Everybody. Mark McBride: It is good to see everyone today. Mark McBride: it's it's my distinct pleasure to introduce a colleague of mine who I admired greatly flower darby.
Mark McBride: I met flower earlier this year um or was maybe possibly last year and coven time you know the calendar has just been ripped off the shelf permanently. Mark McBride: We were in an AC T Conference, and you know a lot of these virtual conferences you try to build a social component and we were in a small breakout room together and there was only a handful of us, but. Mark McBride: We really had a great conversation we talked a lot about online teaching and pedagogy and talked a lot about the learning sciences and flower just. Mark McBride: I mean information was just pouring from her and she was just pouring out our experiences and I was really picking up what she was putting down so when Alex kindly invited me to join her and. Mark McBride: and helping thing through Sunni online flower was the first name that came up I said you gotta grab that person, because she is just wonderful.
Mark McBride: So flower bless you for being here today Thank you so much, my friend, my colleague, and if you do have an opportunity folks I will tell you read small teaching online that's flowers book she co authored. Mark McBride: It is just practical it's it's wise and there are just some great plays, you can add to your playbook add to your repertoire could be a better instructor and a better instructional designer so without further ado, my colleague flower darby. Flower Darby (she/her): Mark Thank you that was way too kind but yes it is fun to connect even in the zoom a sphere, and I appreciate your your warm welcome. Flower Darby (she/her): And I appreciate everybody who is here today, making the time to be here, I know we get a little tired of this space, but. Flower Darby (she/her): it's so wonderful to connect with you, even in this way and so thank you to Alex and Nancy for making all of this possible and for inviting me to contribute, it really is my pleasure and my privilege to do so. Flower Darby (she/her): I have so much to share with you that I just have to jump right in I just can't help it so i'm going to go ahead and pull up some slides.
Flower Darby (she/her): I will say that there are times during the presentation, when I will invite you to engage with me in the chat box it's always optional no worries if you don't want to. Flower Darby (she/her): And I will also encourage you to feel free to use the chat box, for your own interaction, because I know that you all have some wonderful ideas and resources. Flower Darby (she/her): And so, feel free to collaborate there in chat I won't be watching it until I look to see if you're answering me when I asked you questions.
Flower Darby (she/her): And then we will have a little bit of time for questions at the end and mark has kindly agreed to keep an eye on those so feel free to pop them into the chat. Flower Darby (she/her): anytime that they come to mind and we'll save a few minutes at the end. Flower Darby (she/her): To see what's on your mind as well, so we're here today to talk about the spark of online learning it's my new book project is and i'll tell you a little bit more about this during the talk.
Flower Darby (she/her): But I would like to start by introducing myself for who I am when i'm not in my little zoom box, I do spend a lot of time here. Flower Darby (she/her): But this is my amazing family my husband TIM is a strong partner and collaborator in my work we have three teenage daughters, which is so awesome. Flower Darby (she/her): And when it's not a global pandemic we love to travel, we there's a couple of pictures of us in London in before times. Flower Darby (she/her): And then you're going to see a little picture in the in the corner there of what online learning looks like at my house last year, all of my girls did fully online school.
Flower Darby (she/her): that's a picture of two of them playing a game on the living room floor while they're also in zoom class. Flower Darby (she/her): And so, although it's not ideal, I know this is the reality that we are dealing with and their experience and the efforts of their hard working teachers has really. Flower Darby (she/her): brought into my perspectives and given me many new insights since I wrote small teaching online, which is all about asynchronous teaching really.
Flower Darby (she/her): So today's talk encompasses all the ways that we interact with students in virtual environments, whether it is a synchronous or asynchronous like this, or. Flower Darby (she/her): An online component to an in person class so many blended and hybrid options are emerging, and those are here to stay, so we want to make sure that we can make the best of this environment and. Flower Darby (she/her): Really engage our students keep them motivated, despite what I will say, are the challenges of teaching in these spaces.
Flower Darby (she/her): I am going to start right away with a question for you, I would love to know what is one word that describes the way you feel about online teaching again any format any version. Flower Darby (she/her): Would you be willing to put a word into the chat box that tells me how you feel about online teaching. Flower Darby (she/her): excited on practiced hopeful energized thankful work freedom loving uncertain hopeful time consuming innovative love it hopeful grateful challenged anxious empowering. Flower Darby (she/her): joyful passionate yes good I good awesome flexible confident and afford and says, thank you, Robin love it access hopeful innovative love it yay Those are two words but i'm going to take those two word answers.
Flower Darby (she/her): awesome so we did see a big range of words coming in and if you're still putting your word in please do feel free to do that. Flower Darby (she/her): Many of us do see the affordable says, and the opportunities and where we are excited about this, it is job security, I. Flower Darby (she/her): bought lots of diapers by teaching online, for many, many years.
Flower Darby (she/her): It is opportunities, and I think we also recognize that it is challenging it is we don't feel prepared to do this, because this is not what maybe we set out to do. Flower Darby (she/her): I do believe that this is going to change and maybe it is already changing. Flower Darby (she/her): But I believe that many of us who are currently teaching didn't really set out to be awesome online, educators and yet that is what we have in front of us. Flower Darby (she/her): And so what we're going to do today and what we've been doing throughout this amazing summit is really seeing how we can equip ourselves. Flower Darby (she/her): To be more effective, I don't want to gloss over some of the you know less positive words that came in, it is frustrating, it is challenging, it is time consuming and tiring in ways that. Flower Darby (she/her): Online or sorry in person teaching may not be and I think it's important to recognize that range of experiences we're having I would argue that at some point.
