Setting expectations of roles and participation

Whether it is the student or the lecturer leading the learning reflects the underlying pedagogical approach, which is why explaining the approach being adopted is as important as the technical instructions for using a tool.

There may be instances where the student is required to actively participate in a session, perhaps teaching content to other students to demonstrate their understanding or adopting the feedback role usually performed by the lecturer.

The lecturer may adopt a didactic approach to deliver new content, or a facilitatory approach, for example in discussions.

These roles are established within face-to-face environments implicitly.

Online, these need to be established more explicitly, particularly where students are required to lead their own learning or there are expectations over interactions, in particular feedback.

The facility of the tool will depend upon the expectations for contribution, which is why it is helpful to establish these parameters before choosing the tool.

Expectations for longer-term engagement with activities can be set by teaching staff or collectively negotiated and agreed through ‘ground rules’ activities.

By setting clear parameters for engagement, students become aware of the value of the activity through the way both lecturer and students are expected to contribute.

At this stage in your learning design implementation, consider both expectations for students and staff:

Checklist for students:

1. What to contribute (quantity, quality, how is this assessed or measured)
2. Where to contribute (eg discussion board, Padlet, shared Google document)
3. When to contribute (deadlines for each stage, eg initial contribution, reply, summary)

Checklist for staff:

1. When contributions will be looked at (the cut-off point for student contribution)
2. When feedback will be provided (this may be feedback or some other form of lecturer activity)
3. Where and in what form the feedback will be provided (this could be in the face-to-face session, eg summary of discussion, addressing common misconceptions)