Transform Your Teaching

In this coffee drop, Jared and Rob are joined by Dr. Alicia McCartney to discuss how she is using ChatGPT in her courses. If you have questions or comments, contact us at [email protected]. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

In this episode, Rob and Jared discuss how important it is to create an inclusive environment in a course. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. We would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better.

Inclusion is an important aspect of online learning and can create an environment that promotes student engagement, belonging, and success. Inclusion strategies include setting respectful communication guidelines, acknowledging diversity amongst students, being respectful of cultural differences, understanding how instructor-student relationships may differ, and ensuring that content is accessible.

Inclusion strategies also affect the types of assessments that you use. You cannot expect that the same assessments you use in a face-to-face course will work in an online version of the course. Your formative and summative assessments from a face-to-face course will have to be modified to accommodate the online environment. Alternatively, starting with an online course can help your face-to-face. Building an online course requires you to plan every detail and make sure each piece of content and assessment align with the course’s objectives.

Resources

Designing Accessible and Inclusive eLearning Experiences

Authentic Assessment in the Online Classroom
The What, the Why, and the How of Technology Integration: The How & Accessibility

In this episode, Rob and Jared continue discussing the Community of Inquiry framework, looking at the three types of presence in greater detail. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. We would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better.

The three presences in the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework work together to influence learner engagement, active participation, and the sense of being in a learning community. Social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence also jointly enhance an instructor’s ability to stimulate class discussions and provide timely feedback. Each presence focuses on a different aspect of a course.

Building social presence promotes mutual understanding among participants and facilitates knowledge exchange, often improving student motivation. It can be fostered through strategies such as icebreakers, photo sharing, and general discussions, creating a balance between a comfortable environment and maintaining professional boundaries.

Cognitive presence is about engaging students with course content in ways that cultivate critical thinking skills. Activities that elicit analysis, synthesis, and evaluation – such as open-ended discussions, case studies, and journaling — help enhance this presence.

Teaching presence is crucial, impacting the other two presences. It involves facilitating learning, providing timely feedback, and setting up avenues for constructive discussion. The teacher's role in an online course extends beyond delivering content; they are essential in nurturing a conducive environment for learning and engagement. Consequently, the interactions of these three presences help in creating a robust online learning community.

Resources 

COI Framework

Designing a Community of Inquiry in Online Courses

Use the FORCE to create Sociability and Connect with Online Students

In this episode, Rob and Jared introduce their series on online learning through the Community of Inquiry framework. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. We would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better.

Online learning involves a structured learning environment; activities; and interactions between instructors, students, and content. Instructors can use the Community of Inquiry (COI) educational framework to help them develop effective online education. COI’s primary goal is to create a deep and meaningful learning experience.

In the COI framework, there are three presences:

• Cognitive presence – the extent to which learners construct and validate understanding. Its aim is to build understanding and construct knowledge through social negotiation and critical thinking. 
• Social presence – the ability to identify with the learning community. Social presence is involved with creating a climate of trust, open communication, group cohesion, and interpersonal relationships.
• Teaching presence – the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social presence. Teaching presence is the GPS on the road trip, guiding and correcting as needed. It involves the instructor being active and present in the online learning community.

Each of these presences work together to create a robust learning environment. When used effectively, COI can help students feel connected to content, fellow students, and instructor.

Resources 

COI Framework 

In this episode, Rob and Jared talk with Dr. Alicia McCartney, Assistant Professor of English at Cedarville University. They discuss some of her teaching and learning strategies, technology integration and how she incorporates student questions into her teaching. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. We would love to get your feedback!  Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better.

Dr. McCartney sees teaching writing as especially important to develop critical thinking and teaching literature as an opportunity to ask big questions and find big answers through discussion and interpretation of text. She also learns from her students and looks for opportunities to incorporate their input into her teaching to clear up any confusion and to enrich her content. Dr. McCartney wants to create a safe space for her students to share questions by encouraging them to ask questions.

When it comes to technology integration, Dr. McCartney starts with the objectives and only integrates technology that fits with them. For example, she uses Google Slides for students to share questions about a text or notes from discussions. Dr. McCartney also likes using annotation tools such as Hypothes.is with a text, asking students to do research on a text and ask questions through annotations. Participating in this kind of activity helps her students to be prepared for class and helps to create a learning community.