Flower Darby (she/her): During your teaching experience you have experienced all of those different kinds of emotions and and situations. Flower Darby (she/her): So just hold that word in mind we're going to come back to it, and I would like to tell you about something that happened in my polities class. Flower Darby (she/her): A few years ago, again in the before times I was getting ready to teach so we didn't go through my whole bio but i'll just mention, which is fine.
Flower Darby (she/her): i'll just mention that I have been teaching college classes for over 25 years on, in sorry in person and online. Flower Darby (she/her): I teach English technology dance polities and leadership, so I love to see how different approaches and different principles apply in the studio and in the online classroom and physical. Flower Darby (she/her): All these things, and so I was running into teach polities at my local gym. Flower Darby (she/her): And I followed a woman who had her rolled up yoga mat and I was like oh good somebody came to class, because it was a beautiful summer day. Flower Darby (she/her): Well, I round the corner into the hallway where the studio is, and I saw her standing outside the open door.
Flower Darby (she/her): And I thought, why doesn't she go in and immediately I answered myself it's because she didn't know she was supposed to. Flower Darby (she/her): I wasn't there yet so, although the door was open the lights were off there was no music playing nobody else was in the room, and I picked up on this really tangible sense. Flower Darby (she/her): of confusion, maybe even frustration, am I in the right place at the right time is class even happening. Flower Darby (she/her): And because I noticed that in the moment I said, are you here for class and she said yes, I said great me to come on in.
Flower Darby (she/her): We got the lights on, we got the music playing more people showed up and we proceeded to have a really amazing class but. Flower Darby (she/her): It really got me thinking about the value of having other people around us, especially if we're going into an uncertain experience or an unfamiliar learning environment. Flower Darby (she/her): And that is what is absolutely lacking in our online classes asynchronous it's even worse. Flower Darby (she/her): synchronous I would argue, this is not the same as if we were all in person together.
Flower Darby (she/her): The physical proximity of other people around us really makes a big difference in our emotional and mental well being in our ability to engage. Flower Darby (she/her): And so that experience got me thinking a lot about how we help our online students who are physically isolated. Flower Darby (she/her): For the most part, how we help them engage and feel welcome and feel like they're in the right place at the right time.
Flower Darby (she/her): No matter when they click into our class so today we're going to focus on how we connect with the people in our classes and foster connections among the people i'm sure this is a theme that has been. Flower Darby (she/her): woven throughout this week summit we're also going to see how we can help students connect more deeply with class materials concepts information in order to learn that information more effectively. Flower Darby (she/her): So I would just argue that, during this time, that we are in right now there is a lot of anxiety that we are all experiencing. Flower Darby (she/her): Even before we started this session, we were talking about events world events, right now, and how that is just so distracting and we don't have all of our cognitive resources.
Flower Darby (she/her): When we are burdened when we are grieving when we are anxious and we are all very, very anxious for many valid reasons, and so our students. Flower Darby (she/her): And so, one of my primary arguments, is that these emotions come into our online spaces. Flower Darby (she/her): We don't check them at the door, if you are logging in to teach online, whether it be synchronous or not, if you're logging in.
Flower Darby (she/her): Whatever you're feeling that day is going to come into your class if you're feeling frustrated if you're feeling disconnected if you're feeling challenged and. Flower Darby (she/her): prepared that can taint what happens in your class, but the good news is, we can turn that around and we can put on really positive emotions and a really. Flower Darby (she/her): optimistic and encouraging mindset and we can share that with our students to enliven our classes students, of course, also bring their. Flower Darby (she/her): Emotions their anxieties their burdens and this has been a very difficult season for all of us, so we want to see how we can support our students recognize that they are whole people. Flower Darby (she/her): They are not brains on sticks, which is a phrase I got from Susan Brock who has a recent book out on embodied teaching and learning. Flower Darby (she/her): We are all whole people, and we need to connect in those ways so.
Flower Darby (she/her): Thinking just for a moment about what we know about online classes, well, I would argue that we don't know enough again this is changing the pandemic has accelerated our learning curve. Flower Darby (she/her): But just bear with me here for a minute and think about how much you know about what happens in physical classrooms. Flower Darby (she/her): Based on your literal decades of experience, being a student or a teacher in a physical classroom.
Flower Darby (she/her): And then Compare that to the I would say, lack of experience that we all collectively have. Flower Darby (she/her): Online when you walk into a physical room, you know what you're supposed to do you expect to see tables or desks facing front with chairs. Flower Darby (she/her): You know where the front of the room is because there's the whiteboard the lectern the slide you know the computer what am I talking about the screen, you know what i'm saying. Flower Darby (she/her): And in an online class, I would argue that we don't have those markers and we don't have those norms, yet the research is always is also not as robust, as it is in person.
Flower Darby (she/her): Yet we're getting there, this is changing, but when I think about my experience and what good online teaching and learning looks like I believe I have a gap there, and so what we are going to help to look at today to. Flower Darby (she/her): inform our thinking and again, you may already be familiar with this, and this may have already come up in this week so i'm going to keep this very, very brief. Flower Darby (she/her): But we're going to guide our thinking, by way of the modified community of inquiry framework, and I do apologize, I should have a citation on this slide. Flower Darby (she/her): it's garrison at all 2000 and I have also added in Cleveland ins and Campbell 2012.
Flower Darby (she/her): So what we're doing here is we're looking at the ingredients of a good online class garrison and his colleagues. Flower Darby (she/her): did some research in the late 1990s, to look at what goes into a really effective online learning experience. Flower Darby (she/her): And they identified these three presences that you see depicted here in the Center of this graphic now to me, these are like ingredients that's what we need, they need to combine in harmony to have a good.
