CLARITY OF EXPECTATIONS ONLINE For students truly to

CLARITY OF EXPECTATIONS ONLINE For students truly to be able to take responsibility for their learning, both teacher and students need to be very clear about what is being learnt, and how they should go about it. When learning and the path towards it are clear, research shows that there a number of important shifts for students. Their motivation improves, they stay on-task, their behaviour improves and they are able to take more responsibility for their learning. Absolum, M. (2006). 'Clarity in the Classroom‘, p. 76.

WELCOME Shifting to a new mode of learning will be defamiliarising to students, so it is essential that the learning climate, expectations of behaviours, and academic content, including learning outcomes and assessments, are clearly communicated by instructors, and that communication by staff is clear, consistent, and helps with learning. This session is all about the importance of clarity of expectations and ideas about how to be clear.

OBJECTIVES OF THIS SESSION • Understand the importance of an open learning environment; • Understand that clarity is essential; • Practice consistency as a necessary; • Communicate and model expectations of behaviours; • Design for flexibility in student approaches; • Make clear and lead in terms of academic content.

ACTIVITY 1 Please post in our group chat about your thoughts on why clarity of expectations is essential for online learning; what are the reasons or principles underpinning the necessity of clarity of expectations? We will get to how to do this after discussing why this is important. Note that it will be difficult for me to talk and type simultaneously, so there might be moments of silence as I reply in writing.

IDEAS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF CLARITY OF EXPECTATIONS ONLINE • The distance inherent in distance learning means expectations must be clear; • Keep in mind there are fewer chances for priming or micro-communications which happen in person; • Understand that students will approach learning differently, like jumping in without reading the instructions; • Design knowing that students will be more successful is they understand what they are being asked to do and why.

INFORMATION IS THE RESOLUTION OF UNCERTAINTY It is essential for instructors of courses including labs, studios or practicums to make it clear how they fit into the schedule and process of learning. For example, UPD is focusing on content delivery during our online weeks, and hands-on learning during face-to-face teaching. Uncertainty makes people more uncomfortable than difficulty, or so I believe. “Information is the resolution of uncertainty. ” - Claude Shannon

CLARITY OF EXPECTATIONS HAS DEFINITE FOCUS According to a post on a business website, clarity of expectations comes in five key areas: • • • Clarity of expected results. Clarity of expected quality. Clarity of behavioural expectations. Clarity of timelines and deadlines. Clarity of priorities. Use the group chat to discuss the relevance to our students. http: //www. protradeunited. com. au/clarity-of-expectations-the-first-step-towards-high-performance-and-productivity/

ACTIVITY 2 Please post in our group chat about your thoughts on how we can design online learning for clarity. If activity one was about principles, the focus here should be on practice and getting started in the beginning of the semester.

IDEAS ABOUT DESIGNING FOR CLARITY OF EXPECTATIONS ONLINE • Begin with what the course is, including learning outcomes, assessments, programme outcomes and value and make this information readily available – this has been university policy for years; • Manage expectations about the academic and disciplinary nature of the course; • Create schedules and guides for time management; • Explain how activities, interaction and feedback will work; • Put yourself in the position of a student.

PUT YOURSELF IN THE POSITION OF A STUDENT Can your students answer the following questions based on your ICE page or VLE interface: • What am I learning? • Why am I learning this? • How will I learn; what is the process? • What am I supposed to do; accountable for? • Are there examples of what I am supposed to do or produce? • How is attendance taken; how do I represent my presence? • How can I ask questions or talk to classmates? • How can I check my learning? • What is the criteria for success?

HOW TO GUIDES You might have to demonstrate how to use a forum or a quiz. Also, piloting your ICE activities is highly advised because they makes sense to you as you have designed them, but not be understandable to users. Much of this has been created by the educational technologists already: https: //ice. xjtlu. edu. cn/course/view. php? id=1605. There should also be guidelines about the length of posts and the like (anything you ask students to produce), responses, language and tone.

CHECKLISTS AND COMPLETION GUIDELINES You may want to provide checklists, so that students can monitor their completion of what is expected of them, as we do in classroom teaching.

SAMPLE CHECKLIST

EXPECTATIONS ACCORDING TO DISCIPLINE AND LEVEL If teaching humanities, social sciences or business, you may want to ask students to write in complete sentences. If you are teaching EEE, you may only be asking for drawings of circuits. A guideline here would be to match the task to your learning outcomes and assessments, rather than notions of linguistic propriety.

SETTING AND MANAGING EXPECTATIONS ONLINE • They will need to know what the course expects in terms of learning outcomes and how assessments measure them; • They will probably need a new picture of time management, especially if there is portfolio work; • They will need to know what is mandatory, what is ideal, and what is forbidden is communicating with you and with peers; • They will need to know when and how to communicate with you and when and how you will communicate with them.

GANTT CHART

THE IMPORTANCE OF STICKING TO COMMUNICATION PLANS ONLINE • It should be clear what you want and what students have to do; • It should be clear how they will communicate with you and with one another; • It should be clear how you will communicate with them.

SAMPLE COMMUNICATION POLICY Hi students, During our six weeks of online learning, I am going to ask you to participate in many ICE-based chat forums. I would like all original posts to deal with the forum topic, not other thoughts, and for you to reply to two others after you post an original response to the forum topic. Respond to the forum topic once, reply to others twice! Response posts to the topic should be 80 -100 words; replies to the posts of others should be 30 -50 words. I will respond to all response posts within 24 hours during the appropriate week to provide feedback. When posting, please respect everyone and remember our netiquette rules. Remember, you can always email me with questions. Thank you, Teacher X

FOLLOW-THROUGH IS HANDMAIDEN TO CLARITY You will undo all you have done to be clear about expectations if you do not actually act on what you express as your expectations.

QUESTIONS FOR OUR PUBLIC CHAT With regard to teaching, how do we know whether expectations are clear, especially online? Can students trust us to deliver what we promise online? How will we instill this trust? Do we have confidence in their learning and participation?

REVIEW • Understand the importance of an open learning environment; • Understand that clarity is essential; • Practice consistency as a necessary; • Communicate and model expectations of behaviours; • Design for flexibility in student approaches; • Make clear and lead in terms of academic content. Remember we will be discussing Structured Delivery of Course Content at the same time tomorrow.

WEB RESOURCES You can always email me at charlie. reis@xjtlu. edu. cn. We have also created a page for getting started thinking about online pedagogies: https: //ice. xjtlu. edu. cn/course/view. php? id=1605&section=12; for external audiences: https: //connect. xjtlu. edu. cn/view. php? t=ZSG 2 Hc 4 x. PKq. Y 0 my 3 Q 5 Bw.

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