Distraction-free online history

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Unlike my in-person classrooms, for my asynchronous online classes I have no control over the physical environment where teaching and learning occur. I value the extended access to learning that online education provides and recognize that I have to change my expectations of how students engage with the material. There are many distractions that challenge them, and I want to plan for (and help them prepare for) learning amidst those distractions.

One way I do this is help students prepare for the online learning environment before our class begins. The first communication they get from me is usually a day or two before the semester officially begins. I publish my Canvas course and then after that post an announcement. What's most important is the video that has my warm welcome, my excitement to help them learn, and encouragement to explore the linked resource for online student success. My college has a self-enroll (and free) course that embeds tutorials for online students that were created by the California Virtual Campus. Those tutorials cover subjects like time management (very important for asynchronous online classes!) and organizing the learning environment. That same course is linked from the orientation module inside our course.

While I can't control whether my students explore those tutorials, I can control how my course is designed and delivered. This includes how I deliver content. The lectures in my course are no longer than 15 minutes each. They're captioned (of course), which some students report is helpful because they are watching lecture in noisy environments. My college has a license for Studio, which means that the transcripts for lectures can also be downloaded. That license also means that YouTube lectures will neither be interrupted by advertisements nor end with recommendations tied to the student's YouTube viewing habits. While I'm sure that students love learning, I also would not be surprised to learn that YouTube recommendations are not entirely educational. 🤣

Within my content modules, each module's lectures is followed by a lecture check quiz. This helps students confirm their understanding of the lecture material and signal that the content-consumption part of the module is over and their cognitive load can focus on new tasks. Each assignment (including lecture check quizzes) includes a color-coded icon that lets students know which course learning outcome connects to that assignment. Those same icons are on my syllabus, as I want my students to understand what my goals are for their learning throughout the semester. I also create assignment groups for each outcome, so those students who are really interested in the assessment of student learning outcomes can view their progress on the Grades page. Surely our students are just as interested as we are in the assessment of each outcome for each student in each class! 😉

I also make the transition between content modules obvious to students. Before they leave a content module, they have to submit a graded survey I call the "ticket to leave." The survey description reviews the material and activity from the module they completed and also previews what the next module will cover. The survey has two questions. One asks which of the module's lectures they found the most interesting. I hope this helps them remember each of the lectures (at least the ones they watched) and firm up some of those neural connections they formed as they learned about the wonderfully diverse tapestry of the past. 

The second question asks which course theme most interests them. I use a series of unanswered questions to help students organize how they view and learn and create stories about the past. These questions are introduced in the syllabus, and each content module has a lecture that focuses on a theme question. For the writing and research assignments, I ask students to connect what they find and create to one of those questions. This culminates in the theme project, where they take one of those questions and analyze how the answer to that question changed during the time period covered by our class. Hence my regular encouragement to think about which theme question most interests them. When we get to the theme project module, I want their learning habits within our class to be ready for them to create an awesome theme project.

Finally, I treat assignment deadlines as guidelines and have a flexible late submission policy. Like me, students have lives outside of our class together, and sometimes stuff happens that makes it hard to complete assignments on time.  Asynchronous online classes already mean content consumption happens at a time that best fits each student's schedule. When they demonstrate what they have learned, I would rather my students not be scrambling to complete assignments at a time set for my convenience. Those distractions will be there anyway, and by giving them more control over when when they get work done they can focus more on what they need to do and how they will demonstrate their learning.