Flower Darby (she/her): You know, effective engaging invigorating learning experience the first one is. Flower Darby (she/her): intuitive to me the cognitive presence we're in a teaching and learning context it's the fault work, what you have put into your online class in order to help your students be successful. Flower Darby (she/her): And also, it is the students thought work, how are they processing new information. Flower Darby (she/her): Remembering it understanding it relating it to what they already know, in order to make sense of it, applying it to solve problems and case studies and such it's the thought work, and that makes sense. Flower Darby (she/her): I would argue that we are still trying to figure out the other two presences the teaching presence and the social presence. Flower Darby (she/her): How do we greet our students in the hallway and say hey i'm glad you're here come on in let's have a good class, how do we interact with our learners in these spaces to guide and facilitate their learning and do the kind of.
Flower Darby (she/her): relational teaching that happens so naturally in the classroom well, I would argue this as that's what we're we're working on still. Flower Darby (she/her): Now, for me, what has become very important is this concept of the emotional presence, a couple of researchers Cleveland ins and Campbell in 2012. Flower Darby (she/her): published an article on proposing on their study which, in which they proposed the addition of emotional presence or to be very accurate. Flower Darby (she/her): The separation of emotional presence from social presence now some colleagues and I at northern Arizona university have conceived of this as so impactful so pervasive.
Flower Darby (she/her): That we came up with this graphic that shows emotional presence kind of impacting everything that we do. Flower Darby (she/her): And it is as we've already talked about it's recognizing that we bring our emotions. Flower Darby (she/her): But more than that it's recognizing that emotions are so powerful Thank you Alex for providing these links appreciate that. Flower Darby (she/her): Emotions as we're going to see in just a minute really impact our ability to process information they they affect our memory, and so we can put them to work. Flower Darby (she/her): And that's where we're going for the rest of this talk, we are going to look briefly at how emotion and cognition work just a very brief overview of five ways that these two things work together.
Flower Darby (she/her): we're going to look at how emotions can help us connect with our students and engage them and help them to stay motivated. Flower Darby (she/her): And then we are going to look at a handful of practical strategies as well, but I would argue, you could apply on Monday, you can work into your classes in true small teaching fashion. Flower Darby (she/her): So this work is based on the spark of learning by Sarah rose Kevin if you're not familiar with this book, it is awesome it literally transformed my whole professional world. Flower Darby (she/her): And it gave me permission to teach in the way that I wasn't sure that was allowed to teach because it's all about putting emotions to work, the Sarah argues that. Flower Darby (she/her): Based on recent neuroscience we now know that emotions and cognition are inextricably linked. Flower Darby (she/her): Here in academia, we have long wanted to believe that the pursuit of knowledge to be cold rational there's no room for emotions here.
Flower Darby (she/her): But that's not actually true, we cannot be without involving our emotions and they do grab our attention they do motivate motivate us and they hold our working memory and our long term memory. Flower Darby (she/her): As Sarah has said before, or, as she has written cognitive resources are limited. Flower Darby (she/her): emotion trump's so if we neglect this area we're doing ourselves and our students a disservice. Flower Darby (she/her): will also be looking at the work of Mary Helen more Dino Yang she's probably the leading researcher on aspect of science and how it interacts with education. Flower Darby (she/her): And again from her own research she argues that these two processes are interdependent, you cannot separate them so let's put them to work for us.
Flower Darby (she/her): let's look at how these two things come together in five specific ways emotions absolutely grab our attention, we are wired to pay attention to the world around us and. Flower Darby (she/her): respond instantly to anything that we perceive as a threat, just as an example, this is fight flight or freeze response if we were to see something out of the corner of our eye that we perceive as danger. Flower Darby (she/her): Our brains release hormones and activate that physical adrenal response before we can even logically.
Flower Darby (she/her): articulate what it was that happened so recognizing the power of emotions to grab our attention and again override all other systems. Flower Darby (she/her): We can put these to work to get our students attention because I would argue it's an ongoing battle to do that and same with motivation so emotions absolutely motivate us now. Flower Darby (she/her): Here we are coming out of the pandemic I hope we're seeing some recent revised guidelines from the CDC and some recent. Flower Darby (she/her): changes in the way we're doing things well, I personally have been sitting in this little box, for a long time, and I would like to get a little bit more in shape, before I start, really. Flower Darby (she/her): Getting back out into the world again so i'm starting a new fitness program and, by the way, this is a little bit hypothetical but just kind of bear with me here, if I were starting a new fitness Program. Flower Darby (she/her): And it's maybe it's a 30 day program and on day one, I login and I do my home video i'm going to feel really pumped and excited about that and i'm going to be more motivated to login on day two and do that.
Flower Darby (she/her): The that day's work out on the other hand, if I missed a one guess what i'm going to feel discouraged that it's going to be D motivating I might be tempted to just give up, so we can put emotions to work in terms of. Flower Darby (she/her): motivating our students as well to do the work that we know they need to do to be successful. Flower Darby (she/her): Emotions absolutely maximize working memory, which is another way of talking about our focus and our attention in the moment. Flower Darby (she/her): As we know, working memory is extremely limited, we can only we have like a little tiny spotlight we can't pay attention to a lot of things, all the time.
Flower Darby (she/her): So if we want to get our students focus and I would say, this applies much of today's talk applies in person, as well as in online environments. Flower Darby (she/her): If we want to hold our students attention on the task at hand when we engage and evoke their emotions we're going to have a much better chance of doing so. Flower Darby (she/her): And certainly emotions maximize our long term memories, we think about.
