Hello Stephanie:

Thank you for facilitating this discussion. While chairing and serving on the strategic planning committee and developing the learning outcomes, we determined that we needed to develop an initiative for our students' to increase their writing ability at Daytona State College and Edward Waters College (Historically Black Christian College HBCU). We incorporated writing across the curriculum for both of these institutions of higher learning. We performed pre and post assessments to determine if our students' improved their overall writing ability. With our pre assessment evaluations, we determined that students' needed to increase their writing activity in their core classes, especially mini paper assignments (4 to 5 pages in APA format). This allowed greater flexibility for faculty members and allowed students' to complete their assignments within a weeks’ time. This also allowed faculty to change and modify their courses from examinations (multiple choice and true/false) to having more mini paper assignments within an 8 week semester and 16 week semester. One of the first classes a student had to take within their undergraduate junior level courses was a class on research and APA format. This class included: Research methodology, explanation of APA format and APA citations, APA 6th Edition book was used, APA format (organization of the paper) and citations, both in-text and APA citations on the reference page/section.

For all of my online classes, I expect students' to cite APA sources within their online discussions. I seek students' to provide valid sources by paraphrasing their work to support their explanations based on the two weekly course discussions.

Best regards,

Joseph

Thank you for your response Joseph! 

I can see that you had some procedures in place for undergraduate students. This sounds effective!

I’m curious about practices for our adjunct instructors (especially for graduate instructors for students who should have APA knowledge on citing correctly). Many teach our classes, yet they do not know how to implement APA because they lack the skills themselves. I teach graduate education courses, and I often have students who come to me (nearing the end of their Master’s program), and they do not even know how to cite or what to cite. I know this is a student problem, but it also seems to be a faculty problem since the student is still committing these errors and not rectifying them.  What are your thoughts on this issue?

I also expect my students to cite correctly on online discussions, yet they often just put a reference on the bottom.

Do you ever front-load your class with an example to follow?

Thanks for your feedback!

Hello Stephanie:

At Grand Canyon University, I teach both undergraduate and graduate level business courses. I understand what you are stating, I teach the business Capstone courses for both programs, the undergraduate school's BUS 485 and graduate MAN 660 Strategic Management courses. It is very perplexing when I have students in both programs state to me:

• "I never had to cite APA sources in any of my classes, why are you making me do it now in the last class in this program."

• I know several students' have complained about me and gave me negative course evaluations for expecting them to cite APA sources for their course assignments, even when the assignment states it is required.

  Stephanie, I have taught research methodology and APA format in higher education for the past 17 years. Research methodology and APA format should be a required course for students' in their beginning undergraduate junior programs, especially; if they are in a social science program. My academic discipline of business is a social science, where we are required to cite sources, giving the people credit for their work. Correct APA citations, validates and shows reliability of a persons' work, which is why it is so important. One of my comments in my classes when students' do not cite sources is this. "Please cite your sources based on your paraphrased work.” It astonishes me when students say, "I do not need to cite sources, I read the material and understand what it means and provided you what it means in my own words." I inform these students, you are required to cite your paraphrased work, because; you inferred this material from a source, that is not your own.

  Stephanie, I truly believe all faculty members should be required to do this. When only a few instructors enforce APA citations and format, we look like the bad guys to our students.

  Best regards,

  Joseph

Hi Joseph,

Again, great insight.  The frustration you feel is one I have felt as well. This is one of the reasons we wanted to do this forum. There must be a better way for us to be more intentional as a faculty team in enforcing proper format. Then, after we enforce it and are consistent, the student must own it and be properly held to this standard. We need tools for the faculty to be trained as well as tools that are consistent and effective to help students ramp up in their skills to implement APA properly.

I am curious of others' thoughts and experiences. Let’s discover some strategies to help both of these situations.

Hello Stephanie:

Thank you! 

One faculty development piece I recommend for faculty members, is to take the online training offered by Turnitin. They offer training all the time and it is excellent. GCU also offers excellent training, such as Bloom's taxonomy of learning. Expecting students to apply what they learn in the classroom. In this training APA format is emphasized, because students' must explain their work and cite their sources to explain higher order of thinking. I encourage my students' to use the online library for their APA sources for their assignments. The emphasis here is to provide detailed research to support the students' work. As an instructor, I encourage my students' to provide and perform excellent work. As a student myself, we are to do our best to glorify our Father in heaven in everything we do, that includes our best work supported by effective APA sources. If we use so so sources, our work will be marginalized, not excellent. The viability of our sources of data informs our readers how effective we are in the classroom, that is why I do expect rigor in my classes, not to just get by. My grading emulates the course assignment rubrics based on a students' assignment. As faculty, we hold the line, meaning we are responsible for our discipline and the manner in which students' perform their work reflects on us as faculty.

