumably could look
in and see what other instructors were doing as a
(04:21):
relatively recent member of the Embry Riddle
family. That's not an experience I've ever had. To
me, that makes it very difficult to answer that
question sort of across the university, across the
world wide campus as to whether or not there's an
engagement problem, because the only group I ever
interact with is my own students and I have no
visibility into other instructors classrooms. And
(04:44):
so so it's it's very hard. In fact, I would say
impossible for me to speak to what's happening
across the entire campus. So I would only speak
for myself and say that. So I so I don't have any
visibility across the entire campus. What I what I
would say is that I think, you know, whenever
you're trying to have a meaningful engagement with
somebody seven thousand miles away from you,
(05:07):
that's going to be a very problematic undertaking.
So I'm not surprised that's something we struggle
with. But I'd love to learn more about your
research. That sounds like exactly the sort of
thing I'd like to learn more about. So I to add my
own personal experiences in the courthouse,
thinking more just as smarter in my research. Just
speaking to the student engagement piece, one
(05:29):
thing that I really think we're in a nine week
course, which is really fast and most of our
students have family life, careers, hobbies that
they're balancing. And so I think when it comes to
engagement, it can be really hard to get away from
the box checking mentality. But for students and
instructors, the great point, I think you're
absolutely right about checking that box and I'm
(05:53):
wondering how much of that is is just an issue
that's really endemic to online education in
general. And and I think that segues into what you
guys are doing or looking into as instructors here
at worldwide to combat that feeling of
disconnection with your students who, as you said,
(06:15):
may be thousands of miles away. Now, one of the
things that I think has been really effective is
starting off with that personal connection,
whether you're in an online environment or in face
to face. I think when the students know that you
care about them, care about their well-being and
their learning, that they will engage back. And so
I think the the foundational pieces of starting a
(06:36):
class the right way by introducing yourself,
responding to those individuals by name and keying
in on their interests, let them know that it's
more than just going through each module and
integrating those assignments, which is what I
think makes them different. And when Emily
mentioned being able to see some of the things
(06:58):
that other instructors are doing, I'm sure that
what she found and perhaps what her research is
showing is that the more that you can build that
relationship, develop the professional learning
community, create a way for students to latch on
to something in addition to the course, content is
really pay volumes when it comes to being able to
(07:20):
have the students respond to the things that
you're trying to put out to engage them in the
learning. And James, you do a lot of videos in
your courses, right? I'm wondering if maybe that
is something that's worked well for you in order
to to establish that connection with your students
and build that relationship like what you were
talking about? I think so. One of the things that
(07:41):
it's really just that I found it is it depends on
the learner. And sometimes you can get people to
turn their videos on and respond to you in of what
some people are more comfortable with the text.
And so it just depends on the individual. So what
I try to do in my classes and right or wrong, but
just in my experience, that if you vary that level
(08:02):
of interaction, so you might start with a video
one week using the voice for different graded
assignment and even using the text so that you
give students all those different avenues to
respond. I think that allows them to feel A more
comfortable, but B and almost more importantly,
able to internalize the feedback that you're
(08:23):
providing, especially thinking about how you're
coming across in terms of tone with your feedback
that maybe having that personal element, using
that audio visual feedback or audio or visual
feedback, you could really convey a little bit
more than you could just writing your feedback
down. I know, Patrick, you use a lot of videos in
(08:43):
your courses. How do you think that's help you
build connection with your students or has it?