Flower Darby (she/her): The experience that we are in, right now, and have been into you know, for the last two years, I believe that when we look back on this time we are going to have some very, very vivid. Flower Darby (she/her): camera picture perfect memories of the time that we have been in. Flower Darby (she/her): For example, one of my strongest memories during from this season was being at the graveside service of the man who I would consider to be my second dad who welcomed me into his home and wasn't was a father figure to me when.
Flower Darby (she/her): When I was living with my single mom and so you know those are vivid images, those are impactful memories and when we think about. Flower Darby (she/her): Any is experienced that is imbued with emotions, with strong and powerful emotions that's going to. Flower Darby (she/her): crystallize those memories and that information it works, the same way in our teaching and learning helping students associate. Flower Darby (she/her): Emotions or connect emotionally with what they're learning is going to actually help them, remember that information retain it and have it available to us for other activities that we're doing. Flower Darby (she/her): And then, similar to what we were talking about a few minutes ago with with motivation emotions actually act like a little bit of a rudder. Flower Darby (she/her): So, to speak in terms of steering and not even a little bit they they actually act like a rudder in helping us make decisions, and when we think about this in an academic context let's imagine that a third grade student.
Flower Darby (she/her): You know, raises the hand and wants to ask a question and their teacher is really demeaning and just really insulting and just really maybe she's having a bad day maybe he's just not. Flower Darby (she/her): You know not doing very well that particular moment. Flower Darby (she/her): Well, that negative experience in that pain that that student experiences is going to impact and influence their willingness to. Flower Darby (she/her): raise their hand literally ever again they're going to have a painful negative association with asking for help.
Flower Darby (she/her): But on the flip side let's say you're a college student it's your first semester, and you work really hard for that math test you're worried about math. Flower Darby (she/her): But you really study and do extra practice and you get in there, take that test and you get an A. Flower Darby (she/her): Well, that elation is going to motivate you and help you decide to engage in those productive behaviors there you know from there on this happened to be in my very first semester. Flower Darby (she/her): I took a class that was extremely challenging as a literature major and I got an A and I literally wanted to turn cartwheels when I saw what my grade was.
Flower Darby (she/her): And that motivated my hard work in my classes for the rest of my college career really so emotions really are very, very powerful, I would argue that they're. Flower Darby (she/her): The most powerful thing that we can put to work, especially in in again in the challenging environment that I would say is is our online space so let's put these power tools to work let's see how we can engage them. Flower Darby (she/her): And again just a reminder, and this is this is fascinating to me so here's a big takeaway right here, Mr Dino Yang has argued that it is literally neuro biologically impossible to think about things you don't care about. Flower Darby (she/her): Think about that just for a minute you can't think about something if you don't really deeply care about it, or you can't deeply think about something if you don't care about it.
Flower Darby (she/her): That is just mind blowing to me so a big takeaway is to help your students care about what they're learning help them see the relevance, help them see the usefulness. Flower Darby (she/her): Help them see how it relates to their everyday experience how it's going to help them, we heard this in yesterday's talk on culturally responsive online teaching. Flower Darby (she/her): That when students see how practical and relevant what they're learning is going to be, it will help them to feel and be more successful in our classes. Flower Darby (she/her): So yeah chew on this one later on over dinner tell your partner or your family or your dog.
Flower Darby (she/her): You know you can't think about something you don't think that you don't care about think about committee work have you ever had committee work that. Flower Darby (she/her): You don't really see the value of it, it seems kind of tedious and Monday and if you're not really fully invested that's this principle at work so fascinating fascinating. Flower Darby (she/her): So we're going to look at how emotion and academic achievement work together, for example, we know that positive emotions predict academic achievement. Flower Darby (she/her): In a way, that seems like a no brainer to me if we're enjoying and feeling positive and successful about what we're doing it will motivate again those productive it study behaviors, but there is actual.
Flower Darby (she/her): Robust evidence to prove this, it because the positive emotions actually facilitate self regulated learning, and that is when our students take responsibility for their own learning. Flower Darby (she/her): And set their goals develop strategies and act those strategies monitor those approaches and see if they're working. Flower Darby (she/her): Through that evaluation and then adjust, if needed, all of those behaviors really predict academic success. Flower Darby (she/her): Now, on the flip side, we know that negative emotions impede cognitive engagement and we just referred, briefly, to, for example, math anxiety, we know that when we are worried about something when we are giving into. Flower Darby (she/her): feeling like, for example, imposter phenomenon or stereotype threat all of those kinds of things. Flower Darby (she/her): detract from our ability to engage our cognitive resources, so what we want to do is to think about how we can maximize positive and minimize negative learning experiences now.
Flower Darby (she/her): i've been talking for a few minutes here if anybody would like to take a moment at this time and just kind of share a few thoughts, a few words about. Flower Darby (she/her): Either just in general response to where we've been or how are some ways that you maximize positive and minimize negative feel free to. Flower Darby (she/her): put that in the chat and I do see. Flower Darby (she/her): Peters excellent question i'll take that question and then feel free to keep on adding your own thoughts and comments in the chat box as well. Flower Darby (she/her): So great question Peter and I guess my gut response is well we can't necessarily undo.
Flower Darby (she/her): The experiences that students may have had previous but here's what we can do is to foster a sense of well being and help our students to know very clearly that we are here to support and encourage them. Flower Darby (she/her): I would also think about whether there is opportunity to talk with our students about let's say you really get excited about how emotions impact, cognition. Flower Darby (she/her): Maybe it's a conversation that you have with your class and you talk about.
