According to 2009 Beloit College Mindset (Nief & McBride, 2009), students today are different than those of just a decade ago and include some of the following demographics.  More students:

• are older than 25
• are working while taking classes
• are veterans
• need remedial classes
• are part-time students
• are from single-parent or step-parent homes
• have a minority or immigrant background
• have English as a second language
• have a learning or physical disability
• have taken college courses while in high school

Here are a few tips and techniques that can help faculty understand, engage with and effectively teach first-year students.

Connect with First-Year Students

Make connections with students despite age, values and experiential differences. When discussing new or controversial course content, bring in examples to which students can relate. For example, use a reverse-debate format in which students take opposing side to what they believe.  Here are a few tips for interacting with first-year students in the classroom from Carnegie Mellon University (1997):

1. Ask lots of questions in class that stretch students’ thinking. For example, begin with simple recall questions such as, “List the” and “Who did” and increase the complexity of the question to those that challenge students higher order thinking such as “Which _____ is the best? Why do you think so?” and “Give and justify your opinion on _______.”
2. Mingle with students as they work in groups to encourage dialogue and interaction.
3. Toss a Koosh ball to students. The student who catches the ball is expected to answer the question. Students can then toss the ball to another student, and so on. This interactive nature of questions and answers can lead to more engaged learning. The activity can also relieve stress, especially at the beginning of the semester.
4. Have students write responses to questions on flip chart paper or white board using colorful markers.
5. Use games and simulations to help students “visualize complex systems” such as simulating an environment otherwise not possible in the classroom. For example, provide color-enhanced images of the inside of a cell or show a video of chemical reaction. Each of these strategies can help students better understand the environment (Oblinger, 2004).
6. Learn students’ names. Students are more likely to interact when called upon by name.
7. Relate required reading to lectures and course discussions. Ensure course assessments (quizzes, exams, and assignments) include material from required readings.
8. Arrange students to work in groups to encourage out-of-class interactions.
9. As part of the non-instructional course objectives, teach first-year students how to prepare for assignments and exams. Provide previous exams and sample of graded papers so students get a feel for how course work is graded.

Be Personable

Share some personal experiences, such as how interest in the subject started or stories from college days. Faculty can let students know that faculty can be trusted and that students can share feelings and questions. This is especially helpful for first-year students seeking to establish a place in the university community. Sprinkle in a bit of humor now and then to reduce the formal nature of class.

Make Course Content Relevant

Relate what may be new course content to many first year students, to their knowledge and interests. Show students the importance of the content, how content relates to required readings, and how content can actually be used.

Give and Receive Feedback

Provide ways to give and receive feedback throughout the semester and use rubrics to help students understand expectations and methods of assessment. Grade assignments and exams quickly so students can use feedback to prepare for new content and future assessments. Give meaningful and timely feedback and solicit feedback to add credibility to teaching approaches. Some examples are:

1. Give frequent quizzes – Blackboard is an easy-to-use venue for low-stakes assessments.
2. Use email to set up appointments, clarify course expectations and communicate with students. Establish email protocols such as how quickly questions will be responded to, if questions  will be responded to over the weekend, how faculty would like to be addressed and if using complete sentences and proper punctuation (instead of “texting” language) is expected.
3. Give short assignments that increase in complexity to measure comprehension of course content.
4. Use “One-minute-papers” to get a snapshot of student comprehension of ongoing content. These papers allow students to quickly reflect on content just covered in class and will help identify areas that might need further review.
5. Ask questions such as, “What was the clearest point in today’s class?” and “What the muddiest point was in today’s class?” Ask students to write their responses on note cards and submit before leaving the room. Incorporate student responses in the next lecture or address them directly in class.

Believe in Students

Begin each semester with the assumption that all first-year students come to class eager to learn. Although the faculty member is an expert in the discipline, students should be allowed to express their points of view. Listen to what first-year students have to say, allow discussions that diverge from the planned lecture and invite students to help devise course policies and rules related to projects and assignments. Students who have a voice in their own learning will find a more rewarding learning experience.

Summary

It is essential that faculty help first-year students successfully adjust to new living and learning environments. By understanding what it means to be a first-year college student and recognizing the demands first-year students face while transitioning to the university community, faculty can provide engaging, challenging and supportive learning environments.

