Frequency, topic, and preferences: Tracking student engagement with several modalities of student-instructor contact in a first-year course

Autor: Bailey E. Bingham, Victoria Rea, Shoshanah R. Jacobs, M. Alex Smith, Lisa Robertson
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: FEBS Open Bio
FEBS Open Bio, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 12-23 (2022)
ISSN: 2211-5463
Popis: Meaningful student–instructor interactions during an undergraduate degree course can have important effects on student learning. The format by which those interactions are made possible can vary greatly. We investigated the preferred modality of contact and students’ reasons for contact across several modalities in a first‐year biology course. We tracked student–instructor contact for two‐course instructors who team teach collaboratively (rather than sequentially) across two‐course sections. Both instructors had identical scores on student evaluations of approachability. Student–instructor contact was facilitated using five ‘student hour’ modalities: (a) in office by appointment, (b) 1 h per week, in office drop in, (c) 1 h per week, virtual chat, (d) by email, (e) 10 min immediately after class. Though email was the preferred method of contact, the period immediately following the class instruction was the most popular of the face‐to‐face options. We note significant differences in the distribution of workload across the two instructors and make recommendations for increasing the accessibility of student–instructor contact and for equity in workload to support student learning.
We conducted a study to determine which of the available means of student‐instructor contact were most preferred by students. Email was the most popular means of contact, followed by in‐person contact immediately after class. We observed that the number of student contact events differed among the three members of the teaching team. Recommendations are provided for student‐centered approaches to teaching in higher education.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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