Best regards,

Joseph

Joseph, 

You said it. We need to consider ourselves students in that we are to glorify God in all we do. That means we promote integrity and we emulate it as well.

The best to you, Joseph.

Also, thank you for the reminders of the excellent workshops we already have. The key will be to have more faculty members taking these brush-up courses to keep our standards high.

Thank you Stephanie! 

Thank you for hosting this important discussion. I pray more faculty get involved with this discussion!

Best regards,

Joseph Kennedy

Stephanie and all, I teach online undergrad nursing ( adjunct faculty) and find in teaching their first or fifth course students often enter with no ability to cite, write or research.  I frontload my courses with APA resources, sample papers, reference samples and a document with common APA errors, and another with common citation errors.  I announce that they are in instructor add ons and use a CAT course search and ask that students post something useful they found in the instructor add on section of the course.  I also use a CAT that leads to GCUs preventing plagiarism presentation and ask students to discuss two things they learned from the presentation ( also in week 1).  

For the entry course I teach I have APA formatted templates for the first two papers ( the students should see this when completing the course quest). I find students that utilize the templates are also the ones who do well on their final paper and in subsequent courses.  However a great number of students do not read announcements, pay attention to CATs and thus do not use the the templates.  

Initially I avoided taking off "too many" points for APA, but provided a great deal of feedback with examples related to APA and writing and often include a helper or APA resource, but often find students submit subsequent papers with the same errors. I now require a correctly cited APA citation and reference with each discussion post and take off points if they are not completed correctly. Although it sounds punitive, I see more improvement in APA ( and writing) when points are attached to them, I provide feedback and examples and I take off points for the error.  

I see other issues with writing at all levels as well. Dealing with copy and pastes, use of consumer web sites, or attempts at googling one's way through the course.  I require scholarly sources for papers and discussion and announce this in expectations for the course and provide a CAT on evaluation resources. I have had many students in later courses say they wish they had learned about plagiarism, finding reputable sources and APA in early courses. However, those taking their first course are understandably annoyed with needing to learn APA, content and how to naviagate Loud Cloud - I wish that advisers would sign students up for the ITs Loud Cloud training prior to courses and direct them to the writing center.  At minimum they could be directed to the tutorial on loudcloud available in COR. Most of my students enter and do not even know how to find the course assignments, or comments in the grade book.  =(  Anyone else have this experience?  Lisa

First of all, Lisa, thank you for your very detailed response.

You are sure doing a great job with front loading. Also, you are adhering to academic integrity!! AWESOME! We need more of you!

I do this as well, and for the students who heed this, I find it very helpful. There is that handful, however, who do not read any of the ANYTHING! We beat our head against the wall.

So what I see you do is REQUIRE correctly cited posts and papers and take off points if not correctly completed. This may get their attention. 

The key I see with you is that you continue to empower the student with tools, samples and feedback. THIS IS THE KEY!

So, as instructors, we can front load our classes, but perhaps as the student enters their undergraduate OR masters program, they MUST be directed to the writing center for a class or some type of training to set them up for success.

I love your thinking, and I’d love to hear more.

What I have found, regarding APA, is many students seem to make the same basic mistakes over and over again. Incorrect in text citations, poor formatting for long quotes, or not properly formatting references. What I have done is assemble a three page sheet that is titled "The APA Stuff That Everyone Gets Hung Up On" and send that to the students, as well as post it in an announcement.

Sure, there are some areas where APA is fuzzy or not clear, but a majority of our students are not trying to cite a chapter from a conference posted on the web in a discussion blog. Rather, they are just trying to do the basics correctly and if we can help them there, the rest does seem to fall in line.

Thanks

Rob

Hi Rob!
You have pinpointed the basic issues. As discussed, frontloading and providing tools for students to tap into seem to help instead of being “reactive.”

Would you mind sharing your helpful tool? Your students are blessed to have you!

Thank you,

Stephanie

Sure Stephanie, not a problem at all.

Here it is. The more we can get this in front of them prior to the class, the better. My thoughts have always been that if they are aware or made aware, and do not want to use it, then that is on the student. If we as instructors do not do out part, then it is on us.