Selected Resources and References

Carnegie Mellon University (1997). Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence. Best practices for teaching first-year undergraduates: Strategies for experience faculty.  Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/resources/ PublicationsArchives/InternalReports/BestPractices-1stYears.pdf

Nief, R., & McBride, T. (2009). The Beloit College mindset list.  Retrieved from http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/

Oblinger, D. (2004). Boomers & gen-xers millennials: Understanding the new students.  Retrieved from http://www.starlinktraining.org/packets2004/packet129.pdf

Greener living has increasingly become a central issue in American life. In our personal lives, we recycle, use reusable bags at the grocery store, and light our homes with CFL bulbs. However, what can we do to make our teaching practices environmentally friendly? There are many simple changes faculty and instructors can make to decrease the impact their classroom has on the environment.

For example, use less paper by posting class documents online (in Blackboard, for those at NIU). Accept assignment submissions electronically rather than  on paper, and return grades and feedback the same way. Even something as simple as turning off classroom lights can save electricity and help make teaching more environmentally friendly.

For even more techniques, go to the new Greener Teaching Techniques resource page compiled by the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center:  http://www.facdev.niu.edu/facdev/resources/greenerteaching/index.shtml.

If you have any additional suggestions, post them in the comments or send them to facdev@niu.edu!

Some initial questions to get discussion started include:

• What does every online instructor need to know?
• What recently has worked really well in your online teaching?
• What recently have you tried that wasn’t as successful as you had hoped?
• What advice do you have for others who are considering teaching online for the first time?
• Any new tips, tricks, or tech that you’ve found and have implemented in your online teaching?

For more details and to register, visit http://www.niu.edu/facdev/programs/online

Please pass this info onto anyone at your campus who you think might be interested in participating. If there is enough interest, we could consider offering similar sessions in the future.

Why wait for student evaluations to receive feedback on teaching practices? Microteaching provides an opportunity for faculty and teaching assistants to improve their teaching practices through a “teach, critique, re-teach” model. Microteaching is valuable for both new and experienced faculty to hone their teaching practices. It is often used in pre-service teacher training programs to provide additional experience before or during the clinical experiences.

Microteaching is a concentrated, focused form of peer feedback and discussion that can improve teaching strategies. It was developed in the early and mid 1960’s by Dwight Allen and his colleagues at the Stanford Teacher Education Program (Politzer, 1969). The microteaching program was designed to prepare the students for their internships in the fall. In this early version of microteaching, pre-service teachers at Stanford taught part-time to a small group of pupils (usually 4 to 5). The pupils were high school students who were paid volunteers and represented a cross-section of the types of students the pre-service teachers would be faced with during their internships.

Why use microteaching?

Microteaching has several benefits. Because the lessons are so short (usually 5 to 10 minutes), they have to focus on specific strategies. This means that someone participating in a microteaching session can get feedback on specific techniques he or she is interested in exploring. In a pre-service or training situation, participants can practice a newly learned technique in isolation rather than working that technique into an entire lesson (Vare, 1993).

Microteaching is also an opportunity to experiment with new teaching techniques. Rather than trying something new with a real class, microteaching can be a laboratory to experiment and receive feedback, first (Kuhn, 1968).

How does micro-teaching work?

In the classic Stanford model, each participant teaches a short lesson, generally 5 to 10 minutes, to a small group. The “students” may be actual students like in the original Stanford program or they may be peers playing the role of students. In the case of pre-service teachers and teaching assistants, there generally is at least one “expert”, as well. If desired, the session can be videotaped for review at a later date (Vare, 1993).

The presentation is followed by a feedback session. In some cases, the feedback session can be followed by a re-teach, so that the faculty has an opportunity to practice the improvements suggested during feedback (Vare, 1993).

Giving Feedback

Receiving criticism is difficult for everyone. Setting a tone of respect and professionalism may help participants to be tactful and to keep feedback constructive. Here is an example of ground rules used by the CASTL program at California State University (http://fdc.fullerton.edu/learning/CASTL/carnegie_microteaching_materials.htm):

Ground Rules

1. Respect confidentiality concerning what we learn about each other.
2. Respect agreed-upon time limits.  This may be hard, but please understand that it is necessary.
3. Maintain collegiality.  We’re all in this together.
4. Stay psychologically and physically present and on task.
5. Respect others’ attempts to experiment and to take risks.
6. Listen and speak in turn, so everyone can hear all comments.
7. Enjoy and learn from the process!

Feedback should be constructive and based on observation, rather than judgments. A good example of feedback is “You fidget with your pen while talking, and that is distracting,” rather than “You seem nervous and unprepared.” The first comment is about observable behavior, while the second is a judgment about what that behavior means.

