Colleen Grandy

I do that, too! This term I used (what now seems kind of creepy) a hidden "human glossary" full of student info that popped up throughout the first few weeks of class as a cheat sheet to help me better connect with students. It helped! I don't need it now, but in those first few weeks I depended on it. I guess it is the virtual equivalent of the sketched seating chart I would fill in as people arrived every day for the first few weeks of a face-to-face class? Yes - quiet work is happening. 

This is why I always wonder about evaluating visible participation in a participation grade in online courses. One Yukon College instructor developed an algorithm to help calculate quiet participation in her courses. When she looked at the Moodle logs she would notice some students spent hours visiting every page/post, but actually posted very little - she wanted to honour their quiet learning as participation.

I like the idea of having students share strategies they use to connect with (or even just remember) each other. Gina and I were thinking that if we had more time in this MicroCourse, it would be interesting to hear folks' experiences of when they most felt "community" in a course (as a student or facilitator). We might need a follow-up MicroCourse...

That 'Listening Tree' is beautiful. I remember a "Comments" block that ran down the side of the page in FDO. I think Sylvia was checking it out to see if it was useful. I kept writing in it just because it was there, but I could see using that tool to make a digital listening tree. I think those writing prompts would still work. It wouldn't be beautiful like this one, but it would be quietly visible on the main course page - could be fun to try.

I want to make a tree! This sounds like a great personal reflection/life planning activity, too. The more I think of it, I need a tree. 

Ok - I just tried making a tree. It was hard (not using the tool - the thinking - my future is so blurry)! Like Gina, I dusted off my old Coggle account and played around. Coggle is intuitive and it was not a barrier for me, but this activity requires some solid thinking. I like it. It isn't something I would be comfortable throwing together, but something that would take me some time. Sometimes asking people to reveal bits of themselves takes time. Now I see why we haven't asked everyone to try every community building activity in this MicroCourse - it could take well over the 5-hour-ish commitment promise.

I like how you encourage students to use tools that work for them (like markers and glue). For me, this really focuses on the sharing and removes the need to spend time learning a tool. 

Oh - a thought - can I also see this working part way through a course as a "how well do you know each other" activity? Folks could share trees anonymously and others could speculate which tree belonged to which person? Hmm. 

With the right group, I can't help but imagine how cool a coggle forest might look, too.

Thank you for sharing this - I'm inspired to do more personal reflection. I still want a tree!

I'm nodding in agreement!  I'm currently facilitating an online course with 25 students (I can't imagine 36!). Many of my ways of checking in with participants are reactive. I watch for missed work and check the participant list for last log-ins and watching for lapses (which aren't always visible) and then I follow up with personal messages. 

This checklist seems like a proactive way to build a culture of personal reflection, transparency, accountability, and connection between you and each individual student. Your support-focused, plain language instructions: "We can see who is doing well and who needs help" could help students see the value in the activity. I wonder if an adapted version of this check-in could work for students to share with members of their groups, too? I'm wondering if there are ways you would share back general trends or acknowledgements with the group; for example, "Almost everyone commented that they aren't up to date with the weekly course task list because the workload is heavy this week..."

This kind of check-in reminds me of a tool that has helped me notice where/why students are struggling: Stephen Brookfield's "Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ)." Brookfield suggests asking students five questions at the end of each week to help give feedback to the instructor. There's been some research suggesting adapting these types of activities can help build community in asynchronous, online courses when the feedback is collated and re-shared with the group.

This is different from the individual check-in you suggest, but I can see the two types of check-ins being complimentary.  


Stephen D. Brookfield. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Yes, yes, and yes. Asking people to make comments or connections can feel forced. For me, this is most often true when there is a grade attached to activities intended to build community. Sometimes the lurking without comment can build a quiet community, too. Do you think people need to comment on each other's padlets in your activity? Do people need to make visible connections to build community?  Maybe this is a broad question for the open forum.

I'm guessing any single community building activity is most often a starting place, but having the activity happen in concert with many other pieces (like adequate facilitator presence, opportunities for vulnerability and story sharing, engaging small group activities, multiple ways to connect, etc.) may inch the group toward community. Or not! A lot probably depends on the group, too.

Your activity reminded me of a comment that came up during our last institutional teaching chat on Indigenization and Assessment. I went back to the notes to quote it. Someone said: "Western values have been driving our pedagogies. What else is out there?" An Indigenous scholar in our group said, "sharing, relationships, listening, and connecting to land and people using an individual-family-community-nation framework." For me, your proposed activity aims to do just that. You explore the name and its affects on the individual, and then aim to connect it to family/community/culture.