I have attached the file

Thanks

Rob

I have a section in Instructor add ons called APA Crash Course, there I place the APA template without abstract from GCUs Writing Center and the APA 6th edition Style Guide ( also from the GCU writing center. I love the Owl at Purdues  sample as well, but was not sure about my right to use it regularly ( copyright etc)  so I provide a link in Questions for Instructor.  I also add helpers that I created such as a basic APA Template in Word, Citation Helpers and APA Common Mistakes.. As well as assignment specific APA templates. I have attached them below.  Anyone may use them.. Lisa

Rob and Lisa,

You rock stars! These are great. I have something similar which I will attach. The tools the Writing Center provides are invaluable. Purdue Owl is wonderful too, and they have VIDEOS on youtube.
This one is for APA Reference Lists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpAOi8-WUY4

The key, which you both have reinforced, is FRONT-LOADING our classes with these wonderful tools, AND constantly directing our students to these tools.

One thing I learned in a Turnitin workshop was to have ALL students sign this letter. (Courtesy of David Landau in FTD)  :). I send this to my students individually, and then their reply is their "signature." This doc provides  the resources needed as well. I love this idea as well because they commit to at least putting their eyes in front of the resources we provide. Another PROACTIVE step.

Thank you again. I'd love to hear from more of you!

I want to thank you, Rob, Joseph, and Lisa for your contributions to this first piece of our discussion. We are walking away with some good ideas for front-loading our classes, and maybe also, some ideas for how we can help our instructors with some additional training or tool use. 

This next week, let's focus on how we can help our students with grammar. Is this an issue with your students? How do you handle it proactively? Do you find it something you need to address after you read your students' papers? Please advise!

Thank you again for your contributions. 

Hello Stephanie:

RE: Grammar

Within an online class, it is very easy for students' to check their writing. There are various grammar checkers, such as in MS Word, thesaurus, online, etc. The main issue I have for students' in my classes, is writing in the third person. I truly think this should be taught in the English Composition courses within the first two years of a students' college program. Once the student enters their junior year in the degree program, they should be required to take a writing course within their major, such as research and APA format. This will definitely help students', especially when students' are learning how to conduct research, learning APA format, and how to paraphrase their work.

Best regards,

Joseph

Hi Joseph,

I’m enjoying your contributions. Thank you!

Do you think it really is easy to check studnets writing online? I have found that my students are not proofreading their papers. That is number one. Number two, for years, I taught grammar in middle school, and sometimes I feel their grammar was better than many of my graduate students.

One thing I like to do is highlight and comment the first grave error I see and then just highlight others through the paper. They can hopefully see a pattern. Then, I will point them to the SS center and a grammar lesson. But is this enough?

I love the idea of getting them a crash course on sentence structure (run ons/fragments) and the comma usage. These seem to be my two big bugaboos.

As for first person, this is a big problem! This is an APA rule, however, and so this is covered in my FAQ’s for APA formatting.

I’m curious about how to empower our students up front to be more aware of their grammar usage.

Thanks again!!!

Stephanie

Hi Stephanie,

I teach as an adjunct in the College of Theology. In the welcome to class announcement, I explain APA writing and provide examples of direct quotes, paraphrasing, citation and reference formatting. In addition, I post APA Style Guide with and without the abstract as well as APA template in the course add-on and discussion forum. In my DQ responses to students, I include citations and references hoping students will modeling after me. To assist in writing correctly, I emphasize using Microsoft Word spellcheck & grammar.

However, in several courses I have taught students have difficulty understanding and applying APA due to poor comprehension. If adult literacy is a barrier, faculty cannot expect the student to perform well academically. I am aware of adult literacy programs, but what are some suggestions to address adult literacy in the classroom?

Kathy

 Hi Kathy,

First, thank you for your participation! I love how you front-load with samples, a template and suggestions.

Poor comprehension? Do you mean comprehension of the principles of APA? Adult literacy in the classroom is something with which we continue to be challenged as we pass the student on from class to class. Hopefully, if a student is struggling, an instructor would step up and direct the student to get proper help through our SS center. If not, he/she gets s passed on through unnoticed. Moreover, there must be a motivation on the student’s part to get help.

I’d love to hear more suggestions too!

