The Higher Ed Customer Experience

[ Music ] >> In my nearly seven years with the Canvas team, I have never felt as connected or inspired by you as I do now. So, I wanted to use this time today to share inspiring examples of how you, our incredible educators around the world, are successfully leveraging virtual learning experiences. You might call this our moment to share some good yous, if you will. With so many great examples out there, I couldn't chose just a few without significantly narrowing the focus. Since your CanvasCon online day will be filled with loads of tips and tricks and examples of how to foster student engagement in the virtual classroom, I thought we could focus on student engagement around the classroom. I have boiled down the question to this, how do we, as educators, create the most fruitful, inclusive, inspiring and engaging learning atmospheres as possible.

This is definitely an important question for educators all over the world. Take a look at this comment from Laura on Facebook asking for best practices about how to manage virtual discussions when students are more than happy to be chatty. Because this is such an awesome community, I wasn't surprised to see so many of you jump in and share some really great ideas. Kalani, for example, suggested a focus on synthesis. I've done this myself, Kalani, and totally agree.

It really does work. Katie reminds us to leverage liking, and Aaron loves rubrics as much as a mechanism for feedback as possible. This is how we will all grow together. As a teacher myself in higher education for many years, I have a few of my own success strategies I often tap into. But, I took this keynote as an opportunity to do a little more investigative research into what you all are doing as educators on the front lines right now.

The good news is, you are not shy, and you provided me with a wealth of ideas. While we are a diverse group of educators, many of us share similar success strategies. Here are three main strategies that rose to the top. First, you have shown your students what it means to me human. You have creatively found ways to bring your personality, spirit, je ne sais quoi in full force to the virtual learning experience.

From your teach from home spaces to your awesome, personal, real world examples, your students are getting chances to know you in different ways, and it's working. We hear from students about how important it is, especially when distance learning to connect on a human level with instructors. That connection drives, inspires, engages, and cultivates strong communities of learners who are looking to become experts in their fields. I love this example of being human from Professor Michael Bruney. ♪ At first I was afraid, I was petrified ♪ ♪ Kept thinking I could never teach ♪ ♪ Through Canvas all the time ♪ ♪ But then I spent so many nights ♪ ♪ Reading the Help Docs for so long ♪ ♪ And I grew strong, I learned how to get along ♪ ♪ And so I'm back.

The students are gone ♪ ♪ As all my colleagues try to figure out ♪ ♪ How they're going to get along ♪ ♪ I should have kept up with the tech ♪ ♪ Not skipped that class on Course Design ♪ ♪ If I'd had known for just one second ♪ ♪ I'd be teaching all online ♪ ♪ Go now, go ♪ ♪ Leave me alone ♪ ♪ I've got to figure out just how to lecture using Panopto ♪ ♪ You gave me two days to adjust to move everything online ♪ ♪ If you'd think I'd crumble ♪ If you'd think I'd lay down and die. . . Wow. What a voice, and so creative.

Judging by the over you made a great impression on your students and fellow faculty, Michael. The next common strategy that surfaces as I met with all of you was to bring your students on the journey. At the end of the day, we are learning experience crafters, and bringing our audiences into craft is one of the best ways to not only grab their attention but also to sustain their engagement over the long hall. Share your underlying instructional design strategy. Explain to students why you are teaching something the way you are.

Help them understand how one experience in your class conducts to another experience in another discipline. Invite them to build those experiences alongside you. Take them with you. By doing this, you will teach your students not only the skills you are building within the learning context, but also help them deepen their own awareness of what learning is and how they can be active learners in all aspects of their lives. This will provide your students with the fortitude and courage to share what they learned with others.

I know this can be unnerving at times because it can expose our own weaknesses or lack of experience. I have been there. Remember, though, that for strategy, be human. This is a great way to be just that, to be you. The last strategy I want to share with you today, there are so many great ideas out there and we have so little time together, is to focus on consistence and structure regardless of the model you leverage.

Virtual doesn't just mean virtual classes. It means virtual advising, virtual clubs, virtual career prep, virtual health and wellness checks, virtual tutoring, all aligning to the approach and options embedded in the learning itself. Check out this great tool Utah State University crafted to support virtual tutoring, scheduling, and delivery. >> Let's say a student sends a request. The request will come here and a tutor will say, okay, I want to check this and see if I can work on this.

He open and see the detail of the request. When the tutor send a link, you will receive, the student will receive an email and also the test [inaudible] with the link to that room. The only thing that you don't need to do is just click on launch my go board, and then it will launch the room for him waiting for the student to join the session. We have three different mode. We have the queue which is the on demand scheduling, and then the open room.

The admin can decide to say, okay, in our institution, we don't want a schedule. We don't want an open room. We just want a queue. He can set that. He can set how long before the student can schedule the meeting or request for a tutoring session.

