Transforming reflections into windows: Fostering students' self-regulation and interaction with instructors in online higher education courses
Concurrent Session 6
Brief Abstract
Discover the SRL OnRAMP an evidence-based intervention to improve self-regulated learning (SRL) and student-instructor connections in online courses. Learn how the intervention helps students develop crucial skills for online learning success, and take the tool home to adapt to your own practice.
Additional Authors
Extended Abstract
In the age of online learning, fostering self-regulation and meaningful interaction between students and instructors has become more crucial than ever. Traditional classroom cues such as body language, dialog, and in-person check-ins are often absent, leaving instructors and students searching for effective ways to support learning and communication. On April 16, 2020, a student taking online classes at a college in Atlanta posted a viral tweet, “These online classes are emotionally and mentally draining. I don’t feel I’m learning; nothing is sticking” (Jones, 2020). Students worldwide joined her in venting their frustrations with online classes, including their workload, communication with their teachers, and doubts about whether they were learning enough.
The challenges faced by students in online learning environments are not new. Even before the pandemic, students grappled with the self-reliance required for success in online courses. Reflections that focus on the process of learning online can be transformed into windows of insight, revealing students’ learning experiences and fostering a stronger connection between learners and instructors. This presentation will provide higher education practitioners, learning designers, and researchers with an opportunity to learn about an evidence-based reflective intervention that can be adopted and adapted within a wide variety of online courses. By bridging the gap in online higher education courses, this intervention ensures that the virtual classroom becomes a space where self-regulation and interaction thrive.
Intervention Description
Enter the SRL OnRAMP intervention – a powerful, evidence-based reflective tool designed to bolster students' self-regulated learning (SRL) skills while strengthening student-instructor connections. Research has shown that students' success in online environments hinges on their ability to autonomously develop, deploy, and assess their self-regulated learning (SRL) skills, which are crucial for tasks such as organizing the learning environment, time management, determining effective learning strategies, and using formative assessment. SRL can be especially difficult for non-traditional learners who manage learning, energy, and time within various life roles. Therefore, it is essential for instructors to scaffold SRL practices and provide support to alleviate students' concerns about navigating online learning independently. The SRL OnRAMP intervention is a practical solution designed to address these challenges and empower students to thrive in online courses.
The SRL OnRAMP intervention addresses students' need for self-regulated learning scaffolding to improve their performance in online courses. The intervention was designed by a practitioner/researcher who adapted the intervention over five semesters to meet the needs of students in a 13-week online community college biology course. The intervention is an easy-to-implement self-regulation prompting strategy which engages students and their teachers in feedback cycles that center on the student's process, product, and goals rather than the course content. A short introduction to reflective activity orients students to the value of self-regulated learning practices to improve learning. Weekly prompts cue students to enact the SRL behaviors of goal setting, self-evaluation, attribution, help-seeking, strategic monitoring, task interest assessments, and applications of newly learned ideas to their daily life. These prompts were selected because their associated behaviors have been linked with learner grades in online courses. In addition to suggesting additional learning strategies, resources, and practices, the educator provides encouragement and accountability to learners through feedback as part of the weekly intervention. The intervention requires the instructor to invest 5 min/per student/week. Students report a time commitment of 10-15 mins/week addressing critical concerns that reflective interventions may not be feasible for online instructors. The SRL OnRAMP has been rigorously evaluated in community college audiences, is scalable, and is free to use (creative commons licensed).
Evidence of Effectiveness
The SRL OnRAMP intervention was implemented in two empirical studies in community college classrooms. In the first study, the designer conducted a qualitative review of students’ reflections complemented by a student feedback survey through a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning lens. This study (n=38) found that students valued the reflective assignments, facilitating communication and personalized feedback between students and instructors. A subsequent mixed-methods study involving eight asynchronous community college courses and 146 participants further demonstrated the intervention's positive impact on self-regulated learning, student-instructor communication, and students' feelings of being known by their instructors. The intervention was manageable for instructors and students, adaptable across various instructional methods and subject areas, and considered valuable for supporting SRL skills and fostering connections. The results of these two studies suggest that the SRL OnRAMP intervention could be widely applicable to other online learning courses and provide a valuable window into students' learning from home.
Interaction Plan:
The session will begin with a show of hands or online poll survey asking participants about their experiences with or beliefs about what they would know about the study methods of students attending their classes from a distance. Next, I will provide a concise explanation of SRL, tailoring my discussion based on the audience's familiarity with the topic. I will give examples of the information students share from the qualitative study (Institutional Review Board approved and anonymized). Each audience member will receive a copy of the educational intervention, which can be freely implemented in various educational settings. I will ask participants to read the prompts and discuss the types of information they might obtain about students through these reflections and how that information might impact their teaching. Following this, I will share my personal experiences using the intervention and present evidence from my dissertation study, which explored students' perspectives on the intervention in other courses. The session will conclude with a Q&A segment to address attendees' questions or concerns about the intervention. Participants will leave with an educational intervention that is evidence-based, scalable, and easily modified for a variety of online courses and environments.
Jones, K. [@kamarienyausha]. (2020, April 16). “these online classes are emotionally and mentally draining. i dont feel im learning, nothing is sticking. im so unmotivated and yet” [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/kamarienyausha/status/1250889680129798146