Resources 

Hypothes.is 

Class Hack: Using Google Slides for Group Work

In this episode, Rob and Jared discuss content delivery. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. We would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better.

At its core, content delivery is about communicating necessary information to learners. Content delivery started with people using their voices to share knowledge with others. Over time, various other methods have been developed, often with the help of technology.  Other approaches to content delivery include collaboration, self-paced learning, labs, and interactive video quizzing.

When deciding what content to deliver, instructors must ensure that their content aligns with the course objectives and assessments. This can be challenging because there is a temptation to give students everything they need to pass the test or course—even what might be irrelevant. However, instructors must find the middle ground where they equip students with the skills to understand the content, think critically, and ask questions. Instructors should also provide feedback and guide students along their learning paths.

In this episode, Rob and Jared discuss the value of clear communication with Professor Jim Leightenheimer. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. We would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better. 

Basic communication involves a sender, a receiver, the content, and the medium by which the content travels. However, communication can travel in many different modalities, and various hindrances can arise and muddle the message.  Communication struggles are still present in education, so how can we model communication that seeks to benefit both sender and receiver?

One way is to set the tone early. The first week of class—even the first day—is an excellent opportunity to model expected communication and set expectations.  It is also a good time to get the students’ preferred method of communication. Not all students check their email.

Another way is to ensure assignment feedback is meaningful and constructive.  Sometimes that feedback means students face hard truths; however, students are more likely to see the benefit and grow from it when it’s communicated with humility.

Above all, humility is necessary. Communication with students can be frustrating, especially when that communication is fielding the same question you’ve already answered multiple times. But that just provides an opportunity to practice humility and gracious communication.

In this coffee drop, Rob and Jared read some listener reviews. If you have questions or comments, contact us at [email protected]. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. 

In this episode, Rob and Jared discuss instructional management and the importance of building mutual respect in your course. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. We would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better.

Instructional management involves all of the variables that make up a learning environment. A foundational principle is that instructors and students need to treat one another with respect. Instructors can demonstrate that respect by setting and maintaining clear expectations early. This can be done through setting the foundation (policies and procedures of your class) and adhering to that. The responsibility of the student is to honor those expectations.

Another important aspect of instructional management is student engagement. Learn about your students—a simple survey can reveal who they are as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Create an environment where your students are willing to share without fear of failure or embarrassment. You can do this by making personal connections and through encouraging feedback.

Finally, effective instructional management may require elements of your course to change based on modality. For example, some face-to-face course policies and procedures (such as late policies) may not work in an online or hybrid environment.

Resources 

Small Teaching 

Crucial Conversations 

Servant Teaching: Practices for Renewing Christian Higher Education 

In this episode, Rob and Jared continue the series on the basics of education by discussing assessments, using their road trip analogy once more to explain the differences between formative and summative assessments. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. We would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better.

In this episode, Rob and Jared discuss how objectives relate to assessments, including four important terms.  

• Summative assessment: bigger, high-stakes assessments that occur at the end of a unit or at a pivotal moment of the course, such as a midterm or final.  
• Formative assessment: smaller, low-stakes assessments that happen along the path toward the summative assessment. 
• Course objectives: The end-of-course targets that instructor and students aim to hit at the end of the course. Most of the time, students will show mastery of course objectives through summative assessments. 
• Module objectives: The smaller objectives that serve as steppingstones toward mastering the course objectives. Module objectives are usually tied to formative assessments. They are never tied to summative assessments.  

All four terms work together to create a properly aligned course structure. A good assessment is directly tied to an objective. Consider using your objective verb in your assessment to emphasize the connection between the two.  

Formative assessments serve as opportunities for students to try, to practice, and to fail without causing too much damage to their grade. With proper and timely feedback from the instructor, formative assessments give the opportunity for students to be redirected.

Resources 

Summative and Formative Assessment - CTL Indiana University Bloomington 

Assessment 101: Formative and Summative - CCAC 

Assessment and Grading (Evaluation) - J. Lenore Wright, Baylor University
Be on the look out for Jared’s future blog post!