OTL201 Post 5

Hi Everyone,

Here are my thoughts on this week’s topic of student engagement:

  1. What are the 2-3 most important concepts that have impacted your thoughts on student engagement and retention during this course?

The interaction dynamic between student to student is important even if it is an asynchronous course, as it still makes them connect outside of just posting separately. The other idea I liked was the idea of podcasts created by students to bring their voice into conversation with others.

2. Discuss your rationale for implementing 1 or 2 course facilitation strategies to increase student retention and engagement.

Social presence is important in creating a community of online learners to make them have a sense of belonging and collective identity in this experience. Thus, making intro videos and having forums where students post their thoughts and respond to others is helpful to connect socially and cognitively.

3. Identify 2-3 specific goals that you would like to achieve in light of what you have learned about social presence and creating effective educational media

(a) I would like to have students self-identify themselves with their preferred name and pronoun in a  self-created video within the first week of class. I will do a demo for them.

(b) I would like students to respond to one another on the weekly discussion forum with voice feedback files to bring their voice into this space, making it more of a conversation instead of typed.

4.Think about some questions you still have with respect to student engagement and retention. Post these questions and also a strategy for finding the answers.

I wonder about more asynchronous courses in which you are supposed to do team building, how do you do this? It is an ungraded course. I will reach out the instructional designers at TRU and CELT fellows.

Thanks,

Manu

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