Professional Development Activity

Two Additional Professional Development Activities Completed, June-December, 2015

Activity #1

Name of Professional Development Activity:  Is Your Syllabus Sending the Wrong Message?

Host/Location:  Magna Mentor Commons

Brief Summary of Key Learnings:

The speaker draws attention to three concerns she has with respect to how teachers often use their syllabus: 1) ‘policy creep’, or the tendency to increase the number of policies in a syllabus from one year to the next in an effort to try and create general rules to avoid the repetition of an unexpected situation, 2) an authoritarian tone to the polices in the syllabus which forges an adversarial relationship between teacher and students, and 3) the combination of policy creep and authoritarian tone in the syllabus, usually the first thing students read in a given course, shuts down enthusiasm, and compromises the creation of interest and motivation. The speaker advises that instructors stop trying to create general rules to control all possible situations and to become comfortable dealing with course management problems which emerge in the classroom on a case by case basis. She also advises reducing the overall number of policies in a course and to adopt less adversarial language. In addition, she encourages professors to experiment with more democratic forms of organizing course policies, such as having students of a course determine things like what the class participation policies and expectations will be. Above all, she encourages teachers to engage their students in a manner which demonstrates respect and trust.

Activity #2

Name of Professional Development Activity:  What Do Students Want in Online Courses

Host/Location:                 Magna Mentor Commons

Brief Summary of Key Learnings:

The speaker uses data she collected over three semesters asking students what they want in online courses. According to her data and experience what students want revolves around six key themes: communication, consistency, organization, personalization, connection and involvement. As far as communication goes students like information to be communicated over multiple channels, e.g. text and audio, they want communication to be frequent; at least once a week, they want communication to have a bit of a personal touch, they like reminders, and they like for communication to be clear and organized. As far as consistency goes, students of online courses like assignment schedules to follow a standard pattern throughout the course, they want to be able to work on the weekends, they want timely feedback and weekly check-ins from the instructor. When it comes to organization students want clear directions, course materials that are easy to access (no more than two clicks away), simple and clear navigation, examples of the kind of work expected, and regular participation of the instructor. That ties in a bit with personalization where, basically, students of online courses want to be able to connect to/with their instructor and learn from their instructor’s mistakes, experiences, views and so on. Students of online courses want to feel connected, furthermore, with one another, the material and to see the material connected to real examples and to their own daily experiences. Finally, students want to be involved in an online course and crave being asked for their opinion, being asked to teach, being asked for their feedback on something or their advice and input. Instructors of online courses should find ways to improve in these areas to further improve their capacities to give students what they want.