Commenting on observable behavior also leads to suggestions for improvement. Again, using our pen example, a better example of feedback would be “You fidget with your pen while talking. Perhaps it would be better to keep a hand in your pocket.”

In the Stanford model, feedback was given using a 2+2 system. Each participant started his/her feedback with two positive comments, followed by two suggestions for improvement. This gives the faculty a sense of his or her strengths as well as areas of improvement.

How can microteaching be used?

The most common application for microteaching is in pre-service teacher training, like the original Stanford model. However, that certainly isn’t the only application. Microteaching has also been used to train teaching assistants and new faculty on teaching methods. Even experienced faculty members can refine their teaching techniques using microteaching.

A similar technique, microrehearsal, has been used to train prospective music conductors (Kuhn, 1968). Like microteaching, the students conduct a 5 to 10 minute rehearsal with sample musicians. Following the rehearsal, the musicians provide feedback on the prospective conductor’s rehearsal technique.

Microteaching techniques can also be used in other fields. In business, microteaching can be used to focus on presentation skills, persuasion and negotiation techniques, and interviewing techniques. In counseling and social work, microteaching can be used to hone questioning skills as well as active listening skills. It also applies outside of the classroom. For example, departments like Career Service can use microteaching techniques to prepare students for job interviews.

Ultimately, microteaching is a useful technique for teaching soft skills, presentation skills, and interpersonal skills. This focused approach encourages growth through practice and critique. The “teach, critique, re-teach” model gives the faculty immediate feedback and increases retention by providing an opportunity for practice.

References

Kuhn, W. (1968). Holding a Monitor up to Life: Microteaching. Music Educators Journal, 55(4), 49-53.

Politzer, R. (1969). Microteaching: A New Approach to Teacher Training and Research. Hispania, 52(2), 244-248.

Vare, J. W. (1993). Co-Constructing the Zone: A Neo-Vygotskian View of Microteaching. Retrieved January 23, 2009, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED360285.

http://www.ln.edu.hk/tlc/learning_matters/01-99-0399.pdf

http://fdc.fullerton.edu/learning/CASTL/carnegie_microteaching_materials.htm

Asking students challenging and thought-provoking questions encourages students to tap their existing mental models and build upon previous knowledge. Faculty can ask key questions to get students to see the relevance of a topic. In turn, it is hoped that students will then ask follow-up questions, engaging in dialogue while critically analyzing viewpoints shared. Therefore, by encouraging students to ask questions faculty provide opportunities for students to become actively engaged in the learning process while also developing valuable metacognitive skills that will benefit them the rest of their lives.

This article shares tips for designing and asking effective questions, during the beginning, middle and end of class, as well as asking questions outside of class.

Tips for Designing and Asking Effective Questions

In his powerful book, The Craft of Teaching, Kenneth E. Eble (1988) shows the essential connection between “the art of asking questions” with meaningful class discussions (p. 88). Eble suggests “three cardinal principles” when forming questions:

1. “Ask real questions even though they may seem off-hand, simple, or imprecise.” Avoid using stock questions that fail to match course content and worst of all, your teaching style. Instead, form questions that are related to course content, current and ongoing discussions, and ones that are interesting to your students. Finding students’ interests can be achieved through an early course survey and more intimate classroom discussions.



2. “Be ingeniously responsive to the students’ answers and questions.” Class conversations, as Eble suggests, should be accepting of all points of view, whether or not the answer is correct, “vague, wandering, irritating, or whatever” (1988, p. 89). In other words, everyone should feel comfortable answering questions without fear of ridicule, non-acceptance, or laughter. This is especially important when asking questions in a classroom of diverse learners. Some students not educated in western cultures may not be comfortable answering questions—they learned by listening to more autocratic instructors and did not ask questions because doing so questioned the authority of the instructor. Other students could have learning disabilities or are fearful of speaking in class. It is important, then, to create a learning environment in which you welcome and encourage questions. Model your expectations at the beginning of the semester and provide examples of ways you expect questions to be asked and answered. “Never deliberately ignore a question or demean the questioner” (Eble, 1988, p. 89). If class time is coming to an end and you feel students have questions yet to ask, have them write the questions on a note card that they submit before leaving class. You can address these questions at the beginning of the next class period or comment directly on the card which you can return to the student.
3. “Try to achieve a rhythm in a series of questions so that the group arrives at moments of larger understanding.” Prepare a series of questions that begin with less complicated content that eventually leads to more complex content. Present questions with just enough information to encourage students to think deeply and form a meaningful answer. Instead of expecting one person to answer the question, ask students to pair up and discuss the question and prepare a shared answer—this allows them to talk about and share their collective knowledge with the class.

