Introduction

Previous chapters covered reducing volume to make learning more inviting and manageable (Chapter 2), then bite-sizing learning sessions and recordings (Chapter 3), and developing engaging delivery and lesson designs (Chapter 4). This chapter focuses on how we can further reduce barriers to learning and engagement with learning supports. Support measures we can provide include short videos and written messages designed to motivate learners to keep going, (e.g., with encouragement and assurances) and helpful advice. These kinds of supports show learners they are being supported and also personalise the study experience. Messages about how to study efficiently and guidance on assessments, ease load and impediments to success in study. Messaging supports are also effective for boosting motivation and cultivating the confidence students need for success.

These kinds of supports can make a world of difference, especially for those who are vulnerable to losing hope and giving up. They can be a critical factor in getting students to engage and keeping them engaged so that we retain them in study over the long term. Importantly, they show students that they are not alone and isolated and that they are being supported.

While support measures require some time and effort, they can be done efficiently by routinising and streamlining message content. Pre-empting and addressing student questions and support needs in message content can be a big time-saver, for both teaching staff and students. Support messaging pays long-term efficiency dividends.

Supports also include boosting lecturer presence with brief lecturer videos, starting with a short Welcome to Course. This can be followed with Introduction to Week (preview) videos to stimulate interest and engagement, and again,  personalise the study experience and build sense of belonging. Students who feel comfortable and familiar with their lecturers, tutors and class peers are more likely to engage and less likely to feel isolated (Congiu & Moscati, 2021).

The concept of nudging is seen as a key support-provision approach that underpins the learning supports in this chapter. Nudging involves personalised and supportive messaging, these include: messages of encouragement, prompts to engage with learning resources and activities, and, assignment tips and reminders for upcoming due dates. While nudging is commonly understood as the sending of written message prompts, lecturer videos work in similar ways, because they too, are used to promote engagement with concepts and high priority resources to ensure success in a course.

Another important way to support our students is with the kind of feedback we give on assessments. Feedback that is specific and focused on improvement for future performance on assessments and/or employment tasks. Feedback should be as instructive as possible to maximise the effectiveness of an assessment as a learning tool.

Finally, it is important to make grade scoring realities explicit to students early on to minimise misunderstandings and disappointment and thereby alleviate damage to satisfaction and motivation.

Lecturer videos

Welcome (course introduction)

A personal welcome by the course lecturer provides a positive start and first encounter. The warmth of a friendly face humanises and personalises the learning experience and establishes a sense of connection with the course and the lecturer.

This strategy is designed to support students and reduce feelings of isolation, especially those studying online or remotely. It is important in all courses, but becomes even more important in large classes where students often interact more frequently with tutors than with the course lecturer.

Lecturer videos, like course welcome messages, encourage students to actively engage with their learning and commit to the course. The personal and visual nature of a video recording helps reduce isolation, foster a sense of belonging and set a positive tone.

An informal and conversational style is best, because it helps students see the lecturer as approachable, supportive, and genuinely invested in their learning.  It helps give a more personalised experience for students when entering the course. We also use these videos to promote the value of the course and stimulate interest.

The lecturer should be foregrounded, so it is best to avoid use of slides where ever possible. Lecturers can use this opportunity give advice for succeeding in the course, promote the benefits students can gain, highlight what makes the subject interesting and rewarding, and also outline expectations in a positive and encouraging way. Keeping videos as short as possible is critical to their success i.e., students watching. Ideally they should be kept to 2 minutes maximum.

Note, that students are eager to see their lecturers appear in person. But in many cases, lecturers choose voice-over slides instead of appearing on screen. The problem here is that students want to see you! If you were in the student role, you would want that too. Students want to see the person teaching them.

This idea is often described as ‘lecturer presence’. It highlights the importance of having the lecturer visibly in videos. Seeing the lecturer helps students connect with their teacher in a way that humanises and personalises the learning experience, while also offering a sense of emotional support. A welcome video establishes initial connection, we can then continue to develop that connection with follow on weekly-topic introduction videos. (discussed next).

The example (below) ‘Welcome video’ (video; 1’41”; CC-BY) establishes teacher presence, and prepares the foundation for connection.

Ingredients for effective course welcomes include:

• enthusiasm: for the course and learners
• showing care: connection with concern for student success and positive experience
• brief but interest-capturing introduction e.g. what makes the subject area exciting, appealing and/or worthwhile (keep brief, follow on weekly videos can be used to further stimulate interest)
• concluding with a prompt for action to help students get active and involved.  For example, asking students to introduce themselves on a course forum, recommending they familiarise themselves with the assessments and begin studying the first module.

Introduction to week

While similar to welcome videos, the aim here is to preview the week’s topic, as a taster, to stimulate student interest and encourage engagement in the week’s topics. Also, to continue building a sense of connection to the teacher, and the learning process itself, i.e., to see learning the content as a ‘value-adding’ investment in themselves. In this way, we use our communication to convey information and attitudes conducive for success. This is especially important for first year courses to help students transition into higher education study.