Stephanie 

Hello Stephanie and Kathy:

With respect, when I read both of your posts, I do not agree. A college or university applies higher education. People who are accepted into a college or university are expected to perform. If students' do not have the skills or capability to perform, they should not be passed through the system. Higher education expects faculty to apply rigor in the classroom, that means students' are expected to perform at that level, both at the undergraduate and masters level I teach at. If a student does not perform at this required level, I am not going to pass them along. I feel sorry for them, yes; and I highly encourage them to seek help with their skills and abilities, but; I am not going to pass them for not being able to perform as required as a student in higher education. If faculty do this, we are devaluing higher education and the school itself.

Best regards,

Joseph

Hi Stephanie and Joe,

Thank you for your input. As a doctoral student, I apply the same APA expectations to undergraduate students. Students are encouraged to use GCU Library and course materials and avoid unreliable internet sources. Moreover, students are expected to apply feedback provided by the instructor to improve performance. Points are deducted for not applying APA in discussion forums and assignment writings. Weekly APA teachings and reminders are provided during the 5 or 8-week course. Overall, most students utilize APA and implement changes.  If APA challenges remain present in the second week, I arrange a class conference call for students to ask questions, gain clarity, and provide feedback, which has resulted in significant improvement. In addition, the conference call is a tool to improve class engagement.

For students who present with writing difficulties, students are referred to the Writing Center and provided additional materials. In addition, I schedule a date and time with the student to discuss learning barriers, writing techniques as well as review and explain assignment instructions and expectations. However, some improvements are made, but not enough to produce a passing grade.

Recently, I provided a student a list of adult literacy programs in their community to address basic educational needs. According to an advisor, the student has exhibited learning difficulties for two years. I am hoping the student access the community resources before enrolling in other GCU courses. I am perplexed by this scenario.

Kathy

Hello Kathy and Stephanie:

Kathy I would be too, especially when you are teaching within the doctoral program. I had a student last semester in the undergraduate business program within the last class; the capstone course in Strategic Management (BUS 485). This student had major issues in writing, she did not perform the assignments based on the assignment directions, her team work was poor, and she did not know how to cite sources in APA format. This student refused to learn how to do this correctly in my class. This student was confrontational, every day for 8 weeks she would send me disparaging messages to me in my online class. When I spoke to a GCU Faculty Specialist, she did not do anything about this, especially my concerns about this student's attitude and her disrespectfulness towards me. The faculty development specialist kept stating, "This student should not be penalized for her disparaging comments made by her in my class." As a Christian university, we as faculty should be able to report poor behavior and inappropriate behavior in our classes. 

Regards,

Joseph

Stephanie I love the video on references and the idea of the plagiarism letter, but I am confused by the citations.  In GCU style we use the title in the citation and reference , but in APA if the organization publishes information it is my understanding that we should use the organization as author in both the reference and the citation rather than title (which we use if author is unknown ).  For example, in my field the National League of Nursing, the American Nursing Association, Universities, the Centers for Disease Control, Institute of Health etc. would be listed as authors of items on their pages, where as OVID, National Acaddamies Press, Cochrane Library data bases would not be cited as authors as they are data bases of other organizations material.  Thus, I would list Grand Canyon University as author of their publications on plagiarism etc. and place the name of the tool/article/ presentation in the title position. This correlates with citations in publications in professional journals etc. and both purdue and APA blogs give examples using universities and other organizations as author. This probably seems nit picky, but I think this sort of discrepancy might be confusing to students.  Anyone else have thougths, concerns, rules they can share on this?  Lisa

Joseph I too have suffered in your position. Having had a student who was ill prepared for undergrad ed and who did not want to accept the help I offered or refereed him to. instead he argued, and posted disparaging remarks in the questions for instructor forum, calling me unfair, biased and racist. The student had misspellings, no use of punctuation, difficulty with sentence structure and had conceivably some difficulty with instructions and reading comprehension.  I offered referrals, provided templates, directed to online resources etc and was met with anger and insults because he had "done well in other courses". 

In addition to poor performance and unbecoming behavior the student had similarity scores in DQs and assignments nearing 100%. Of the three early alerts sent to his adviser one was replied to , suggesting I report his behavior and stating "he had been talked to before"(re the behavior).  I reported the student for his tone and behavior through the Classroom incident report in faculty resources as I felt threatened and was fearful to post grades knowing he would immediately attack. I asked that he be removed from my course and did send all of the required evidences of his inappropriate and threatening behavior and received no response from the academic review folks.  Since he remained in my class and was abusive even after it ended, I suspect he was not contacted re his actions. 

