1. GOING LONG: ENGAGING STUDENTS IN LONG CLASSES BRIAN SMENTKOWSKI DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF FACULTY EXCELLENCE AND DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE QUEENS UNIVERSITY OF CHARLOTTE SCOTT WEIR DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY QUEENS UNIVERSITY OF CHARLOTTE BRIAN SMENTKOWSKI SCOTT WEIR

2. The Learning Environment  What do you teach?  How many students?  What level?  What kind of class –f2f, online, hybrid?  What about the learners –why are they there?  What is your preferred teaching style/comfort zone?  Have you ever taught a “long” class?  How long?  How’d it go?

3. Jose Bowen’s Value Proposition  “As faculty, if we are primarily concerned with transmitting content, then our value will only decrease. The Internet contains a much broader selection of lectures, demonstrations, animations, and examples on more subjects, in more languages, and with a greater variety of approaches, methods, and pedagogies than any professor, department, or even entire university can provide. If, however, we are more concerned with faculty-student interaction; the design and sequence of learning experiences; the application, analysis, and synthesis of information; the motivation of students; and, especially, the increasing complexity of students’ mental models, then the value of what we do will increase.”  “The good news is that the greatest value of a physical university will continue to be its provision of face-to-face (naked) interaction between faculty and students. The first role of technology, therefore, is to create more time for such interaction. At a very basic level, new technologies can increase student preparation and engagement between classes and create more time for the (naked) in-class dialogue that makes the campus experience worth the extra money it will always cost to deliver. The most important benefits of using technology occur outside of the classroom.”  https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/ 2014/spring/bowen https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/ 2014/spring/bowen

4. The Learning-Centered Challenge  If the central idea of flipping a class –of teaching a class-- is to create truly transformational learning experiences in which the students agree “this is why we actually need to meet as a class”—how do we do that??

5. The Long Class Challenge  The average class is 50 – 75 minutes  Four credit hour conversions add a little more time  Long classes add a lot more time, running, on average, 2.5 - 3.5 hours and often at night (implications of this?)  The average attention span of a student?  8-15 minutes? That’s a fair, research-based range, but do note that credible scholars of teaching and learning question some of the methods and therefore the results, and there is no uniformity of effect within and across learning environments and experiences. But we can agree, it’s pretty short. How short?  3-4 minutes? 30 seconds?? We have found that “attention lapses” occur much more frequently – like, in the 3-4 minute range, and even after about 30 seconds! It gets worse the longer a class goes on Other distractions?  So, what do we do? How do we engage in deep learning across the span of 3+ hours knowing that attention wanes so rapidly?

6. Solutions?  How can we make a long class feel less “long and arduous?  How can we engage our students through that time span?  What can we do with our time, content, documents, and ideas? CallResponse

7. Solutions: Top 10 Tips for HIPs 1. Engage students in their learning 2. Use a variety of active and collaborative learning approaches to engage students 3. Set and maintain high expectations of student performance 4. Clarify what students need to do to succeed 5. Use engaging pedagogical approaches appropriate for course objectives and students’ abilities 6. Build on students’ knowledge, abilities and talents 7. Provide meaningful feedback to student 8. Weave diversity into the curriculum including out-of-class assignments 9. Make time for students 10. Hold students accountable for taking their share of the responsibility for their learning  To learn more, check out:  Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. H., & Whitt, E. J Assessing conditions to enhance educational effectiveness: The Inventory for Student Engagement and Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. H., Whitt, E. J. & Associates (2005). Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

8. Specific Pedagogical Options

9. Practical Advice  Create a learning MECCA –Make Every Class Count, Always!  Don’t treat your class as a long excursion  Gilligan’s Island started out as a three hour tour –look how that turned out  The rule of thirds  Mix it up  Don’t rely on one go-to activity per class  Link what you’re doing in each class to a specific learning outcome  Prepare them for an engaged learning experience  Use the time between class sessions wisely, to ramp up, wrap up, and follow up.  Think about online and F2F solutions  Think about individual participation and group/team participation  CBL and/or PBL  High intentionality and buy in: include them in the discussion of why we are doing something and make sure their results matter  Give ‘em a break, get them moving

10. A Final Challenge  Engaging our students in active learning is critical  Maryellen Weimer calls on us to not simply fill the time, but to “facilitate student focus”  Think about what that entails It’s more than cognitive It requires us to think about space, time, technology, preparation, engagement, and inclusion. It requires us to address attention enhancers and distractors When is technology part of the solution, and when is it part of the problem? Consider the New Science of Learning