Making An Impact: Dispositions, Mindsets & Instructional Practices of Rockstar Online First-Year Experience Instructors
Concurrent Session 4
Brief Abstract
Never underestimate the power of one! Online first-year experience instructors play a pivotal role by welcoming students and setting them up for long-term success. This session will explore the dispositions, mindsets, and instructional practices of rockstar faculty who provide an engaging experience that goes beyond teaching content and transforms lives.
Presenters
Extended Abstract
First impressions matter! The beginning of a student’s journey at an institution is a critical time in the student lifecycle because it requires a deeper level of care and attention to ensure long-term success. Every interaction a student has at this juncture can influence their desire to persist through their program of study. It is commonly understood that students persist longer when they feel valued by the institution, recognize relevance in the curriculum, and find belonging within the institution. Achieving these three components, however, is not as easy as it sounds. Faculty can help students realize all three, thereby impacting success and retention (Muljana & Luo, 2019), making the quality of faculty instruction and interactions valuable when onboarding new students.
So, what qualities do these first-year experience faculty members possess that make them rockstars in the classroom and valuable assets to an institution? What is the difference between a first-year instructor and a more traditional faculty member? Why are some instructors so much more successful than others in engaging and retaining students? In this session, we will explore these questions and delve deeper into the dispositions and mindsets these instructors embrace and the instructional practices they employ that create rapport with their students, which research indicates is linked to student success (Glazier, R. A. (2016); Lammers, W. J & Gillaspy, J. A. (2013).
Patience. Empathy. Flexibility. Kindness. Authenticity. Emotional Intelligence. These are just some of the dispositional qualities that distinguish rockstar first-year experience faculty. Teaching first-year experience courses is just as much about connecting with students as it is about the course content. These instructors are driven by a mission that every student can succeed. They serve as a conduit, assisting students in connecting to the institution and curriculum and ensure students have a welcoming environment as they start their journey.
Dispositional qualities are not the only components of rockstar instruction. How an instructor approaches teaching and the mindsets they bring to the online classroom can shape every single interaction with students. There is no one single mindset that a first-year experience instructor embraces, but many. These serve as tools, enabling instructors to quickly adjust their classroom approach to meet their students’ needs. Rockstars embrace and encourage a growth mindset and see themselves as on a continuum of learning to improve the student experience every single term, both on their own and in collaboration with their peers. They are often first adopters of new strategies and are not afraid to innovate, embrace change, and pilot new technologies or approaches to impact student success.
Online instruction is where the rubber meets the road, and rockstars excel in offering their students an engaging, personalized, and relevant learning experience. These faculty actively partner with advisors and other staff to ensure their students are fully supported from all available resources within the institution. Rockstars also foster relationships with their students and regularly check the “pulse” of the class. They tend to know what is going on both in and out of the classroom that could impede student success. By monitoring student progress closely and reaching out proactively, they tend to offer solutions to challenges before they become insurmountable barriers. In their teaching, they seek first to learn and ask open-ended questions to engage students in an authentic dialogue. Instruction is viewed as a two-way street, and they are not just disseminators of knowledge but rather partners in inquiry. Rockstars tend to be great storytellers and often weave their personal experiences, including setbacks and failures, into the curriculum to show their humanity and relatability. They show their own vulnerability as a way to motivate and build confidence in their students.
Throughout this presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to engage through technology (such as Mentimeter) for polling and discussion. There will also be small-group dialogue around instructional strategies that are effective with first-year online learners.
Attendees will walk away with a deeper understanding of key characteristics of online first-year experience instructors that provide a best-in-class learning ecosystem for students. By understanding the dispositions, mindsets, and instructional strategies of rockstar instructors, attendees, depending on their role, can enhance their classroom instruction, create training and hiring protocols, and be more intentional when creating holistic learning experiences that drive student engagement, success, and retention.
References:
Glazier, R. A. (2016). Building rapport to improve retention and success in online classes. Journal of Political Science Education, 1-20.
Lammers, W. J & Gillaspy, J. A. (2013). Brief measure of student-instructor rapport predicts student success in online courses. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 7, 2, 1-13.
Muljana, P. S. & Luo, T. (2019). Factors contributing to student retention in online learning and recommended strategies for improvement: A systematic literature review. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 18, 20-57.
Glazier, R. A. (2016). Building rapport to improve retention and success in online classes. Journal of Political Science Education, 1-20.