Avoid using language that is ambiguous or not yet relevant to course content. Do not assume students know the “terminology du jour.” Asking vague questions by virtue of ambiguous or out-of-context language may elicit vague answers. Therefore, “questions should be definite and unmistakable” (Eble, 1988, p. 90, citing Fitch).

The following tips and techniques have been compiled from of a number of sources (see references) that provide ways to prepare and deliver effective questions in the classroom. Although this list is not exhaustive, the points provide a range of ways to integrate questions in the classroom. The list begins with preparing questions and ends with ways questions can be used outside the classroom.

Preparing Questions

• First and foremost, design course goals and learning objectives to help students achieve what you want them to learn. Once course goals and objectives have been developed you can begin to prepare complementary and effective questions.
• Get acquainted with your students so you can customize questions that challenge them to think more critically about course content to help them learn. This does not mean that you must scrap the foundations, key concepts and content that drives your course. It means, however, that you can meet your students along the way—to challenge the knowledge they bring to the classroom and to present content through questions that is useful and relevant to them.

Questions at the Beginning of Class

• Arrive early to help students who have questions about previous lectures, readings and exam preparation.
• Begin the semester—the very first class, by asking students the type of questions you plan to ask throughout the semester. This will set the stage for the class, and help students form more complete impressions and establish expectations.
• Begin the class with a key question. Assume that students who come to your class are interested in being there. “Hook” students with a question based on what they know (through readings and course content, by virtue of their academic level—freshmen versus seniors, or by their major). This key question can be the foundation upon which they can “hang” further concepts (facts and content). The key question can be projected on the screen as students enter the room or asked as soon as the class begins. Here are a few key question examples:
• “How will the proposed economic stimulus package affect you as a college student?”
•  “Why should we be concerned about melting arctic ice?”
• “How will your successful completion of this class prepare you to enter the work force?”

• Ask provocative questions to energize students into saying something. Keep the topic relevant to the course and be prepared for discussions that could begin to get divergent. Know when to draw the line on discussions that veer from the question or when students dominate the discussion at the expense of others. Here are examples of provocative questions from Ken Bain’s book:
• “Why did some societies get in boats and go bother other people while others stayed at home and tended to their own affairs?”
• “Why are human beings occasionally willing to leave home and hearth and march off into the wilderness, desert, or jungle and kill each other in large numbers?”
• “Why are some people poor and other people rich?”
• “How does your brain work?”
• “What is the chemistry of life?”
• “Can people improve their basic intelligence?”

• Tell stories about your life, your friends, and other people that provide meaning to the topic of the day. Stories can provide the springboard some students might need to ask questions. For example, as an instructor in a University Experience class, you could tell the story of your first experiences away at college and that you were academically dismissed for poor grades. This personal story might compel students to ask questions about study skills, time management and taking exams.

Questions During Class

• Teach with the notion that students are naturally curious and have them “develop an intrinsic interest that guides their quest for knowledge, and an intrinsic interest…that can diminish in the face of extrinsic rewards and punishments that appear to manipulate their focus” (Bain, 2004, pp. 46-47). In other words, provide content in such a way that students can see how it can be used in their professions and the relevance of course content to job-related skills. Provide meaningful comments on graded papers and exams—show them the “why” so they can learn “how” to improve.
• Be aware of how you present questions—do you ask questions in a friendly or authoritative manner? What is the purpose of asking questions? Do you want your students to learn from the question or are you asking the question “just because”?
• Avoid “schooling” where “bulimic learners” (Bain, 2004, p. 40, citing Nelson) memorize facts and short-ranged information to later purge, “making room for the next feeding” (Bain, 2004, p. 41).  This “force fed” competitive-type of schooling reduces students to be mere receptors of information to compete for grades and have little interest in learning something new.
• Incorporate relevant vocabulary when responding to a student’s question. For example, when a student asks why her computer is not operating as fast as it had been, you can tell her that she might need more ROM. The student can then ask, “What is ROM?” a question she would not have asked except in this context (the idea for this example was improvised from Bain, 2004, p. 104).
• Ask students to bring one or two questions to class based on textbook readings or content covered in the previous class. Provide some sample questions to help students write meaningful questions. These questions can then be submitted (a good way to take attendance) and randomly addressed at the beginning of the class period or used to develop exam questions.
• Avoid answering your own question. Once asked, give students a few seconds to form a good answer. If the first answer is not what you had expected, do not discount the effort the student has made. Instead, ask the student if they could re-phrase their answer or to elaborate a bit more. If they are still having some difficulty, ask another student to help form the correct answer. Ask questions that students can think for themselves (McComas & Abraham, 2004).
• Engage other students by having them answer the question of one of their peers. It has been shown that students can learn from other students if given the opportunity to do so.

