The last two elements of Section E focus on how we can help students develop meaningful connections to content, classmates, and their instructor.

E7: Content Meaning
E7 Strategies
E8: Connection & Belonging
E8 Strategies
Resources

E7: Content Meaning

ALIGNED: Communications and activities draw connections among course content, students' lives, and students' futures.
EXEMPLARY: Students connect course content to their identities, backgrounds, and cultures, and/or the identities, backgrounds, and cultures of others.

To get to the focus of E7: Content Meaning, perhaps we should flip the words--E7 is all about meaningful content. It asks us to make course content personally relevant to students wherever possible. It’s no secret that students (and teachers, too!) often struggle to engage with content that they feel does not impact their lives or only satisfies a requirement. Helping students find ways to make the learning relevant can have a significant impact on their motivation and engagement with course concepts. Wlodkowski and Ginsberg's "A Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching" centers around this idea: "Research has shown that no one teaching strategy will consistently engage all learners. The key is helping students relate lesson content to their own backgrounds."

A course aligned with E7 offers students ways to connect what they are learning to their lives--current or future. This may come in the form of guidance for how to use and apply what they are learning or specific activities that encourage students to do so. At an exemplary level, students are regularly asked to connect course content to their identities/backgrounds/cultures, and/or those of others.

man reading poem, group looking a photos, woman painting

E7 Strategies

Course Spotlight

Ethnic Studies professor Alicia Caballero-Christenson makes her course content relevant to students' lives by asking them to engage their communities in a film screening and discussion, and then report back on the experience to the class. This 7-minute video takes us into the activity and shares examples.

💡 Ideas for Alignment

Use module overviews, content introductions, and announcements to present content in terms of relevance to students' lives.
Ask students to apply concepts to the world around them: discussions that ask students to analyze the use of a technique/approach/idea in advertisements or social media; Padlet collections of images representing course concepts, etc.

💡 Ideas for Exemplary

Invite students to research how a law, belief, etc. has shaped their lives or communities, or how a method, system, or law could impact their lives/communities if applied.
Use authentic assessments (C1) that give students experience with workplace activities in their target professions.
Create space for students to contribute course content, especially current examples of course concepts. This could be a formal assignment or an ongoing opportunity.
Have students teach what they are learning to a target audience outside of the class: family, friends, community organizations (as in the spotlight video above). Repacking what they have learned helps students reflect on its relevance to themselves and their communities.

E8: Connection & Belonging

ALIGNED: Communications and activities foster care and connection among students, and with the instructor.
EXEMPLARY: Students connect with other class participants, college or community members, and/or professionals in the field.

E8 asks us to address some of our students' social and psychological needs to optimize their learning. Creating opportunities for online learners to make connections can seem like a "nice to have" rather than a "need to have" course element, but increasingly research is showing that students who feel connected to their instructor and peers learn better and perform better. Here are a few findings that demonstrate the power of "humanizing" online classes:

A student’s perceived learning is correlated with how much of a sense of social presence is created in an online course (Herbert 2006; Morris 2009; Tello 2007).
When the course structure allows students to develop strong working groups, they perceive the course to be “congenial,” see themselves as a community, and perform better (Rimmershaw 1999).
In a study of community college online classes, the level of interpersonal interaction was the most important factor in predicting student grades; students in low-interaction courses earned nearly one letter grade lower than those in high-interaction courses. (Jaggers and Xu, 2013).

Aligned courses are intentionally designed to support meaningful interaction, providing opportunities for students to get to know one another and their instructor, which then becomes a foundation for working together during the class. Practices that demonstrate alignment include regular, supportive interaction both between instructor and students and among students. Exemplary courses make these connections central to learning and may expand to foster student connections to college or career communities as well.

E8 Strategies

Course Spotlight

Laney College EOSL Professor Chelsea Cohen's creative icebreaker is a great example of example of developing early connections within the class, and it also supports E4: Diversity and Inclusion through design elements that "demonstrate that students' diverse identities, backgrounds, and cultures are valued." Check out this 4-minute video:

💡 Ideas for Alignment

Use icebreaker activities to allow students to get to know each other.
Provide open spaces for students to connect with the instructor and each other, such as Q&A and student lounge discussions and Padlets (also great for Section B alignment!).
Design team activities, study groups, and/or other collaborative opportunities.
Use video to convey your warmth, enthusiasm, and support: course tour, short lectures, announcements, discussion posts, feedback on student work, video postcards.
Use nudges to "foster care" by encouraging students, reminding them of deadlines, and following up on missing work.

Resources

Here are resources to support you as you work on E7:

SWC's Equity Essentials modules:
- Being Culturally Relevant and Affirming
- Being Community Focused
What is Service Learning or Community Engagement?: explore how to embed civic engagement into your courses with this teaching guide from Vanderbilt University

And here are some resources for E8:

SWC's Equity Essentials modules:

Creating an Effective Online Instructor Presence: a printable overview of Jaggers and Xu's study
Video postcard example: send a digital postcard via Canvas announcements
How & Why to Humanize Your Online Class: infographic by Michelle Pacansky-Brock

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