When you come to other requests, you see other requests made by the student and then you see the different requests is completed or not, who did the request, when the request had been made, and so. And, also, they can download a request for [inaudible] investigation or data analytics. >> This is such a good example of how and why we should all apply learning design principles to all aspects of student life, and don't worry about perfection. I know. Easier said than done.

If you're a human and you're taking your students on the journey with you, perfection will take a backseat to real world applicability and contextual engagement. Your examples prove that you can do this without sacrificing your own special sauce or that of your institutions. When done well, it actually gives you a chance to highlight what you do best, creating a safe, inclusive, and supportive world that you craft through structure and consistency. Howard Community College Student Government President Daryl Jeffries does a great job of sharing this vision with the broader HCC community. Take a look.

>> I know some people are struggling financially and some people need help with tutoring or might need help with resources such as laptops and things like that. I want y'all to know that HCC is here to help you guys, so do not be afraid to reach out. If you email them at enrollmentsupport@howardcc. edu, they'll do everything they can to make sure that you have what you need. Now, I want you guys to just stay encouraged and keep having faith because you will get through this and have a blessed day.

>> Okay. What a really coll way to ensure students feel supported even when learning from a distance. Hey, thanks for that great example, Daryl. I actually thought it'd be pretty awesome to bring Daryl and Megan Myers, Director of elearning at HCC to round out this presentation. Hi, Megan and Daryl.

Thank you so much for joining me today. How are you holding up in this crazy time, especially with school now back in session? >> Well, thanks for having us, and it's been pretty busy getting campus ready and faculty ready to come back this semester for mainly remote and online terms, but I love the fall, I love the excitement of having our students back. So, that part is really, really wonderful. Daryl, how about you? >> Yeah, it's been really great. You know, I've been taking things, you know, one day at a time, and you know, I've been getting a nice flow, you know, a system for myself to make everything move smoothly.

You know, I would take a couple minutes for myself if things get too much, you know, to just back away, you know, take a break and just make sure that I'm still doing okay. So, things are working out pretty great. >> I love that. Speaking of that, Daryl, how does it feel to be learning virtually? I mean, this is pretty different. >> Well, you know, I had my doubts at first.

You know, I was a little iffy at first about it, but it's actually, you know, it's not that bad. You know, I've been doing pretty good. I've been, you know, I've been on top of my classes. You know, I've been having a lot of help with my teachers, you know, and I've been able to, you know, set up my schedule for myself, to, you know, really maintain, you know, focus on what's a priority for me. And, it's been nice.

>> That's awesome. Are there things or what have your teachers done that have helped make things a little more engaging and to help you with this? >> Well, I know a lot of my teachers, they've been, like, finding all kind of ways to, you know, keep us focused in class and make class not really feel like class. You know, they found ways to not make it feel like we're just sitting in front of a computer all day. You know, they've utilized different apps and things like that that allow us to, you know, for some classes, we can, like, record our voices. So, instead of, like, typing papers or instead of, like, you know, doing responses on the computer, we can just talk and just have a conversation and, like, say our answers.

Or, there's other ways, like there's one app that let's us type like constantly, like throughout the day about what's going on. You know, it's just a space that we talk about how we feel about class and things like that, and it's been really helpful. >> Oh, I love that. What advice would you give to professors out there who are trying to really keep their students engaged? Anything they should or shouldn't do? >> Well, I feel like one of the biggest things a professor can do to really, like, make sure students are feeling comfortable is just to, you know, talk to them. You know, ask them questions about, you know, how they're doing, you know, they'll just focus on class or focus on their wellness and see, like, what's going on with them, and see how they're going to learn because this is a new experience for everybody, so you know, asking them, like, what they want to see in this class and what they want to get out of the class is one of the biggest things.

And, I feel like a lot of teachers are willing to, you know, they're willing to accommodate to the students' needs, and I've seen that with most of my teachers. >> That's awesome. What, as student government president, what, how are you helping fellow students, or what are you sharing with them so that they can stay positive and stay focused? >> Well, you know, being the SGA President, you know, me and my team, we just be making sure that all the students still feel like they have that energy, you know, that you find on campus. Because, you know, we're not on campus right now, so it's important to still make the students feel like they have a home, even though they're at their own home and not at the college. So, it's important to just make them feel like they're involved.

You know, we've been making sure that they still, they're still able to, you know, utilize, like, opportunities like clubs and different programs that we have on campus, like we're making sure that we have, like, virtual events for them to, you know, come and, you know, play games and different activities and things like that to keep them, you know, having fun, you know, because we want to make sure that we still keep that liveliness, that togetherness feeling of being on campus. >> That's amazing, and that's so incredible that HCC put a focus on ensuring that everyone was participating in the type of changes that have needed to be made since the pandemic hit. Megan, what other kinds of changes has HCC done since we saw some pretty incredible changes in March? >> Yeah, so much has changed. Like so many other institutions, many of our services transition online. Everything from mental health services to placement tests, right? They all shifted to the online environment.

