24.3: Identifying Student Expectations and Abilities

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Involve students in the teaching and learning process from the start. Students who take part in this process often become more engaged in the course itself. Let them know what you will be doing and how you will be doing it throughout the term. Tell them if you are new to online teaching. At the beginning of each term, I ask students to tell me what they expect from the course, beyond the learning objectives in the syllabus. I will revisit these student expectations later, when I get to creating and using mid-semester evaluation surveys.

If you want to include students in the entire evaluation process, ask them to help create an effectiveness rubric before the course begins. First, tell them the criteria for which you specifically want their feedback. Then ask them how they define online teaching effectiveness. Not only do they have to generate the criteria, they also have to agree on the range that defines how well you meet the criteria. Make sure to provide examples so they can see what typical ranges look like. Let them know up front how many student-defined criteria will go into the rubric. If that number is five, for example, then they can generate as many ideas as they want before voting on the top five. This exercise can be done in small groups or as a whole class, either face-to-face or online.

To prepare for collecting indirect feedback throughout the course, create a benchmark by asking students to perform certain activities at the beginning. For example, ask students to take a small quiz, define common vocabulary, or other minor tasks. In the first week of the course, this activity is not worth any points, though you can assign points to motivate students to complete the activity. Later in the term, you can ask the students to perform the same activity to see how well they are meeting the course objectives or how well they are learning certain material.

Finally, you can improve teaching effectiveness by increasing students’ responsibility for their own learning. Ask students to take a learning preferences survey, such as the Index of Learning Styles created by Richard Felder and Barbara Soloman (find the survey itself and descriptions of learning styles at http://www.ncsu.edu /felder-public/ILSpage.html). Then direct them to turn in the results to you. This will give you ideas about providing multiple pathways for students to learn the same knowledge, skills or attitudes. By considering the student-centred approach, you will improve your teaching effectiveness in the online environment.