Standard 9: Providing Supplemental Learning Devices

While concept and theory are certainly important for establishing a foundation in the learning process, true learning occurs when students can connect those concepts and theories to the real world. Strategies for facilitating these connections range from case studies and scenarios to laboratory experiments and analysis of real data sets. Students can also forge these connections through collaborative creations such as projects, presentations, debates, and group discussions. Online courses, especially, should look for ways to incorporate these real-world strategies as they not only enhance the learning experience but also provide opportunities for student-students and student-instructor interactions, which reduces transactional distance and creates a more comfortable overall learning environment. One effective strategy for accomplishing this is through the incorporation of current events relevant to the discipline. This can be done through discussion topics, application reflections, or chats.

Resources

• OSCQR #31 – “Course provides activities that emulate real-world applications of the discipline, such as experiential learning, case studies, and problem-based activities.”
• OSCQR #42 – “Course offers opportunities for learner to learner interaction and constructive collaboration.”
• OSCQR #43 – “Learners are encouraged to share resources and inject knowledge from diverse sources of information in their course interactions.”
• Quality Matters 5.2 – “Learning activities provide opportunities for interaction that support active learning.”
• Asset-based Pedagogy
• Four Steps to Developing a Comprehensive Online Assessment Strategy
• Interactive Techniques / Active Learning Strategies

Research

• Ambrose, A. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.  
• Principle #6 – “Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning” (p. 6).
• Learning Sciences Insights from Digital Promise and the Institute for Applied Neuroscience. https://researchmap.digitalpromise.org/topics/introduction-learning-sciences/
• Insight #6c – Create tasks and projects that challenge students to write and design for authentic audiences and purposes, including projects that help their local community or are connected to a cause they care about.
• Insight #7 – Students learn well when they feel safe and connected. When students feel that they are part of a positive, supportive learning community, this can reduce anxiety, allowing them to focus on learning. Building stable, trusting relationships with students supports their self-worth and promotes their sense of belonging.
• Insight #8 – Collaboration and social interaction can be powerful learning experiences because they encourage deeper processing and engage the ‘social brain.’ Students are highly tuned to social dynamics and research shows that certain collaborative and relational interactions can drive learning. Harnessing this social drive in the classroom can take students further than they can go alone. Working collaboratively towards a common goal, rather than dividing a project into parts that can be done individually, encourages students to discuss, think about ideas they might not have considered, and learn more than they would if working individually.
• Insight #8a – Promote collaboration and exchange of ideas by structuring projects to require shared learning and co-creating rather than splitting tasks.
• Insight #8b – Encourage students who are working on teams to get to know one another to better understand each other’s perspective. As students build stronger relationships with fellow team members they can move beyond superficial questions to ones that are deeper and more challenging

Portfolio pieces are a key component of many of the programs here at GSU as well as being part of the C2C initiative. As a result, faculty are encouraged to incorporate learning activities, assessments, and/or assignments that could meet a need within their course while also being able to serve as a portfolio piece for the student. Incorporating these pieces into your course is also a great way to bring  real-world examples and relevance to the student experience. 

Resources

• OSCQR #31 – “Course provides activities that emulate real-world applications of the discipline, such as experiential learning, case studies, and problem-based activities.”
• OSCQR #42 – “Course offers opportunities for learner to learner interaction and constructive collaboration.”
• OSCQR #43 – “Learners are encouraged to share resources and inject knowledge from diverse sources of information in their course interactions.”
• Quality Matters 5.2 – “Learning activities provide opportunities for interaction that support active learning.”
• Quality Matters 6.1 – “The tools used in the course support the learning objectives or competencies.”
• Quality Matters 6.2 – “Course tools promote learner engagement and active learning.”
• Asset-based Pedagogy
• Four Steps to Developing a Comprehensive Online Assessment Strategy
• Interactive Techniques / Active Learning Strategies
• Perusall
• Portfolium
• Peermark
• Chalk & Wire

Research

• Ambrose, A. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.  
• Principle #6 – “Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning” (p. 6)
• Learning Sciences Insights from Digital Promise and the Institute for Applied Neuroscience. https://researchmap.digitalpromise.org/topics/introduction-learning-sciences/
• .Insight #6 – Students are more motivated to learn when they are interested, have a sense of autonomy, and understand the purpose behind what they are learning. The level of a student’s interest has been shown to be a powerful influence on learning. Additionally, when students have a sense of control over their own learning, and the opportunity to set goals that are not only personally meaningful but also have the potential to benefit the world, their intrinsic motivation improves. As a result, they are more likely to persist longer at academic tasks and to process information more deeply. Motivation does not replace the important foundational importance of helping a learner engage in behaviors that help them encode, consolidate, and retrieve memories. Likewise, engagement should be directed toward the actual material to be learned.
• Insight #6a – Support interest and autonomy by providing some level of choice. Allow students to choose their own books to read or to select their preferred format to complete an assignment. Offering a limited number of options (3-5) is often the most motivating.
• Insight #6c – Create tasks and projects that challenge students to write and design for authentic audiences and purposes, including projects that help their local community or are connected to a cause they care about.