I also reported the student for plagiarism and completed the required information ( which took close to 3 hours) with a response that said " Thank you this will be added to his file". The student did fail my course, but I suspect he is still a GCU student. 

I feel that my expectations and unwillingness to cave to his demands for a high grade for low or no performance made me a target and sadly I did not feel support from GCU with this incident. However, I feel positive that I did not cave and allow a student who lacked understanding of basic concepts and did not meet even the minimum requirements for writing pass the course and move forward in the program.  Lisa

Hello Joseph and Kathy,

Thank you both for your input on this. I appreciate your comments, Joseph. There is a fringe who come to our class which befuddle us. How did they get here? With that, I do try my best to help them, but that does not by any means mean I lower my standards or move them along. I was merely commenting on us tapping into the resources that are made available to us.

Kathy, great way to help students with some learning challenges.

I want to get back to resources we can provide our students to make them better writers. My standards, like all of you, are high. However, we can definitely help those students who may struggle with their writing. We have to remember that online classes require only writing as a way of assessment. Therefore, if a student is not articulate or well-versed in his/her writing ability, it reflects on his/her full performance.

I want to make sure we have the resources and samples to give them the best most helpful and empowering academic experience. What do you all think?

Stephanie

Hi Lisa, 

Thank you for your responses. As for the resources I am giving, I will have to check. If I am in error, I need to make that change! Forgive me if the GCU reference is incorrect. I am in the process of revising what I front-load. I was merely showing what I do currently. I hope to pool what we all do and make it consistent for all of us. 

As for the particular student you reference, I think we have all had a student like this. I just completed my first plagiarism report. Again, there seems to be a few fringe issues/students like this, and hopefully GCU is doing their best to handle it. For the purpose of this forum, I’m seeing what we can do to make the best experience for our students.

Stephanie

Hello Lisa:

I am sorry you had to go through this as well. I guess this is how it is in Higher Education today. My concern, as faculty teaching at a Christians university; we do have a responsibility to teach and apply ethics in our classes. In both of our situations, faculty should be allowed to stop this behavior. As Christians, the spirit of God is within us (Holy Spirit), we cannot condone behavior and attitudes of this type and we need our Christian universities and colleges to support their faculty.

Regards,

Joseph Kennedy

Stephanie and all, for grammar and writing I encourage students to use MS Grammar check and remind them that MS Office is available for download free with their tuition.  I place a link to download instructions with my post on the availability.  

In papers, I do correct spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, and then point out that MS Word Grammar Check would catch the error along with other errors including many APA errors (numerical use, wordiness etc.).  In addition, I mention and provide "directions to" the online writing center, inform of the ability to send papers to the writing center for review and mention the availability (and "directions to") GCU tutoring services. 

I require college level writing in the DQ forums and announce at course start that original posts and replies must be scholarly and written at the college level. This means correct spelling, proper punctuation and sentence structure with no use of slang or acronyms.  I mention this as I have had students who posted as if sending a casual text.  

Purdue Owl offers some basic grammar help and Grammar Checker online offers a free online editor that checks for errors, but I think Words check is better, as it explains why the entry is an error along with providing the correction. Grammarly is another option and available as an add on, but the free product does not explain why the entry is incorrect.  

These are the basic tools I use and am aware of.  Lisa 

The challenge to me is two fold, one: students struggle with grammar but two: I have found that they do not fully understand how to use the tools present to check grammar.  Students that struggle in the area of grammar, I have found, struggle in comprehension which usually leaks out to other areas of their education.

Having said that, I tell student how to set up Word so it will grammar check, and what to look for when it does. Teaching again goes beyond the classroom and assignment and involves developing the student. In many cases, students are simply not prepared for college level writing or the work that comes along with it.

The more we can help them learn aspects that might not be classroom or assignment related, the better. I have again found showing them the steps to set up Word to spell and grammar check is key, and I also send them to Grammarly (though I have found a) it is not always accurate and b) sometimes it takes such a deep dive it could confuse a student)

Thanks

Rob

I teach online graduate students and have done so for many years here.  They are never prepared for APA.  Although not part of the official curriculum, I emphasize it in discussions so that they learn and receive feedback before essay/paper submissions.  Further, I grade more precisely as class matures.  However, results are usually disappointing.  The carrot and the stick just don't seem to be big enough on this issue.  Yet, it's a balancing act with assessing content versus writing. I often refer students to the writing center, but have never received evidence that anyone has gone.