Providing a 1 to 2 minute introduction for each week and module topic, delivered by the lecturer, not only personalises learning, it increases sense of belonging and connectedness. It is also used to promote interest the topic and related subtopics week by week to help sustain engagement. We can create interest by highlighting an intriguing aspect of the week’s content or practical value i.e., what is to be gained. We can also use these videos to encourage engagement with high priority learning resources, such as, a textbook chapter, a reading, or a video.

These videos are an opportunity to point out what makes principles to be covered interesting and to link to relevance, like the benefits students should expect to gain from this section knowledge. The importance of ‘selling’ engagement in the week’s learning resources should not be underestimated. In do so, it is important to not only mention content topics, like concepts, but to refer to, promote and recommend content in the week’s learning resources ^[1].

If we want students to engage with resources, we should be promoting interest factors, like, what makes this author’s insights interesting, and what is the value to be gained from a reading. As pointed out in Chapter 2, on reduction, if a reading is not worth mentioning, then we should ask “is it really worth keeping?”

These videos supplement engagement approaches covered in Chapter 4 learning design, like – drawing on interest (e.g., fun facts), injecting positivity and enthusiasm as we do in classes – so that we promote interest in topics and material at the start of each week. These steps are important because they help address risks that around perceptions that topics are not interesting (i.e., appear boring).

These weekly videos also fit with well with the microlearning delivery strategy of learning in small steps, because we can use them to introduce key concepts so that students study week with some familiarity already. In microlearning speak, this as pre-teaching, it is akin to prepping, preparing or priming, prior to engagement with learning sessions and reading resources. Hence introduction to topic videos are a delivery method and a learning support method combined.

Weekly videos are often best delivered by the lecturer, but they can be done by a course tutor, if need be. Alternating video presentations between lecturer and tutors can help build familiarity with both while also adding variety to the learning experience.

To help ensure the videos personalise learning, the lecturer or presenter should be foregrounded as much as possible. This includes keeping slides to a minimum, if used at all, to ensure screen display foregrounds the presenter. The frequency of weekly introductions is aimed at providing continuity of connection for building and maintaining a sense of personalisation, engagement and belonging.

The three videos (below) offer examples of ‘introduction to week‘ videos to build continuity of connection.

Example 1: ‘Introduction to Week (1) – Qualitative Research’ (video; 3’14”; CC-BY)

Example 2: ‘‘Introduction to Week (2) – Criteria for Qualitative Research (video; 2’03”; CC-BY)

Example 3: ‘‘Introduction to Week (3) – Quantitative Research (video; 2’18”; CC-BY)

Assessment guidance

Producing short ‘how to’ video guides for assessments is an effective approach for helping ensure students address tasks correctly.

Videos are a relatable medium for students for explaining and clarifying what is required of them. Again, a conversational tone can be used to create the feeling of the lecturer speaking directly to students in a manner akin to a face-to-face learning experience.

The lecturer or teaching team member can foreground themselves for the opening before going on to display and work through task instructions along with any other material that is useful, for example, checklists, points of note and pitfalls to look out for.

A guidance assessment video should be provided from each assessment and also tailored for exams. A video length of 2-4 minutes for each works well. For assessments that require more time, like large or complex assessments, longer recordings can be produced and segmented into instalments.

You can include an explanation of the relevance of the assessment, including value of an assignment to employment or job capability or proficiency, but keep it brief to avoid any unnecessary overload. Focus the critical information need to correctly address the assignment task. A self-check-question to ask: Is my information adding or detracting from the purpose?, i.e., useful ‘need to know’ assignment guidance?

An instructional ‘how to tackle’ the assessment item-by-item is a beneficial approach for students. A tour of the marking criteria and marks allocated also helps ensure that criteria are not overlooked and addressed fully. Providing tips, on ‘how to’ avoiding common pitfalls, helps students fend off slippages in assessment criterion scores. This kind of preventative advice is an example of ‘feeding forward’ in contrast to regular post assignment feedback.

The first assessment guidance video (below) is informal in tone, and is an update and addition to two previously released guidance videos, and as such, it more general, i.e. less specific than the previous videos provided to students.

Example 1: ‘Assignment guidance 1‘ (video; 1’44”; CC-BY), is informal in tone, and an update and addition to two previous assessment guide videos and as such more general (i.e. less specific).

Example 2: ‘Assignment guidance 2′ (video; 1’50”; CC-BY), a snippet only, of a tour of the marking criteria for an assignment requiring more length than most due to the complex of the task.

Nudging: to encourage, promote and support

Nudge messages are aimed at encouraging students to engage with online learning resources to keep them on track. They are useful for supporting students with managing assessment tasks – starting and completing on time, to help prevent them from falling behind. Students who fall behind often become overwhelmed, which puts them at risk of giving up and failing a course.

