Sydney Brown and Chad Brassil discuss the ways in which midterm is a great time for students and teachers to reflect on what’s working and what might need to change to improve the second half of the semester.
Get student feedback
An easy-to-use inclusive teaching technique for gathering feedback about students’ perceptions of what is beneficial to their learning experience is the "start, stop, continue" survey. This simple approach makes use of three questions:
- What should your instructor start doing?
- What should your instructor stop doing?
- What should your instructor continue doing?
This feedback can help inform instructors’ decisions about their course design and what they might want to change for the second half of the term, or the next time they offer the course.
Explore performance gaps
It is also useful to make use of data to check for demographic trends that may be developing. For example, are there differences between first-generation and continuing-generation students with respect to different types of assignments or exams?
To answer this question, make use of the Performance Demographics dashboard in “Course Insights,” a tool available in every Canvas course shell. In this dashboard, there are up to five filters depending on what is selected. To access, look first in the main navigation of the course. If you do not see it listed there, the link must be enabled using the Course > Settings > Navigation panel.
To investigate performance differences among demographic groups such as first-generation and continuing-generation, cluster by assignment groups and select generation using the metric control. If you see gaps, check to see if it is a performance gap or a “turning in” gap by selecting “remove zero scores” from the missing assignments control.
Check for student engagement drop-off
For courses where much of the course content and assessments are on Canvas, the new Low-Click Learner panel may serve as a useful leading indicator for student engagement drop-off. This dashboard provides a rolling seven-day average that begins on Sunday. Access this dashboard by clicking “Course Insights” in the main navigation of the course.
Upon identifying a student with either low grades or recently low click rates, select that student which will populate the third window showing the seven-day rolling average for the student and for the class.
Look for recent drop-offs in the student’s seven-day rolling average. Keep in mind that if a seven-day rolling average reaches all the way down to zero, that means a student has not clicked through on the course in seven days. Also keep in mind that the messaging from this dashboard should not be that a student needs to click on things more in Canvas, because aimless clicking hinders learning. Rather, use this dashboard as a possible leading indicator for drop-offs in student engagement overall. Consider extending invitations to students for a check-in with a focus on how things are going for them in terms of course preparation and time management.
Message students based on performance criteria
Another useful Canvas tool is “New Analytics.” This tool provides an easy way to message students based on performance criteria, including missing or late assignments. This approach to messaging can be an especially efficient way to communicate with groups of students in a large enrollment class. For example, at the midterm, you may want to let students who are doing well, that you’ve noticed and to “keep up the good work.” Or, depending on course policies, you may want to nudge students who are missing assignments so that they can still get credit if they turn them in. This messaging tool can be used at the assignment level as well. There are many ways to customize messages based on data available in “New Analytics.” To access this tool, open your Canvas course, click on “Home,” and select the link from those along the right side of the screen under the “Course Status” heading.
Support and training
Seeking student feedback, exploring performance gaps, monitoring engagement levels, and strategically messaging students all support student success, but learning to use new tools and identifying effective strategies can be difficult. If you would like to explore one or more of these tools or discuss instructional strategies to employ in response to your findings, contact an instructional designer assigned to your college. To discuss specific questions about the Course Insights dashboard, contact Chad Brassil.
More details at: https://go.unl.edu/2024-tls