Flower Darby (she/her): there's all kinds of reasons that students enter into our classes with mistrust with fear with anxiety based on prior life experiences opportunity gaps. Flower Darby (she/her): Negative educational experiences and such and so maybe just talking to our students about we want to try to. Flower Darby (she/her): Set aside any negative associations or fear or mistrust and work to create a positive learning environment again whether it's something you talk about or something you enact through the strategies i'm about to share with you here today. Flower Darby (she/her): I do believe that we can show our students teach our students, that they are in a safe place now, and that we are supporting them and encouraging them. Flower Darby (she/her): So I did see some chats come in, but i'm not reading them because, as you know, it's hard to read and think and talk all same time. Flower Darby (she/her): But I appreciate those of you who have put those things into the chat box, just a quick scroll lets me see that you are putting in lots of great ideas and comments here, so thank you for doing that.
Flower Darby (she/her): We are going to turn our attention now to what can we do if we're in these online environments, and again I. Flower Darby (she/her): would argue that a lot of these things can apply in general, so I would encourage you to be thinking about, no matter where you teach whether it is with your voice students or with your dance students with in a lab in a classroom online, how can we put emotions to work so. Flower Darby (she/her): first thing that I think is so so important is to sustain a welcoming tone.
Flower Darby (she/her): Now what I mean by this isn't it does relate back to that story about polities, we need to help our students feel that they are welcomed. Flower Darby (she/her): They are supported, they are included, and especially again this is culturally responsive, this is equity focused. Flower Darby (she/her): When our students feel that they're in the right place the right time and that they belong in this Community, they will be better able and better motivated to engage cognitively.
Flower Darby (she/her): So here's what I mean about sustaining a welcoming tone, think about online asynchronous online classes, many of us, myself included, recommend that you have a welcome video or. Flower Darby (she/her): some kind of all about me video, by the way, that's why I have that introduction slide at the beginning, is to foster this kind of connection with you that's I didn't comment on it, then, but. Flower Darby (she/her): Anything at the beginning of your class that helps your students see you as a real person is going to help.
Flower Darby (she/her): create these emotional connections with you, it is going to help students feel welcome, they need to see that you are a real person, so if you're teaching synchronous maybe a slide like that. Flower Darby (she/her): Maybe you don't want to show the pictures of your family's faces that's fine pets destinations travel locations hobbies all of these things, help students get to know you as a person. Flower Darby (she/her): same with a welcome video which I highly recommend but here's my thing is that we have to do more than just the first week or the first day of class, we have to sustain that throughout the. Flower Darby (she/her): duration of the class in what is being called a relentless welcome which Peter felton and Leo Lambert have written about in their recent. Flower Darby (she/her): relationship rich education book highly recommended. Flower Darby (she/her): We want to keep on welcoming our students, so that no matter when they click into class they feel like the lights are on the music is playing and they are in the right place at the right time.
Flower Darby (she/her): This has to do with the way that we communicate with our students, for example. Flower Darby (she/her): Making a deliberate effort to infuse support optimism and encouragement into the way that we talk and write to our students. Flower Darby (she/her): i'm teaching an asynchronous class right now, it started on Thursday and I make a deliberate effort in every written or video communication to. Flower Darby (she/her): Bring enthusiasm, because our energy and our enthusiasm invigorates our students and lightens them up.
Flower Darby (she/her): positive and encouraging facial expressions vocal tones writing in the words that we choose really can go a long way to help students feel welcome, we want to. Flower Darby (she/her): be available to them, we want to be present and engaged in our online classes it study came out of 2020 study came out mostly regarding pre pandemic. Flower Darby (she/her): But the number one complaint that online students came this as a survey of over 2000 undergraduate students number one complaint is that their instructor is not there.
Flower Darby (she/her): We have to be there for our students in order to demonstrate to them that we are welcoming to them so lots of I have a few other recommendations on this note, but let's move on to the importance of the importance of being yourself now. Flower Darby (she/her): it's really good to really again bring that whole person I have chosen to show you. Flower Darby (she/her): My family, because they are a big part of how I you know engage with my students as well i'm always learning from my daughter's from their experience, by the way they have told me i'm not kidding. Flower Darby (she/her): That their online teachers are not real people, they have told me that.
Flower Darby (she/her): And so, this is what I mean right, we have to kind of bring our whole selves and be ourselves now, you will notice and the next slide is going to. Flower Darby (she/her): i'm going to preview the next slide here I bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm and passion to what I do maybe this isn't you. Flower Darby (she/her): Maybe when you're teaching, you have a much quieter and more compelling persona I was I mentioned earlier, Peter felton if you ever heard him speak, he is. Flower Darby (she/her): wow a very different styles and I am any hold your attention because he's so passionate he's so compelling in his delivery.
Flower Darby (she/her): And that's what I mean when I write to my online students i'm a natural cheerleader hey everybody like let's say there's an announcement you're doing a great job so far can't believe how far you've come this semester. Flower Darby (she/her): let's keep it going keep the good work up well, that is literally how I am but if that's not how you are don't try to write that announcement you have to be yourself. Flower Darby (she/her): Maybe that's by way of sharing means in announcements, maybe that's by way of. Flower Darby (she/her): Sharing silly pictures of your pets, whatever it is help your students see who you are, as a person, this happens very naturally in the classroom. Flower Darby (she/her): We need to make an extra effort to have this happen online and one of the ways that I do this is to absolutely bring my passion to energize the atmosphere, I would encourage you to do this as well. Flower Darby (she/her): This is one of the ways that we can sustain that welcome and bring our own vibrant personalities, so this is based on the idea of emotional contagion.
