Enhancing Engagement in Online & Hybrid Classes with Group Work. Michael Chen, Ph.D. Rachel Ritchie, Ph.D. Department of Psychology

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1 Enhancing Engagement in Online & Hybrid Classes with Group Work Michael Chen, Ph.D. Rachel Ritchie, Ph.D. Department of Psychology

2 Disclaimer There is no one right technique to engage students. Use multiple channels to reach the needs of different learning styles. Dixson, 2010

3 What is Engagement? Interaction Higher satisfaction Higher achievement FIU students are more likely to graduate Not entertainment Help students focus and direct their efforts (Pecorino, 2006)

4 Why Focus on Engagement? Both online & hybrid students feel isolated from their peers. Students have multiple distractions and commitments competing for their attention. (Bart, 2009)

5 Some different types of engagement. Student-LMS Student-Content Student-Instructor/TA Student-LA Student-Student

6 What do LAs do online? Facilitate discussions: Socratic questioning Devil s advocate Other resources Monitor involvement Wrap up threads Provide meaningful feedback but not grades Group projects Individual projects

7 Interactive Discussions

8 LA facilitated discussions Hi Team Pavlov! I enjoyed reading your DQs this week What illnesses can you find that affect portions of the brain? How do they relate to nature (biology) and nurture (the environment)? Hi Joann: You chose an interesting topic Schizophrenia is a curious disease.if abnormal psychology interests you, you may want to take CLP4144, Abnormal Psychology - it studies topics like these in depth.

How do they relate to nature (biology) and nurture (the environment)?

9 Student-Student Engagement In Class Group work facilitated by Learning Assistants Group presentations Think-Pair-Share Round Robin Online Chat/Adobe Connect Interactive Discussions Peer Review - PeerMark Group work/wiki Group Agreement Check Points Group Evaluation

Robin Online Chat/Adobe Connect Interactive Discussions Peer

10 Tips for In Class Group Work Interaction needs to be essential! Make it challenging Make it count Every minute together matters Use your colleagues! Visit other classrooms Join CAT s book groups Discipline-Based Educational Research group Stem Transformation Institute

11 Tips for Online Group Work Make it challenging Make it count Encourage teamwork mentality Synchronous/Asynchronous Use your colleagues! Talk to other professors Join CAT s book groups Talk to your Instructional Designer Go to FIU Online events

12 Peer Review with PeerMark

13 Group Projects Project options Adobe Connect for Presentations Wikis Helping the group work Group contract Checkpoints ipeer

14 Group Contract Contact information Rules: what are the expectations? Communication: How will you stay in touch? Collaboration: How will you insure each member is contributing equally? How will you handle group members who are not contributing or lose touch? Experience: Based on past group experience, how will you make this the best group experience possible?

Collaboration: How will you insure each member is contributing equally?

15 Group Contract

16 Checkpoints Group Project Checkpoints: Due Date Group Agreement & Topic February 8 Description of the issue February 15 Global regions impacted March 1 Key biopsychosocial factors contributing to epidemic March 8 Current handling of epidemic March 29 Rough draft for team s proofreading April 12 Final draft April 19

1 Key biopsychosocial factors contributing to epidemic March 8 Current

17 Group Evaluation - ipeer

18 But students hate group work, right? I saw a group project was required and wanted to drop the class I m glad I didn t drop. I could not believe that doing a group project in an online class could be so much fun and without any hassle. I loved every minute of it! I learned a great deal in this class and have found myself applying it to my other classes.i enjoyed coming to class and was excited by the discussions and activities we participated in

I could not believe that doing a group project in an online class could be so much fun and without any hassle.

19 Well some do Active learning is stupid I hate this professor my group and I basically had to teach ourselves the entire course because she taught us nothing.

20 Strategies for Improving Learning Michael Chen Department of Psychology

21 Strategy 1: King of the Hill Challenge

22 Common Learning Strategies (Dunlosky, et al., 2013) Learning Strategy Summarization Highlighting Keyword Mnemonic Imagery use Rereading Interleaved practice Elaborative interrogation Self-explanation Practice Testing Distributed Practice Explanation Creating summaries that include main ideas Marking important information Associate keywords with materials Mental images or illustrations Restudying text material Mix different types of materials Attempt to defend an idea through argument Relate new information to old information Low stake (or no penalty) tests Implementing a schedule of practice

23 Common Learning Strategies (Dunlosky, et al., 2013) Learning Strategy Summarization Highlighting Keyword Mnemonic Imagery use Rereading Interleaved practice Elaborative interrogation Self-explanation Practice Testing Distributed Practice Utility (Performance boosting)

24 Common Learning Strategies (Dunlosky, et al., 2013) Learning Strategy Summarization Highlighting Keyword Mnemonic Imagery use Rereading Interleaved practice Elaborative interrogation Self-explanation Practice Testing Distributed Practice Utility (Performance boosting) Low Low Low Low Low Moderate Moderate Moderate High High

25 The pitch to students: Benefits According to cognitive psychologists, practice quizzing yourself is probably one of the best ways to learn the material. I have therefore created this Midterm Challenge to help you prepare for the comprehensive midterm exam.

