Equitable Teaching Practices: Social Presence - Lyndsay Al-Shibli Testimonial

Building Community through Forums

In HUM 115, a big part of critical thinking development has to do with improving communication and interactions with others. Each week, I require students to post to the Forum. The Original Post is designed to require students to apply the concepts covered in a given week, sometimes asking them to reveal a flaw or a weakness in their own thinking and sometimes asking them to assess someone else's thinking for flaws or weaknesses. This makes student feel a bit vulnerable (which is, in part, by design). Students must then select a classmate's post to Reply to. The Reply Post instructions are built out of the understand → validate → relate → connect approach to effective communication and discussion. They must summarize their chosen classmate's Original Post to illustrate that they "listened" to that classmate's thoughts. Then they must validate their classmate's post in some meaningful way, to illustrate that the post has value and merit. Students are then expected to personally relate to their classmate, indicating that they can establish common ground on which to build further effective communication, and, finally, students have to connect their classmate's Original Post back to concepts covered during that week.

My aim in using such a template for Reply Posts is to constantly reinforce that effective communication and collaboration requires careful thought and a deep understanding and ability to validate someone else's ideas, even when we disagree with those ideas. In fact, I do not allow students to agree or disagree with each other's posts for most of the semester because understanding, validating, relating, and connecting do not require agreement or disagreement, and all students should be able to engage meaningful and collaboratively with all members within a community, not just with those with whom they agree.

In ENG classes, I use the Forum for students to submit their weekly homework, usually evidence of engagement in at least one of the stages in the writing process. I use the Forum tool so that students can see each other's work, and I recommend they view their classmates' work and allow the various approaches to the assignment to inform their own work. In a Mid-Week Check email, I try to highlight the standout submissions of the week.

Weekly Announcements

In all of my classes, students receive two emails from me each week, sent through Sakai via the Announcements tool. The first email is a "Welcome to Week X" email where I overview the work for the week and establish some basic expectations for that work. I also highlight typical pitfalls associated with the week's work that students should avoid and offer reminders of due dates and scheduled events (like office hours or asynchronous class meetings). This first email of the week is designed to help students stay connected to our weekly work and to me, offering them an easy opportunity for them to "reply" if they have questions or concerns.

The second email each week is a "Mid-Week Check" email where I address several questions that have come in via email throughout the week and offer updates on how grading for the previous week's work is going. If grading is finished, I also highlight the standout submissions of the week and encourage students to spend some time reviewing each other's work, especially if they struggled with the week's concepts or assignments. I also highlight some common mistakes noted during grading to help students identify and avoid those same pitfalls in future assignments. I end the email with reminders of the week's due dates and of any upcoming events.

I attempt to keep the emails short but informative. I want students to remember that while they may not see me in a classroom setting, I am working WITH them and am engaged in their work specifically but also in the work of the entire class. I also want to constantly remind them that I am available to offer them help, but that they must communicate their needs to me. Otherwise, I'll have no way of knowing they are in need.

Terms & Expectations Orientation Assignment

One of the first assignments students must complete for me is a Terms & Expectations assignment. It is an easy assignment to complete, requiring students read and initial each listed expectation. The assignment instructions indicate that if students initial a listed expectation, they are agreeing to the terms implied by that expectation. The instructions also indicate that if a student does not initial a listed expectation, they must email me their concerns related to that expectation. The assignment is meant to establish that students' experience in my class is part of a partnership and that we each have a role to play in that partnership and that the partnership is based on trust and reciprocity. I refer back to this assignment regularly throughout the semester, reminding students that they agreed to certain terms and that they must continue to uphold their end of the partnership agreement. I want students to know from the outset that I will do my part, but that I also expect them to do theirs, too.