Teaching Essentials: Community of Learners
Every classroom is a community. This guide helps faculty understand the best practices for high levels of instructor and student engagement, highly effective peer to peer interaction, developing a strong instructor presence, and strategies for being responsible to student needs.
See the tabs below for tips and strategies.
See also these sections in The Open Guide to Teaching and Learning in Higher Education:
Creating a Classroom Climate for Learning
Instructor Presence
Communicating with Students
Group Work
Metacognition
Helping Students Regulate
Communication
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Send Regular Messages
Consider a regular (e.g., once-weekly) email reminding your students of upcoming events in the class, any notes you need to communicate to them, and a word of encouragement. Social media, used responsibly, is also a method for effective communication and engagement.
Related Resources:
Hassini, E. (2006). Student-instructor communication: the role of email. Computers and Education, 47(1), 29-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2004.08.014
Guo, R., Shen, Y., and Li, L. (2018). Using social media to improve student-instructor communication in an online learning environment. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology, 14(1), 33. DOI: 10.4018/IJICTE.2018010103
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Suggest "Two Things"
If using a regular mailer, consider including a “Two Things” section, where you give your students the 2 most value-added things they can be working on for the week/segment of time. Let them know there are more than these 2 to do, but this is where they can start if they are feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin.
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Request Student Feedback
Request student feedback on teaching at multiple times during the semester. This request increases communication between instructor and students and demonstrates the instructor’s value of student input. Not all student suggestions must be followed; however, they should be addressed with a grateful and caring tone.
Related Resources:
Getting Feedback from Students
Neuhaus, J. (2019). Geeky pedagogy: A guide for intellectuals, introverts, and nerds who want to be effective teachers. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press. (See esp. pp. 102-103.)
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Make Everything Accessible
Good communication begins with ensuring that all students are able to access all materials in the class; accessibility not only helps with positive communication, but is required by law. Sometimes it can be misunderstood that we need to address accessibility only if we know of students needing it in our classes, but we are actually required to provide that accessibility universally, in the event there are students with vision or hearing concerns that do not rise to the level of registration with Disability Services. I encourage you to review your materials for accessibility and make adjustments as needed. Included is a link with resources that can explain how to determine accessibility of your materials and how you can adjust it.
Related Resources:
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Invite Student Communication
Sometimes students feel as though their communications with instructors are unwelcome intrusions. Reminding students, both directly and implicitly, that their questions and check-ins with you are valued can assure them that you take their success seriously and are open to communication with them. Besides oral or written encouragement to contact you with questions, you can reframe your “office hours” as “student hours” (which lets students know that time is set aside for them) and include updated student hour information in your email signature information.
Student-Student Interactions
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Share Stories
Students are more likely to feel connected to one another if they get to know each other a bit better. Consider including more opportunities for students to share their own related experiences or stories with one another as a way to open a class (or an online Module) on a new topic. A specific activity could be to use or adapt the “I Am From...”poem activity (or others like it) for students to learn more about one another.
Related Resources:
Parker, P. (2018) The art of gathering: How we meet and why it matters. New York: Riverhead Books.
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Increase Student Interactions
Students will build community the more they are able to interact with one another. With this in mind, consider (further) increasing opportunities for student-to-student interactions in the class, using small group discussions/tasks or dyad discussions/tasks.
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Summarize Discussions
For discussion boards online: To encourage students to read one another’s posts and interact with each other, you might wish to consider shaking up the common approach of ‘post once and respond to two others.’ For example, you might ask students to submit a summary of the discussion so far at a mid-point during the discussion (as a post or as a dropbox submission).
Related Resources:
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Alt Discussion Uses
For discussion boards online: Consider using discussion boards differently to engage students in discussion with one another. Some examples could be to use surprising, unusual prompt questions; offer open-ended “essential questions”; invite students to provide multimedia posts; or use the discussion board as a workspace for group projects.
Related Resources:
Linder & Riggs (2016). Actively Engaging Students in Asynchronous Online Classes. IDEA Paper #64.
