A few weeks ago, I attended the Brightspace Fusion 2016 conference.  While the conference itself is hosted by the team that develops our LMS (Learning Management System), many of the sessions focused on strong use of technology in general, as well as tested strategies for engaging learners, whether online, hybrid, or in traditional classrooms (in other words, these ideas apply regardless of the LMS you may be using).  If I had to pick one theme that stood out to me most, it would be the idea of personalized learning and instruction.

I know what you may be thinking now—we’ve been hearing about this for years and it still doesn’t seem to be that common, and most people push back by saying they don’t have time for creating individualized items for every student in the class.  I couldn’t agree more; that’s why the point here isn’t necessarily making many individualized items for each and every student, but personalized to different styles of learning, or even to your personal style of teaching your subject.  From what I see, the point here is that much of the content for courses is ubiquitous now—anyone can search online for countless bits of information, textbooks, how-to guides, websites, or videos on a topic; because of this, the real art and strategy of teaching is not so much in what we present, but how we present it.  The personalization is as much about the instructor’s style as it is the learners’ styles—the questions we need to answer are “How knowledgeable and authentic is the instructor? How can an instructor use their personal experiences or examples to make the content more accessible?”

I’ve seen this in my own courses as well.  The textbooks I use are fairly mainstream, and while I find them effective, very few students have ever commented on the textbooks in my course evaluations, and the ones that do simply say they were “good” or “helpful,” but don’t show any real enthusiasm over them.  The items that tend to receive the most specific or highest praise are the discussions, the seemingly off-topic examples that I work back into our topics, or the videos or websites and projects we use to encapsulate our ideas.  These are the items I need to go out of my way to find and bring in; they are the items I can almost guarantee no other instructor is using the way I am either.  While some of these resources can be found online, the way we use them or talk about them are unique to my approach to the subject.  This, I believe, is where personalization greatly enhances content, and is where we need to be focusing more of our energies as we develop courses with new technology.

Again, this isn’t entirely new.  The big idea here is that the tools and strategies have shifted a bit to make things easier, and are worth revisiting yet again.  In the following sections, I’ll try to break down the more prominent strategies and sessions I took away from Fusion.  This list certainly isn’t comprehensive, so after you’ve reviewed some of these items, I’d like to invite you to respond with any ideas of your own.

Personalize your textbook: Using OER in the classroom

One of the more disruptive items I saw during the conference is the use of Open Educational Resources, or OER.  These items can take a range of formats, such as quizzes, worksheets, discussion examples, videos and assignments, or even entire textbooks.  The biggest benefits to using OER versus publisher provided items are that these items are usually free for students (and they will always appreciate saving the $50-$200 a usual textbook or web access license would cost), and that you as instructor have license to freely edit and share these resources as you see fit.

The latter item in particular allows an instructor to personalize not only the order of the chapters, but the content of the textbook as a whole, or even the presentation and discussion of the materials contained within it. With an OER text, an instructor could add in their own descriptions or examples, case studies from their own experience or research, or tailored descriptions of a topic to fit an assignment later in the course.  With this approach the textbook can be made to fit the course in every way rather than adapting the course to follow the text’s presentation of materials. That item can then be shared freely online, or even updated automatically within a course when the original textbook is revised (if using the embedded general version of the text).  The real draw for students here is that the instructor is also the (co-)author of the text, meaning that the ideas, examples, and content there are intimately woven into the instructor’s presentation of the course and offers a more authentic experience than general publisher provided items or online resources alone could offer.

Examples of OER items can be found at OpenStax.org, CNX.org, or through the searchable OERCommons.org.

Video Feedback

The next item has the potential to be the most time consuming, so much of the advice here is about choosing a simple and direct message, perhaps just a few key points about an assignment, and focusing on those elements as the feedback is recorded.  The use of video feedback allows the learner to hear the grader’s voice and more quickly see and understand the feedback than when using written comments alone.  The video could include a view of the paper, so that the student can see the areas being commented on, and may include a video of the grader as well, making the feedback more personal, which helped students accept the feedback, but also feel more engaged to the process of receiving feedback on their work.

The presenters recommended using what they called “feet forward feedback” that focuses on improving the approach to the assignment or concept in ways that benefit the learner for the next assignment.  The typical feedback length was between 1 and 5 minutes per student, and when done well was prove to increase student success on these assignments much sooner than when written feedback alone was used.  When done well, video feedback could even decrease the amount of time spent giving feedback to each learner, since it focuses on a few key elements that help the learner improve rather than writing out comments on every error or item in the draft. It also allows more space for descriptions and examples of edits that are not always possible due to space restrictions when using written feedback.

This type of approach can be done in any number of ways with any number of video programs.  Decide whether you want to display the essay as you go over the points, or your own image on screen as you speak, then choose the software that enables you to do this.  Some options I’ve used for similar projects are ScreencastOMatic or SnagIt.

Change it up: Apps and Games in the Classroom

Again, this isn’t necessarily a new idea, but the available apps and programs for these activities make it worthwhile to talk about.  One of the more interesting points brought up was something Sharon discussed in a recent blog post: creating a “course trailer” similar to a movie trailer.  The example given was used to pose a few interesting questions and to introduce the purpose and approach used for an ethics course.  The use of historical video clips and entertaining music made it engaging, and while it lasted only about 3 minutes, gave a fairly comprehensive overview of what the course would achieve over its duration.  Compared to the traditional couple of paragraphs that instructors might typically use to introduce the course on their syllabus, this was far more engaging, and proved to be more widely viewed by students, too.  For this approach, Sharon recommends Moovly, though any type of video and video editor can be used for a trailer.

The “course trailer” also works well when supplemented by a rethinking of the course syllabus, too.  Many instructors have changed their syllabi to infographics, but when combined with elements like a course trailer, course wiki, social media page, or other interactive elements, students are more engaged.  The infographic syllabus also provides another opportunity for the instructor’s personality to show through and change the way the students accessed or thought about the course materials and concepts. For this, we have apps like Canva, Infogr.am, or Piktochart.

Using a quiz game like Kahoot helps students recall and study information in social settings, giving them a chance to socialize with their peers and compete over the materials rather than just using standard quizzes alone. See Lori’s recent post to learn more about Kahoot.

Tactile-kinesthetic learners can benefit from using apps like Padlet to share feedback or offer their experience (think of it as a digital corkboard for posting comments), or Post It digital notes to physically arrange ideas on PostIt notes before taking a digital image of them.  Spicynodes gives students a way to create webs and flow charts with ease; instructors can utilize this tool as well to create “choose your own adventure” styled review games, where learners can click on the topics that interest them and continue opening links and learning more as they choose each new node. Following in the “Choose your own adventure” style, we have apps like Thinglink or Interlude.fm that let students explore topics in non-linear ways that allow them to see what interests them most rather than following a prescribed path.

So, how do we start?

The best advice is to start where you’re most comfortable and expand with new approaches from there.  Try to take the things you are most passionate or knowledgeable about and incorporate those elements using these new technologies and services.  If there’s a particular concept, anecdote, case study, or project you think will best help learners understand why your subject is important, using innovative tools to deliver that message will help ensure that it is received and that it is memorable. Taking it personal doesn’t need to be individualized to each student, but it should reflect in some way who a person is and how they think, and the same goes for both the instructor and the students.  Give people an authentic and unique experience, and it becomes engaging and memorable.  Give them a few ways to do the same things, and they can choose the best approach for their style of learning.