Well, I think it has helped me significantly build
connections with my students. But I think almost
more importantly than that, it's helped me build
connections between the various students. From
what I can discern, it seems like I'm using a
(09:03):
relatively uncommon approach at this point on the
world wide campus, and that is to produce what are
called global feedback videos. This was an initial
suggestion from my department of colleague, Dr
Scott Burgess, but I sort of took it and ran with
it. And that is as opposed to recording video or
audio telling John or Jane what I think of their
work this week. I record one video that we just
(09:27):
directed to the entire class. And out of that
week's assignment, I pull up representative
samples of things that work very well and maybe
some things that didn't work really well. I think
in addition to obviously never sharing a classroom
with our students. Another big disadvantage of
this online format is that our students are
disconnected from one another. They can't sort of
(09:47):
compare notes on their papers as they walk out of
class together. So by share, by allowing them to
see one another's work anonymized, of course, when
you know, when appropriate, they can I think they
can get a sense for you, obviously, what's working
and maybe they can even be inspired by their
fellow students who are doing an especially good
job and that they're also able to learn from
(10:10):
others mistakes, which is in many ways, I think
the most valuable, because that's a mistake. They
don't have to make themselves so on. Speaking to
that point about students not having connections
between each other, I think it's awesome to try to
find. Ways to do that, to make those connections
in our classes, but I did want to kind of share
something that has come up twice now independently,
(10:32):
and all faculty members that I have spoken with
have been completely unaware of it. Our students
are very, very active in a Dischord server. So we
don't think that they're interacting with each
other outside of class. But they are a lot. They
have a version of my professor. They are taking
classes and cohorts together where they're getting
(10:53):
together and saying, I'm in this degree program,
let's take these four classes together. So
students have kind of built a network of support
and collaboration through a Dysport server, which
don't ask me how it works. I don't know. I've
never done it. That's awesome. This is really good,
but I have to see how I'm rated on their family.
But one of the things that you're talking about
(11:14):
and I think that you're really pointing to is that
they will find a way, students will find a way to
engage, they'll find a way to enhance their
learning, and they find a way to to build those
networks. And how great would it be to be able to
tap into that and put some information out there
and say, you know, what do you want to see? And
perhaps that would give us an opportunity to go
(11:34):
through the things that are working and perhaps
should the things that are not. And I'm wondering,
is there anything or any tips and tricks that you
guys use in your course right now to tap into that
student to student connection that you were
talking about or foster the student to student
connections in addition to something like global
feedback videos? Well, James had mentioned like
(11:56):
getting to know your students at the beginning of
the class. And so one thing that I try to do is I
lean into the idea that I'm not always the expert
in the room. So a lot of my students are very,
very knowledgeable in how some of these
introductory chemistry or environmental science
class concepts, because those are the classes they
teach. They're very knowledgeable about how that
(12:17):
looks in a very specific setting. I'm not an
aviation person. And so they might have a lot more
expertise in depth about what those concepts look
like in that very specialized setting. And so I
often refer back to who the experts in the room
are on those topics, like, hey, you actually work
(12:37):
with hydraulics. Let's talk about that now,
because that's really relevant to what we're
talking about in this module. So and if there's
more than one student, I'll ask them like, hey,
can you guys both share your perspectives on what
this looks like in your job? Yeah. And to back up
what Emily just said, I also find that's true. I
mean, my my expertise is incredibly narrow being
small civilian US operations, drones. However,
(13:01):
we've got obviously a lot of military students
enrolled at Embry Riddle and a lot of military
drone operators. And no surprise, some of those
want to transition their military skills into the
civilian world. Now, with civilian drones are a
thing. Yeah, I'm always grateful when somebody
with that background can step into the classroom.
I very much try to engage them, just as Emily
suggests, to share their experience and expertise.
(13:23):
And like she said, I think that's exactly right. I
never assume, you know, I'm sitting up on the
mountain handing down wisdom. I assume I'm just
part of the crowd. You guys were referring earlier
to the ways that you defer to students when they
have specific types of expertise. And I'm
wondering where exactly you're doing that. Is that
(13:45):
happening in discussions or an optional Zoome
Sessions? Where is this communication taking place?
