Successful pedagogy means more than just imparting information. For your course to achieve its aims, it’s vital that there be a meaningful human connection between you and your students. In this post, we’ll consider five steps that you can take to “humanize” your classroom pedagogy, using digital tools supported by UChicago. These steps take little time and effort to implement, yet they can contribute a great deal to the success of your course.
What Is Humanizing Pedagogy?
Humanizing pedagogy, an idea rooted in the critical pedagogy of educational theorists such as Paulo Freire, argues for a classroom environment where instructor and students see one another as fully rounded people, not merely as transmitters and receivers of knowledge, respectively. In this approach, the instructor genuinely cares about the progress and well-being of their students, while the students in turn are connected both to one another and to their instructor within a larger knowledge community. Key aspects of humanizing pedagogy include:
- Social presence: Whether a course is in-person, hybrid, online synchronous, or online asynchronous, instructor and students alike feel as though they are part of an active conversation – not merely names in a gradebook or avatars on a screen.
- Universal design: A humanizing course is built to take into account the needs, preferences, and goals of the widest possible range of students.
- Cultural sensitivity: Students’ varying cultural backgrounds can shape the ways in which they learn. A humanizing course will be sensitive to these different ways of learning, rather than imposing a single pedagogical approach on every student.
How Can I Humanize My Course with Digital Tools?
Humanizing your course need not mean an overhaul from the ground up. Using the various digital tools UChicago supports, you can take small but meaningful steps right now to help your students feel welcome in your course, whatever its modality.
Add a “Start Here” Module to Your Canvas Site
It may seem like a little thing, but adding a “start here” module when building your Canvas site can go a long way toward smoothing your students’ experience as they begin your course. You can populate the “start here” module with Canvas pages and external links helpful to your students, such as:
- A navigation guide, laying out how to use the Canvas site effectively
- An introduction to you, perhaps in video format
- Ways of reaching out to you (email, phone, etc.), along with the turnaround times for your response (e.g. “I will respond to your email within one business day”)
- Explanations of the criteria you will use in assessing student work
- Resources for students facing difficulties (e.g. tutors and writing centers)
In this way, the “start here” module can reflect your syllabus, bringing to students’ attention information and resources that might otherwise be missed.
For more tips on designing a student-friendly Canvas site, we invite you to check out our blog post Optimize Your Canvas Course Structure for Seamless Navigation.
Share Correct Name Pronunciations and Pronouns with NameCoach
As many of us know from experience, it can be frustrating and disheartening when someone mispronounces your name, even accidentally. Learning the correct pronunciation of one another’s names, especially prior to the start of a course, not only helps prevent such mistakes, but also encourages a culturally sensitive and welcoming atmosphere. You and your students can use NameCoach, a name recording tool integrated with Canvas, to make sure that each person in the course knows how others’ names are pronounced. NameCoach also offers an option to add your preferred pronouns. You might also consider sending out an announcement to students before the course begins, encouraging them to use NameCoach themselves and to listen to others’ names and learn their pronouns.
“Nudge” Your Students with Encouraging Videos
It’s important that students feel invested in course material if they are to succeed and not drop out or fall by the wayside. You can “nudge” your students–that is, encourage them to keep going–by recording short, relatively informal videos and sharing those videos with them throughout the course. This can be particularly valuable in the later weeks of the quarter, when student fatigue may set in. You can easily record a brief video directly within Canvas itself (note that the native Canvas video recorder now supports closed captioning for accessibility), or you can use Panopto, the University’s video management system, to record videos of any length. (If you do not have a good place to record your video, we invite you to reserve time in the OneButton Studio in the A-Level of Regenstein. You are also welcome to reach out to our audiovisual services team for help.) Whichever recording tool you use, you can easily share videos with your students through Canvas, e.g. by scheduling video announcements to go live at specified points during the quarter.
Keep the Discussion Going with Digital Discussion Boards
Even in a course that meets face-to-face, classroom time may not be adequate for discussion. What’s more, students in courses of any modality may wish to stay connected at times when the course is not meeting. Digital discussion boards are an excellent way to build these sorts of student-to-student connections, especially when you use them thoughtfully. UChicago supports several different tools that can be used for asynchronous discussion, such as Canvas’ native discussion boards, course blogs via the Voices instance of WordPress, and Ed Discussion, a robust discussion tool integrated with Canvas.
All three of these platforms support recording and/or embedding video, and video discussions can cultivate a sense of social presence among your students, especially in hybrid or fully online courses. For the sake of universal design, you might offer your students a choice between text and video/audio posts, so that they can post in the modality in which they feel most comfortable. (As always, remember that video/audio posts should be furnished with closed captions.) You might also dedicate one or more discussion threads to icebreakers, “getting to know you” topics, or just general conversation. This can allow students to familiarize themselves with one another and with you, helping them to feel that they are not alone as they work through the course material.
Leave Video Feedback on Student Assessments
Video feedback is more effective than text at conveying body language, tone, and other nonverbal cues that help students understand your judgment of their work. SpeedGrader has a native video tool for recording video feedback; you can also use Panopto, as mentioned above, for longer videos. If you choose Panopto, you can then share your video only with the student in question to ensure privacy.
Whatever the tool you use, your feedback will be enhanced if you personalize it. By keeping track in the Canvas Gradebook of missed or late assignments, you can “flag” students who are at risk of poor performance and “nudge” them in your video feedback: “I see that you didn’t submit assignments X and Y. Is everything all right? Is there anything I can do to help?” This sort of early intervention aids student retention, as well as helping your students to feel that you are genuinely invested in their success.
Conclusion
None of the steps outlined above requires a huge investment of time or effort; some can be implemented when you begin a new quarter, while others you can begin implementing right now if you wish. The more of them you put into practice, the greater the likelihood that your students will feel appreciated, that they will remain engaged in your course, and that they will ultimately have success. Good luck!
Further Resources and Getting Help
If you’d like to learn more about any of the digital tools mentioned in this article, Academic Technology Solutions (ATS) is ready to help. You can drop by our office hours, attend one of our workshops, or book a consultation with an instructional designer. We also invite you to contact the Center for Digital Accessibility (CDA) to find out more about making your course and course materials accessible to all students, including those with disabilities.
(Cover Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash)