Flower Darby (she/her): Which is a phenomenon well documented by which we impact, and we are impacted by the emotions of the people around us. Flower Darby (she/her): You have seen this in action, sometimes you have taught a class and you come out and you're like wow everybody was on fire that day. Flower Darby (she/her): Other times you come out of your classroom you're like man i'm pretty was kind of low what was going on today.
Flower Darby (she/her): That is emotional contagion, and you can put it to work in your online spaces. Flower Darby (she/her): This is why I am literally acting like a clown right now i'm projecting about 300% energy to you right through the webcam. Flower Darby (she/her): This is exhausting when we're done i'm going to collapse in a heap on the floor, but right now i'm with you i'm literally sitting up in my chair, maybe you prefer to teach standing so that you can bring all your physical energy. Flower Darby (she/her): When you're teaching to a camera, we have to amplify our presentation our energy as Karen Costa says in her excellent book 99 tips regarding I don't remember the rest of the title sustainable. Flower Darby (she/her): Easy educational videos Alex will probably find that Thank you in advance if you can. Flower Darby (she/her): Anyway, she argues that the camera eats energy, we have to amplify and over project, whether we're teaching live.
Flower Darby (she/her): or by recorded video bring your extra presentation energy i'm making a strong effort to make eye contact with you, through the camera. Flower Darby (she/her): Big smiles lots of positivity that I am bringing because I am literally very passionate about how good online teaching can be. Flower Darby (she/her): And I want to share that with you, it energizes we can be the sun in our online classes. Flower Darby (she/her): Now, again, we can do this through the way that we write, as I mentioned before, when I write announcements that are very encouraging and kind of cheerleading or motivating think about yourself as a coach or a mentor.
Flower Darby (she/her): ways to infuse positivity and encourage your students, because your energy will enliven your students and, by the way. Flower Darby (she/her): They feed that back to you, then, so if you're feeling disconnected or fatigued or isolated or frustrated or challenged in your online classes. Flower Darby (she/her): One of the best things you can do is pour out more of your energy it's not an endless drain it's going to come back and recharge your teaching. Flower Darby (she/her): Battery so one last really practical way to bring passion, in addition to speaking with enthusiasm and energy to the camera. Flower Darby (she/her): Writing whether it's announcements discussion posts assignment feedback whatever right with. Flower Darby (she/her): Your enthusiasm for what you teach right it's not necessarily about the fact that we're in an online class for you.
Flower Darby (she/her): But bring your disciplinary passion and your enthusiasm, I know you care about your students and you want them to succeed, bring that passion into your interactions. Flower Darby (she/her): And one last again practical thing if you're out in the world somewhere or you're online and you see something that gets your attention you're like wow that is fascinating. Flower Darby (she/her): that's why we're learning what we're learning because of that, but bring it in bring it into your class with a link of post a blog a video. Flower Darby (she/her): and say look, this is why we're learning what we're learning, because your interest your passion. Flower Darby (she/her): Will invigorate your students, so I could go on about all that all day but i'm going to move to another big recommendation and i'll talk briefly about how this works.
Flower Darby (she/her): Designing for emotion is just the idea that we're keeping at the forefront of our mind the power of emotions to engage our attention and memory and such and for me. Flower Darby (she/her): Anything that we can do that creates an opportunity and experience that is more emotionally evocative is going to be much more powerful and engaging. Flower Darby (she/her): To be categories for me, I like to think about the way that we present our material. Flower Darby (she/her): You could have, and this is a very timely and relevant example, you could have a very robust analysis of what's happening in Ukraine right now. Flower Darby (she/her): And if you just put it in words it's a wall of text and your students are just going to get disengaged by that boring wall of text once again my daughters have told me. Flower Darby (she/her): I hate it when there's all this information in canvas so the instant that you put an image, the media, does this all the time right the minute that you put a photo.
Flower Darby (she/her): Or maybe a short video of the actual impact of what's happening in that crisis situation. Flower Darby (she/her): And you've got your students like this in a very, very different way, so let's put those kinds of marketing strategies that you know advertisers do this as well. Flower Darby (she/her): The media does this, I would argue, we can use all the help that we can get in these online spaces put intentional emotionally evocative media in your robust analyses.
Flower Darby (she/her): And, of course, you could break those up as well to help get your students attention now, you can also think, for example, this is how Shakespeare teachers have been teaching forever. Flower Darby (she/her): In order to bring the dry words to life we show videos we show movies that's the kind of thing i'm talking about, I have a friend who teaches poetry in. Flower Darby (she/her): An online asynchronous class and he provides audio recordings of the poets narrating their phones because they're intonations their performance, the emotion that we can hear in their voices. Flower Darby (she/her): brings out the meaning so think about the way we present material in order to grab and connect with students emotions and the other big category for me is the activities that we give our students. Flower Darby (she/her): Again, anything that evokes an emotional response is powerful much more engaging I know a biology instructor who has his students go to the local target walmart grocery store. Flower Darby (she/her): Take a sample from the shopping cart handle analyze it for the microbes that are in that handle I mean in that sample gross right disgusting but also fascinating.
Flower Darby (she/her): and relevant I use that shopping cart every week, so any anything that we can give our students to do that brings the learning to life that grabs their emotions again they're going to be more naturally engaged. Flower Darby (she/her): I have a friend who teaches pop culture in literature and film in an online environment she in a discussion forum asked her students to. Flower Darby (she/her): describe one superpower that they would choose and it's such a fun discussion it's not hard to elicit discussion responses when it's something fun that students want to talk about. Flower Darby (she/her): And then, by way of her facilitation she encourages students to you know, think about class themes as well character development authorial motivation. Flower Darby (she/her): Now I have another yeah let's let's talk about how we can design for emotion, because that's again kind of a big category. Flower Darby (she/her): One of the things that we can do is to engage students curiosity and interest to demonstrate this and then I invite you to play a little trivia game with me by by chance if you've seen this talk before.