Discussions for me. I have to rein myself in
because I like the discussions a little bit too
much, so I try not to swap the discussion you have
for me. It's been interesting. I have to first of
(14:06):
all, to Emily's point, I really enjoyed the
discussions too. However, what I found as I began
doing these global feedback videos was that if I
participated too much in the discussion initially,
that ironically gave me less to say when it came
to the feedback video because I had already made
some of my points in writing. So I found myself
(14:26):
actually sort of pulling back on that in favor of
essentially adding my comments to the discussion
through the video. I think that's valuable because
they can hear me talk about the issues in my own
voice. I can make connections between multiple
points in the discussion. And so how I've done it
is if I know somebody is a real expert in
something that's going to be discussing that week,
(14:47):
I will reach out to the student privately and say,
hey, you know, I know that you know a lot about
this subject. I'd really appreciate it. This
week's discussion, if you amplified talked about
your personal experience relevant to the topic
we're talking about, how do your students respond
to that? With me, I'll be I'll be excited to hear
what Emily's experience has been. But with mine,
(15:09):
though, they typically seem very engaged. I think
I think students like being acknowledged and
respected for the knowledge and expertise they
possess, just just like the rest of us, I suppose,
when I call on students individually as experts on
a topic. They even if they're already, quote
unquote, done in the discussions, they've already
(15:30):
checked those boxes if they see it, if I didn't
post it too close to the end of the discussion,
then they usually respond and we'll go into great
detail and often get into side conversations with
each other about it. That's awesome. And I'm
thinking, I know you, Emily, do a really
interesting I suppose I should call it an
(15:51):
introductory activity for your students to replace
the introduction discussion. I think you use mural
for that. Right. And I was just thinking to myself
that I'm wondering if going into that extra detail
and having students introduce themselves and
introduce a lot of details about their lives in
the beginning of the course would then help you to
(16:14):
make those connections and discussion. But if you
could maybe speak a little bit to what you do for
these introduction activities and how maybe it
helps you to build those connections and maintain
those connections with students through the
through the course. Sure. I'm actually pretty new
to mural, so I have I've played around with it a
(16:36):
couple of times. I will say that building it takes
a lot of work. Once it's built, it's done and it's
easy to recycle for future use, but it was
definitely a learning curve for me. So anybody is
curious about using just go into it with the
understanding that it's going to take a while to
get used to doing it the right way. And you're
going to end up like because you end up
(16:57):
accidentally moving things around, not on purpose
and put them back and all that. Within the classes
that I have used it in, the students really liked
it because it was so different. I have a lot of
different types of get to know you type activities
and there were some of them or share a picture of
this or describe yourself in three words here or
(17:19):
different things to try to help them get to know
each other. One of them was like, leave a quote
that you like. I like, quote, inspirational quotes.
So the students responded positively to it. Not
only could you briefly describe what mural is or
how it works, it's a platform that has a ton of
free options for online collaboration. And the one
(17:43):
that I used was one of the they have a lot of it.
They have hundreds of templates you can choose
from and as a template for introducing yourself to
a class. So I just I modified it because I didn't
like all of the props that were in the template.
So I modified it to make it what I wanted that
introduction to be. But essentially it kind of
(18:03):
walked the students through a room like it's got a
bunch of connected rooms and it's like it starts
them at number one. And number one, they do this
little get to know activities. And then when
they're done with that, it moves them over to room
number two. They do that and they're in rooms by
themselves. If somebody else is doing it at the
same time, they will be able to see if somebody
(18:23):
adds something because it's real time. So if I'm
in it and somebody is also in room two and just
added a picture, I can see it as soon as that
picture shows up. But it's not necessarily
designed to be a synchronous activity. It's
intended to be an asynchronous get to know you and
the students can look through and easily see what
their classmates have shared about themselves.
(18:44):
Thank you. One thing I really enjoyed about it is
that it allowed students to, I guess, get to know
a little bit about the common interests, the
common careers, the common hobbies that they share
with other students in the classroom. So I know
what I briefly took a look at your mural page.
(19:05):
Some of the students were bonding about a love for
similar animal shows. And I believe two students
discovered that they had the same motorcycle. And
it did kind of foster that sense of connection
that you guys were talking about earlier as being
so important. How are the rest of you going about
learning and remembering all these little details
(19:27):
about your individual students, who has expertise
where and what career someone might be in? Are you
do you do anything, anything special? You know,
one of the things that I try to do is to make sure
that those students have an opportunity to share
those things. And usually in the questions that I
asked them outside of the general, where you from?
