Welcome!! We’re excited that you’re here and joining us for the Fall 2021 Fostering Student Engagement Seminar.
Estimated time to complete: 1.5-3 hours (depending in part on your familiarity with these platforms)
Deadline: Please complete all Session Prep by Wednesday 11/17, with the exception of comments on each others’ blog and vlog posts, which you should complete before our meetings on Fridays.
Need help? Schedule an appointment with us here.
Learning Goals for Core Session 2 Prep
- Define the Teaching Artifact you will work on developing in the Seminar and articulate your goals for revising it
- Continue to build community and make meaningful connections with your peer group and a wider community of seminar participants
- Access and navigate student-centered resources that support student learning and engagement
- Start to identify opportunities for student engagement in scaffolded course materials
1. Post Blog 2: “Teaching Artifact Proposal”
Post a written description of at least 150 words that articulates (1) what the material is you want to revise (i.e. your Teaching Artifact) and (2) how, generally, you want it to change to further facilitate student engagement. Include your goals for revising your artifact. Are there any tools or approaches you might use —especially ones that you may encounter (or already have) in our synchronous workshops or asynchronous activities?
Then, underneath your description, add the artifact itself as it is now. If it’s text-based, we recommend that you paste your content directly into your post. If your material cannot be pasted as text into the post (because it’s an image, equations and/or charts, etc.), you can add them using “Image,” “File,” or other “blocks” as appropriate. You can also link to it, if it’s on a course site or already online somewhere. For more information on using the block editor and adding media, review the Blogs@Baruch page in the Getting Started module.
Post Blog 2 to the seminar Blogs@Baruch site under the category “Blog 2: Teaching Artifact Proposal.”
Before our next Core Session 2 meeting, please go back to the blogs and leave comments on your peer group members’ posts to say hello, and add a thought about their artifact and/or plans.
Teaching Artifacts: Some Options
- Revamp or develop a new assignment
- Revise syllabus language and/or format to be more student-centered and/or accessible
- Revisit the assessment of a group project
- Introduce an interactive digital tool that encourages students to communicate with each other outside of class
- Create a lesson plan that promotes student interaction and participation
- Develop a more engaging course site
2. Post Vlog 2
In your second Vlog post, tell us about an instance in your teaching where you tried to engage students (successfully or unsuccessfully) and tell us how it worked out?
Depending on whether it’s a “success” story, a “failure” story, or an “it’s complicated” story, you could. . .
- tell us something about your teaching philosophy what you believe is essential to student engagement in your course;
- tell us something about what you want to change or add to the classes you teach; or
- tell us about a time when students “leaned into” the class above and beyond your expectations.
Please keep it to under 3 minutes. Low-tech and low-key is fine!
3. Read and Engage with the Student Guide
What should I read?
Please review the CTL’s “Student Guide to Online and Hybrid Learning,” (15-20 minute read) which has been collaboratively produced by CTL team members and includes contributions from previous Fostering Student Engagement Seminar participants.
What is my task?
Take an assignment or task you ask students to complete for your course (it could be your artifact!), and write a scaffolding for it. (What is scaffolding? Learn about it here.) The scaffolding you propose should offer students resources and steps that promote a supportive, healthy, and gradual development process for completing the assignment. You are encouraged to utilize elements of the Student Guide in thinking about how you could encourage students to access resources, practice work-life balance, and plan for completing work (among other topics).
Optionally, please feel free to tell us what you would modify or add to make the Student Guide more useful for your course? (Example: types or examples of additional resources we could add.) Note that this guide is available under a Creative Commons license, which means that it (or any part of it) is open to remixing and customization for particular departmental contexts.
How do I share my work?
Please use this worksheet (Word document download) as a guide for adding scaffolding to your chosen course material and have your work available during Core Session 2 on November 19th.
You can add your thoughts directly into a shared Google Doc and include your name in parenthesis, or comment anonymously.