At my day job, my online undergraduates do a better job.  I have control over when APA counts for more or less as part of the assessment. I can give quizes to assist with the carrot and stick issue.  Every faculty member places an emphasis on APA, and we hold each other accountable.  

All in all, this is a great topic to discuss as faculty.  I appreciate the feedback so far. 

Thank you for your comments, Mark. That is interesting that your graduate students are less attentive to the APA standards than your undergraduates. You have more control over the weight of it?

It’s one thing to think about for all of us. I know GCU does not weigh the fidelity of APA very heavily (at least in the COE). I am strict about it because students need to understand the cost of using others’ work.

This is one reason I like to have a letter to the students in the beginning of class for them to read. Like a contract, if you will. They can see the stress I put on the APA standards, the WHY behind it, and then tools to be successful.

I’d love to hear more!

Rob and Lisa,

Thank you for your comments. Again, you have proven that being proactive and giving the tools upfront saves so much time vs being REACTIVE when students fall below standards.

I’m curious for you, Lisa: How do you create your announcement (for online students) with these plethora of resources i.e. APA, Grammar, course expectations? How do we get it all in without info overload? Would a video be more helpful for pieces or to trickle it in the first week? I’m trying to figure out how to make sure they get the info and ENSURE that they read it.

Thanks again!

Stephanie when thinking about your suggestion of a video, my concern was in getting a hard or E Copy of the resources to the students. I wonder if a Prezi presentation might work better as it would allow attachments and functional links. 

 Currently I use announcements, Instructor Add Ons and I use CAT Extra Credit in discussions to get students to the resources. By placing then in the three areas I hope it prevents overload.  For example, In announcements I have links to resources in one anouncment titles Loud Cloud and GCU Resources for your Success.. (there are a variety of links including the MS Word download link in one post).  I front load other helpers in instructor add ons and used DQ forum to get the students to them.  For example on  week 1 CAT Extra Credit Course Quest  is the subject of my post.  The body directs students to the instructor add on section of the course and asks them to post two files they found useful.  Doing so will result in credit for 1 substantial post for the week. (dangling the carrot).   I use CATs to get the students to GCUs Preventing Plagiarism Presentation as well, again offering credit for 1 substantial reply in exchange for their viewing it and posting two things that they learned.  I use this in the first DQ of every course I teach, this is not as formal as your personal letter, but is a record of the students viewing of the policy.  

Thanks for the suggestion Stephanie.  I am going to look in to Prezi or Presssenter as an option  in my "spare time".  Lisa

Lisa,
I’m LOVING your idea of making the CAT a QUEST to discover the resources you have posted. That is brilliant. I’m also loving the idea of making an announcement more of an “actively linked” PP or Prezi. Brilliant.

So, what I’m working on right now is a large FAQ document of everything about the course (including grammar, APA and other resources) This document I will transform into some type of presentation. I just want to get it all in one place for myself. Then, from there, I can be creative as to how I can use it in the class.

Stay tuned as I gather all of your ideas.

I love this cross-fertilization process.

Have a Happy Easter!

(enjoy your "spare" time :)

Thank you Stephanie for this discussion and your plans to create a FAQ for this discussion!

When I develop my online classes for GCU, I always front load my classes with announcements, both within the "Announcements" section or within "Question to instructor forum" for all of my students' to inform them of: APA format requirements, my policy on written assignments, word count - I do not deduct points when students' go over the word count, Policy - faculty have one week to grade all student assignments, online discussion symbols, weekly online discussions - APA requirements, Turnitin policy, student resources to help them, technical issues, communications with me, student peer evaluations, and every week I post announcements within the course announcements for the upcoming course material and within the Question to instructor forum I provide students' what I am seeking for the course assignments and to remind them to please review the assignment rubrics for their course assignments.

"Jesus has risen, he has risen indeed!" Praise God!

Joseph Kennedy

Thank you, Joseph!
He has RISEN!

Thank you for your addtions. I will make note of what you provide.

Blessings!!!

Hello friends, and Happy Easter!

This week, we are going to focus on Tips and Strategies to help our students navigate through Loud Cloud. How do you empower your students to utilize LC effectively? Do you front-load your class to help your students as a proactive strategy? What are do you see is the biggest challenge students face with the LC platform?

Thank you for your contributions!