26 The pitch to students: Instructions Here is how the challenge works. This practice quiz has over 400 questions that covers all topics up to this point. You can take this quiz as many times as you like and the results will not affect your grade in any way. Only your highest score will be registered. You have 10 minutes for each attempt. Because the questions are randomized, you should be getting a different set of questions every time.

27 The pitch to students: Reward & Incentive Here is how the challenge works. This practice quiz has over 400 questions The person who gets the most questions right within a span of 10 minutes will receive an automatic 100% for the midterm exam. In case of a tie, the top scorers will divide the 100% evenly as bonus points. For example, maybe two students both got 20 questions right within 10 minutes. In that case, both students will still need to take the midterm exam but each will be awarded 50% bonus points to their midterm exam score, up to 100%.

28 Setup within Blackboard: Question Pool

29 Setup within Blackboard: Options

30 Setup within Blackboard: Options

31 Setup within Blackboard: Options

32 Setup within Blackboard: Options

33 Results from Exam 1 King of the Hill Challenge for Intro to Psychology, Spring 2016 Did not participate: 28% Took the challenge only once: 18% Took the challenge twice or more: 54% Highest number of attempts by an individual student: 65 (10 hours & 50 minutes) Average number of attempts per student: 7.7 Correlation between the number of attempts and Exam 1 score: r(79)=0.313, p<0.01

34 Results from Exam 1 King of the Hill Challenge for Intro to Psychology, Spring 2016 F(5,74)=4.38, p<0.01, partial η 2 =0.228 Only significant pair-wise comparison was between 0 attempts and 20+ attempts (p=0.009)

35 Strategy 2: Small Groups

36 How might in-class small groups improve student persistence? Peer support and network improve retention ( Dennis, Phinney, & Chuateco, 2005; Eckles & Stradley, 2012).

37 How could we identify students who are at risk of failing or withdrawing? College Persistence Questionnaire (Davidson, Beck & Milligan, 2009)

38 Question Could we strategically divide students into groups so that students who are at lower risk would support students who are at higher risk of failing?

39 Experiment Design Course: Introduction to Psychology (Face-to- Face), Spring 2016 Learning Assistants: four (one per 20 students) Subjects: 81 students Manipulation: CPQ (9 groups) vs. Random Groups (12 groups)

40 Results 85 Class Performance Percentage Rando m CPQ 60 Course Grade Final Exam Overall ExamOverall Quiz Attendance Grade Category

41 Results: Fewer lower performing outliers?

42 Results: The Big Picture

43 Discussion Unequal status within the small group? (Cohen, 1994)

44 Future Studies 1. King of the Hill Challenge Implement adaptive and distributed learning involving lecture videos and low state quizzes (dynamic study modules). 2. College Persistence Grouping Change the small group so that the pairing becomes 2 very low risks + 2 medium risks / 2 high risks + 2 low risks OR 2 very low risks + 2 low risks / 2 high risks + 2 medium risks Increase sample size.

45 References Cohen, E. G. (1997). Restructuring the classroom: Conditions for productive small groups The Mathematical Association of America, Washington, DC. Retrieved from Davidson, W. B., Beck, H. P., & Milligan, M. (2009). The College Persistence Questionnaire: Development and validation of an instrument that predicts student attrition. Journal of College Student Development, 50(4), Dennis, J. M., Phinney, J. S., & Chuateco, L. I. (2005). The role of motivation, parental support, and peer support in the academic success of ethnic minority first-generation college students. Journal of College Student Development, 46(3), Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), doi: Eckles, J. E., & Stradley, E. G. (2012). A social network analysis of student retention using archival data. Social Psychology of Education, 15(2),

Title: Transforming a traditional lecture-based course to online and hybrid models of learning

Title: Transforming a traditional lecture-based course to online and hybrid models of learning Author: Susan Marshall, Lecturer, Psychology Department, Dole Human Development Center, University of Kansas.