According to Stavardes (2011), “distance education is more than simply the geographical separation of the instructor and the learners but also includes distance in regard to understanding and perception” (p. 168). This is a concept that Miller (1991) termed transactional distance. One of the key strategies in combating transactional distance is the development of student-student interactions throughout an online course. These interactions can occur via discussion topics but are more rewarding and valuable when they occur in meaningful group work. When considering group activities, projects, or assignments, try to not simply divide the responsibilities of the group amongst its members. Instead, allow for all members of the group to be equal in their input and in the creation of the final product. 

Resources

• OSCQR #42 – “Course offers opportunities for learner to learner interaction and constructive collaboration.”
• OSCQR #43 – “Learners are encouraged to share resources and inject knowledge from diverse sources of information in their course interactions.”
• Quality Matters 5.2 – “Learning activities provide opportunities for interaction that support active learning.”
• Quality Matters 6.1 – “The tools used in the course support the learning objectives or competencies.”
• Quality Matters 6.2 – “Course tools promote learner engagement and active learning.”
• Asset-based Pedagogy
• Four Steps to Developing a Comprehensive Online Assessment Strategy
• Interactive Techniques / Active Learning Strategies
• Perusall
• Portfolium
• Peermark

Research

• Learning Sciences Insights from Digital Promise and the Institute for Applied Neuroscience. https://researchmap.digitalpromise.org/topics/introduction-learning-sciences/
• Insight #6c – Create tasks and projects that challenge students to write and design for authentic audiences and purposes, including projects that help their local community or are connected to a cause they care about.
• Insight #7 – Students learn well when they feel safe and connected. When students feel that they are part of a positive, supportive learning community, this can reduce anxiety, allowing them to focus on learning. Building stable, trusting relationships with students supports their self-worth and promotes their sense of belonging.
• Insight #8 – Collaboration and social interaction can be powerful learning experiences because they encourage deeper processing and engage the ‘social brain.’ Students are highly tuned to social dynamics and research shows that certain collaborative and relational interactions can drive learning. Harnessing this social drive in the classroom can take students further than they can go alone. Working collaboratively towards a common goal, rather than dividing a project into parts that can be done individually, encourages students to discuss, think about ideas they might not have considered, and learn more than they would if working individually.
• Insight #8a – Promote collaboration and exchange of ideas by structuring projects to require shared learning and co-creating rather than splitting tasks.
• Insight #8b – Encourage students who are working on teams to get to know one another to better understand each other’s perspective. As students build stronger relationships with fellow team members they can move beyond superficial questions to ones that are deeper and more challenging.

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. Jossey-Bass

When developing an online course, faculty are oftentimes consumed with the development of content and assessments. In the traditional classroom, communication is natural and class policies/expectations are usually established through class culture, experience, and real time interactions. In the online environment, however, it is beneficial for faculty to develop a more formalized communication strategy that includes examples of the expectations that faculty may have. For example, a specific plan with examples for email communication, discussion postings, classroom netiquette rules, and constructive communication with peers is all appropriate for this type of plan. Additionally, guidelines for collaborative work and peer feedback are all helpful for students so that they may fully understand the communication expectations of the faculty.

Resources

• OSCQR #29 – “Course offers access to a variety of engaging resources that facilitate communication and collaboration, deliver content, and support learning and engagement.”
• OSCQR #42 – “Course offers opportunities for learner to learner interaction and constructive collaboration.”
• Quality Matters 5.1 – Quality Matters 5.1 – “The learning activities promote the achievement of the stated learning objectives or competencies.”
• Quality Matters 5.2 – “Learning activities provide opportunities for interaction that support active learning.”
• Quality Matters 5.3 – “The instructor’s plan for interacting with learners during the course is clearly stated.”
• Quality Matters 5.4 – “The requirements for learner interaction are clearly stated.”
• Quality Matters 6.1 – “The tools used in the course support the learning objectives or competencies.”
• Quality Matters 6.2 – “Course tools promote learner engagement and active learning.”
• Interactive Techniques / Active Learning Strategies

