Instructional Design Strategies in Response to the 2021 UBIT Student Experience Survey

As you plan for and teach your course, keep the following considerations in mind:

Proactively providing your students with accessible content benefits all your students, helping each one feel respected and valued from the outset. In the UBIT survey, many respondents noted that PDFs are frequently disseminated without Optical Character Recognition (OCR) limiting the ability of students to use screen readers or search and annotate the text, among other critical reading functions. This video on creating OCR PDFs is a helpful starting point. Likewise, students reported that videos are often shared without closed captions or with unedited closed captioning that can make video content unclear. Panopto, the video platform supported by the University at Buffalo, makes editing the closed captioning of your recordings simple. UBIT has a page on Panopto captioning to guide you through the process.

We are fortunate to have a wide range of tools at our fingertips, but it is easy to become overwhelmed by the options. When students must adapt to new technologies from course to course, their cognitive load increases, reducing the amount of brainpower they can dedicate to learning the content. 91% of survey respondents indicated that they are aware of the available software offerings at UB and most faculty seem to be too, yet there is variation in technology use from course to course. In some courses, students are required to purchase software that is only used sparingly and not necessarily in a way that enhances their learning experience. UBLearns contains a wide array of functionalities that could solve a pedagogical problem and 90% of students who responded to the survey have a favorable view of it as a tool. While developing your course, invest time in exploring the free options available to you and your students before requiring a tool with additional cost. An e-Learning Tool Evaluation Rubric can help you decide if a particular tool is right for your course.

As demonstrated over the past couple of years, life outside of the classroom can interfere with our students’ ability to attend class due to unexpected circumstances. Recording lectures and sharing them on UBLearns allows the class to continue with minimal to no interruption. Access, or lack thereof, to classroom recordings was mentioned frequently in the survey results. Providing recordings allows the class to continue anytime and anywhere and gives students extra support when engaging with course material. Recordings let students revisit difficult concepts by rewatching that portion of the presentation as much as needed or turning on captioning to hear and read what is said. This functionality benefits everyone. Allan Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory posits that deeper learning occurs when words and pictures are used together instead of only words. Watching recordings with captioning is one approach to this theory. If you are apprehensive about recording yourself, try starting small by providing students with short, informal recordings that either frame key points for upcoming material or synthesize content covered throughout the week. The Office of Academic Integrity can address concerns you might have about the copyright and intellectual property of your recordings and course materials.

Difficulty hearing instructors speak in class and seeing projected content was another theme in the survey. If you wear a lavalier microphone while teaching, ensure you wear it in an adequate position. You can learn more about microphone placement in the tutorial "5 Easy Lavalier Mic Tips and Tricks for Better Sound". To overcome issues with students seeing your slides, consider posting them to UBLearns for students to download and view on their devices. Not only will students be able to see the content more clearly, but they can also take notes and annotate the slides during your presentation. Finally, incorporate Richard Mayer’s Principles for Multimedia Learning to create more effective instructional materials. These minor changes can make a big difference for your students.

Technology is here to stay; how it is used to teach, communicate and collaborate will continue to change. Thoughtfully incorporating the technological resources we have at our disposal into our teaching practices can help to individualize the learning experience and better support our students. I encourage you to look for small changes you can make by integrating technology into your courses. The Learning Designers at the Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation are ready to support you.