An easy way to build community in your online course is to learn and use students’ names. This is easy to do in synchronous online classes because participants’ names are displayed with their pictures. If a student’s preferred name doesn’t match their name on the roster, invite them to use the “Rename” feature in Zoom to enter their preferred name (and preferred pronouns, if they wish). If you’re unsure how to pronounce names, ask students to record their names using the NameCoach tool in Canvas. Making an effort to learn students’ names, pronounce them correctly, and use them consistently will help you create a positive atmosphere and facilitate student engagement.
Quick Tip: What Images Say About Your Class
Consider how the imagery you use in your class tells a story and communicates who belongs. Use services like Nappy.co to include high-quality photos and move beyond default image search results, which are heavily populated with white faces. Adobe Stock, which you can access through IU, also features broad representation in their photos. As you search for images, consider what story they tell your students. How are you including differently-abled individuals, individuals from different cultures, and individuals with different family and relationship structures in the visual elements of your classes and presentations?
Quick Tip: Use Canvas Modules to Organize Access to Your Course Content
In Canvas, Modules are like folders of links to course site activities and resources that help instructors present related items in one place. For example, in Module “Wk 4 Health Analysis Charting,” students will find direct links to all the readings, lecture videos, images, charts, etc. they need to learn about working with health analysis charts. They can directly access activities, such as quizzes or assignments, in the order in which they should be completed. With Modules, students can easily find what they need to do without the frustration of clicking all over a course site to find an assignment or a resource. You can set rules for Modules that require students to complete certain activities before they move on to the rest. Tip: When using Modules, remove other tools, such as Assignments and Quizzes, from the navigation so students access your course materials from Modules only.
You can access all the Canvas Guides about using Modules for help with specific questions and/or schedule a consultation with one of our consultants.
Quick Tip: Publishing Your Syllabi and Canvas Sites Early
First, a note that we will be publishing more Quick Tips in the next few weeks, leading up to the start of the semester. After that, we will return to the weekly schedule. We hope you find these extra ones useful as you finish final preparations for the new term.
As the spring semester approaches with its unusual remote start, we encourage all instructors to publish their syllabi and Canvas courses as early as possible, preferably at least a week in advance. This will allow students to prepare for your class more effectively—including being aware of expectations around live class meetings, addressing technical requirements that might be more difficult remotely, and ordering books without convenient access to campus bookstores. Allowing students this extra preparation time can also help reduce their early-semester stress, which in turn might lead to better success and retention in your classes. And it lets them hit the ground running when your classes start.
For more information about publishing your syllabi and Canvas courses early, including how to publish only parts of your Canvas courses that are ready for students, see this page from the CITL on launching your Canvas courses early.
Adding a Diversity and Inclusion Statement in your Syllabus
As you finalize your spring semester syllabus (or get started on it—no judgement here), you may want to put a diversity and inclusion statement in your syllabus. There is no standardized one-size-fits-all statement to use. These statements differ based on context (author, course content, course format). However, we can offer some advice and questions to think through to get you started on writing your statement.
Diversity and inclusion statements can help set the tone for your course. You could explain why writing this statement is important to you. You could describe how diversity, equity, and inclusion relate to your discipline, your course, and/or your desired classroom climate. Often statements are on the shorter side (a paragraph), but yours may be longer based on preference and resources you wish to include.
To get started writing it can be helpful to consider the following questions:
- What type of classroom environment are you striving to create? What is the role of students in creating this environment?
- Does your discipline have a problematic history that may alienate some students? How do you plan to discuss this with your students?
- How does your teaching approach value differences?
- What expectations (if any) are you asking from students? (Are you requesting they create a classroom contract? How do you expect them to respect differences in the classroom? Will you invite them to contact you if they notice/feel bias?)
- What resources would you like to share with your students?
As you consider these questions, it may be helpful for you to see some example statements. Brown University has some sample statements that may be helpful for you.
If you’d like to talk more about what a diversity and inclusion statement for your syllabus could entail, make a one-on-one consultation with us. If you want to learn more about what goes into a syllabus, watch this 5-minute video explaining backwards course design or come to our upcoming webinar.
If you have a diversity and inclusion statement that you are comfortable sharing with a wider audience, please reach out to us at citl@indiana.edu. We would like to start collecting IUB examples to share with others.
Quick Tip of the Week: How to Take the Zzzzzs out of Zoom
If you are looking for new ways to teach using Zoom, I recommend reading Dan Levy’s book, Teaching Effectively with Zoom, and its companion site. The book provides brief explanations of Zoom features, along with the how and why of using them. Examples from instructors using Zoom, along with their tips, provide a wealth of ideas. The author nudges instructors to first think of what their students will be doing in each class, rather than thinking of what they need to cover. Suggestions for building community and making decisions about materials to share asynchronously vs. synchronously are particularly timely.