Research

• Ambrose, A. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.  
• Principle #6 – “Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning” (p. 6)
• Learning Sciences Insights from Digital Promise and the Institute for Applied Neuroscience. https://researchmap.digitalpromise.org/topics/introduction-learning-sciences/
• Insight #7 – Students learn well when they feel safe and connected. When students feel that they are part of a positive, supportive learning community, this can reduce anxiety, allowing them to focus on learning. Building stable, trusting relationships with students supports their self-worth and promotes their sense of belonging.
• Insight #7a – Create a classroom environment that nurtures positive peer relationships. Foster peer-to-peer interactions through well-designed cooperative learning activities and by modeling positive, constructive language.
•  Insight #7b – Explicitly teach social and emotional skills, like empathy and kindness, and help students practice using them in multiple contexts.
• Insight #7c – Use trauma-informed practices, such as teaching coping skills and building caring relationships between teachers and students. These benefit all students.
• Insight #8 – Collaboration and social interaction can be powerful learning experiences because they encourage deeper processing and engage the ‘social brain.’ Students are highly tuned to social dynamics and research shows that certain collaborative and relational interactions can drive learning. Harnessing this social drive in the classroom can take students further than they can go alone. Working collaboratively towards a common goal, rather than dividing a project into parts that can be done individually, encourages students to discuss, think about ideas they might not have considered, and learn more than they would if working individually.
• Insight #8a – Promote collaboration and exchange of ideas by structuring projects to require shared learning and co-creating rather than splitting tasks.
• Insight #8b – Encourage students who are working on teams to get to know one another to better understand each other’s perspective. As students build stronger relationships with fellow team members they can move beyond superficial questions to ones that are deeper and more challenging.
• Insight #8c – Ask students to take the perspective of others (e.g. of the people who you are teaching about in social studies or literature) to help students tie the learning to themselves and to a broader perspective.

One of the most common strategies for developing student-student interaction in an online course is the discussion topic. Unfortunately, discussions are also some of the most criticized components of online courses, mainly because of how they are structured. According to Stavredes (2011), “When deciding on the type of discussion to use in your online course, try to stay away from questions with a single or few answers and no room for interpretation” (p. 133). Stavredes (2011) goes on to recommend, “ The best type of question should pose a question or issue of interest in the form of a problem statement” (p. 133). This allows students to connect both current and previous learning to the topic in a meaningful and engaging way. 

Resources

• OSCQR #29 – “Course offers access to a variety of engaging resources that facilitate communication and collaboration, deliver content, and support learning and engagement.”
• OSCQR #30 – “Course provides activities for learners to develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills, such as critical reflection and analysis.”
• OSCQR #31 – “Course provides activities that emulate real-world applications of the discipline, such as experiential learning, case studies, and problem-based activities.”
• OSCQR #42 – “Course offers opportunities for learner to learner interaction and constructive collaboration.”
• OSCQR #43 – “Learners are encouraged to share resources and inject knowledge from diverse sources of information in their course interactions.”
• Quality Matters 5.1 – Quality Matters 5.1 – “The learning activities promote the achievement of the stated learning objectives or competencies.”
• Quality Matters 5.2 – “Learning activities provide opportunities for interaction that support active learning.”
• Quality Matters 5.3 – “The instructor’s plan for interacting with learners during the course is clearly stated.”
• Quality Matters 5.4 – “The requirements for learner interaction are clearly stated.”
• Quality Matters 6.1 – “The tools used in the course support the learning objectives or competencies.”
• Quality Matters 6.2 – “Course tools promote learner engagement and active learning.”
• Interactive Techniques / Active Learning Strategies

Research

• Ambrose, A. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.  
• Principle #6 – “Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning” (p. 6)
• Learning Sciences Insights from Digital Promise and the Institute for Applied Neuroscience. https://researchmap.digitalpromise.org/topics/introduction-learning-sciences/
• Insight #6 – Students are more motivated to learn when they are interested, have a sense of autonomy, and understand the purpose behind what they are learning. The level of a student’s interest has been shown to be a powerful influence on learning. Additionally, when students have a sense of control over their own learning, and the opportunity to set goals that are not only personally meaningful but also have the potential to benefit the world, their intrinsic motivation improves. As a result, they are more likely to persist longer at academic tasks and to process information more deeply. Motivation does not replace the important foundational importance of helping a learner engage in behaviors that help them encode, consolidate, and retrieve memories. Likewise, engagement should be directed toward the actual material to be learned.
• Insight #6a – Support interest and autonomy by providing some level of choice. Allow students to choose their own books to read or to select their preferred format to complete an assignment. Offering a limited number of options (3-5) is often the most motivating.
• Insight #6c – Create tasks and projects that challenge students to write and design for authentic audiences and purposes, including projects that help their local community or are connected to a cause they care about.
• Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. Jossey-Bass.