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Student Introductions or Ice-Breakers
Students who are encouraged to interact early in the semester are likely to become more comfortable interacting later around course material. One way to help them get to know each other is through an introductory, “icebreaker” activity or, if online, an Introductions discussion topic. Have students start by sharing some information about themselves (e.g., something unique, 2 truths and a lie, bucket list items) and then move on to share their goals for the course or the degree. Students learn about each other and find similar interests and goals, removing some initial barriers and making later interactions easier to begin.
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Give Small-Group Discussions a Goal
Students can be more productive during small group discussions if they are given some kind of goal for the discussion. Therefore, it may be useful to consistently provide guidance for the brief in-class discussions, particularly in terms of an expected discussion “product.” In particular, instructions that include having teams identify the “muddiest point,” “part needing more explanation,” and/or, “thing that makes us most anxious” could be useful feedback to you about their understanding of course content or upcoming assignment instructions.
Related Resources:
Instructor-Student Interactions
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Get to Know Students
Students who feel “seen” by their instructors are more likely to be engaged in the class. Some common ways to do this are to learn student names and details about them.
One way to learn about your students is to have an introductory activity or, if online, create an Introductions discussion topic where students start with some information about themselves (e.g., something unique, 2 truths and a lie, bucket list items) and then share their goals for the course or the degree. Sharing goals helps everyone pivot their focus to the course and creates unity with their shared objectives.
To help you better connect with each student and demonstrate that you care about them as an individual, you might make a student chart that helps you keep track of each student’s preferred name and some basic facts about each student. You can use this as a “cheat sheet” to help you create more meaningful interactions with your students using this information.
Related Resources:
Charting Student Information
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Immediacy Behaviors
Some kinds of instructor behaviors are subtle but can influence students’ positive opinions of both the instructor and the content. You may wish to try to incorporate (more of) these indicators of “immediacy,” such as eye contact with students, movement around the room, vocal variety, open gestures and posture, humor, and giving personalized examples. Before class, consider chatting with students about their dayor other non-class topics.
For online: Some kinds of instructor behaviors are subtle but can influence students’ positive opinions of both the instructor and the content. You may wish to try to incorporate (more of) these indicators of “immediacy,” such as personalized and positive interactions during discussions, fairly quick responsiveness to emails, vocal variety in videos, humor in communications, giving personalized examples, and using emoticons and punctuation to indicate varied expression in written communications.
Related Resources:
Lang, J. M. (2021). Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, 2nd Edition. Wiley.
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Individual Check-ins
Students can feel more valued when they receive an individual communication from their professors. In-person or online, consider checkingin with each student individually once or twice during the semester. If you do this by e-mail, you can create an email template, and then personalize the greeting and perhaps one or two sentences or phrases.
Related Resources:
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Warm Syllabus Tone
Consider ways you might “warm up” the syllabus: The syllabus is often the first official document students see about the class. A friendlier, warmer tone inclines students to perceive the instructor as more approachable and motivated to teach the course. For example, use first-and second-person language (“you” and “me”) rather than third-person language (“the student” and “the instructor”).
Related Resources:
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Instructor Presence
Students feel more connected to instructors who appear to be present in a course. Deliberate efforts to be explicitly “present” may be particularly important in an online class, when students aren’t able to regularly see you in a classroom setting. Some key ways to achieve this, which you may wish to consider, include participating in discussions with students, sharing in the introductions exercises, giving personalized feedback, and sending out regular communications to the class by email or announcements.
Related Resources:
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Discover Students' Course Expectations
When we learn about our students and their expectations for our course, we can have a better understanding of where they are coming from and how to shape their expectations.This alignment, in turn, may create a more positive learning environment and improve your relationship with students. Early in the semester, consider assessing students’ course expectations. Follow-up responses to their input may include small activities that shape their valuation of your course and its content.
Related Resource:
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Set Students' Expectations
Students sometimes have incorrect assumptions about the amount of challenge an assignment might pose. Set too high or too low, they may then become frustrated when surprised by the amount of effort required or, alternatively, maybe reluctant to begin due to perceptions that the effort required is too great. One way to help students have appropriate expectations for an activity is to provide an “anchor,” or description of about how much time and effort an assignment or project will require. If the activity is particularly challenging, it is also useful to let students know that you have plenty of supports in place (such as instructions, checklists, and your availability for consultation), so that they also know that the activity is doable, and their efforts will pay off.
