PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

ONLINE LEARNINGStudent-Centered Learning

at UTRGV

Professional Development PlanStudent-Centered Learning

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this document is to provide a professional development plan focused on student-centered learning strategies for online learning that can be used by the Center for Online Learning and Teaching Technology at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) to change the teaching strategies of the university to meet the needs of the new generation of online learners giving students more control over their learning process and adapting to their personal needs.

Student-centered learning involves changing the traditional way of teaching (teacher-centered learning) to a more modern educational method that adjusts to the different needs of students. The idea is to transform the online learning process and focus on student needs, concerns, and desire to learn about different topics. Our concentration will be to change online and hybrid courses from static PowerPoints and documents to a dynamic online course with engaging content, instructor feedback, and collaboration. Our target audience will be instructors teaching online and hybrid courses. This plan will serve to guide current and new faculty members at UTRGV.

In this document, you will find a complete definition of the student-centered learning approach. You will also learn what learning theories align with student-centered learning, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of student-centered learning, and what is student-centered learning for our institution. Besides that, you will learn key aspects to take into consideration to enhance your online and hybrid courses and apply the student-centered learning approach following some best practices for online and hybrid learning.

Professional Development PlanStudent-Centered Learning

WHAT IS STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING?

According to Becton Loveless, “a student-centered classroom, or student-centered learning environment, is one where the focus of instruction is shifted from the teacher to the student, with the end goal of developing students who are autonomous and independent, by placing the responsibility of learning in the hands of the students. Many proponents of student-centered learning would argue that it's one of the most effective ways to help students develop the skills required for independent problem-solving and lifelong learning.”

For student-centered learning to work, the following strategies and principles will need to be considered and applied at our institution:

Personalized learning – provide students with personalized learning based on their needs, interest, and aspirations.

Competency-based – allowing students to advance in their education based on their accomplishments or skills that they have to master.

Any time, anywhere – having the flexibility to learn on your own time and at your own pace.

Turn your class into a community that will allow students to interact with one another. Develop trust and communication by asking your students how they will like their

classroom experience to be. Find ways to integrate technology in the classroom, allowing students to integrate web

tools and other technology into their learning. Replace homework with engaging project-based learning activities. Take ownership – students need to take ownership, be active in class, and become

engaged with the content. Allow students to lead and work in teams. Get students involved in their performance evaluation.

Professional Development PlanStudent-Centered Learning

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING

According to Mitchell Jay, “student-centered learning is based on the constructivist theories of education championed by Swiss clinical psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget observed that children cognitively construct knowledge and meaning through new experiences and interactions, as opposed to rote memorization.”

This approach to education is often contrasted with the old way of teaching. That is, the teacher imparting all knowledge without input from the students (Teacher-Centered Learning).

Constructivism is “an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner.” (Elliott et al., 2000:256)

In the student-centered model, “learning is a constructive process that is relevant and meaningful to the learner and connected to the learner’s prior knowledge and experience. The learning environment supports positive interactions among learners and provides a supportive space in which the learner feels appreciated, acknowledged, respected, and validated. Rather than trying to “fix” the learner, the learner has the power to master his or her world through the natural process of learning” (McCombs & Whistler, 1997).

Figure 1 - Student-Centered Model by Mitchell Jay

Professional Development PlanStudent-Centered Learning

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING

Some of the advantages of using a student-centered learning approach in online learning are:

Learning is an active rather than a passive process. This means that learners participate and share their experiences online. They all learn from each other and collaborate in teams. Students' active participation can be accomplished with the use of different asynchronous online tools such as discussion boards, wikis, journals, etc. or synchronous tools such as Blackboard Collaborate, Zoom, etc.

Replace assignments with engaging project-based learning activities. “Learning is a social activity. It is something we do together, in interaction with each other, rather than an abstract concept.” (Dewey, 1983) Project-based assignments can be submitted individually or per group. For this, students can use the assignment tool in Blackboard or work with other online tools such as wiki sites, blogs, etc.

Get students involved in their performance evaluation, encourage continuous learning until they achieve mastery of a subject.

