Out of all the things that we invest in—be it houses, stock markets, cars, or relationships—our education is both the biggest and safest investment that we will ever make. This isn’t to say that our education is the be-all-end-all of the rest of our lives—many of us don’t end up working in a profession even remotely related to our chosen field, but we will always have that degree.
It’s All About Investment
Stocks go up and down, disasters strike, houses crumble, and relationships change, but once you finish up that degree, no one can take your education from you. As an educator, this is something that I’ve tried to remind my students of many times and as a professional who isn’t exactly working in her field of study I remind myself of my investment often—if all else fails, hey, at least I survived and conquered those (many) brain expanding years fuelled by all-nighters and excessive caffeine.
If you think about it, College is a lot like the stock market—it’s hectic, overwhelming, no one seems to know how it all really works, and it’s completely reliant upon a huge diversification of investors (Students) putting their hard earned cash into an equally diverse pool of funds, bonds and stocks (courses, majors, degrees).
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not business savvy in the slightest; but it’s my understanding that in theory a good investment should yield a good return (i.e—investing in college = graduating with a degree ) but how exactly does this happen? I haven’ t the first clue, but I’m guessing that having a kick-ass financial advisor doesn’t hurt.
Be the Best Advisor Ever, of All Time
Mic drop—teachers are to students what financial advisors are to investors. Ultimately, we cannot have complete control over student responsibility. All we can do is help our students get the most out of their investment and give them the means to be successful. In any capacity, an advisor is an expert of their field, who shares their knowledge in order to help their clients find success. Sounds a lot like an instructor, no?
For just a moment, I’d like to ask you to reflect on the best professional advisor, boss, mentor, or teacher that you’ve ever had. Chances are, the person that comes to mind possesses all or at least some of the 6 following qualities:
Clarity Around Professional Expectations
Flexibility
The Ability to Communicate Effectively
The Understanding that you are, in-fact, a human with a life outside of work (or school)
The Willingness to Offer Candid Feedback
Genuinely wanting employees or clients (or students) to grow and succeed.
Helping student find success in college is a lot like being a really great advisor or boss. It’s up to them to hold up their end of the deal, but there are many small practices that you can add into your lesson plan that have the potential to add up to some serious success for your students.
Ultimately, we cannot have complete control over student responsibility. All we can do is help our students get the most out of their investment and give them the means to be successful.
1. Be Clear about your Expectations— Set Ground Rules
On the first tutorial of a new semester, after all the icebreakers and introductions are over, I like to give my class a list of what I expect of them during our weekly tutorials and ask them to tell me what they expect of me in my role. I also set a few ground rules about inclusivity, email etiquette, asking for extensions, late assignments, inquiries, and a few general notes about the coursework.
Surely it all makes me seem a little strict (which I assure you, I am not) but I do this for their benefit and for mine—I get everything out in the open so our tutorials run smoothly and my students can get the most out of their time. The University of British Columbia’s Learning Commons reads “Clearly outlining your expectations for assignments, time spent studying, collaboration, and approach to learning that is expected in your class will help students lay their own pathway for how to progress with your class in relation to others.”
Not only does clarifying expectations increase student responsibility, once clear on the parameters of the course, what is expected of them, and what they can expect from their instructor, students can begin to make assessments as to what areas of the course will come easily to them and what will require more attention.
2. Practice Flexibility—Incorporate Independent Study
We all know that classrooms are full of different types of learners and addressing multiple learning styles can be daunting at best. For this reason alone, I believe that web-based learning strategies can be an amazing resource for both students and teachers alike. Even if the majority of your course takes place in-class, adding a web-based component gives your students the flexibility to engage in independent study in a way that best suits their learning needs.
E-learning can be as simple as discussion forums via email, online course content such as blogs, videos, lectures, and other texts, and online modules. Incorporating a E-learning component into your syllabus can increase student responsibility; and if executed creatively enough, can provide your students with some flexibility in terms of how they learn.
Or there’s always Top Hat, an all-in-one student engagement platform that gives professors real-time data on student comprehension, participation, performance and attendance, creating insightful teaching moments, and helping to transform stiff, passive lecture halls into lively, engaged learning environments.
