Michael Christie

Fall 2021 Resilience – Newsletter 3

The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges of teaching and learning during the Fall 2021 semester. Between now and the end of the Fall 2021 semester, we will be sending weekly emails with practical tips and information, providing live sessions, and holding virtual consultations.

This week, we share resources that can help you with student motivation.

During COVID we used more video than ever before. Students can find the use of video helpful, especially for second language students and students with disabilities.  This week, we will be talking a bit about the use of video in the Smeal Academy Sessions. Check out the list below for more information.

We all know it is important to motivate our learners and ensure the continuity of the motivation during the semester’s instruction. ARCS is an instructional model developed by John Keller and focuses on motivation.

There are four components of the ARCS model and stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction.

1. Attention: This refers to the learners’ interests. It is critical to get and hold the learners’ interests and attention. Some ideas for capturing student attention include:
   • Using video to allow for hearing the content again.
   • Providing real-world, related, and specific examples about content.
   • Using humor.
   • Going against learners’ past experience or providing an opposite point of view.
   • Using hands-on and role-playing activities.
   • Including brainstorming and critical thinking activities.
2. Relevance: The learning process should show the usefulness of the content so that learners can bridge the gap between content and the real world. Some ideas for making content relevant to students include:
   • Explaining why and how this content helps the learners today or in the future.
   • Allow learners to choose their own paper topics or other ways to personalize their assignments.
   • Give learners continuity by establishing connections between new information and prior learning.
3. Confidence: This component focuses on developing success expectations that allow learners to be in control of their learning processes. Some ideas for helping to build confidence in students include:
   • Use rubrics and checklists so that they can establish positive expectations and achieve success on your assignments.
   • Give learners’ early, and frequent feedback about their improvements/deficiencies during the course so that they can adjust their performance.
   • Allow learners the opportunity to be successful by providing multiple and varied assessment experiences. Avoid having only a few exams to measure understanding, instead include other assessments to vary the ways students can earn points.
4. Satisfaction: There is a direct relationship between motivation and satisfaction. Learners should be satisfied with what they achieved during the learning process. Some ideas for making the content satisfying to students include:
   • Encourage intrinsic enjoyment of the learning experience so that learners have fun, continue the learning process without expecting reward or another kind of external motivational elements.
   • Extrinsic Rewards: Provide learners with positive feedback, rewards, and reinforcements. Be careful about scheduling reinforcement. It is more effective when you provide reinforcement at non-predictable intervals.
   • Maintain consistent standards and consequences for success. Check that there is consistency between yourself and your TA when sharing grading responsibilities.

References

• Keller, J. M. (1987). Development and use of the ARCS model of instructional design. Journal of instructional development, 10(3), 2-10.
• ARCS Model: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction

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Fall 2021 Resilience – Week 2

The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges of teaching and learning during the Fall 2021 semester. Between now and the end of the Fall 2021 semester, we will be sending weekly emails with practical tips and information, providing live sessions, and holding virtual consultations.

This week, we are sharing some strategies to support wellness for you and your students.

Pause and Take a Breath…

It is hard to believe that we are already a quarter of the way through the semester! Our lives are a whirlwind of activities, adaptations, and anxieties that cause us to feel anything from exhilaration to exhaustion, and everything in between.
First and foremost, remember to notice and accept whatever it is that you are feeling. That is information you need to respond in a way that best supports your well-being.

A recent blog post on BetterUp’s website outlined seven types of rest, as defined by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, M.D. These include: creative, mental, physical, social, emotional, sensory, and spiritual rest. Often, sleep is not the only “time-out” your brain and body need in order to recover from the constant pressures of daily life. You may be excited to learn that a wide variety of activities can give your nervous system the break it needs to recover. These ideas, which span all seven types of rest, include:

• Take a walk in nature (creative rest)
• Put your devices aside for a while (mental rest)
• Sleep (physical rest)
• Turn down an invitation and recharge on your own (social rest)
• Write in a journal (emotional rest)
• Meditate or pray (sensory rest)
• Volunteer for something meaningful (spiritual rest)

Finally, take just a moment to pause – relax your shoulder blades down your back body – sit up tall – take a deep breath in – exhale – and savor this moment of being human. Sometimes a little breath can go a long way.

Resource

Cooks-Campbell, A. (2021, August 11). 7 types of rest (because you need more rest in your life). BetterUp.

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Fall 2021 Resilience – Week 1

The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges of teaching and learning during the Fall 2021 semester. Between now and the end of the Fall 2021 semester, we will be sending weekly emails with practical tips and information, providing live sessions, and holding virtual consultations.

Here’s hoping you had a wonderful Labor Day holiday! This week, we are sharing some back to campus tips and pointers to keep your semester running smoothly.

Return to Campus Is In The Books

We know that members of the Smeal community – faculty, staff, and students alike – are juggling so much at the start of this semester. It’s great to be back and it’s also an adjustment. The following are some resources and reminders to get the semester off on your best foot.

Tech Tips for Teaching with Masks

• Use the Mic. No one thinks they need a microphone. But even in non-masked situations, it’s best to use microphones when they are available. It’s essential when teaching with a mask so people can hear. Typically, people who can’t hear won’t be comfortable speaking up to let us know. eLDIG encourages our community to mic up when teaching and presenting – all General Purpose classrooms have them. For more information on GPC technology, check out the list of Classroom Technology. Contact TLT if you’d like to schedule a consultation to better utilize your classroom technology. Speaking of using a mic, try to make a habit of repeating student questions so everyone can hear them.
• Use Tech Tools to Gauge Emotions and Build Community. Masks make it difficult to see nonverbal cues. You can use tools like Top Hat to generate a word cloud at the beginning of class so students can let you know how they’re feeling. You could have a simple prompt like “Describe your current mood in one word.” It is as important as ever to build connections with our students.
• Model the Correct Way to Wear Masks. Our ability to continue in-person instruction depends on all of us to do our part to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Consider reminding students that this is part of upholding the Smeal Honor Code. To reinforce mask adherence, have students agree (via a Canvas or Top Hat quiz) at the beginning of each class to abide by PSU’s masking requirements completely to receive full participation credit for the day. You can also add a slide at the beginning of each class to remind students how to correctly wear masks.

Resources

Check out the following resources for more information:

• Inside Higher Ed op ed by Jamie Landau: Effective ways to teach in person with a mask on.
• LinkedIn Article by James Martin: I have a loud voice – I don’t need a mic.

Productivity Tips

• Use Available Tech Tools. Get to know the tools available to us at Penn State. Schedule a meeting with someone from the eLDIG team or check out Penn State’s Ed Tech Advisor to learn more about available tools to enhance your teaching and learning.
• Compose Ahead and Delay Posting of Canvas Announcements. Instructors are carrying an increasingly heavy workload and balancing all the new intricacies of teaching can feel overwhelming. When possible, consider composing your regular course tips and announcements ahead of time using Canvas announcements and delaying posting so that they are ready when you need them.
• Schedule Grading Time On Your Calendar. Just as we schedule meetings and office hours, scheduling time for grading can help ensure that you can reserve time for grading and still have time for work-life balance.

Here are some additional tips for the beginning of the semester: Top Hat Teaching Tips.

 

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