Georgia State University prides itself on it’s diverse student body and being an inclusive university; a fact that is even included in the institution’s core mission statement. As such, all courses regardless of modality should reflect this fact. While every effort is made to ensure that all students are represented in the design of the course, even more should be considered when student perspectives are taken into account. Developing content, learning activities, and assessments that incorporate diverse perspectives and cultures should be paramount in a course. Additionally, responding to these discussions and providing providing feedback on these learning activities and assessments should be done objectively but also through the lens of appreciation for the diversity of perspective coming from the student. Developing an inclusive culture in an online classroom goes a long way towards the development of a safe learning environment. 

Resources

• OSCQR #43 – “Learners are encouraged to share resources and inject knowledge from diverse sources of information in their course interactions.”
• Quality Matters 5.1 – Quality Matters 5.1 – “The learning activities promote the achievement of the stated learning objectives or competencies.”
• Quality Matters 5.2 – “Learning activities provide opportunities for interaction that support active learning.”
• Quality Matters 5.3 – “The instructor’s plan for interacting with learners during the course is clearly stated.”
• Quality Matters 5.4 – “The requirements for learner interaction are clearly stated.”
• Quality Matters 6.1 – “The tools used in the course support the learning objectives or competencies.”
• Quality Matters 6.2 – “Course tools promote learner engagement and active learning.”
• Interactive Techniques / Active Learning Strategies
• Asset-based Pedagogy

Research

• Ambrose, A. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.  
• Principle #6 – “Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning” (p. 6)
• Learning Sciences Insights from Digital Promise and the Institute for Applied Neuroscience. https://researchmap.digitalpromise.org/topics/introduction-learning-sciences/
• Insight #7 – Students learn well when they feel safe and connected. When students feel that they are part of a positive, supportive learning community, this can reduce anxiety, allowing them to focus on learning. Building stable, trusting relationships with students supports their self-worth and promotes their sense of belonging.
• Insight #7a – Create a classroom environment that nurtures positive peer relationships. Foster peer-to-peer interactions through well-designed cooperative learning activities and by modeling positive, constructive language.
• Insight #7b – Explicitly teach social and emotional skills, like empathy and kindness, and help students practice using them in multiple contexts.
• Insight #7c – Use trauma-informed practices, such as teaching coping skills and building caring relationships between teachers and students. These benefit all students.
• Insight #8b – Encourage students who are working on teams to get to know one another to better understand each other’s perspective. As students build stronger relationships with fellow team members they can move beyond superficial questions to ones that are deeper and more challenging.
• Insight #8c – Ask students to take the perspective of others (e.g. of the people who you are teaching about in social studies or literature) to help students tie the learning to themselves and to a broader perspective.

As faculty, we invest a significant amount of time and effort in building what we consider to be a quality online course. Oftentimes, the course is filled with instructional content, video lectures, and exams designed to ensure that students are mastering the content. We may even include discussion boards and online office hours to help ensure student-student and student-content interaction, but how do we know that our efforts actually translate to a positive and meaningful student experience? In most cases, we simply use the institutional student evaluations. However, these instruments are not enough when it comes to providing insight into a student’s perspective related to the design and delivery of our online course. As such, a strategy for gaining this perspective is to build surveys in the course that specifically target this type of feedback. More so, as faculty we should strive to develop a class culture where students are comfortable providing both positive and negative feedback about the course and we, as faculty, should use that data to inform course revisions. 

Resources

• OSCQR #43 – “Learners are encouraged to share resources and inject knowledge from diverse sources of information in their course interactions.”
• Quality Matters 5.2 – “Learning activities provide opportunities for interaction that support active learning.”
• Quality Matters 6.2 – “Course tools promote learner engagement and active learning.”
• Interactive Techniques / Active Learning Strategies

Examples

We have lots of examples of these in the SOCI 1101 course and the courses developed as part of the online BBA program.

Research

• Ambrose, A. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.  
• Principle #6 – “Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning” (p. 6).
• Learning Sciences Insights from Digital Promise and the Institute for Applied Neuroscience. https://researchmap.digitalpromise.org/topics/introduction-learning-sciences/
• Insight #7 – Students learn well when they feel safe and connected. When students feel that they are part of a positive, supportive learning community, this can reduce anxiety, allowing them to focus on learning. Building stable, trusting relationships with students supports their self-worth and promotes their sense of belonging.
• Insight #7a – Create a classroom environment that nurtures positive peer relationships. Foster peer-to-peer interactions through well-designed cooperative learning activities and by modeling positive, constructive language.
• Insight #7b – Explicitly teach social and emotional skills, like empathy and kindness, and help students practice using them in multiple contexts.
• Insight #7c – Use trauma-informed practices, such as teaching coping skills and building caring relationships between teachers and students. These benefit all students.
• Insight #8d – Having students prepare to teach is a powerful way to engage the social brain, whether or not they end up teaching the material! Teaching others often benefits the tutor the most, so be sure to give all students the chance to be a tutor as well as tutee, or to compare notes on the lessons they prepare.