Flower Darby (she/her): don't give away the answers but i'm going to ask three questions, based on research from 2017 survey of over 13,000 faculty members teaching two year and for your classes or sorry institutions. Flower Darby (she/her): And these are pre pandemic, these are people who taught online or who never taught online So if you would guess these responses three trivia questions from this survey. Flower Darby (she/her): What percentage of those 13,400 faculty members believe that online teaching makes it more possible for more people to go to school online education. Flower Darby (she/her): Do more people have access to a college credential because of online education 89% 20% 190 4060 9035 1085 130 we're all over the map, today, the answer is 79% in 2017 believe that this makes it more possible. Flower Darby (she/her): What percentage of those respondents thought that online education doesn't work that students don't learn as much 79% 2530.
Flower Darby (she/her): 8550 yes almost half now, I find that very motivating because I believe, in fact, the research shows online education can absolutely be as effective, if not more so when we do it well that's the key last question from here. Flower Darby (she/her): What percentage of those faculty respondents prefer to teach online don't really need to teach in person anymore. Flower Darby (she/her): Love teaching online again this is pre pandemic primarily asynchronous 6058 7535 we're all over the place 1565 4060 34 9%. Flower Darby (she/her): Of faculty respondents in 2017 said I prefer teaching online, well, here again, I believe that we can love teaching online, but. Flower Darby (she/her): This this this particular statistics motivates me now let me explain what we did here, I was designing for curiosity and interest in the way that I was asking you to guess the outcome. Flower Darby (she/her): Of these particular questions, so I know that once you put your number in you were on the edge of your seat, you could hardly wait to find out what the real answer was.
Flower Darby (she/her): And that's how this works Okay, I know i'm being silly but getting your students to guess to wonder to predict asking your students questions, giving them things that they might naturally be curious about. Flower Darby (she/her): That is an awesome and very effective way to engage those knowledge emotions of curiosity and interest so on this note, we can ask interesting questions and we can design interesting scenarios there's research to show. Flower Darby (she/her): An economics class students in the control group were given a well all the students were told you have to make a project plan a business plan to open a coffee shop in the neighborhood and see how it's going to create a margin, you know turn a margin of profit wow words. Flower Darby (she/her): In the experiment group students were given a story here's the neighborhood you're going to be opening your coffee shop in here are the people who will be coming in every day here's the. Flower Darby (she/her): here's the incentives and the goals and the rewards and the researchers, were able to show a statistically significant deeper and better understanding of economics concepts. Flower Darby (she/her): Because there was a story so use stories use case studies create personas relate what we're learning to our everyday experiences and you will more naturally engage your students.
Flower Darby (she/her): i'm also going to encourage us and i'm coming up to the end of all my strategies here, I know it's kind of fire hose. Flower Darby (she/her): Maybe maybe there's one or two things that you want to choose and remember from today come back to the recording or your notes later to look for other things. Flower Darby (she/her): But so we're going to wrap up here soon, I am going to encourage us to look for ways to build rapport and trust, as we talked about earlier. Flower Darby (she/her): Our students can feel very anxious, they can feel extremely uncertain, they can feel isolated and as if you are not there, especially in an asynchronous class it's really easy for students to feel that way.
Flower Darby (she/her): Some fascinating research that came out in 21, I think, maybe 2020 Rebecca glazier is the lead author on this. Flower Darby (she/her): The researchers designed a very simple experiment, where they created two different asynchronous online modules one had pretty much nothing in there about the instructor no guidance, no. Flower Darby (she/her): Feedback just very kind of cut and dry kind of transactional go through and do your things. Flower Darby (she/her): And in the other module there was a picture of an instructor which by the way, was just a stock photo but, at least, there was a face with the instructors name. Flower Darby (she/her): There was some guidance about how to get started on the class there was immediate feedback on the token quiz there was kind of an example quiz after a reading.
Flower Darby (she/her): And the researchers, not surprisingly, were able to clearly demonstrate that students in that second module. Flower Darby (she/her): were more willing to spend more time there they were more engaged more clicks and more persistence so anything that we can do to help our students see us as real people. Flower Darby (she/her): and build the rapport even by way of providing a little bit of guidance some instructions.
Flower Darby (she/her): that's actually going to build trust and when we have that trusting environment students will feel safe, they will feel that they belong, they will have more cognitive capacity to engage. Flower Darby (she/her): Just a couple of other ideas to finish up with here, as we know, designing for choice invites learners to. Flower Darby (she/her): again choose what they're interested in right it comes back to that. Flower Darby (she/her): And so, giving options wherever we can and we're going to be looking at universal design for learning for this one again, this is probably not a new idea to many of you who are here today.
Flower Darby (she/her): But there is a whole element, the whole guideline in udl, which is about emotional engagement, because it is so powerful giving learners choice, maybe it's. Flower Darby (she/her): They can post an asynchronous written post or a video maybe it's that they have a topic choice of what they're going to research, for their presentation or project. Flower Darby (she/her): Yesterday, in the culturally responsive session we heard about helping students to find out, you know choose to find out more about the water quality in their own neighborhood as an example, so inviting choice, wherever we can is just one simple way to engage more of an emotional.