(19:49):
But how are you doing more about the personal
aspects of their lives that than just talking
about that is the highlights the individual, but
also allows them to come together to find those
common interests and start sharing out on their
own. And that's been my experience, is when they
start sharing those little tidbits that are
personal, that's what energizes the class and
(20:11):
that's what keeps people really involved longer
term throughout the course. I know we talked
earlier a little bit about how you use video in
your courses and how video can build connections
with. You and the student, but also connections
between student to student, and I'm wondering if
any of you use either video sessions or maybe
(20:35):
optional sessions to incorporate direct
instruction into your classes, meaning that you
are teaching in a way that is similar to what you
would do in the face to face classroom kind of
teaching directly to the students. So I've been
very fortunate to have that opportunity providing
(20:58):
an alternative to the discussion board. And what
I've done is try to offer it at least twice a term
and not making a mandatory but just say here's a a
opportunity to learn. And by and large, I'm
usually able to get 50 percent of the students to
sign in to that session where they get a chance to
learn about something related to the larger
(21:20):
objective or the learning outcome for that
particular course. And that really has proven to
be very successful in getting people to not only
buy in, but to facilitate that discussion. The
important thing is to provide an alternative,
because as we talked about, students are thousands
of miles and separated from each other. And so
that includes time zones by providing them with
(21:42):
that opportunity for synchronous learning, but
certainly not harming the student by if they're
not able to participate. So that's been something
that's been very helpful. One other thing that
I've done, which isn't true secret is but it does
help is using either the canvas studio or even
another software that called Bloom. And what that
(22:05):
software does is allow for a screen recording in
addition to recording the video, so I can go
through a PowerPoint presentation, provide some
voiceover or show a website or even a text or
video where I can add my own comments in my
perspective and pasting that, whether it be a link
or an embedded HTML code as an announcement or
(22:27):
discussion board posting that allows students to
log in and get that lecture and asynchronous
fashion in this case. But sometimes they're able
to respond and provide questions and start even a
separate discussion based on that. Sort of in that
vein, I maybe I should have describe in more
detail what I do is typically in my global
feedback videos that begin with me on camera, sort
(22:50):
of talking about whatever the subject was that we
can sort of shourie for my own insights and ideas
regarding that. But then the bulk of the video is
spent looking at the student's work. And by that I
mean I screen capture sounds very much like what
James was doing, samples of the student's own work.
And then I will highlight a particular passage in
a written thing, or I'll bring up a slide from a
(23:12):
PowerPoint presentation, again, anonymized as
appropriate to sort of highlight what the students
are doing. So I'll bring up a chunk of somebody's
definitely. And I'll I'll talk about what I think
works really well. What maybe could have been done
better than what some of my own thoughts and
reflections are on the point they're making. And
so I think that's I think James was making an
(23:33):
excellent point about how you can use your voice,
along with an image captured, in my case of the
students work to engage with them and to sort of
reinforce that learning. Patrick, I think you make
such an excellent point about the value in sharing
student work. One of the things that I was almost
remiss and not showing earlier is just about those
(23:55):
constant those constant announcements. I think
oftentimes if you can provide that introduction to
the module, it goes a long way in providing some
context. But throughout the module, if you could
post once or twice in addition to that welcome
announcement, I do think it goes a long way. What
I've gotten to the habit of doing is on Saturdays
(24:16):
for the second to last day of the module is I will
pose the kind of a series that I call shout outs
and call outs. And in that series I do find an
opportunity and I use the attendance list. I'll be
honest, as I make sure that every student gets a
shout out during the term, but I will highlight
that work. Whether it be a discussion board
(24:37):
posting, it'll be an assignment, it'll be a paper
that they've written. But I will actually do a
screen sharing and show that work and show why it
was exemplary during that last module. What I also
do is to call out a student who needs I don't want
to say attention, but just that I want the class
to take a look at their discussion board posting.
