Our daily thought/application board
My concern
Headed into the fall with my hybrid class, I was concerned that my remote students would be disconnected from the class. I was teaching a 400-level course with 18 juniors and seniors, two of whom were remote. How could I make sure that these students felt as engaged in the course as my on-campus leaners?
Our solution
Something that athletic coaches do extremely well is to “teach the system” as they embark on any new season. Drawing from my previous coaching career, I turned to my team – the students – to work together on how we would pursue both task and social cohesion in the class. Together, we created a working document <would link to your doc> that was appended to the syllabus. This document helped us develop “our system” – how the class was going to run. So, things like being prepared, going to class meetings, etc. were included, but the students’ additional ideas were added to specifically engage the in-class and remote learners. Things like:
Be sure to sit in a different seat every week.
Each class meeting, a different in-class student is assigned to monitor the chat box to help field questions and comments from the remote students.
After each class, post pictures of the white board to Notebowl in case there was any resolution Ch7[GHL1] issues for the remote students.
Utilize Google meet between remote and in-class students. Every time there is group work, an in-class student is paired with a remote student.
Add your contributions to the thought/application board as soon as you come into class. One student is assigned to the remote students each day. They check the chat function, adding contributions to the whiteboard.
Reflections
By co-creating this document, my students took ownership in their learning experience.
I appreciated their maturity and willingness to look out for the best interest of their fellow learners – remote and in-class. Through this approach, my remote students feel like full, contributing members of the class.
Gregory Lott
Health, Exercise, and Sport Studies/Big Red Athletics