Flower Darby (she/her): connection and, just in case you're going Okay, how are we going to add in all these choices you in case you haven't come across the amazing Tom Tobin I love his work with kristin bailing. Flower Darby (she/her): On plus one thinking in their book reach everyone teach everyone the idea of adding one little choice one little option here and there, as we teach each class and those kind of build up in an iterative fashion. Flower Darby (she/her): And then, finally, the last recommendation that I will have for you is to really bring fun into our classes, a couple of pieces here that we can look to I love the work of Lisa forbes and some colleagues of hers thinking about how games can build those relationships foster that community.
Flower Darby (she/her): Foster that kind of trust and that well being that positivity so I love her points about sometimes just games just for fun. Flower Darby (she/her): Just to build again relationship and help people feel confident and comfortable or what we can do in on it sorry asynchronous classes and, of course, we all know, there are learning games that we can implement. Flower Darby (she/her): Again online, whether that be cahoot or other kinds of ways to bring fun into our classes in order to foster that deeper motivation engagement and cognitive processing as well.
Flower Darby (she/her): So i'm going to finish one with one question for you, I got some really great answers, the first time I asked this i'm curious now. Flower Darby (she/her): What is one word that describes the way you feel about online teaching has your word changed, is it the same love to know what's on your mind as we wrap up. Flower Darby (she/her): These slides and we're going to open it up now for questions and your conversations and your ideas. Flower Darby (she/her): So Maggie says she feels amazing there is opportunity, thank you cheryl possibilities ideal encouraged still exciting same word I love it creative. Flower Darby (she/her): hopeful vibrant, yes, we can be vibrant in these spaces and we can support our students it's an equity imperative to create really invigorating online experiences, because many of our students who choose to take online. Flower Darby (she/her): wouldn't be otherwise able to take college classes so innovative excited to experiment energetic expired expired inspired not expired.
Flower Darby (she/her): Good okay i'm going to stop talking i'm going to take a SIP of water and we'll see whether any questions have come in, or what other questions we have, at this time. Mark McBride: While we're Thank you so much. Mark McBride: there's been a lot of chatter in the chat box of a monitoring and i'm not sure if I missed any of the questions but flower do you want them to type it in chat or is it Okay, if people on mute. Flower Darby (she/her): yeah you know I feel like we have a little bit of time that if somebody wants to raise a zoom hand and unmute that's fine or putting in the chat box is great.
Flower Darby (she/her): And meanwhile, again, I know there were some good contributions that came into the chat that I didn't see so feel free to highlight those and bring those to my attention to. Flower Darby (she/her): Maureen Larson so an awesome question and mark if you don't mind i'll just if I see the question i'll just address it, but if i'm missing something mark, please feel free or if i'm missing a hand feel free to just interrupt me. Flower Darby (she/her): Maureen has a really great question on where we can find data says online teaching can be as or more effective. Flower Darby (she/her): I rely pretty heavily on the work of Barbara means me EA n s she has led various studies that show this, and in particular the pretty sure the year is 2014.
Flower Darby (she/her): A Meta analysis, showing that learning outcomes again can be more effective in online, I think the conclusion of that report as well. Flower Darby (she/her): has to do with blended being really, really optimal and that's coming out very frequently now that when we are able to have the best of both worlds, the asynchronous for the flexibility and the in person for for more engagement and connection in that way blended can be. Flower Darby (she/her): yeah, thank you to those of you who are putting some some chats in blended can be ideal, but there is evidence to show that online outcomes can be better actually it's just a matter of figuring out how we do it well. Flower Darby (she/her): Thank you Maureen I see your follow up comment, and I honestly, I think that your department chairs are right, because. Flower Darby (she/her): Online courses can be very inequitable for students, we know that students of color fare worse in online classes. Flower Darby (she/her): We know that attrition rates are higher in online classes exactly for all the reasons we talked about today, the lack of connection.
Flower Darby (she/her): lack of motivation, the lack of a scheduled, quite frankly, if you sign up for a class that's Tuesday Thursday 9:30am you know, if nothing else you're going to try to get to that class meeting. Flower Darby (she/her): Online classes require a lot more independence and autonomy, even if where they're being present and engaged and so yeah there are very and equitable outcomes with online classes, but there's a lot that we can do. Flower Darby (she/her): To overcome those and, for me it has the most, the most important thing we can do is to prepare our faculty to be effective in these spaces. Flower Darby (she/her): So. Flower Darby (she/her): I see another couple of good pieces coming in, thank you, Peter.
Flower Darby (she/her): I do see a question from Camille again mark is there anything before camille's or shall I jump to that one. Mark McBride: that's the one I was going to point out. Flower Darby (she/her): super Thank you so much. Flower Darby (she/her): And now I already lost it. Flower Darby (she/her): New modalities that I see persisting yeah thanks and all of them. Flower Darby (she/her): Quite frankly, the the benefit of doing what I get to do, which is to.
Flower Darby (she/her): keep a very careful finger on the pulse of very attentive eye on the media and on what's happening in higher ED and then in conversations with faculty instructional designers and administrators, this is the bulk of what I do these days. Flower Darby (she/her): Online teaching is not going away hi FLEX in however you define that term, there are various definitions, it is not going away. Flower Darby (she/her): More hybrid and more blended these will be more prevalent many, many colleges and universities, who didn't really do much in the way of online have figured out, they need to do more. Flower Darby (she/her): Dual streaming which is my favorite term for when you have students in the classroom and other students joining on zoom dual streaming or blended synchronous. Flower Darby (she/her): that's going to be continuing to be a thing, so if I think about future proofing certainly asynchronous is not going to go away, that is the largest and. Flower Darby (she/her): Historically, the largest percentage of online classes are asynchronous and again that enables people to get college credentials, who otherwise wouldn't be able to so that's going to absolutely c
2022-03-12