Some of them are happening in Canvas right now, but we also launched a new orientation to online learning for this fall to help students really know what kinds of skills they're going to need to be successful in the online environment. So, we're really trying to think about, you know, what are those things that we can do to help students that maybe we didn't even have in the face-to-face environment. So, what are the needs that students have now? >> Oh, that's great. What are maybe one or two things that have really made a difference in addition to that, especially now starting back this Fall? >> Yeah, you know, I think one big difference from the Spring and the Fall is the time, right? I think so many faculty members have felt this. You know, we just didn't have any time to prepare in the Spring for so many people who, you know, they expected to be teaching a face-to-face course, and we've had hundreds of faculty go through our teach online course.

And, in that course, you know, they're students, and so, you know, that experience, and you were just talking about it now. You know, it gives you this feeling of a vulnerability, of being a student and that kind of identification that our faculty have with the student experience has been a really powerful lens that then they can use in reflecting upon their own course. And, I think that's been really helpful as well as being able to kind of show them that the agility that they have in the classroom. Right, when you go into the classroom and you see, oh, my gosh, they did not understand [inaudible]. You know, Tuesday, and it's Thursday.

I'm going to change my entire game plan. That agility is still what's going to help you get through this semester. So, that kind of reflective time, I think, has really, really helped us, you know, institutionally, but also as every individual prepare in a more comprehensive way and make that mental shift, right? To the online teachers for the Fall semester. >> Yeah, I think that transition of that mental shift, like you said, is so critical as we think about not only this Fall but really the future of higher education. So many changes have come rapidly, and the good news is we get to capitalize on all of that as we think beyond just this fall.

What excites you about the future of higher education now that we've had to cope with a pretty transformational Spring and Fall? >> Well, you know, we have so many more tools and strategies at our fingertips, both, you know, faculty and staff and administrators. Both to kind of help us in teaching, but also to understand what students need, right? Kind of where are those gaps and to help fill them. And so, I think that that's really going to help us with this next, you know, phase of learning, especially kind of look at, you know, the picture of equity and where do we need to fill those gaps to make sure that we are filling our mission as educators to make sure that we are creating equity for our students and addressing the challenges of the day, right, the challenges in innovation, in science, in artistic innovation, because the whole world has changed from this pandemic, and so we really need a whole new set of tools, but our students and we do, and I think that going into this environment really has given not just us, right, us as faculty and administrators, but also our students the tools to go out into the world and address the world as it is now, right, the world post-COVID, and do some real good. >> I love that focus on both the learning and teaching experience as well as the personal experience. How has this been for you personally, both as a professor and as a director of elearning? >> It's been really busy.

[laughs] So, yeah, it's been, I think like everyone in this work will tell you, it's been a very, very intense couple of months, and also I have young children who are also learning online at home. But, you know, that is what everyone is going through, and I think that there's a lot of kind of solidarity in that and, you know, we just are all kind of looking to each other and reminding each other of what's important and that we need to take care of each other and ourselves. >> I love that, and just as Daryl mentioned, it's so important to just take one day at a time and stay positive. How do you stay positive and focused? >> Well, at the very beginning of the pandemic we have this big course that I talked about called teach online, and we made some modifications to it in the face of the pandemic, and one of our instructional designers said, "I want to [inaudible] faculty to think about and to share with each other what's one thing that you've done for students lately, what's one thing that you've done for your fellow faculty, and what's one thing that you've done for yourself. " And, I had no fear that our faculty and my team were helping each other and students, but, you know, I wanted to make sure that everyone was thinking about what are the ways that they're taking care of each other.

And, just hearing those reflections was so inspirational. To hear the ways that people were taking care of students and faculty, but also to have that pause to say, "How am I taking care of myself?" And then, to hear other ideas from other people. And so, it's something that I've actually tried to keep up myself to say, you know, what are the ways that I'm doing each of those things, because, you know, that's part of our core mission, right, and that's what I should be focused on, taking care of our students, taking care of my faculty, and taking care of myself. And so, those questions are something I've kept up as part of my routine. >> I love that, that focus on taking care of yourself while taking care of, like you said, your faculty and the students, what an inspirational way to be thinking about how to address some really unique and unexpected challenges that we're all facing.

Daryl, Megan, thank you both for continuing to stay so positive, bringing joy to others' lives, and sharing all the good stuff happening at HCC with the world. We are so appreciative that you have shared a bit of your story here with us today, and as a token, we are sending you a special panda package. As we wrap up this segment of Some Good Yous, I hope you feel a bit of the inspiration I have received from this remarkable education community. Thank you. As you continue to do an incredible job with your students and institutions, I hope that what we talked about today will help you along that journey.

Remember, one, be human. Two, bring your students on the journey, and three, focus on consistency and structure regardless of the model you leverage. Thank you all for all that you do. You are truly an inspiration. Keep learning, and keep sharing.