Tag: education

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Three Quick Tips: Neurodiversity in the Online Classroom

The first week of school is an exciting and chaotic time for teachers. The thought of adding, yet another task to the plate can be overwhelming. Here are three quick and easy ways to make the online classroom more welcoming for neurodiverse learners:

  1. Consistency: Create a format and stick with it throughout the online course. As a bonus, this makes it easier for teachers to stay organized throughout the semester.
  2. Clarity: Imagine a room full of students in front of you. What questions would they ask about an assignment? Answer those questions in your instructions online. It will save you several emails too!
  3. Create Options: Build in variety and student choice in your assignments. By doing so, you allow students to leverage their strengths and show you what they know!
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A Lesson from a Pandemic: Flexibility

During the pandemic, flexibility became a key component of education. Due to unpredictable circumstances and factors beyond the learners’ control, courses were built so that students could still succeed even when daily life challenges emerged. Even after the pandemic, flexibility will remain important, especially, for adult learners. When juggling family, career and finances among other responsibilities, adult learners find support in increased flexibility.

Three ways to incorporate flexibility into course design:

Due Dates: Quality work is more important than work that is submitted by a certain date. Provide guidelines for submission to help students stay on track, but allow students the flexibility to adjust dates to meet their individual schedules.

Assignment Choice: Provide students with options for assignments. Allow students to choose between options so that they can complete work that is matched to their available resources and learning styles. By listing two or three assignment options, instructors can rest assured that students will be completing work that demonstrates mastery while still providing students with flexibility.

Group vs. Individual Assignments: Allow students the freedom to choose if they will complete assignments in groups. Especially for students with outside responsibilities, group assignments can add an extra layer of challenge due to the need to coordinate schedules.

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Assessment Ideas for Online Education

Many of the assessments that teachers use in the face-to-face classroom can be utilized in the online classroom. Plus, there are creative ways that are unique to online education to effectively assess student learning.

  1. Oral Exams: Have students orally respond to exam questions synchronously by using technology such as Zoom. Oral exams can also take place asynchronously by using technology such as Voicethread.
  2. Traditional Formal Exams: Utilize the technology that is built into a Learning Management System to draft traditional formal exams. Remember to utilize a healthy mix of true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer and essay in order to utilize multiple levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
  3. Student Choice: Provide students with the freedom to demonstrate their mastery of skills by creating their own projects. Ideas could include a student-created video tutorial, a visual graph or display of knowledge, creative writing or spoken word.
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Student Success Strategies: Online Learning

Many students will be learning online this fall. Course design and teaching strategies can support student learning and success in the virtual classroom. Below is a list of three strategies educators can implement to help students succeed:

  1. Check for student understanding: Utilize assessments and assignments that are low stakes and provide an opportunity to assess student learning. Address any misconceptions or gaps in learning before students take a formalized assessment.
  2. Consistency: Keep the online classroom consistent across each unit so that students know what to expect and where to find important information.
  3. Lived experiences: Allow students to bring their personal worldviews and lived experiences to the online classroom. Discussion boards and reflection papers are great opportunities for students to connect what they are learning to what they have experienced.