Related Resources:
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Pique Curiosity
Two atoms are walking down the street.
Doesn't this get your attention? Don't you want to hear more? Curiosity is the spur to our flanks, the itch to our scratch.
In education, the traditional tendency is to answer the questions before they've even been asked. We impart information without first provoking that sense of curiosity that will make learners lean in and pay attention to the answer.
You can evoke curiosity in your students using two major methods:
- Create an awareness of a gap in knowledge (Heath & Heath, 2007, 2010b).
- Craft a "story" around your content (Heath & Heath, 2007; Willingham, 2009).
... The rest of the joke: One atom says to the other, "Hey! I just lost an electron!" The other atom asks, "Are you sure?" The first atom replied, "Yes, I'm positive."
Group Work
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Team Contracts
When students work together for a longer project, it can be helpful if they are explicit from the beginning with what they expect from one another and what they can commit to the group. This can be accomplished by setting time aside before other project work for each team to create a team contract; it might be an idea worth considering. If or when any issues arise later, the contract can be a great starting point for a team conversation.
Related Resources:
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Create Team Identity
If students will be working on a group or team project, they may work better together if they have a sense of belonging and team identity. One simple way to do this is to engage them in a few team-building activities, which can include as a follow-up having them create a team name, mascot, or coat of arms.
Related Resources:
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Collect Group Evaluations
When groups work together, there can be varying degrees of effort from the different group members. These differences can be hard to detect without directly asking. You might therefore consider having group members complete surveys of the group’s performance –consider either individual surveys (where each member ratesthemselves and each teammate on effort, timeliness, etc.) or a team’s collective self-reflection on how they worked together. You may wish to use this information to either provide guidance to teams or as a factor in your assessments of the groups or individuals within each group.
Related Resources:
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Grade Individuals
Best practices for group work suggest that there be an individual element to everyone’s grades, so that it does not rest entirely on the group product. Consider scoring yourgroup submissions in such a way that it integrates an individual as well as a team score. For example, you could pro-rate the team’s earned score downward for a student if the team surveys indicate that one individual did not make meaningful contributions to the submission. Alternatively, you could use the group process as a learning tool, but then assess each group member individually on the content learned during the group activity.
Related Resources:
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Assign Group Roles
Groups may work more efficiently and with more purpose when each member has an assigned role. Consider giving a specific role to each student within the group to share responsibilityand avoid one person taking control (or a group diffusion of responsibility). Examples of roles students could perform include: Manager, Recorder, Spokesperson, Librarian, Technician, Consensus Builder, and Reflector.
Related Resources:
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Group Formation
Giving students some autonomy with team member selection can help with teamwork motivation. Consider a hybrid approach, where students choose a partner, and then you combine those partnerships intoteams for your project, using your knowledge of students to create a balance in teams with regard to leadership skills, self-efficacy, and content knowledge. Small groups of 4-5 students are recommended.
Related Resources:
Fittipaldi, D. (2020). Managing the Dynamics of Group Projects in Higher Education: Best Practices Suggested by Empirical Research. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(5), pp. 1778 -1796 DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.080515
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Train Teams
Students are often told to work together in teams but don’t receive any training in how to do so. Beyond creating team contracts, consider setting some time aside early in the project to provide teams with some training of how to work well and productively together. Best practices include returning to team training periodically.
Related Resources:
Fittipaldi, D. (2020). Managing the Dynamics of Group Projects in Higher Education: Best Practices Suggested by Empirical Research. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(5), pp. 1778 -1796 DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.080515
Top tips for group work(Share this with students)
Student Self-Regulation
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Help Students Plan
Students are rarely given guidance about how to plan their time for a course. At the beginning of the semester, consider encouraging them to deliberately plan the time each week (days, times) that they will focus on your class. (They can also be encouraged to do this for their other classes!). It can help to communicate to them that a standard rule-of-thumb for undergraduate classes is to plan for 2-3 hours outside of class for every [credit] hour in the class; if your class is online, this time “in class” must also be factored into their planning. You can remind them that this includes time for reading, doing course activities, and studying notes.