Stephanie

Stephanie

This is not in any way a dig on GCU, but I think it is consistency. What each instructor puts into LC and where they put it seems to be a challenge. An example was I am currently taking a class at GCU, and the instructor (who is doing a fine job) posted in the DB about using references for every post we make. If I did stop and look at that post, I would have missed it.

I think we could really help students navigating LC if we were more uniform in what to expect and where it should be. Also, we need to be a little more concise on the content we do put in LC, as I have had experiences where there were 5 to 6 posts in one DB just to explain how to take the course.

All schools have this issues for sure, but it is hard to get students to use LC effectively if the content and information they need is in different places and in different formats.

Does that make sense?

Thanks

Rob

I missed one aspect of Announcements as well.

I do not front load my courses as to me, and this is just me, it makes the course look preprogramed.  I prefer an announcement per week and during the week I will load in other announcements to keep the class engaged. "Great work this week" or "I am really impressed with the work I am seeing from you all", etc. keeps them engaged.

This is just my personal preference, but the more we can make online students feel engaged, the better. For on ground I am thinking the preload would work very well as you see the students each week

Thanks
Rob

Hi Rob,

Yes, this does make sense. This is one reason I wanted to do this forum. I’d love to find tips and strategies to help us all be MORE consistent especially with our expectations.

Different is not the problem; the problem lies with keeping our standards high as a quality university.

In terms of front-loading, there can be some ways to help our students get the answers they seek, or at least help them if they are confused; I’m in the process of creating an “FAQ” sheet for the students to help them get all their answers in one place. Lisa and I were going back and forth on this, but perhaps create a PowerPoint for this with hyperlinks. I’m going to attach it near the end of this forum (next week), and hopefully it will help others. (or at least give ideas).

Rob, I love how you encourage your students.

In response to front loading announcements, I also load my announcements weekly.  I would post the Objectives and course hints (which are part of my weekly announcements) in advance, and add a personalized "love note" later, but LC lists all of my students as instructors and allows them to view the announcements in advance.  Even if I have set a future date foran announcement  to be displayed students can see them by looking in the "all" tab. This leads to many more questions, less focus on the week and more work for me than holding off on the announcment does.  This listing everyone as an instructor also allows students to create new forums etc. Which can be really confusing. It seems listing students as students , rather than instructors would be an easy IT fix and might make it possilble to allow educators more flexibility and control in the course, for example I would love to be able to delete a mistaken entry on the DQ or announcement board. I have suggested it in my surveys many times.  

Consistency of expectations for discussion forums is an interesting topic.  I have a course that receives 20 points for their one discussion question and 40 points for participation/ replies and another that receives 5 points for  each of 2 DQs per week and 15 points for participation.  In the course with more points and only 1 DQ, I announce the expectation for scholarly post and replies that require a minimum of 1 correctly formatted citation and reference. In courses with lesser points and more assignments/ posts I still expect a citation and reference in their main posts but do not require them in each reply ( although I do encourage them to include supporting references).   If the course work and credit were more consistent,  expectations could also be consistent.  I am not sure we can have one with out the other.   Lisa

I found this article on Literacy Levels Among College Students in the Faculty Focus a publication of the "Teaching Professor".  We had hit on the topic briefly, so I decided to share. Lisa

Thank you so much, Lisa.

I did notice that my students were noted as instructors. I wondered about that, so I'm glad you explained the ramifications of this. Hopefully they will fix that.

Also, yes, there are differences among each course. I know that in the Student Success Center, they have sample DQ posts for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral courses. I like to highlight these to show that I expect this standard. In terms of participation, I try to give hints of what is a Substantial Post.

Thank you for the article. Literacy levels are surprisingly low across the board as noted. Therefore, the more we can do to empower and assist our students, the more we can set them up for success.

Lisa, check back at the end of the week.   Thanks to you and your ideas, I’m creating an FAQ sheet and I’d like to turn it into a presentation. I’d love your feedback.

Thank you again!

I teach in the RN to BSN program. I find that most students struggle with academic writing. I, too, post expectations in course announcements as well as additional resources. I don't expect students to necessary have the same level of knowledge that I have when it comes to applying APA guidelines, but I do expect a basic understanding of formatting, citations, etc. I even offer 2 -3 Zoom conference calls to discuss common pitfalls that I routinely see with specific writing assignments. What troubles me the most is the fact that I usually have 2 - 3 students in each course who speak English as a secondary language. More often than not, the assignments are so poorly written that its impossible to even grade. I do my best in terms of providing feedback and referring to the Student Writing Center. 