(25:00):
And so I'll provide some additional resources or
readings or things like that that I will post in
their discussion to encourage deeper thought. And
so that student will then say, OK, Dr. Sullivan is
calling me out this particular module, I'm going
to go in sometime over the weekend or during those
last two days of the module and respond to his
question or look at that reading and ensure that I
(25:22):
found that it has been pretty successful and.
Being able to get the students to know that, hey,
I'm paying attention as the instructor, but also
that they have an opportunity to know that their
work and their contributions are valuable to the
learning experience of the entire class. Oh, yeah,
that I mean, that that sounds very, very familiar
to what I'm doing. So I do it almost every week,
(25:43):
depending on the size of the class. I don't get
every student every week, but I try to highlight a
good sampling of them. My segment similar to your
shout outs and call outs, what's called the good,
the bad and the ugly. And there I take a look at
obviously, well, the good, the bad, the ugly. But
with the with the let's say the more problematic
entries, I always try and take a very positive
coaching approach to, you know, I mean, part of it
(26:05):
is if the students are not receiving a great grade,
they want to know why. So I describe mechanically
or whatever it may be, how something could be done.
Better to get that better grade next time out. But
I also want them to understand why this is
happening. And like I said, I think they learn so
much from seeing one another's mistakes. Really,
(26:26):
James or Emily, I'd be curious to hear both of you.
But to me, the single biggest advantage of the
global feedback approach I've seen is that the
students work improves so much better then so much
more quickly than by providing individual feedback.
And I think it's because they can build off each
other's strengths, not just their own. Well, I
(26:47):
would love to know what you're doing to get
students to actually listen to the those videos,
because I have I've had trouble with those videos
in my classes where I was doing global feedback.
And then I was having students ask me questions
that was answered in the global feedback because
they weren't using it. So any advice that you have
(27:08):
for driving students toward that global feedback
would be greatly appreciated? Sure. I don't know
that I have any you know, there's there's no magic
bullet. And indeed, I would like to work with our
friends at Arkley or, you know, running the IMF to
to sort of fortify this position, which is, for
example, I have no way of tracking who's watched
(27:29):
the videos. But but sort of the opposite of the
experience, it sounds like you've gotten is that
I'm that I'm getting emails and responses which
indicate to me that the majority of them are
watching the videos and I don't do anything
special. I just put them out as an announcement in
the course. And maybe this is another thing that
helps is really at the beginning of the class in
(27:49):
the welcome video, I say, listen up. The
essentially the only feedback you're going to get
from me in this whole class is going to take the
form of these feedback videos, which are going to
come out every week. If you do not tune into the
feedback videos. This is going to be a very, very
difficult and lonely class for you. So please
watch the feedback videos. I think it would be
(28:10):
great if we could be equipped with some tools by
the technical people who would let us see how many
times the videos are being watched or even who's
watching them. If I was really to get audacious in
the questions I'd like to ask, but I think part of
it is just frankly not giving them any other
option. Other feedback videos are the only source
of feedback. Therefore, if you want to know what's
(28:31):
going on, better watch the feedback videos.
Although I'm fascinated by your discovery that
there is a Discord Channel now, I wonder if
there's some back channel discussion saying, hey,
you better watch these things and the students
really seem to enjoy them too. I do want to point
to something you said earlier, and that is,
Patrick, that you set a culture around watching
(28:52):
these videos at the beginning of the course. And I
know for for for some people, it might be a bit
extreme to kind of take all of the feedback in
your course and move it into these optional
feedback videos. I know some listeners might be
more interested in maybe just kind of gradually
incorporating some global feedback videos in
addition to individual feedback. But if you set
(29:16):
that culture and that expectation at the beginning
of the course, it's much more likely that students
will continue to tune into those videos if they
realize right at the beginning that these are
going to be happening regularly and that they will
consistently have useful, excellent information
that the students will be able to use and and
(29:39):
derive benefit from as they continue through the
course. But to your point about what you are able
to to see in the campus videos, who's watched them,
how many people have watched them? Campus is now
built in what's called canvas insights. And if you
go toward the bottom of your embedded video, you
(30:01):
should be able to click on that Insight's tab. And
this will show you how many how many times the
video has been watched, how many unique viewers
have watched the video, meaning, say, individuals?