Nudging as a learning support intervention, is useful for subtly and supportively motivating learners to stay engaged, so that they increase their chances of success. A feature of the nudging strategy, which underpinning its effectiveness, is to not overuse them. Nudging becomes nagging when used too often (Congiu & Moscati, 2021). Overused and overly directive nudging can overwhelm learners and make them feel that they are being threatened and criticised. Overusing nudges also causes information overload producing annoying ‘noise’ and clutter that turn students off reading messages. Overdoing engagement initiatives can demotivate rather than motivate by leading to engagement fatigue, thereby undermining their purpose.

Nudging is a useful for motivating learners and sustaining motivation to stay engaged and thus increase their chances of successful completion. This kind of support is especially important for online students who have fewer ways to engage and receive support. Online students also tend to have greater demands on their time and attention, e.g. jobs, young family.

Learning resources nudging is the most widely known form of nudging, formally known as the Nudging Protocol (Graham, et.al., 2017) is a way to promote engagement with learning resources identified as the most critical to success. Resources promoted, include (but are not limited to): set readings, because longer form text materials can seem more difficult and thus less inviting.

Direct messaging: Encouragement and support

Promoting learning support services

Promoting other learning support services, including institution supports offered by student support services and library services, including study sessions (e.g. mathematics, writing),  generic assignment guidance and proof reading services,  can be broadcast on course home pages and mentioned sparingly with announcement messages. Be careful not to over-do, i.e., repeatedly promote.

Assessment feedback and expectations setting

Guidance and feedback on assessments is a critical point for providing support to students.

Assessment is important for us as educators as a measure of student learning performance. But it is even more important in the eyes of our students, for them, it is the ‘bottom-line’.  Hence, scoring (or grading) submitted work and giving feedback, warrant special care and attention, as is, showing students that care has been taken.

Accordingly, feedback should be as instructive as possible and maximise the learning-value that assessment should provide as an integral part of the learning process. Instructive feedback should also be supportive and provides information on areas for improvement to increase performance and the quality of their work. Where possible, point out that the feedback given, should help them in assignments to follow. Remember, feedback should be a component of the learning journey. See Appendix: Essay advice and Feedback

Marking criterion-based rubrics:  Well detailed criterion-based rubrics can also play an important role as a feedback tool (Refer: Chapter 2 on Constructive Alignment)

Setting expectations about grading

Student perceptions on the grades they are awarded for their assessment work is a major source of disappointment and dissatisfaction among students.

This is understandable because the standards and conventions of grading the system in higher education do appear harsh, and the percentage or number scoring system used, is not well explained early on. As a result, students often find the grades they receive for the effort they have put in disappointing, demotivating and even distressing.

The answer to clearing up this issue lies in explaining the grade scoring system, so that expectations can be set and made clear. This is an important support measure we can provide for our students. I think it is reasonable to argue that it is our responsibility to inform about the grading in higher education; not doing so runs the risk of misleading and disappointing them. However, this important area of need is often overlooked. We need to explain grades and scoring so that we can appropriately assist students to maintain their motivation and ensure that their learning experience remains positive, yet grounded.

For instance, making grade scores and realities in relation to levels of attainment explicit, and that merit grades of ‘distinction’ and ‘high distinction’ are reserved for instances of outstanding performance.

Mindful support for learning-journey stresses

The better we understand the stresses our students face the better able we are to be able to support them.  Stress factors to consider when working with students include:

• Life load: the life commitments learners bring to the study environment. Learners do not arrive free of obligations apart from study, as they live in the world of competing demands of work, family, etc.
• The stresses, of both life and learning, can create emotional load and strain which can impede clarity of thinking and confidence, and hence cognitive processing capacity.
• The cognitive load that learning itself places on people, can be problematic when it reaches overload, this can make learning more stressful and confusing, and deplete energy and confidence.

Recognising the kinds of realities of our learners experience helps us become more effective teachers. Being empathetic and responsive, and being a good role model, are ways we can support students through their learning journey. However, setting respectful boundaries is also important. Pandering to pressure from students, like, giving-in to unreasonable demands, undermines our goal of developing responsible, resilient and self-reliant graduates – capable self-directed lifelong learners.

Conclusion

Lecturers and teachers have a critical role to play in encouraging student interest and motivation in learning. In addition to high-engagement design features in microlearning to increase engagement and improve performance, these additional learning- supports play a critical role in facilitating a sense of ownership and belonging, and sense of confidence.

Supports include lecturer presence, through lecturer videos, starting with a welcome and introduction to course video. Follow-on introduction to week (preview) videos increase engagement and improve student experience. Personalised written messages and nudging prompts which incorporate words encouragement can also be uses to stimulate interest in concepts and principles, promote critical learning resources, convey guidance and tips. They can also be used to raise awareness and uptake of available institution support services. Providing students with instructive feedback for future performance, especially on assessments, is another way we can support student learning and the learning journey experience.

Weekly videos to introduce and promote topic for the week, reduce feelings of isolation, and create interest and curiosity by highlighting interesting aspects of the learning resources and concepts to be covered. Short weekly videos personalise learning through a supportive and ‘friendly face’ for students (i.e., lecturer presence). We use these videos to promote content in ways that stimulate interest in topics week by week.

List of References