August 2018 Tuesday Tips

21 August 2018:

Welcome to the Fall ’18 semester!

I hope this e-mail catches you while you’re developing or revising your syllabi this week. This document can be one of your most effective communication tools. A syllabus sets the tone for your course (Harnish & Bridges, 2011) so be mindful about what tone you wish to set as you create it. Here are three tips to ensure your syllabus effectively communicates what you want it to.

1. Make it Inclusive  – Scan your syllabi for content that could potentially be exclusive, and thus perhaps inaccessible, to some student groups (e.g. first-gen, low-income, international, certain genders, athletes etc.). Consider a reading list that includes diverse authors. Consider allowing students to purchase previous (and thus cheaper and more accessible) versions of a textbook. Consider allowing students to vote on the sequence of some parts of the curriculum as suggested in the book Why Students Resist Learning. Most importantly, be sure that all sections of your syllabus meet accessibility requirements (see attached tips and contact info for assistance)?
2.  Introduce Yourself –Sure, office location and e-mail address are important to mention, but consider including a photo of yourself along with a few sentences about your hobbies, where you’re from, something unique about you, etc. Academic achievement is linked to student-teacher connection (Konishi, Hymel, Zumbo, & Li, 2010) so anything you can do to strengthen that connection is a solid investment in your students.
3. Be Aware of Bloat – Is your syllabus more like a novel? It can be tempting to include every bit of information a student could possibly need along with a series of disclaimers addressing any and all possible scenarios. A syllabus shouldn’t read like a smartphone’s Terms & Conditions that few people ever read. If a syllabus is long enough to discourage reading, then it ceases to be a communication tool. Aim for the sweet spot of including adequate and relevant information without overloading students.

Have a wonderful first week of classes!

If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

28 August 2018:

If you want to use this popular communication format to help students learn but don’t want to give out your cell phone number, there’s an app for that. In fact, there are several apps for texting in an educational setting. One of the most frequently used is Remind. It’s easy to set up, free to use, works with either a web-interface or a smartphone app, and keeps cell numbers private for both sender and receiver. Other features include audio texting, attaching files, and translating text messages into various languages. Students can choose whether or not they wish to receive your text messages, so this could be a supplemental and optional form of communication to help those students who feel they could benefit from it. You could text students a last-minute change in classroom location, an upcoming due date reminder, or anything else related to your course content, protocols, or assessments.

If you’re more comfortable using e-mail or making announcements in class to communicate with students, that is perfectly fine. Software such as “Remind” may be helpful if you’re searching for an effective tool to communicate with your students on a platform with which they are familiar, comfortable, and competent.

If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.