Questions at the End of Class

• End the class by asking the students:
• “What questions do you still have about today’s topic?”
• “If you were to ask one last question, what would it be?”
• “What was the muddiest point today?”
• “What was the most meaningful point we covered today?”

These questions help the students to synthesize the information and draw conclusions. Their responses to one last question and muddiest point can be submitted for your review—you can address student issues at the beginning of the next class period or review to clarify content.

• Make notes about how students responded to questions asked during the class as well as the type of questions students asked of you. These notes can help you prepare for and modify subsequent classes (Gross Davis, 1993 citing Kasulis).

Questions Outside the Classroom

• Questions do not have to be limited to the classroom setting. You can ask specific questions related to textbook readings, homework and study. Meyers and Jones (1993) suggest that questions should “fit into prospective classroom activities, model theories and approaches used in academic disciplines and professional careers, extend meaning to materials read or discussed previously, promote a critical analysis of the materials, and make the students think about how the text applies to their personal experiences” (p. 128).  Here is an example of such questioning:
  

  “Please take particular note of pages 13-14 of Kaisha’s article in which he comments on decision-making in Japanese business. Recall our discussion of decision-making in the American auto industry last week. What comparisons and contrasts can you draw between the two approaches to decision making? We will be using these two approaches in a simulated decision-making exercise Thursday” (Meyers and Jones, 1993, p. 129).

Other questions related to reading assignments can follow these examples:

What [material from] the chapter do you think we should review?
What item in the chapter surprised you?
What topic in the chapter can you apply to your own experience? (Meyers and Jones, 1993, p. 130 citing Gaede).

Summary

Using questions in the classroom can help students engage with course content, the instructor, and other students. Good instructor-generated questions can also guide students in developing better answers and help them to form questions of their own. For further information on using questions in the classroom setting, please contact Janet Giesen in Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center at giesen@niu.edu or 815.753.1085.

References

Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Eble, K. E. (1988). The craft of teaching (2nd.ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. [Eble’s is a highly referenced book]

Gross Davis, B. (1993). Tools for teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Meyers, C., & Jones, T. B. (1993). Promoting active learning: Strategies for the college classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

McComas, W. F., & Abraham, L. (2004). Asking more effective questions. http://www.usc.edu/programs/cet/private/pdfs/usc/Asking_Better_Questions.pdf

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Teaching Excellence (2006). Levels and types of questions. http://www.oir.uiuc.edu/Did/docs/QUESTION/quest1.htm

Online tutorials can be an effective strategy to enhance teaching, whether instruction is entirely web-based, or supplements a traditional face-to-face class. While the design of online tutorials range from passive and basic to interactive and sophisticated, many times design decisions are made by costs, resource demand, and time considerations.

Simple web-based tutorials can be designed to display content in a text and/or image format. Students passively view website material much as they would read a textbook. Indeed, these tutorials have come to be labeled ‘electronic page turners’. A related format is the ubiquitous PowerPoint Slide presentation, requiring students to view slides in either a manual or automated manner. A voice narration can be added to enhance the experience, but ultimately, this type of tutorial demands minimal interaction from users.

Other online tutorials utilize technology that record all onscreen activity. An example is tutorials created with the Sympodium Smart panel display, an increasingly common item in on-campus smart classrooms. In addition to displaying PowerPoint slides, faculty can incorporate text, images, video, audio, and Flash-animated lessons. Faculty can also draw freehand shapes, equations, and figures. Most of the content can be manipulated (magnified, cloned, hidden, etc.). Several years ago, a math instructor at NIU developed a tutorial describing Inverse Trigonometric functions. Using the Smart Notebook software ‘Record’ feature on the Sympodium Smart panel display, the instructor was able to document a session writing out lesson notes (primarily mathematical equations) with an accompanying voice narration. Figure 1 displays a screen capture of the online video tutorial that students could review, pause, and skip ahead or behind, as many times as needed.