Related Resources:
Time-planning tips and information for college students:
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Reflect on Strengths & Challenges
Sometimes students need an opportunity to reflect on their behaviors as a student and plan how to address them. Near the start of the semester, consider including an activity where students reflect on their strengths and challenges as a student. Then ask them to concretely plan how they might address their challenges this semester (common challenges tend to include procrastination, overload, and mental health issues). It may help to have pre-written sets of resources ready to offer them in support of their goals and challenges, such as videos on time management, links to organization apps (e.g., Google Keep) or articles on organization, and links to mental health resources at ETSU. Also be ready to praise their identified strengths!
Related Resources:
Productivity tips and tricks to share with students:
The Pomodoro Technique Actually Works
Time Management for Busy College Students
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Share Behavioral Motivation Tips
“Motivation” is often cited as a struggle for students, particularly when it comes to settling down and reading, actively studying, or working on an assignment. Sharing resources with students who have this struggle can be useful to them (and sharing what you use might be a nice way to make a small contribution toward studentinstructor relationship).
Related Resources:
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Share Organizational Tools
Getting organized can be as much about mind management as “stuff” management. At the start of the term, or perhaps at a midpoint, when students are asked to pause and reflect, share with them suggestions for organizational tools they might wish to use to help them better keep track of all class assignments (for all classes!), back-planning, task lists, and other things that might otherwise fall out of their head.
Related Resources:
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Give Reminders
Even the best of us have been grateful for the occasional reminder when we are busy or feeling overwhelmed. Consider setting up regular reminders for students before a due date comes up; you or your GA can preschedule these as “Intelligence Agents” email releases (if, for example, students haven’t yet completed an activity in D2L) or in a group text notification app, such as GroupMe.
Related Resources:
Research-based support for this strategy:
The Impact of E-Communication on First Year College Students
Exploring the Effects of Encouraging Student Performance with Text Assignment Reminders
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Teach Mindfulness
Stress or feeling scattered can be common among college students. Although it might seem counterproductive, consider spending a few minutes in class every few class sessions (or post for online completion) leading students through different kinds of mindfulness practices, such as short guided meditations, reflective free writing, or artfocused time. Research indicates these types of activities decrease stress and increase focus – for educators, too.
Related Resources:
Student Metacognition
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Cognitive Wrappers
Students are often not coached in how to reflect on whether their study activities are serving them well toward their goals. One way to help encourage this reflectivity is to have them complete “cognitive wrappers:” After an exam, assignment, or activity, have students reflect on how they studied (or approached their assignment), how well it worked, and how they could improve next time.
Related Resources:
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How to Study
It is common for students to think that “studying” is the same as “looking over” notes or “reading” course texts. They often do not realize that they need to be more active with using the information if they are to learn it. Consider providing them with a list of suggested study strategies; you can even create optional handouts that help them explore more deeply relationships among key course concepts (such as pre-made Venn diagrams or charts).
Related Resources:
Find some good strategies you can recommend to students here:
This article specifically addressees “recall practice.”
You might consider forwarding this link to students: Study Strategies
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Give Feedback on Learning Goals
Students may not always see how their learning habits connect to their goals. You can prompt students to indicate what some of their learning goals are (for the course or a particular assignment), and then provide targeted, supportive feedback on what habits seem to be helping them and what new strategies could give them a boost. (This could be more efficiently done with a checklist you can copy and paste to students, checking off the things you feel would be most helpful for them.)
Related Resources:
How To Give Students Specific Feedback That Actually Helps Them Learn
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Include Reflective Practices
The learning process includes a recognition by students that they have, indeed, learned something. One way to assist them with this realization is to include short, reflective exercises during the semester; these are often done either as writing or recorded exercises. (As a bonus, these can also serve as formative assessment and feedback opportunities for you.)
Related Resources: