Possible ways to improve attendance

One of the most frequent concerns I hear is, “My students just aren’t coming to class.” With so much content available online, recorded lectures at their fingertips, and the sense of distance that can come with large classes, this challenge is becoming more common and more complex. In this post, I will look at some of the more popular reasons reported for students not attending class and share practical, evidence-based ways to re-engage students in the classroom.

The Anonymity Epidemic: When Students Feel Like Just Another Face

Many students, particularly in large enrollment courses, feel anonymous. They don’t believe their individual presence makes a difference, leading to a disengagement from the classroom community. This isn’t just a large-class problem; it arises when students lack meaningful connections with instructors, TAs, or even their peers. Overcoming this anonymity is key to fostering a sense of responsibility and belonging.

Strategies to Combat Anonymity:

  • Be Present Before Class: Arriving early to chat informally with students is a simple yet powerful way to build rapport. Ask about their weekend, recent movies, or even their experience with the last assignment. These small gestures humanize you and create a connection.

  • Active Engagement is Key: Design activities that actively involve students with the material. Pose intriguing questions, facilitate brief peer discussions, or utilize classroom response systems like TopHat https://uits.iu.edu/tophat/index.html to “vote” on responses. This transforms passive listening into active participation, fostering an intellectual community.

  • Learn Their Names (or Try): Even the attempt to learn student names is deeply appreciated. Ask for names when students speak and use them in your response. Consider using a photo roster from Canvas to help you put names to faceshttps://toolfinder.iu.edu/tools/iu-photo-roster. A study in a high-enrollment biology course found that students’ perception of their instructor knowing their name was highly correlated with a sense of belonging, even though the instructors didn’t know every student’s name https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265 This suggests that the effort and intention behind using a student’s name are just as important as the memorization itself. For more strategies see: https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/how-to-learn-students-names/

  • Cultivate Peer Connections: Encourage students to get to know each other. In in Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College(Felten & Lambert, 2020) https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/19430355mention that students benefit when they are guided in how to connect, not just told to “work together.” On the first day, have them introduce themselves to those around them. Additional strategies might include teaching collaboration skills, establishing norms for group work, or prompting reflection on what makes a partnership effective. If you use group work, rotate group members throughout the semester. Periodically have students shift seating to broaden their peer interactions.

  • Personalized Feedback (Even in Large Classes): While challenging, finding ways to provide even small amounts of personalized feedback on assignments can significantly reduce feelings of anonymity. This could be through targeted comments on a rubric or brief, individualized responses to discussion forum posts. In large classes, it’s impossible to give every student a paragraph of detailed feedback each week, but you can make feedback feelpersonal by thinking in layers. I like to frame it as macro, meso, and micro feedback. At the macro level, I share short announcements summarizing class-wide trends; what students are doing well, what’s tripping them up, and a few standout examples. At the meso level, I provide targeted feedback to lab sections, project teams, or discussion groups that speaks directly to their shared progress. Then at the micro level, I use rubrics and comment banks to individualize comments just enough to sound human…adding a student’s name or referencing something specific from their work. It’s not about writing more; it’s about being intentional with how students experience the feedback they receive.

The “Why Bother?” Dilemma: Lack of Incentive, Relevance, and Engagement

Students often skip lectures if they perceive the content as readily available elsewhere, not directly relevant to their goals, or simply boring.

 

Strategies to Create Incentive and Relevance:

  • Incentivize Attendance: Leverage students’ natural focus on grades. Make attendance a component of the grade, or administer short, low-stakes quizzes at the beginning of class using tools like Canvas or TopHat.

  • Design Slides to Drive Presence:Explicitly state that your posted slides are incomplete. Design them as skeletal frameworks, requiring students to annotate and fill in critical explanations and examples during lecture. This creates a clear value proposition for attending.

  • Debunk the “Notes from a Peer” Myth:Directly address the inadequacy of relying solely on peer notes or even AI-generated summaries. Emphasize that context, instructor insights, and the organic flow of a live lecture cannot be fully replicated.

  • Connect to Their World: Embed examples, applications, and topics that resonate with students’ fields of study and current cultural interests. Utilize Canvas Course Analytics, Reports and Dashboardsand/or  pre-course surveys to understand your student demographics and tailor examples accordingly.

  • Pique Interest from the Start: Begin lectures with a challenging question, an intriguing anecdote, or a real-world problem that immediately grabs attention and motivates sustained engagement.

  • Convey Your Enthusiasm: Your passion for the subject is contagious! Share personal stories, recent discoveries, and your excitement for the discipline. Voice and body language naturally convey this enthusiasm.

Overcoming Information Overload and Misaligned Expectations

Sometimes, students skip because they feel overwhelmed, confused by lecture goals, or perceive the lecture as redundant to textbook material.

Strategies for Clarity and Complementary Learning:

  • Chunk Your Lectures & Re-engage:Recognize that typical attention spans are 10-20 minutes. Plan your lectures in shorter chunks, incorporating varied activities every 15-20 minutes to re-engage attention (e.g., questions, visuals, demonstrations, group work, videos). Consider attending the upcoming Active Learning Block Party for Large Classrooms sponsored by CITL for engagement ideas.

  • Complement, Don’t Reiterate, the Textbook: Use class time to expand on readings, provide alternative perspectives, facilitate problem-solving, or have students generate their own examples. The lecture should offer something the textbook doesn’t.

  • Provide Unique Experiences: Bring in guest speakers, conduct live demonstrations of code or hardware, or share cutting-edge research and innovations that students wouldn’t encounter elsewhere that connect with course content.

  • State Your Goals Clearly: Explicitly articulate the learning objectives for each lecture. Use these goals as “mileposts” to help students track their progress and understand the desired outcomes.

  • Share the Organization: Provide an outline, agenda, or visual representation of the lecture’s structure. Don’t assume novices will automatically see the logical connections among concepts.

  • Encourage Support Services: If you identify students struggling with academic or non-academic demands, refer them to appropriate support services like Academic Development, the Counseling Center, or Student Health.  Student Resource Slideshow.pptx

  • Support Language Learners: For students whose first language is not English, refer them to resources like the Office of International Services which offers drop-in English tutorials for second language students https://ois.iu.edu/get-involved/english-tutorials/index.html

  • Provide Recordings (Strategically):While recordings can reduce attendance, they are a valuable accessibility tool. If you record, emphasize that the recording is a supplement for review or for those with legitimate absences, not a substitute for live engagement. Consider how you might make the live session distinctly more valuable than the recording (e.g., interactive elements through PlayPosithttps://uits.iu.edu/services/technology-for-teaching/instruction-and-assessment-tools/playposit/index.html, Q&A).

The Power of Visuals and Storytelling

In fields like Computer Science and Engineering, abstract concepts can be difficult to grasp. Visuals and real-world narratives can significantly enhance comprehension and engagement.

Additional Tips:

  • Integrate Visualizations: When explaining complex algorithms, data structures, or system architectures, use diagrams, flowcharts https://miro.com/, and animations  Show, don’t just tell. Consider generating some of these visualizations on the fly with your students!

  • Tell Stories of Impact: Frame technical concepts within the context of real-world problems they solve or innovative applications. How did this algorithm enable a new technology? What societal problem does this data science technique address?

  • Live Coding Demonstrations: For programming or data manipulation courses, live coding is incredibly effective. It allows students to see the process, observe debugging strategies, and ask questions in real-time. Make sure to slow down and explain your thought process.

  • Guest Speakers from Industry: Invite professionals from relevant industries to share how the concepts taught in class are applied in their day-to-day work. This provides tangible career relevance.

By adopting these evidence-based strategies, faculty can transform their lectures from passive information dissemination into vibrant, engaging learning experiences that students genuinely want to attend. The goal isn’t just to fill seats, but to foster deeper learning and a stronger connection to the academic community.

 

Pedagogical Tips for the Start of the Semester

The first weeks of the semester are a unique window to shape not only what students will learn, but how they will learn. In STEM courses, where concepts can be abstract, skill levels vary wildly, and technologies evolve quickly, intentional, evidence-based practices can help you set students up for long-term success.

Below are a few strategies with examples and tools you can implement immediately.

Design an Inclusive, Transparent Syllabus

Evidence base: Transparent teaching research (Winkelmes et al., 2016) shows that when students understand the purpose, tasks, and criteria for success, they perform better.

Implementation tips:

  • Purpose statements: For every major assignment, include a short note on why it matters and how it connects to industry or future coursework.
    Example: “This database schema project builds skills in relational modeling, which are directly relevant to backend software engineering interviews.”

  • Clear expectations: Break down grading policies, late work policies, and collaboration guidelines into plain language, avoiding overly technical or legalistic phrasing.

  • Accessibility & flexibility: Link to tutoring labs, office hours, online learning resources, and note-taking tools. Indicate whether assignments can be resubmitted after feedback.

  • Create a one-page “Quick Reference” sheet covering key policies (late work, collaboration, grading)

  • Norm-setting: Add a “Community Norms” section that covers respectful code reviews, how to ask questions in class, and expectations for group work. In large classes, it’s vital to set expectations for respectful online discussions, effective use of the Q&A forum (e.g., checking if a question has already been asked), and guidelines for group work if applicable (e.g., conflict resolution strategies).

Establish Psychological Safety Early

Evidence base: Google’s Project Aristotle (2015) and Edmondson’s (1999) work on team learning show that psychological safety, where students feel safe to take intellectual risks, is essential for high performance.

Implementation tips:

  • Low stakes start: In week one, run short, open-ended coding challenges that allow multiple solutions. Make it clear that mistakes are part of the process.

  • Start with anonymous polls about programming experience to acknowledge the diversity of backgrounds in the room.

  • Instructor vulnerability: Share a personal example of a bug or failed project you learned from. This normalizes challenges in programming. In a large lecture, you can briefly mention common misconceptions students often have with a new concept, and how to navigate them.

  • Model Constructive Feedback: When providing feedback on early assignments (even low-stakes ones), focus on growth and learning. When addressing common errors in a large class, frame it as an opportunity for collective learning rather than pointing out individual mistakes.

  • Multiple communication channels: Set up a Q&A platform (InScribe) where students can post questions anonymously.

Use Early Analytics for Intervention

Evidence base: Freeman et al. (2014) found that early course engagement strongly predicts later success, allowing for timely support.

Implementation tips:

  • Student Engagement Roster (SER): https://ser.indiana.edu/faculty/index.html During the first week of class,  consider explaining the SER to your students and tell them how you will be using it. If students are registered for your class and miss the first class, report them as non-attending in SER.  It will allow outreach that can help clarify their situation. Here’s a sample text you could put into your syllabus:
    This semester I will be using IU’s Student Engagement Roster to provide feedback on your performance in this course. Periodically throughout the semester, I will be entering information on factors such as your class attendance, participation, and success with coursework, among other things. This information will provide feedback on how you are doing in the course and offer you suggestions on how you might be able to improve your performance.  You will be able to access this information by going to One.IU.edu and searching for the Student Engagement Roster (Faculty) tile.

  • Use Canvas Analytics:

  • Identify struggling students. “Submissions” allows you to view if students submit assignments on-time, late, or not at all.

    1. See grades at a glance. “Grades” uses a box and whisker plot to show the distribution of grades in the course.

    2. See individual student data. “Student Analytics” shows page view, participations, assignments, and current score for every student in the course.

  • Track early submissions: Note which students complete the first assignments or attend early labs

  • Personal outreach: Email or meet with students who are slipping to connect them with tutoring, peer mentors, or study groups.

  • Positive nudges: Celebrate early wins (e.g., “I noticed you submitted the optional challenge problem. Great initiative!”).

  • Proactive Outreach (with TA Support): If you identify students who are struggling, send personalized emails offering support and directing them to available resources (e.g., tutoring, office hours with TAs). Consider delegating some of this outreach to TAs in large courses.

  • Announcements Highlighting Resources: Regularly remind the entire class about available support resources, study strategies, and upcoming deadlines through announcements.

Key Implementation Strategies for Success

  • Start Small and Build Don’t attempt to implement all strategies simultaneously. Choose 2-3 that align with your teaching style and course structure, then gradually incorporate additional elements.

  • Leverage Your Teaching Team In large courses, TAs are essential partners. Invest time in training them on consistent feedback practices, student support strategies, and early intervention protocols.

  • Iterate Based on Data Use student feedback, performance analytics, and your own observations to refine your approach throughout the semester. What works in one context may need adjustment in another.

  • Maintain Connection at Scale Even in large courses, students need to feel seen and supported. Use technology strategically to maintain personal connection while managing the practical demands of scale.

Conclusion

By implementing these research-backed strategies, faculty can create learning environments where diverse students thrive, engagement remains high, and learning outcomes improve significantly.

The investment in implementing these practices pays dividends not only in student success but also in teaching satisfaction and course sustainability. As you prepare for the new semester, consider which strategies best align with your course goals and student population, then take the first step toward transforming your large enrollment course into a dynamic, supportive learning community.

Remember: even small changes, consistently applied, can create significant improvements in student learning and engagement. Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can to create the best possible learning experience for your students.

References

  1. Winkelmes, M. A., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K. H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students’ success. Peer Review, 18(1/2), 31–36. Association of American Colleges and Universities.

  2. Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999

  3. Google Inc. (2015). Project Aristotle: Understanding team effectiveness. Retrieved from https://rework.withgoogle.com/intl/en/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness

  4. Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410–8415. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111

Instructor Talk

Studies by Seidel et al. (2015) and Harrison et al. (2019),  have demonstrated how Instructor Talk plays a crucial role in shaping classroom environments, influencing student engagement, learning attitudes, and potentially mitigating stereotype threats. Instructor talk is defined as any language used by an instructor that is not directly related to course content but instead shapes the learning environment.

Seidel et al. (2015) identified five major categories of non-content talk:

  1. Building the Instructor/Student Relationship– Encouraging respect, boosting self-efficacy, and offering advice for student success.

  2. Establishing Classroom Culture – Setting expectations, fostering a sense of community, and making students feel comfortable in the learning process.

  3. Explaining Pedagogical Choices – Justifying teaching methods to help students understand why certain approaches are used.

  4. Sharing Personal Experiences – Providing personal anecdotes or relating to student experiences.

  5. Unmasking Science – Discussing the nature of science and emphasizing diversity within the field.

Harrison et al. (2019) added a new category:“Negatively Phrased Instructor Talk.” This includes statements that may discourage students, undermine confidence, or convey unhelpful attitudes about learning.

Positively phrased Instructor Talk includes language that motivates, supports, and encourages students, helping to create an inclusive and productive learning environment.

Examples of Positively Phrased Instructor Talk:

Building the Instructor/Student Relationship (Encouraging and Inclusive Language)

  • “Debugging can be frustrating, but every programmer goes through it—even the best software engineers. You’re developing a valuable skill by troubleshooting.”

  • “There are many ways to solve this problem. If your approach works, it’s valid! Computer science is about creativity as much as logic.”

  • “If you’re stuck, that’s a good sign—you’re thinking critically! Take a step back, break the problem into smaller pieces, and try again.”

Establishing Classroom Culture (Fostering a Positive Learning Environment)

  • “In this class, collaboration is encouraged! Working with others will help you see different approaches and learn more effectively.”

  • “Asking questions is a sign of an engaged learner. Feel free to speak up—there are no bad questions in coding!”

  • “Mistakes are part of learning to program. The best way to improve is to experiment, test, and debug!”

Explaining Pedagogical Choices (Justifying Learning Strategies to Reduce Resistance)

  • “We use pair programming because research shows it helps students learn faster and develop teamwork skills.”

  • “I emphasize problem-solving over memorization because in real-world programming, you’ll be looking up syntax all the time—what matters is knowing how to think through problems.”

  • “This assignment is designed to help you build a strong foundation. Once you grasp these basics, you’ll be able to tackle much more complex projects.”

Sharing Personal Experiences (Relating to Students)

  • “When I first learned recursion, it completely confused me! But breaking it down into base cases and recursive steps helped me understand it.”

  • “I once spent an entire weekend debugging a program because of a missing semicolon. Now I always double-check my syntax!”

Unmasking Computer Science (Encouraging Diverse Perspectives & Scientific Thinking)

  • “There’s no single type of person who becomes a great programmer—some of the best developers come from all kinds of backgrounds.”

  • “Computer science isn’t just about writing code. It’s about solving problems and thinking critically—skills that are valuable in any field.”

Examples of Negatively Phrased Instructor Talk:

Building the Instructor/Student Relationship (Discouraging Students)

  • “This is just how programming works—either you get it, or you don’t.”

  • “If you’re struggling with loops, maybe computer science isn’t for you.”

  • “Some of you clearly didn’t put in the effort, and it shows in your code.”

Establishing Classroom Culture (Creating Anxiety or an Unwelcoming Environment)

  • “If you can’t get this assignment working, you’ll probably fail the course.”

  • “I’m not here to hold your hand—figure it out on your own.”

  • “Real programmers don’t need to ask for help. If you need help, you’re not thinking hard enough.”

Explaining Pedagogical Choices (Undermining Learning Strategies)

  • “I don’t really believe in these ‘new’ teaching methods, but the department requires me to use them.”

  • “Honestly, I don’t see the point of teaching theory—you’ll just learn everything on the job anyway.”

  • “You just need to memorize this syntax and move on. Understanding isn’t really necessary.”

Sharing Personal Experiences (Self-Effacing or Confusing Students)

  • “I never really understood object-oriented programming myself, but here’s the textbook definition.”

  • “Back in my day, we had to learn this without any online tutorials. You have it easy!”

Unmasking Computer Science (Excluding or Dismissing Certain Groups)

  • “Let’s be honest, some people just don’t have the logical thinking required for coding.”

  • “There aren’t many women in AI, but that’s just the way the field is.”

  • “If you’re not naturally good at math, you’re going to struggle a lot in this class.”

Findings revealed that Instructor Talk was present in every class session, ranging from six to 68 instances per class session. The study by Seidel et al. (2015) suggests that Instructor Talk can impact student motivation, reduce resistance to active learning, and help mitigate stereotype threat. The introduction of negatively phrased Instructor Talk suggests that some instructor behaviors may unintentionally harm student learning and should be carefully examined. The authors recommend that educators reflect on their non-content talk to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. While Harrison et al. (2019)validated its applicability across multiple courses and identified new challenges related to negative instructor language. Both studies emphasize the importance of non-content communication in higher education, particularly in STEM courses.

Harrison, C. D., Nguyen, T. A., Seidel, S. B., Escobedo, A. M., Hartman, C., Lam, K., … & Tanner, K. D. (2019). Investigating instructor talk in novel contexts: Widespread use, unexpected categories, and an emergent sampling strategy. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 18(3), ar47. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.18-10-0215

Seidel, S. B., Reggi, A. L., Schinske, J. N., Burrus, L. W., & Tanner, K. D. (2015). Beyond the biology: A systematic investigation of noncontent instructor talk in an introductory biology course. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 14(4), ar43. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-03-0049

Integrating metacognitive and student engagement strategies into your practice

The article, “How Changes in K-12 Schooling Hampered the Preparation of College Students” Published last month in the Chronicle of Higher Education,  explores how reforms in K-12 education, combined with broader societal changes and disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, and teacher shortages have affected the academic habits and preparedness of today’s college students, particularly Generation Z. When examining how test-based accountability has impacted curriculum design, policies such as “No Child Left Behind” have prioritized short-term performance over long-term learning.

Teaching became narrowly focused on test-taking skills, such as answering multiple-choice questions and writing formulaic essays, leaving students unprepared for broader academic tasks. “The [K-12] curriculum has been narrowed to mirror standardized tests. Students work on short passages to develop specific skills. Every class has a lesson, and every lesson has an assessment plan and an outcome. So when students arrive at college, they are conditioned to expect that same level of guidance. Ethan Hutt [an associate professor of education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill], would like to give an assignment that goes like this: Pick a topic, write an essay, and say something interesting. But he finds he can’t — not even with his doctoral students”.

The article argues that, as a result, Students struggle with tasks like reading long texts and writing analytical essays because of a curriculum that favored short passages and responses. The shift away from holistic learning resulted in “atomized” education, where students are conditioned to expect detailed rubrics and granular guidance for assignments. Professors find that students enter college unprepared for the skills that are expected of them. Students often struggle with open-ended assignments, critical thinking, and engaging deeply with academic material. The article concludes that while K-12 reforms and the pandemic have played significant roles in shaping current students’ academic habits, broader systemic and cultural factors must also be addressed. Higher education inherits these challenges and must adapt to better support students’ academic and social transitions.

Based on the content of this article it may be helpful to integrate student engagement and metacognitive practices into first and second year classes such as integrating the Student Engagement Roster into your classroom practice:

SER Roster: The early feedback tool that allows faculty members to communicate with students about how they are doing in a class and make recommendations to improve or deepen their learning. SER also allows instructors to meet two faculty reporting obligations at IUB: Attendance verification and early evaluation grades. More information on those topics is available in the Help and Resources section.

Next week (1/20/2025) Submit SER with Attendance/Participation Feedback for:

  • Anyone not attending

  • Anyone already struggling to turn in work

  • Anyone doing a great job participating

Metacognitive Strategies

 

Think Aloud Exercises:

Anytime you can talk out loud (‘think aloud’) about how you view a document or a picture or programming an assignment, or share your thinking processes with students you are helping them become more metacognitive in their own approaches to the subject.  Once you have modeled for them how you would solve a problem or interpret a piece of writing, have students work in pairs to talk out loud as to how they are thinking about an assignment piece of homework or an assignment.

Concept Mapping: 

Learning benefits can be derived from instructor-led or student-constructed concept maps of the connections and key ideas from a course or class. It is best that the instructor demonstrate how to design a concept map of a class or course before students are asked to do the same. Show students how the readings, videos, assignments and activities are connected to the course learning outcomes and other courses.

Design a brief or detailed concept map of the course or sub-components of the course and share with students. Then later on in course students can form small groups and build a concept map as a review activity before a mid-term or as a review of a portion of the course. Students can do for homework or they can do in class and share with each other explaining the interrelationships between each component. Ask the students to draw all the ‘cross-links’ and label them as they see the components connecting fully or partially.

Guided Notes

Guided notes are structured outlines provided by an instructor that include key concepts, ideas, or topics, with spaces for students to fill in additional information during the lecture or while engaging with course content.

  • Lecture Notes: An instructor provides an outline of the lecture with prompts for students to add definitions, examples, or connections.

  • Reading Notes: A guided framework for analyzing a reading or resource, directing students’ attention to specific questions or themes.

  • Problem-Solving Frameworks: In mathematics or sciences, guided notes might include partial steps of a problem-solving process, leaving students to complete the solution.

This technique aligns with various teaching strategies, including scaffolding and universal design for learning (UDL), as it helps to bridge the gap between independent learning and instructor support.

More strategies and resources available here.

Evidence Based Research Supporting the Use of PlayPosit in classes

PlayPosit https://app.teaching.iu.edu/tools/playposit is an interactive teaching tool/application used to make interactive videos, also known as bulbs. The application can be integrated into the Canvas using your own videos or by extracting videos from other sources, such as YouTube or TED Talks, and convert them into an interactive, topic- and student-focused mini-lessons by adding questions at appropriate time-points in the video. Educators may also prepare video clips from longer recorded lectures and encourage student engagement by providing context or additional information through text and images on slides, inserting questions to check for understanding, including discussion and reflection questions, giving pre-recorded feedback as they see fit, and even incorporating polling. PlayPosit videos pause at certain intervals chosen by the instructor to give students an opportunity to respond.

PlayPosit settings allow for multiple playback options, including allowing students to rewind, fast forward or retake the activities. The instructor may also incorporate instant feedback after each question; so, students not only see whether they answered correctly but also understand the rationale. This feedback enables instructors to modify instructional activities midstream in light of their effectiveness, impact, and value. Because formative evaluations are designed to guide the teaching process – and are not used as outcome indicators – they are generally individualized evaluations that are under the control of the instructor and target specific instructional topics, issues or concerns.

van der Meij, H., & Bӧckmann, L. (2021). Effects of embedded questions in recorded lectures. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 33(1), 235–254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-020-09263-x. 

  • Researchers sought to examine the effectiveness of providing “open-ended embedded questions” in recorded video lessons to better prepare students for upcoming in-class topics.

  • Student surveys, user logs, and knowledge tests showed that learners “engaged significantly more with the embedded questions lecture” and showed “significantly higher” average scores on those topics. Researchers concluded that embedded questions “can increase the effectiveness of online video-recorded

     lectures.”

Lewandowski, H.J., Pollard, B., West, C.G. (2020). Using custom interactive video prelab activities in a large introductory lab course. 2019 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2019.pr.Lewandowski. 

  • As part of a broader redesign of a large introductory physics course at the University of Colorado Boulder, researchers developed pre-lab videos with embedded PlayPosit questions to help students better prepare for in-person lab activities.

  • Researchers found that 90% of students completed the pre-lab video modules, with the “vast majority of students spending a nontrivial amount of time engaging with each question.” 80% of students felt the activities prepared them well for in-person lab tasks.

Sherifi, D., Jia, Y., Hunt, T. J., & Ndanga, M. (2023). Evaluation of a PlayPosit guided group project’s impact on student engagement in an undergraduate course. Discover Education, 2(1), 32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-023-00057-8

  • Students appreciated that PlayPosit activities were enjoyable and different from other learning resources. Eleven students expressed that PlayPosits were “enjoyable, “short”, “quick”, “not overbearing”, “not drawn out or boring”, “made learning fun”, “a unique way of learning”, and “kept students interested”.

  • PlayPosit increased the teaching presence of the professor by virtue of having multiple touch points with the material focused on relevant tasks.

  • PlayPosit contributed to better interaction of the students with the course content, and as per their comments, was helpful and beneficial, as well as interesting and attractive. Furthermore, students were more attentive to the other course videos and recordings.

Karpicke, J.D. (2012). Retrieval-based learning: Active retrieval promotes meaningful learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 157–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412443552. 

  • Researchers compared the effects of different study strategies on student learning between three test groups in the same course: one studying concepts by rereading materials with no recall activities, one mostly rereading with some recall activities, and one reading just once with more recall activities.

  • While surveyed students believed rereading would be the most effective study strategy, those who simply reread the same materials with no recall activities performed poorest on assessments. Those who practiced just one retrieval activity “doubled long-term retention,” and those who practiced multiple retrieval activities showed even larger gains

For more information on how to integrate PlayPosit into your course, please visit https://app.teaching.iu.edu/tools/playposit

Strategies to Help Struggling Students Turn It Around

The following tips were adapted from materials developed by Doug Holton, PhD. They are intended to help faculty support students at the midpoint of the semester who are struggling in class:

Quick Tip: End of Semester Planning

The following are a few ideas adapted from the SUNY Teaching and Learning center, that may help you prepare for the Spring semester, and/or update your teaching portfolio:

Keep a copy of your syllabus and each assignment you design

Your teaching portfolio may include a range of syllabi and assignments you’ve designed. Make sure you keep a copy of syllabi, assignments, and assessments so that you have as many options as possible to choose from for your teaching portfolio. As the semester ends, you might make small notes about the genesis of a certain syllabus theme or assessment. These brief notes may prove useful later when you are asked to talk about your approach to teaching or ways you have developed as an instructor.

Is there an article?

Think about the larger impact of practices from your courses this semester. Did you try something new: a new assignment? A new classroom design? Reflect on your pedagogical practices and what new learning experiences they opened up. Is there something you want to write about and share with other instructors?

There are several journals geared toward articles about pedagogical practices, including the International Journal of Designs for Learning https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ijdl/index

Think about revision

It’s possible that you might teach this course again or a course in which you’ll use similar activities or assignments. Even if you don’t think you’ll teach this course in the next semester, take a few minutes to think about what you want to keep, what you want to revise and keep, and what you want to toss totally when you teach the course again.

If you annotated your syllabus throughout the semester, then read through those notes and make a ‘to do’ list or a quick summary of them so that, when you return to planning, you have some guidelines for how to jump back in.

If you didn’t annotate your syllabus, take a few minutes to jot down a few notes about what readings, assignments, and so forth that you absolutely want to keep, or what new ideas you have that you want to try next time. Think about the feedback you received from students through both formal and informal evaluations. How can you incorporate this feedback into your next class?

A small pocket of time at the end of the semester can help you get ahead for the next semester.

Record of grades & attendance

Students may come to you a semester, a year, or even a couple of years after you’ve had them in your class. You’ll likely have engaged with dozens or hundreds of students since then, and the records you keep will be helpful in refreshing your memory.

Consider keeping any of the following that are not stored in Canvas:

  • any unreturned papers (such as final exams, final papers, etc)

  • your attendance records

  • course syllabus, grading policy documents, and all rubrics and assignments

  • student emails (you don’t need to print them, but perhaps keep them in a mailbox folder)

Sample Papers and Standout Examples

You might want to keep a few papers on hand as examples to share with a class or models that you can work through, critique or peer review with future students. Make sure you get each student’s permission and preference for name/no name on the paper. You might consider sending out an announcement or including on your syllabus that all work that is submitted can be used anonymously for “future educational purposes,” and asking that students who wish to be excluded from this policy email you. Additionally, if there are standout examples you might want to keep them for your teaching portfolio.

As always, please let me know if I can support you in any of the efforts mentioned above.

2023 State of Student Success and Engagement in Higher Education

Instructure, the company that created Canvas, has released the report: The 2023 State of Student Success and Engagement in Higher Education. They worked with Hanover Research to field a survey in 17 countries, asking for the perspectives of 6,100 current students, administrators, and faculty from 2-year, 4-year, public, and private higher education institutions in order to answer the following questions:

  • Are students satisfied with the existing skills-based learning opportunities for lifelong learning?

  • What tools best support student success and engagement and how can they be leveraged across the education landscape?

  • With technology being so immersed in the student experience, how can institutions address barriers to access and provide educators with the support they need inside and outside the classroom

  • How are faculty across the globe being supported through changes in their industry?

The key takeaways are:

 

Skills-based learning is becoming the most valued for its practical application in the workforce. 

As the workforce shifts and more jobs go remote, the need for students to demonstrate proof of skills to potential employers increases. Career advancement and the desire to learn new skills are most likely to influence students to pursue a skills-based learning opportunity, along with cost and program flexibility. Students increasingly desire courses and programs that undoubtedly prepare them for the workforce and expect educators to make more personalized courses, offer hands-on, practical learning opportunities, and support on-the-go learners.

Certificates and apprenticeship programs are becoming highly valued by both students and employers for their demonstrable proof of workplace skills, and upskilling/ reskilling for lifelong learners.

Longer life expectancy, education costs, and changes in the workplace are driving a fundamental shift toward lifelong learning. As more students seek skills-based learning opportunities to supplement their traditional degrees and ensure return on their educational investment, colleges and universities can adapt their offerings to meet this need. Of the skills-based learning opportunities institutions currently offer for lifelong learning, students are most likely to consider certificates and apprenticeships. Viewed positively by three-quarters of respondents, certificates and apprenticeships can serve as viable vehicles for the practical skills learners need for career readiness and advancement.

Schools need to provide consistent guidelines and training around generative AI for educators and students or risk a growing divide in skill development.

While technology played a vital role in getting students and educators through

the pandemic, AI has introduced a growing divide in the adoption of tech tools in the classroom. Through guidelines and training for generative AI, colleges and universities have an opportunity to aid educators in driving consistency for learners. Despite the building interest in generative AI, these tools have yet to be used consistently across institutions, with only one-quarter of educators currently using them. The top concerns educators have about using AI in classrooms are cheating/plagiarism and decreased creativity/critical thinking among students – who also use AI for research, writing and test preparation. Instead of hyper-focusing on cheating, educators should shift their focus to new assessment methods and productive uses of generative AI tools. Otherwise, they risk losing tech-native students and an opportunity to prepare them for future jobs that will leverage advanced technology.

Access to technology has the greatest impact on student success and engagement, but we haven’t solved the accessibility gap for many learners.

One of the silver linings of the pandemic was the increase in accessibility delivered through technology. However, as technology and education evolve, institutions risk widening the gap in accessibility for students with little or no access to technology, edtech tools, and reliable Wi-Fi or broadband connections. Learning management systems are among the most used edtech solutions, which most students and educators say are being used to increase accessibility. Although institutions provide technology equipment to students who cannot access it, offer hybrid learning options, and provide mobile app access to the LMS, accessing technology remains one of the biggest roadblocks for many students.

Students and educators value mental health resources, but really want time off.

Psychological well-being and access to mental health resources greatly impact student engagement and faculty support. Many institutions provide mental health resources that can be accessed through LMS integrations and partnerships, but a good portion of students are unaware of or unable to leverage these resources. Today, the top mental health resource offered by institutions is in-person/virtual counseling, but what students and educators want most are personal/ mental health days off to recharge.

Educators feel most empowered when they are given autonomy, respect, and holistic support.

Today’s educators are dealing with bigger classes, more regulation, and demands for greater flexibility from students in how they want to learn. They would like most for their institutions to offer additional personal development, acknowledge/award their achievements, and provide them with opportunities to give feedback. Educators feel most empowered by their institution when they are given autonomy and respect in their position and feel as though their physical and mental health is cared for. Currently, the top professional development opportunities available to educators through institutions are technology training and diversity, equity and

inclusion (DEI) training

Related Resource:

 

Getting to Know Your Students

Jennie Carr, an Associate Professor at Bridgewater College, explains that researchers have found “strong positive correlations between [faculty] building relationships and rapport with students and academic achievement, attendance, student interest, motivation, empowerment, self-efficacy student attention, classroom behaviors and interactions (Benson, Cohen, Buskist, 2005, Houser & Frymier, 2009, Kozanitis, Desbiens, Chouinard, 2007; Myers, Goldman, Atkinson, Ball, Carton, Tindage & Anderson, 2016)”. Some ways you can develop connections with students in the first few weeks of class are listed below. Some techniques work better for smaller (n<60) classrooms while others work well with all class sizes. As the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon notes: “Even in large lecture classes, it is possible to get to know a conspicuous number of your students, a few at a time. For students, it’s the effort that counts”. Some of these tips I have shared before, however, I have added some new insights and additional information that may be helpful (hopefully).

Learning Student Names:

Name Coach: https://cloud.name-coach.com/ – Assign students the task of recording their name and writing the phonetic pronunciation of their name. Name Coach slows down the recording to help you hear how they pronounce their names. This will help you to listen to their names and learn how to pronounce their names correctly. Use Name Tents – If seating allows space for students to have name tents, ask students to write their names in large letters on both sides of a folded 5 x 8 index card and to keep this card on their desks/tables for the first few classes. The Canvas Roster: https://academiccontinuity.yale.edu/faculty/how-guides/canvas/canvas-class-roster is available in the People menu of the Canvas course to all Canvas roles except Observer, displays the name, email address, role, photo, and NameCoach recording (if available) for each member of the course. Using the Photo Roster tool, you can change the page or print layout; search and filter the list of course members; group by role, section, or group; and print or export the current view. Official IU photos and associated features are only available to instructors in SIS courses. The roster has a feature that allows you to print out an attendance sheet. You can use that sheet to make annotations that will help you remember your students’ names. The Eberly Center suggests taking a few extra seconds for each student to identify their most 1-2 noticeable traits. Be sure to include ways of pronouncing names that are unfamiliar to you.

Introduce Yourself

Consider sharing information with students beyond your name and the name of the course you’re teaching. Vanderbilt University suggests one of the following:

  • Personal biography: your place of birth, family history, educational history, hobbies, sport and recreational interests, how long you have been at the university, and what your plans are for the future.

  • Educational biography: how you came to specialize in your chosen field, a description of your specific area of expertise, your current projects, and your future plans.

  • Teaching biography: how long have you taught, how many subjects/classes have you taught, what level of class you normally teach, what you enjoy about being in the classroom, what do you learn from your students, and what you expect to teach in the future.

Have a seating plan

When students arrive in your class, let them sit where they want, and then ask them to remain in those seats for at least two weeks. Create a seating chart for the room and have students fill in their names on the seating chart. Refer to the chart as you conduct the course. This reference will allow you to learn names according to placement in the classroom. (University of Lethbridge)

Icebreakers: The Center for Teaching and Learning at IU-Indy https://ctl.iupui.edu/Resources/Preparing-to-Teach/Using-Ice-Breakers reminds us to use icebreakers as a way of getting acquainted with students and establish classroom community on the first day of class. However, you can use small icebreakers beyond the first few weeks of class to help build rapport. Top Hat https://app.teaching.iu.edu/tools/top-hat provides a list of icebreakers that can be used in various contexts, including course- or assignment-specific icebreakers https://tophat.com/blog/classroom-icebreakers/

Having One on One or Small Group Meetings/Office Hours – Carr (2020) recommends setting up 1:1 or small group appointments to meet with students during the first few weeks of class. “Meaningful interactions with students outside of classes is listed by the National Survey of Student Engagement as a high-impact educational practice (NSSE, 2017). Approximately 95% of my students attend. During the 1:1 meet and greet meeting, my primary goal is to get to know the students on a personal level. I explain to them very simply, “I care about you first and foremost as a person – I want you to be successful in this class.” The meeting encourages students to not only find my office but also helps reduce anxious feelings about meeting with faculty when they have a more serious concern”The Canvas Scheduler Tool https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-add-a-Scheduler-appointment-group-in-a-course-calendar/ta-p/1021 allows you to create a block of time where a student or groups of students can meet with you. Students can sign up for appointment times in their own calendars. Have students say their name when asking for a response to a question during your lecture or discussion, or when they ask a question. Explain to them that this helps not only you, but their classmates learn their names.

In addition to office hours – When possible, arrive to class a little early and stay a little later to chat with students. This will also allow students who may not feel comfortable raising questions during class to approach you in a low-pressure way.

Asking students to complete confidential student profiles – Another way to get to know your students is to have them complete a student profile (you can use Google Tools, Microsoft 360, or Qualtrics to create a profile: https://forms.gle/P2upb3JKzhSnzBRE8). Profiles are a form with questions that allow you to better understand who your students are, what they know about the class/discipline, as well as the types of expectations they have for the course.  It also allows you to understand what types of boundaries they have in terms of work and family that may impact how they perform in your course.

Helping students engage in lecture

In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, James Lane (author of Small Teaching) explains:

“The opening five minutes offer us a rich opportunity to capture the attention of students and prepare them for learning. They walk into our classes trailing all of the distractions of their complex lives — the many wonders of their smartphones, the arguments with roommates, the question of what to have for lunch. Their bodies may be stuck in a room with us for the required time period, but their minds may be somewhere else entirely.

It seems clear, then, that we should start class with a deliberate effort to bring students’ focus to the subject at hand.”

One strategy he advocates for is:

Reactivate what they learned in previous courses. Plenty of excellent evidence suggests that whatever knowledge students bring into a course has a major influence on what they take away from it. So a sure-fire technique to improve student learning is to begin class by revisiting, not just what they learned in the previous session, but what they already knew about the subject matter.

One way you can do this is by posing simple questions at the beginning of class followed by a few minutes of discussion: “Today we are going to focus on X. What do you know about X already? What have you heard about it in the media, or learned in a previous class?”  – Lang explains that this helps students:

  • “connect to your course material, so when they encounter new material, they will process it in a richer knowledge context”

  • It also helps you understand what preconceptions and misconceptions they may have about material.

Weimer (2018) suggests you ask questions about material previously covered. The strategies she suggests include:

  • Resolutely refuse to answer the question. That’s exactly what students want you to do.

  • Give them a hint. “We talked about this when we were talking about X?” “Check your notes for October 20. You might find the answer there.”

  • Be patient. It takes time to retrieve what you’ve just learned and just barely understand.

  • Still no response? Tell them, that’s the question you’ll start with tomorrow and if they don’t have an answer then, they’ll next see that question on the exam.

Have students review previously presented content.

  • “Take three minutes to review your notes from November 1. Do you have anything in your notes that doesn’t make sense to you now?” If someone offers an example, encourage other students to respond. “Help Shandra out. What do the rest of you have in your notes about this?” Conclude by giving them another minute to write more in their notes if they need to.

  • At the beginning or end of the class session, give students the chance to review notes from a designated day with someone sitting nearby. Encourage them to trade notes and then talk about what they do and don’t have that’s the same. What do they both consider the most important material in that set of notes?

Use the text in class

  • If the text offers a good definition, description, graphic, example, sample problem, study question, or something else, tell students you have it highlighted in your text. Ask if they’ve highlighted it in theirs. Then inquire about reasons why it might be highlighted.

  • Identify a key concept discussed several days ago or in a previous module. Start with what’s in their notes. Then ask about text material on the concept. Where’s it located in the text? What’s the relationship between what’s in the text and what was presented? Does the text add new information? Does it provide a different kind of explanation? Does it offer more examples?

Roberto (2021) recommends Creating Meaningful Prework:

Students will also come to class more prepared to contribute if you set the stage with effective prework activities. Reading assignments alone aren’t sufficient, and grades are not enough to motivate. We must broaden our perspective and think creatively about what prework is. The tasks we give students should answer the “So what?” question and require them to grapple with the material in some way, so they’re not blank slates when they get to class. It’s all about preparing them to engage. I’ve found the following tasks to be more effective than assigned readings; ask them to do some of the following:

  • Watch a ShowMe tutorial. This is an Apple app, though there are similar apps for other platforms. ShowMe turns your tablet into a whiteboard so that you can draw and bring in different colors and images as you record your voice. It doesn’t have to be fancy. The key is making a short video that breaks down a concept and readies students to apply that information. We need to get away from posting lengthy lecture videos and expecting students to sit through them.

“Articulating the ‘So what?’ before you hand out an assignment—and including compelling examples that reinforce the subject’s relevance—motivates students to do the work well, not just for the grade.”

  • Listen to an Audacity podcast. With this free software (also available at IUWare), you can record short audio podcasts that students can listen to on the go. My podcasts include a few simple bullet points and reviews of key topics.

  • Conduct interviews. Give students something active to do with the material. Sometimes the most effective prework is having them go out and be anthropologists, to observe or interview people about the topic. It could be someone on campus, out in the community, or even in their own homes.