How to Structure Your Online Class for Inclusion, Part 1 | Online Student Engagement - Faculty Focus

Jenae Cohn, PhD writes and speaks about digital pedagogy and online teaching and learning and Courtney Plotts, PhD writes and speaks about culturally responsive teaching and community building argues, A bunch of black boxes on a video call. An empty discussion board. A student who hasn’t submitted any work all term. These might all be signs that students aren’t engaged with their online learning.

Student puts face in hands while looking at computer screen in bedroom              
Photo: Faculty Focus

But they also might be signs that students don’t have enough Internet access to participate in their online classes; they might be signs that students don’t know how to engage with their online learning; or they might be signs that students don’t feel included in their online class.

Student engagement is influenced by multiple factors in students’ lived experiences. The factors that prevent students from engaging in their classes may often be exacerbated by the conditions of online learning, from access gaps to lack of private spaces, and caregiving or household obligations. While instructors may not directly be able to influence the many gaps in support that students face in their personal lives, instructors can design online courses in ways that are attentive to fostering student inclusion.

Student engagement means more than just task completion. Many experts suggest that student engagement is when students have control or management of the learning process...

How can I know if students are being honest about their own work in an online class?

There’s an old saying that “anyone on the Internet can be a dog.” When we can’t see, hear, or interact with the students in our class, they might not seem “real” to us. Similarly, if we haven’t seen our students, we might not know if they are the ones that are actually doing the work for our classes. That can feel a bit nerve-wracking and may raise elevated concerns about academic honesty in our classes.

The hard truth is that we’ve never been able to know for sure, in online or face-to-face contexts, that everything our students do is 100% their own work. But we can make efforts to get to know our students to the best of our abilities and design assessment experiences that are meaningful and that may prevent students from the temptation to cheat. In the Resources section of this article, we’ll point you to some places where these resources are available.

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Source: Faculty Focus