Hi Tonya ,

Thank you for your participation! First, I love that you use Zoom to help your students. This is a great idea and we need to use more of it.

After this forum is over, we will be finding some tools and strategies for ALL OF US to use to frontload our classes. The Student Success Center is awesome, but we need to utilize it more and call attention to it.
Perhaps more use of Zoom!
How do you get you students to go to the SSC? Do you put it in the announcement?

Hello wonderful faculty!
Happy Monday!

This is the final week of our discussion. I'd like to wrap up this last week with what YOU think is the most pressing issue in your classes. What tools would help your students be successful in your class? What can we as a faculty do to help each other?

Let’s wrap up with your BEST practice (one you do in your class) and your BEST desire! (one tool you wish you had to help your students).

I will start:
I am currently creating a presentation for my students which is an alphabetical FAQ. This will be available to them the first day of class. How will I introduce it? VIDEO! (For my online students). I like a personal introduction.

My biggest desire is to give my students a plethora of resources UP FRONT. Why? I want to be proactive; so all I need to do is point my student to that resource which is at the ready.

What are your thoughts? How can we help each other?

Thank you for your participation!

Stephanie

Hello Stephanie:

Thank you for this outstanding discussion for the past couple of weeks. There are two important issues for my classes:

1) I front load my courses with several announcements to help my students' with my courses, but; a few students' do not read the course material or my class announcements and they do not do well in my class.

2) The other big issue in my classes. I have had a few dysfunctional students' in my classes, both in my undergraduate and graduate business courses. These students' have caused disruptions in my classes and they do not seek to learn, but; to receive the best grade they can by causing problems for others. I have tried to help these students' with their academic deficiencies, however; they have rejected my help and the assistance from the student learning center. As a faculty member, this type of behavior is inappropriate for higher education, especially for a Christian university.

Best regards,

Joseph Kennedy

I have enjoyed this thread/discussion. My best practice continues to be front loading my course with helpful links tools and information. 

The most pressing issue in my courses currently it the rampant plagiarism followed closely by students entering unprepared to research or write at a college level. I am adjunct faculty in nursing and see both issues in the first course they take and later courses.  Although students in later courses have learned to take quotes and content from their text books and more obscure web sites that TII does not access for comparison/ similarities.

Closer monitoring of essay sellling sites, a policy that holds gradautes accountable for academic dishonesty (ie consequences for sharing papers and other course work), and simplified reporting method ( so more educators would report) with follow up with the instructor after the report is made and rallying for TII to include textbooks in their search for similarities would improve the plagiarism problem.

I would love to see an English/Writing Course, or completion of the GCUs writing center tutorials  and completion of the 3 day Loud Cloud Webinar ( created by IT) as mandatory activities prior to taking any course. Student advisers could infom students and connect them to the resources prior to their first course. My courses are only 5 weeks long, if my students could navigate LC and had knowledge of basic APA and college writing skills, I could focus on course content. Lisa

Hello Joseph and Lisa,

I have to say that you both have been a huge help to this forum. There is going to be a follow up workshop regarding all these takeaways so we can share the wealth and hopefully help fellow faculty with these suggestions and tips.

In terms of frontloading, I’m glad you both are doing this. The key is the WHAT we are frontloading and then HOW do we get our students to attend to the information. As Joseph says, the same students that don’t heed the info (let alone read it) are the same students who struggle.

My advice on this is to contact these students the first week, and then do Early Alerts immediately following. This way you have a track of the contact information.
This is the same situation for those disruptive students. We must utilize the resources available to us since we cannot recreate the wheel. For a difficult student, he/she must be reported early. It’s a bit of the 80/20 (in this case 95/5) rules. We don’t want to spend so much time on those 5 percenters to sacrifice the 95 want-to-“achieve”rs.

Lisa, I see your frustration, and I share it. As a university and for all others, I’m sure this is a problem. I’m hoping we are all using TI in fidelity. There may be things we are missing, so usually I use my gut instinct. I will do a check myself if I feel the students has plagiarized. When this happens, again, I do what I can with the resources I’ve been given. That is using the reporting system we have.

As for the courses: English/Writing and LC courses, I LOVE THIS. I’m wondering what this could look like. Perhaps we can, as Joseph suggested early on, pioneer some type of baseline course for all entering students (ALL!!!)

Again, I’m hoping to get these issues aired out and discussed. Then we can start figuring out some solutions!

Thank you again!