More recently, another faculty member used a similar technology to recreate the ‘Intro to the Course’ lesson, one of only three planned face-to-face sessions in a primarily online course. After the initial face-to-face class meeting was cancelled due to inclement weather, the faculty member developed a tour of the course website, which contained a myriad of elements. Every aspect of the tour was recorded, along with voice narration, as it would have occurred in the face-to-face classroom session. Figures 2 and 3 exhibit how an area of the website is zoomed in upon for added emphasis.

Other tools go beyond recording online activity. The software program ‘Articulate Engage’ allows faculty to develop tutorials that require a higher degree of student/content interaction. Using pre-designed templates, content can be presented in one of 10 different interaction styles including Process (allowing users to discover the steps of a linear process), labeled graphics (identifying the key elements of an image), and a timeline (discovering the events of a timeline) [See Figure 4].

Other than the selection and refinement of appropriate content, most of the tutorials mentioned in this article do not require a significant time or resource commitment to develop.

However, online tutorials can be quite sophisticated and comprehensive, demanding a high degree of interactivity from students. Tutorial features can include multiple layers of content, multimedia files, hyperlinks to relevant websites, quizzes, Flash-based games/instructional modules, and case studies with decision-branching sequences. While the quality can be exceptional, these tutorials ‘projects’ can be costly and time consuming, requiring a design team made up of content experts, instructional designers, artists and programmers. An example of this type of tutorial is the NIU Responsible Conduct of Research website that allows users access to participate in a series of online tutorials (www.niu.edu/rcrportal). Users can explore research integrity issues in the areas of data management, research mentoring, collaborative research, peer review, and authorship.

While there are resources on campus that can assist faculty to develop sophisticated and elegant online tutorials, staff in the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center can assist instructors on developing basic, yet fairly interactive online tutorials. For information contact Faculty Development.

Teaching Effectiveness Institute: Fundamental Principles of Effective Instruction will be offered on Thursday, August 13, 2009 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Day one of the institute is geared toward an audience who is new to teaching and to those wanting to refresh their knowledge about teaching fundamentals.

Teaching Effectiveness Institute: “Raising the Bar: Lower Expectations and Higher Learning,” by Connie Staley, Ph.D. (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs) will be offered on Friday, August 14, 2009 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. The workshop is open for faculty and staff, and will explore complex issues, such as what can those of us who value higher learning do to help students with lower expectations dig in and grapple with the challenge, and how we can raise the bar, This workshop will also generate innovative teaching strategies to counteract the issues. For more details and to register online, visit http://www.facdev.niu.edu or email facdev@niu.edu.

No matter the discipline or subject matter, a primary goal of many faculty is to foster an engaging learning environment that promotes critical thinking and application among students. As students exchange ideas with faculty and are challenged to deepen their understanding, opportunities for authentic knowledge construction and enriched application often result. Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2001) refer to such a collaborative and constructive educational experience as a Community of Inquiry (COI) whereby three key elements crucial to the success of any learning endeavor are highlighted: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Figure 1 illustrates the integration of these elements of the learning environment.

Figure 1. Community of inquiry

(Reproduced by permission from Pergamon. From Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105.)

The role of the faculty member is vital to developing a Community of Inquiry (COI) and the overall success of the course. Specific tasks such as selecting course content, setting the climate of the online community, and supporting discourse throughout the course all take place within the interplay of the cognitive, social, and teaching activities. Let’s now take a closer look at each of the key components that comprise the COI and then explore the use of audio feedback to promote teaching presence.

Social Presence

Social presence is defined as, “The ability of participants in the community of inquiry to project their personal characteristics into the community, thereby presenting themselves to the other participants as ‘real people’” (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000, p. 89). In blended or online course environments, developing social presence can be more challenging than in more traditional face-to-face environments and yet is equally important to the overall success of the learning experience. Social presence is the pathway whereby cognitive presence is developed. As faculty and students cultivate social presence in a course through meaningful dialogue, deepened analysis and application of course concepts can take place.

Cognitive Presence

Cognitive presence categorizes the intellectual processes of an educational experience and refers to the degree to which participants in any community of inquiry are able to construct meaning through sustained communication (Garrison et al., 2000). Involving the higher-order thinking processes and knowledge acquisition associated with critical thinking, cognitive presence in the learning community is shaped as learners reflect upon their learning experiences and incorporate insights into their collaborations (Garrison, 2003; Garrison et al., 2001). The experience of actively engaging with the concepts of learning in both a self-reflective fashion internally as well as exploring and refining understanding in community is one benchmark of quality learning experiences.

