Clarity and simplicity in the first days and weeks of class

I welcome any outreach from colleagues. My email is kristi.rendahl@mnsu.edu. And you can learn more about the Nonprofit Leadership (NPL) Program here!

Audio transcript: 
Hello, my name is Kristi Rendahl I'm director and assistant professor in the nonprofit leadership program at MSU, Mankato. It's called the NPL program for short.

00:11Today I want to touch on just a few things as we move into the first days and weeks of the semester. Given this situation, and maybe, in any case, one of the best things that we can do for our students is to be really clear and and to keep it simple.

00:27The ways that I tried to do this are through their consistent structure through the syllabus rubrics through the use of things like hyperlinks and intelligent agents in the

00:41Platform, as well as the way I communicate in particular emails about the coursework, so I'll touch on each of those in this video. And in fact, it's so simple that I'm not even using any fancy slides.

00:55The consistent structure. I'm referring to in my case, usually means weekly modules for the courses or it could be, you know, two week long modules, and that includes

01:07The content section for reading discussion assignments and checklists to make it very clear what needs to be done.

01:15As well as the activity feed or announcement function that I use for each module and sometimes in between.

01:23Consistently using the grading function of course rubrics for each of the assignments or each type of assignment, as well as emails at the beginning of each module or week

01:35And then in the syllabus, obviously that's tried and true and it always works perfectly. Just kidding.

01:40The syllabus is still a great place to be really clear about what it is that you expect of students and if you don't know exactly what you want in a particular assignment at least being clear about when they will find out more, or how or that they can reach out

01:56Rubrics I'm not always a fan of using rubrics, because I think it can limit people's creativity as well.

02:04But it certainly can help students know where to begin, and know what is expected in particular for that assignment or activity.

02:15Um, I do use hyperlinks a lot within D to well and emails in all of my communication, whether it's announcements activity feed or, like I said, the emails so that students know exactly where to go and

02:29To find out what they need to do next, so that there are no questions of, oh, I didn't know where to find that

02:34I do that in the emails as well linking to each of the modules or to bring attention to some particular activity or resources and then keeping students on track throughout the term.

02:48In the past I have gone through the list, you know, the class list of students to find out who has logged into each well in the course and who hasn't within say a week or two.

02:59And then send them emails, but there's something called an intelligent agent within

03:03That makes that really easy. And does that automatically throughout the term that you can draft an email that will be sent out to them if they're not accessing it and then encouraging them to reach out to you if they have questions.

03:14They lack clarity, if they're going through something they need resources, whatever.

03:19So these are just a few ways to approach these first days and weeks of the semester, keeping it really simple and clear through consistent structure your syllabus through rubrics.

03:31Using the tools that exist within such as the hyperlinks intelligent agents and then regardless of how you've structured your course if it's

03:42You know, a self paced sort of thing or not I'm reaching out to them each and every week or module to keep them on track. I hope that you have a good semester and know that I'm a resource on campus. If you ever want to run ideas by someone else. Take care. Bye.