and in some ways, more so than when comfort and peacefulness abide

There’s no built-in function in any technology which can produce community. Nor can building community be done from the front of the room; it is not an exercise or a manoeuvre.  Rather than code safety, rather than prescribe it, we must demonstrate it; and once safety has been established, it must be honoured. In that same way, connectedness is not a strategy as much as it is an intention, not a technology but a relationship, a promise

All of these put the instructor indelibly at the front of the classroom, and all communication becomes broadcast.

Too often, rubrics are tools for measurement more than guidance, and they are more prescriptive than aspirational.

Think of the community in your classroom as a seed you plant that you must tend for it to grow. In order for it to grow, you have to back up and think about the environment and nutrients it requires.

This model is the most flexible and open-ended of the four; your goal as an instructor is not to design a full-fledged semester of material, activities, and assessments. Rather, your goal is to work with your class to design and become a learning community, working collaboratively and individually towards your determined learning goals. For this to work you should have: a set of possible/preferred learning objectives for your classa library of course materials, preferably with as much as possible in digital formata suggested list of digital tools and technologies that you’re comfortable from with a list of possible assignment/project/assessment ideas that are related to your learning objectivesa willingness to experiment and invite your students into the teaching & learning process. At the onset of class you will need to facilitate a conversation among you and your students about how the class will unfold. This can be done in small groups f2f, via an online communication tool, or in a hybrid mix of both. As a community you should plan on addressing the following: what are our objectives as a learning community? what kind of work could we engage in to meet these objectives? what physical/virtual spaces would we like to work in? how/when do we want to meet in these spaces?how do we want to measure (assess) if an objective has been met?what rules and policies should govern our work? how will we work virtually and respect everyone’s boundaries and personal situations? how will we work f2f and respect public health recommendations and personal situations? You will probably need to spend at least the first 1-2 weeks answering these questions together and then designing a plan for your course. Make sure you and your students talk through various complications: what if the university’s policies about meeting f2f change? what if classes are forced to move entirely virtual/remote? what someone (students or professor!) gets sick?

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Finally, these are NOT meant to be comprehensive. Instead, imagine these models along a continuum of opportunity. Your challenge is to determine where your courses could fit between and among the proposals.  

There are many on-line courses that are not modularized. Or to state it in another way, there are many on-line courses that are just one large module. The better on-line courses are a sequence of modules. Most of the content is presented via modules.

Various partners from key environmental employment sectors will be directly involved in training students in skills where they typically see gaps in new employee’s abilities.

I sometimes wonder about how we expect to have so many conversations about empowering students without ever having students in the room for these conversations, and this was such an important opportunity to begin approaching that issue.

I want to hear my students voices and I want them to really hear each other.

If my assignments prioritize only one way of demonstrating knowledge and are never seen by anyone except me, how meaningful can my class be to them?

So, while not every class can or should have aggressive high impact experiences for students, we can use the framework for what makes something high impact and evolve our traditional classroom experiences/assignments to be more effective and more meaningful for students.