One surefire way to incorporate both flexibility and web-based learning strategies into your syllabus is to provide an either/or option. This is a practice that I’ve tried in tutorials myself and I’m always surprised by the results. Assign a percentage of the overall rubric to small participation tasks for students to complete, but give them a couple of options for how to complete these tasks.
They could either participate in a weekly online discussion with their peers about an assigned subject OR they could submit, in-class, a one paragraph write-up about the same assigned subject matter. If you want to add a 3rd option to cater to an even broader array of learning styles, consider providing a short online quiz for students to take toward their participation grade.
Providing a little bit of choice is essential to student success because it creates the opportunity to engage with different learning strategies and make assessments about those learning strategies.
3. Communicate Effectively—Make Known What Resources Are Available
On that very first day of class and throughout the semester, ensure that your students know what resources are available to them. It may not be completely necessary, but it won’t take up much of your time and this small act of kindness can be the push a struggling student might need to actually take the time to make use of what’s available to them.
First and foremost, you are an excellent resource! You are teaching the course after all, so make sure your office hours and preferred contact info are in your syllabus and online. Inform them of course-specific resources throughout the semester. You may want to give them a heads up about some of the library services that are particularly pertinent to the course material, or recommend a few secondary readings—a cool blog or youtube video that might give the course material some more context never hurts.
So many texts come with supplementary online modules that include quizzes and summaries for your students to study with. Take a minute to go through them and let your students know which modules would be most beneficial for review. Again, it will always be the student’s responsibility to actually access these resources, but reiterating what’s available to improve student success is never a waste of time.
4. Remember That Students are Human (With heavy course loads)— Be Reasonable
Teaching isn’t about being the most beloved and coveted teacher in all the land but it’s not about being a complete tyrant either. A big part of giving our students the keys to success is giving them a reasonable workload.
Hey—we all get excited about our teachables and it’s easy to want to share the entire wealth of knowledge that is available on the subject. However it is imperative that, like a great boss, we remember that our students have other courses they are working on and a life outside of school. Whenever possible, try to reign it in.
Be willing to realign your syllabus—if your intuition tells you that you’re assigning a workload that is too big, trim back what isn’t necessary. Most importantly, listen to your students! If there seems to be a general consensus that the workload for your course is outrageous, give your class an opportunity to speak up and respond accordingly.
Sometimes cutting out a non-essential text or re-weighting an assignment is one of the best things we can do for our students. Similarly, switching out some heavier texts for a condensed tutorial or video they can watch on their own time can reduce a lot of classroom stress. And yes, I know, you’re thinking—in order to be successful, student’s need to learn how to juggle hectic schedules and multiple workloads! I mean we do, right? However, as teachers it’s our responsibility to hold up our end of the bargain and make sure that those workloads are realistically manageable.
5. Provide Candid Feedback— Praise and Productive Criticism
Perhaps the biggest hurdle students face in college is learning how to make assessments of their learning strategies. While grades are generally a good indication of how successful one is in a particular class, the feedback instructors provide plays an is essential role in learning how to be a successful student.
And while the process of providing feedback seems pretty simple— it may not be so cut and dry. To ensure that your feedback is as useful as possible, Lorena Bianchi suggests that feedback be as specific as possible, provided at different stages throughout an assignment whenever possible, and tailored to your audience.
6. Genuinely Want Your Students to Succeed
As an educator, you know how important and beneficial your initial investment has been, just as you know how important it is to help students foster habits that will not just help them survive college but to be successful. And let’s face it, it is never a good feeling when your classroom grades reflect a student body who just don’t seem to be “getting it”.
It is not our job to babysit our students or make sure that they follow instruction let alone come to class, with that said, we do have a responsibility to our students to provide them with a few tools for success; what they do with those tools is up the them.
While I can’t tell you how to genuinely want your students to succeed, chances are, if you’ve taken the time you read this article, you’re already as invested in your student’s education as they are; and for that I commend you.
Top Hat is designed to connect professors and students in the classroom and to facilitate an active and engaged learning environment. If you’re interested in a demonstration of how Top Hat can be used in your classroom, click the button below.
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