How many individuals have watched it? Because you
could have one person who's viewed that the video
seven times. That would be seven views, but one
(30:22):
unique viewer. And you can also, if you scroll
down a little further, see the exact names of
people who have watched the video, so if you were
to be extra bold, you could, in fact, go to the
level of emailing Joe Smith and saying, hey, I've
noticed you haven't been watching my video
feedback announcements. Why is that show that?
(30:46):
Well, that is a tool that is newly available to
you and campus. Well, thank you so much for
letting me know. I am now exiting this podcast to
go check on my videos. Thank you. It's been a joy
talking to you, of course. Do you currently upload
your videos into Canvas Studio before you post
them to your students? No, I just upload them. I
(31:07):
mean, maybe I probably should be based on what you
told me, but no, I just upload them straight in.
Just load up the announcement on the other bar.
There's a load video. So I just then upload them
to canvas studio first and then post them into
your course from canvas studio. That is how you'll
get the insight, like you can edit and everything
(31:28):
off of canvas studio tours and just upload it
there and try it and see what you get there,
because that's really cool. I'm wondering, Patrick,
do you feel like your students really respond a
little bit more to those videos because they are
so visually engaging and and incorporate so many
fun, popular culture references? I really think
(31:51):
what the students key into is back when I worked
at the newspaper, I sort of developed an operating
theory of humanity. And rightly or wrongly, and I
don't mean this could come across to be very
cynical, but I don't mean it that way is what
humans want in all of life. What all of us humans
want is to see ourselves reflected in the world
(32:12):
around us. We want to know that something we've
done, something we've contributed, has made a
difference and has appeared in other people's
lives. And so I think with a global feedback video,
you as the instructor get the opportunity to
deliver that you can produce something where they
(32:32):
can see their own work being seen by others. And I
really think that's the key, is that they have
that opportunity to know that what they've done is
being viewed and appreciated by a wider audience
of their peers. As you think back on your own
experiences. What's one thing you wish you knew
(32:52):
earlier in your career about teaching or creating
those meaningful learning experiences for your
students? You're never going to get a perfect
teaching evaluation. You're going to be judged for
being too easy and too hard and too middle of the
road in the exact same class that you'll be judged
for providing too much feedback and not enough in
(33:15):
the same class. Every student is different, and
your style can't possibly be ideal for each
student in your class, even if it's a small class.
So just do your best and try to cater to the
student preferences as you're able to and as it
aligns with your ideals. I think that was so well
said. One of the things that we talked about
earlier is just the ability to know that you're
(33:37):
not the expert all the time. You certainly are
bringing some skill sets and some experiences to
the classroom and understanding that students
really can benefit from that. But the more that
you can allow for students to learn from each
other, the better your class will be. And I think
it took a while for me to not only humble myself,
(33:58):
but also to understand how to get the class engage
with each other so that I could learn and they
could learn and that we would all be able to come
together and have the best learning experience for
the group, not just for an individual. I think for
me it comes to and here comes another pop culture
reference. And if you Ted Lasso lately, I think
(34:18):
it comes from recognizing that I'm not the star of
the show. I'm not dreaming that I'm I'm the coach.
I'm the guy standing on the sidelines. And it's
the students who are out there making the big
moves. And and really my job my only job is to
facilitate them being as best as they possibly can
(34:39):
when they're trying to do those things. It's not
about me. I'm I'm a facilitator. I'm I'm there to
help them achieve their goals, not not in the
classroom context, to achieve my own goals.
Obviously, I have those. I pursue those. But
within within the context of being a teacher, a
professor, an instructor, I'm not there for me.
(35:00):
I'm there for them. That is fantastic. And thank
you all for joining us again today. We're here
with James Sulton, Patrick Sherman and Emily
Faulconer. Thank you for participating in this
pilot episode of Faculty Roundtable.
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