Engagement is one of those buzz words in academia which can lose its meaning. What do we mean when we say we want to better engage our students? When we talk about engagement, we are generally referring to the ways in which we inspire curiosity, interest, optimism, and even passion toward the content we are presenting.
What is inclusive teaching? How do you implement inclusive strategies into course content? According to Inclusive Teaching Strategies from Yale’s Center for Teaching and Learning, inclusive teaching can be defined as pedagogy that addresses the needs of all students and includes all students with a variety of backgrounds, learning modalities, and abilities. Building your course structure and content with inclusiveness in mind can foster student belonging and create a stronger community.
Backward design is a way to ensure that short-term plans and actions are aligned with long-term goals. The basic premise is that, rather than planning your course day by day, you start at the end of the course (or unit, or lesson), planning clear outcomes and evaluation strategies first, and then preparing learning activities and lessons that will help your students meet those goals.
When teaching a course from a distance, cultivating a sense of connection can seem difficult. Our tip this week supplies a few simple strategies for building student-to-student, and student-to-instructor connections.
Creating community in the online environment can be challenging. In this post we will discuss some easily implemented strategies to help your students connect, engage, and build community in your class.