Leveraging Messenger Technology through Inclusive Language to Create an Equitable Online Learning Environment
Concurrent Session 9
Brief Abstract
In 2018, CTU introduced a texting feature within the online classroom allowing students to communicate with faculty. Now, four years later, we are just beginning to realize the full potential of this powerful tool, not just to increase student-faculty connections but to also break down barriers, deconstruct power, and decrease distance in the online classroom. In this workshop, participants will learn how to use language to create a more inclusive learning environment – one student and one word at a time.
Presenters
Extended Abstract
Smartphones and devices are a staple in the life of college students; the results of a University of the West Indies survey found that 67% of the respondents never turn off their mobile phones, always have the device with them, and check for text messages a minimum of one hundred times a day (Ahmed, 2019). Leveraging the communicative capabilities of mobile devices to inform, support, and engage with students can have a profound impact on the equity and inclusivity of the online classroom and ultimately drive student success.
At the Spring Accelerate conference, representatives from CTU presented on the texting feature that has been integrated into our mobile application and virtual classroom. That presentation focused on how the University has been utilizing data from the messenger feature to gain real-time feedback on and insight into how students experience classroom technology, content, and the learning process. This presentation builds on that work, sharing how these messages are part of a high engagement instructional strategy that is helping us to decrease distance, support the instructor-student connection, and cultivate a more inclusive and equitable learning experience for all of our students.
The informal nature of a text-style communication tool has changed not just how, but what our students communicate with faculty. Messages provide real time insight into how students are thinking and feeling about the learning they are doing. Is a student feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or empowered? This knowledge allows instructors the ability to provide needed on time academic, technological, or mindset support for students.
When faculty take advantage of these “messenger moments,” they can personally encourage students when it may be needed to persist. They also can connect the student’s own experience to the course content, demonstrating how the course content is relevant to the student’s personal or professional goals. In these two and in so many other ways, these “messenger moments” create opportunities for individual connection and engagement, two key factors in student retention. In addition, we have learned from analyzing over 3 million student and faculty messages that language choices greatly impact the effectiveness of our efforts.
In this session, workshop leaders will share the trends in terms of the types and timing of student messages at CTU as well as insights they have gained from the messages and how they have actioned on those insights from an instructional and student support perspective. They will also discuss what they have learned through CTU messenger regarding the importance of the instructor-student connection and how tools, like messenger, can be used to promote a more equitable learning environment that decreases distance and empowers students. The tool matters – but how the tool is used as a part of an individualized instructional strategy matters more.
Attendees will explore how the use of “messenger moments” as a part of a high engagement instructional strategy impact student engagement and success in actual online classrooms. Through role-playing and discussion, participants will gain insight into the relationship between power, distance, language, and learning, and how they can leverage new technologies and data to enhance the student experience and create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment. Attendees will also be able to review and analyze trends within the data, developing an awareness of both implicit and explicit meanings within student communications.