This Week in the LEC

  You may have heard it once or many times over: the way to help to students succeed is to forge a trusting environment and relationship with them. Although research has proven this to be true; however, teaching online is quite different from delivering lessons in face-to-face classrooms. Instructing remotely can sometimes leave both instructors and students feeling a little disconnected. No judgement here, but it can be easy to forget that percipient students do exist in the cyber classroom. So how can instructors help students stay connected in a remote classroom?      Culturally Responsive Teaching   According to Inside Higher Ed, the student demographic is shifting towards becoming more ethnically diverse and attracting more non-traditional adult learners. The good news here is that these are growing demographics, so it is important to foster an inclusive environment  (St Amore, 2020).  Incorporating cultural diversity in online courses can take a little more time to prepare however, “constructing a shared belief through course design may help lessen some of the adverse effects that may be experienced in the online classroom” (Hampton, 2018, p.27). Some ways to improve the method or development of online teaching programs are to:  Know your students (nationality, gender, age, […]

Most instructors know the concept of the flipped classroom. It is an instructional strategy where students complete readings and watch lectures at home and do assignments and discussions in class. With the shift to BlendFlex teaching, instructors can still apply the flipped classroom concept. Instructors need to carefully plan the flipped class time acknowledging their role has shifted from a lecturer to a designer of learning activities. In addition, creating classes in which all students can learn and feel they belong is key. Here are some tips for creating an active learning environment with a focus on engaging students who might be more introverted and less inclined to want to participate in many of the active and collaborative activities that a flipped classroom promotes.   Reflection  The flipped classroom focuses on collaboration and interaction, which can favor the extrovert. Introverts oftentimes prefer working on creative tasks by themselves and therefore, valuable contributions and good ideas from introverts may be missed during the flipped class time. It is important to include opportunities for students to reflect and work on their own in the flipped classroom space. Reflection allows students to think, pause, rethink, make connections to course content and all students can benefit, not just the introverts. Honeycutt […]