Authored by Gwen Bourque and Joyce Wimmer
While working on this design challenge, we found that we come from different backgrounds and fields; however, our practices intersect at the post-secondary setting. We have a variety of students coming from different backgrounds, experiences and ages. We both require a way to engage diverse groups of students who could be coming straight from high school to those who are mature learners.
Through feedback and feed forward responses, we edited our problem statement to reflect that these students have many different needs. Thus, our new problem statement is:
Because we, Gwen and Joyce, work at post-secondary institutions where students have many different learning needs, we need a way to engage a variety of learners, those coming straight from high school to those who are mature learners that have a degree or in pursuit of a second or third career.
Our solution involves a blended learning environment which incorporates online synchronous discussions and includes all students and the facilitator. The facilitator will have a presentation on the topic of discussion. Throughout the presentation, online polls will be conducted by the facilitator to engage all students. The students will be able to use their devices (i.e. phones, computers) to answer the multiple-choice questions. The results will be displayed immediately and anonymously which gives the facilitator an opportunity to discuss the correct and incorrect answers. Because the polls are anonymous, students will feel more comfortable and will take an intellectual risk. According to Wiley Education Services (n.d.), polls are effective tools that will help to connect students with each other by sharing their thoughts, and by guiding students to focus their learning. Additionally, the polling software, such as Socrative or Poll Everywhere, is easy to access and is used at both of our institutions.
Throughout the learning session, the facilitator will also incorporate blank screens in the presentation where students could post questions about the content which would enable them to suggest what they would like to learn more about. This will help to demonstrate student engagement and accountability for their learning.
Furthermore, students could use a social networking forum such as Slack to create a social space to work in. This platform offers a way for students to interact with and get to know each other to develop a safe online community where they are comfortable to ask questions, to clarify assignments, to share thoughts and feelings and to celebrate accomplishments.
If we are to describe our solution to our trusted colleagues, we believe that they would find our solution very interesting and engaging for students. Our solution follows the empathetic design in Mattelmäki, Vaajakallio & Koskinen (2014) where they suggest that the design focuses on four layers of sensitivity: (1) toward humans, (2) toward design, (3) toward techniques and (4) toward collaboration.
Overall, it can be said that we developed a solution to engage and build confidence in intellectual risk taking for a diverse group of students coming straight from high school to those who are mature learners that have a degree or are in pursuit of a second or third career. As both of our practices are within the post-secondary setting, we have a variety of students coming from different backgrounds, experiences and ages who may or may not be comfortable with technology use and who have many different learning needs. This approach addresses our needs in our workplace environment. Is this a method that you could incorporate in your own setting/industry? Lastly, do you see this as an empathetic design?
We will be replying to your comments, thoughts and advice until December 4, 2018 at 10 pm EST. Thank you!
References:
How to Increase Student Engagement in Your Online Course with Polls. (n.d.). Wiley Education Services. Retrieved from https://edservices.wiley.com/increase_student_engagement_online_with_polls/
Mattelmäki, T., Vaajakallio, K., & Koskinen, I. (2014). What happened to empathic design?. Design Issues, 30(1), 67-77.
Thank you for sharing your activity with us, Joyce and Gwen. Your choices of Socrative or Poll Everywhere are very useful and engaging tools as you mentioned. I have used them before for the same purposes of engaging and getting instant feedback during a classroom setting. For my environment of high school students, the tool at times became more of a game and a distractor than a learning tool; however, this may be different for your situation with an older age bracket.
I would agree with your suggestion that students will likely engage and take an intellectual risk if the results are anonymous. In this sense, your activity will offer your varying backgrounds a comfortable space to participate and collaborate. I may offer one challenge of this tool. Although it does give feedback and can foster conversations based on results, it does not connect the facilitator with the student as it is anonymous. I would suggest that this is an empathetic design for the students, however; I wonder without the interaction and sharing openly with the facilitator if this would take away from the potential of a lesson to evolve? Or, maybe the lesson does evolve more because of the freedom to express their anonymous response and no judgement from the teacher? You have me curious enough to try the polls again in my classroom!
Hi Danielle,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and your possible revival of using polls in your class.
We agree with your point that this design does not connect the facilitator with the student; however, we felt that we could design another aspect of the instruction that could incorporate teacher-student interaction once we feel that students feel safe to share.