Teaching Presence

Teaching presence refers to functions within the learning experience often performed by the instructor, including the design and facilitation of the educational experience (Garrison et al., 2000). These roles need not be limited to simply the instructor, as students can also exhibit teaching presence in the course through such activities as leading group discussion assignments of collecting and sharing instructional resources. In fact, Rourke and Anderson (2002) found that students actually preferred peer teams leading online discussion as compared to the course instructor.

Students have indicated that exemplary faculty are those who create a learning climate that includes strong elements of social, cognitive, and teaching presence (Perry & Edwards, 2005). Especially in blended or online learning environments marked by significant reliance on computer-mediated communication, the necessity for teaching presence is amplified. Pawan, Paulus, Yalcin, and Chang (2003) found that without the instructor’s definitive teaching presence and modeling of collaborative discussion contributions, learner discussions primarily consisted of low-level cognitive interactions. While there certainly is a place for such cognitively insignificant postings in the creation of the social climate, the ultimate goal should be for learners to engage in high-level thinking and communication of new knowledge gained in a way that stimulates the learning experience for all members of the community.

Students expect to be reciprocated for their efforts (Aviv, Erlich, & Ravid, 2005). The faculty member’s influence within the educational experience is crucial to ensuring that communication flows freely and that dialogue proceeds in a collegial and responsive fashion. As the faculty member sets the climate for the dialogue to take place, the expectations established help guide the interactions of all members of the learning community. It is through purposeful development of social, cognitive, and teaching presence faculty can connect in meaningful ways with students no matter the class size or format.

Why Audio Feedback?

For many years faculty have relied solely on textual comments for providing feedback to students. These comments often take the form of handwritten notes in hard copy form on written assignments of all kinds as well as written feedback on project rubrics or evaluation forms. Convenient and accessible to the vast majority of students, such comments often highlight strengths and weaknesses in student performance and provide specific suggestions for improvement. With the development of electronic assignment submission tools within learning management systems like Blackboard, students can now submit written assignments and projects electronically, allowing faculty more options for reviewing student work and providing feedback. No longer must feedback be provided in hard copy form as such written comments can be embedded electronically within submitted student files.

Yet, textual feedback, particularly in the context of a blended or online course, can lack rich detail and tone. Whereas face-to-face learning environments provide ample opportunity for students to hear the “voice” of the instructor and ask questions seeking further clarification, such interactive experiences are more difficult to foster in the online learning environment. Faculty often attempt the time-consuming task of providing detailed written comments to student work submitted electronically while longing for a more efficient and personable way to provide meaningful and personal feedback to students. As textual forms of communication dominate current electronic communications, opportunities to engage auditory and kinesthetic learners ought to be cultivated.

Easy-to-use audio and video technologies are available to faculty who seek to provide alternative forms of feedback beyond simple text. While text feedback is still by far the most accessible to learners, audio and video capabilities are becoming commonplace among learners today and many are growing to expect and appreciate when such media are incorporated to enrich feedback. Ice, Swan, Kupczynski, and Richardson (2008) studied the impact of asynchronous audio feedback in an online course and noted the following:

1. Students perceived audio feedback to be more effective than text-based feedback for conveying nuance.
2. Audio feedback was associated with feelings of increased involvement and enhanced learning community interactions.
3. Audio feedback was associated with increased retention of content.
4. Audio feedback was associated with the perception that the instructor cared more about the student.

In addition, Ice (2008) reported that students were far more likely to apply content for which they received audio feedback than content for which text-based feedback was received and at significantly higher cognitive levels. This supports the rationale the audio feedback can enhance textual feedback and serve as a viable alternative.

Approaches to Using Audio Feedback

Faculty have numerous options when considering incorporating audio feedback to enrich the quality of the feedback provided to students. With an affordable microphone connected to a computer, faculty can take a number of different simple approaches to adding audio feedback to student assignments, including but not limited to, the following:

Audio Comments in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word allows for the insertion of voice comments in any Word document. In Word 2002 and 2003, simply click the drop-down arrow of the New Comment button on the Reviewing toolbar and select Voice comment. This opens the Sound Object dialog box for you to record your comment. In Word 2007, add the Voice Comment button to the Quick Access toolbar using the following steps and then insert comments as described above:

1. Click the Office Button.
2. Click the Word Options button.
3. Click Customize.
4. Click the drop-down arrow of the Choose Commands From box and select Commands Not In Ribbon.
5. Scroll to and select Insert Voice.
6. Click the Add button, and then click OK.

