Practice as You Preach

Description

It's much easier to participate when we know how to.

Model how and when you want students to participate in discussions and provoke their opinions and thoughts in your discussion forum/ Chat. If you invite them to share additional learning material that they encountered, do so as well and provide it with a short info!

Further, students bear some responsibility for the success of the course, including a (potentially) cold or fun atmosphere, so do communicate your expectations as well as your vision for the chat clearly: is it a “tea room”, a “Q&A”, a "library of threads and contributions on specific topics" or should it be considered a “glossary” etc.?

After all, if you want your students to be active in written discussions, practice as you preach.

Note
Use cases

In every course with an interactive element.

  1. Stud.IP announcements: you can state your intentions for course interaction and discussion in a prominent place in Stud.IP.
  2. Syllabus: to state your intentions for course interaction and discussion.
  3. Weekly e-mails: Use your first course email to set the tone of the course.

MINI: You can use these tips quickly and with little effort in your current teaching.

  1. Communicate very hands-on in a prominent place what you expect students to do regarding:
  2. Preparing sessions/ following the courseware material (workload),
  3. How to handle uncertainties about a topic,
  4. When to reach out and respond to others,
  5. Additionally, clarify what students can expect from you.
  6. Do what you preach and get involved in the discussion forum / chat by:
  7. Posting thought-provoking questions,
  8. Posting controversial news articles or quotes about the topics,
  9. Ask for student's opinions,
  10. Use anonymized old assignment results to illustrate a point you made in class or in the courseware.

Consider recording a short video in which you explain your teaching approach as to underline the reasoning for your expectations and intentions (for tools and implementation steps see Micro lectures). - Include guidance on how to succeed in the course (and what interferes with success) if this is connected to how you intend the interactions to go. - A code of conduct clarifies how you expect everyone to respond to each other. - Literature finds that more demanding courses with high expectations are rated better by students.