When we thought of this aspect of the instruction, we were focusing on the student experience to help them feel more comfortable with technology and in the online environment. We felt that students would share their thoughts more freely if it were an anonymous environment. Then, when students feel more comfortable, they would have the opportunity to open up and share their thoughts/questions with the group and the facilitator. This relates to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In Taormina and Gao (2013), productive and revealing social interactions in a variety of settings with diverse groups can be achieved when they feel that they belong and feel safe. Student-student and student-facilitator interactions could happen during the times that the facilitator discusses the correct and incorrect answers or at any point when the facilitator asks the group if there are any questions.
References:
Taormina, R., & Gao, J. (2013). Maslow and the motivation hierarchy: Measuring satisfaction of the needs. The American Journal of Psychology, 126(2), 155-77.
Hi Joyce and Gwen
Having a platform for the students to be able to respond anonymously is a great way to foster engagement and create a safe learning environment. As Campbell and Schwier stated, “the instructor uses multiple sources for gathering information that would reveal a more accurate picture of learning progress as well as emphasizing the process of learning, not just the final product” (p.361). By using these tools we can have a better (and more empathetic) picture of where our students are at. We both use formative assessment tools such as Google forms and Peardeck to gauge where our students are at.
You mention that you are teaching in a hybrid learning environment. Have you thought about a way to gauge a students understanding in an asynchronous environment? The tools you mention are great for synchronous situations but may prove to be challenging in other contexts. I have used both socrative and poll everywhere in face to face interactions. I could see how they could be used in a virtual context but also wonder if there could be issues that may be barriers. If a student is having technical issues in a face to face course, they can be resolved fairly easily with the teacher’s help whereas this may prove to be a challenge when in a virtual context.
This is a great solution to encourage engagement and assessment. Well done.
Chad and Brandon.
References
Campbell, K., & Schwier, R. A. (2014). Major movements in instructional design. In Zawacki-Richter, O. & T. Anderson (Eds.), Online distance education: Towards a research agenda. AU Press.
Hi Joyce and Gwen
Having a platform for the students to be able to respond anonymously is a great way to foster engagement and create a safe learning environment. As Campbell and Schwier stated, “the instructor uses multiple sources for gathering information that would reveal a more accurate picture of learning progress as well as emphasizing the process of learning, not just the final product” (p.361). By using these tools, we can have build a strong understanding and empathetic picture of our learners strengths and weaknesses. We both use formative assessment tools such as Google Forms and Peardeck to monitor student learning and provide feedback to the learners.
You mention that you are teaching in a hybrid learning environment. Have you thought about a way to gauge a students understanding in an asynchronous environment? The tools you mention are great for synchronous situations but may prove to be challenging in other contexts. I have used both Socrative and Poll Everywhere in face-to-face interactions. I could see how they could be used in a virtual context but also wonder if there could be issues that may be barriers. If a student is having technical problems in a face to face course, they can be resolved fairly easily with the teacher’s help whereas this may prove to be a challenge when in a virtual context.
This is a great solution to encourage engagement and assessment. Well done.
Chad and Brandon.
References
Campbell, K., & Schwier, R. A. (2014). Major movements in instructional design. In Zawacki-Richter, O. & T. Anderson (Eds.), Online distance education: Towards a research agenda. AU Press.
Chad and Brandon,
Thanks for your post and your excellent feedback and thoughts on our empathetic design. We mention enabling empathetic design in synchronous learning situations; however, did not provide our thoughts in an asynchronous context.
After further reflection, we have considered the use of discussion forums. A few of the advantages to this are users can engage in written online discussion at times that are convenient to each student since discussions can be accessed at any time with internet and students can review these even after the discussion is over. Forums are simple and can be personalized with student photos. It also encourages critical thinking and holds students individually accountable for their learning while enabling the instructor to assess student responses. To respond to a forum requires organized thought of concepts introduced in class. Once a student’s views are challenged, they typically add carefully considered reasoning to support previous comments.
Some of the disadvantages are it is very time consuming for instructors and students -taking longer to type a response than to engage in face-to-face discussion. Lastly, students who do not have good written communications skills may not be able to express themselves the same as through spoken words.
Gwen and Joyce
Reference:
Cavanaugh, T. (2001). Benefits of a discussion forum.
Retrieved from http://www.drscavanaugh.org/discussion/
online/benefits_of_a_discussion_forum.htm