Several drawbacks to using the audio commenting features in Microsoft Word exist. Some include the requirement of using Microsoft Word as well as the fact that depending on the number and length of audio comments included, the size of the file can become too large to email or return electronically to the student in Blackboard. This presents obvious challenges and therefore should only be considered for very brief audio commenting.

Audio Comments Using Adobe Acrobat Professional

For more extensive audio commenting in electronic documents, a more feasible option is to use the embedded audio features of Adobe Acrobat Professional. Similar to adding audio comments using Microsoft Word, faculty can record and embed audio comments resulting in considerably smaller file sizes than resulting from the same approach with Microsoft Word. Faculty would need a license of Adobe Acrobat Professional in order to convert submitted files to PDF and record audio comments in the files, while students only need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software to open the commented files. Details on academic pricing for Adobe Acrobat Professional are available from ITS.

Audio/Video Feedback Using Jing

Perhaps the most versatile and affordable approach is to use a capture program such as the free Jing in order to record audio feedback while viewing electronically submitted work from students. These short video recordings, also often referred to as “screencasts,” can include cursor movement, typing, or other on-screen activity as well as narration.

After downloading Jing from http://www.jingproject.com and installing on either a Windows or Mac computer, faculty simply can launch Jing and then open an electronically-submitted file, select a window or region, and begin recording. Jing records all on-screen activity and narration, allowing the faculty the freedom to virtually review students’ work, showing where in the assignment improvement is necessary. Such an approach can be used for any type of electronically-submitted assignment or project and is not restricted to only written assignments. Once finished recording, Jing compresses it into a Flash.swf file that faculty can either save and then return to the student via Blackboard or upload to the free Jing server and receive a link to the video file that can then be sent to the student.

As the available technology continues to advance, numerous additional approaches are sure to become available in the future for enhancing the quality of feedback for students. No matter what approach is ultimately selected, an improved educational experience for students will result.

Learn More

The Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center offers a variety of programs regarding the principles and practices of incorporating media in teaching. The current program schedule and online registration information is available at http://www.niu.edu/facdev/programs/fscurrent.shtml

References:

Aviv, R., Erlich, Z., & Ravid, G. (2005). Reciprocity analysis of online learning networks. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 9(4), 3-13.

Garrison, D. R. (2003). Cognitive presence for effective asynchronous online learning: The role of reflective inquiry, self-direction and metacognition. In J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds.), Elements of quality online education: Practice and direction. Needham, MA: The Sloan Consortium.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1).

Ice, P. (2008). Better learning with sites and sound. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved December 3, 2008, from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/03/audio

Ice, P., Swan, K., Kupczynski, L., & Richardson, J. (2008). The impace of asynchronous audio feedback on teaching and social presence: A survey of current research. Paper presented at the ED-MEDIA 2008 – World Conference on Educational Multimedia & Telecommunications.

Pawan, F., Paulus, T. M., Yalcin, S., & Chang, C. (2003). Online learning: Patterns of engagement and interactions among in-service teachers. Language Learning & Technology, 7(3), 119-140.

Perry, B., & Edwards, M. (2005). Exemplary online educators: Creating a community of inquiry. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 6(2).

Rourke, L., & Anderson, T. (2002). Using peer teams to lead online discussion. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, (1). Retrieved July 17, 2007, from http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/2002/1/

1. List the key concepts you are trying to convey in the 60-minute lecture. That series of phrases will form the core of your microlecture.
2. Write a 15 to 30-second introduction and conclusion. They will provide context for your key concepts.
3. Record these three elements using a microphone and Web camera. If you want to produce an audio-only lecture, no Webcam is necessary. The finished product should be 60 seconds to three minutes long.
4. Design an assignment to follow the lecture that will direct students to readings or activities that allow them to explore the key concepts. Combined with a written assignment, that should allow students to learn the material.
5. Upload the video and assignment to your course-management software.

Here is a sample one-minute lecture:

Click here to view the complete March 6, 2009 article from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Technology is certainly not the only answer but can definitely offer some opportunities. What tips do you have to share with others for doing more with less?