Some of the disadvantages of student-centered learning in online learning are:

By having students evaluating their own progress, this may lead to students falling behind.

Without having a standardized grading, teachers may not know which students are struggling in their courses.

“Despite the benefits of student-centered learning, the challenge remains for instructors to be open to change and modify their teaching habits. Because relinquishing control of the classroom can be intimidating, it can be helpful for instructors to take small steps and practice new approaches incrementally; this can help assuage the anxiety that often results from abrupt changes. Instructors must remember that this is a learning process for all experience, and continued practice will contribute to successful change.” (LINCS, 8 Apr. 2019)

Professional Development PlanStudent-Centered Learning

WHAT DOES STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING MEAN IN YOUR WORKPLACE OR FIELD?

Student-centered learning in online education means adapting to student's needs, provide personalized learning, promote student engagement, group collaboration, and present engaging content to students as supposed to static content.

Here are a few tips or best practices for adopting the student-centered learning approach to improve your online and hybrid courses:

1. Be present in the online course and provide feedback to your students in a timely manner.

2. Post mini-lectures that engage students and translate into important content that they need to learn in the course.

3. Offer an engaging variety of assigned and supplemental readings and other content such as videos, audios, and other interactive content that is relevant.

4. Create a supportive online course community. You may use a discussion board or other communication tools such as Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate to facilitate the communication and sharing of content.

5. Share a set of very clear expectations for your students as to how you will communicate and how much time students should spend on the course each week.

6. Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual work experiences.7. Use both synchronous and asynchronous activities. You may use tools such as wikis,

blogs, discussion boards, journals, Blackboard Collaborate, or Zoom.8. Early in the semester (about week 3), ask for informational feedback on "How is the

course going?" and "Do you have any suggestions?" The learning feedback system can be used for this type of feedback, as well as midterm and end of the semester feedback!

9. Prepare discussion posts that invite questions, discussions, reflections, and responses.10.Focus on content resources, applications, links to current events, and examples that are

easy to access from learner's computers.11.Combine core concept learning with customized and personalized learning. You may

use adaptive release rules in the learning management system to release specific content to users based on their needs.

12.Plan a good closing and wrap-up activity for the course. This activity can be a final project, a group project, or any other activity to end the course.

Professional Development PlanStudent-Centered Learning

SUMMARY

As discussed before, student-centered learning is making students more active in their learning process, encouraging them to collaborate and become engage with the course content. By placing more on the learning process on the students, you offer them more options to explore and expand their learning capabilities. Student-centered learning for online learning means, being in constant presence to your students for immediate feedback, provide a variety of content that is suitable to the different learners and encourage them to be active participants and collaborate using different online learning tools.

With the research provided in this professional development plan, we expect that current and new instructors will redesign their online courses taking into consideration the best practices provided for teaching an online or hybrid course with the student-centered approach to improve the student's learner experience and enhance their online and hybrid courses.

The Center for Online Learning and Teaching Technology at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley concentrates on the offering of quality online and hybrid courses that meet the needs of today’s learners. Our mission is to promote, support, and integrate best pedagogical practices in applied technologies in teaching, learning, and research for traditional and web-based learning offerings.

Professional Development PlanStudent-Centered Learning

REFERENCES

M. Jay, “What exactly is student-centered learning?,” Medium, 19-Jun-2018. [Online]. Available: https://mystudentvoices.com/what-exactly-is-student-centered-learning-358f01b37600. [Accessed: 24-Oct-2019]

S. Mcleod, “Constructivism as a Theory for Teaching and Learning,” Constructivism as a Theory for Teaching and Learning | Simply Psychology, 17-Jul-2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.simplypsychology.org/constructivism.html. [Accessed: 24-Oct-2019]

“Developing a Student-centered Classroom,” Education Corner© Online Education, Colleges & K12 Education Guide. [Online]. Available: https://www.educationcorner.com/developing-a-student-centered-classroom.html. [Accessed: 31-Oct-2019]

“TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 6: Student-Centered Learning.” LINCS, 8 Apr. 2019, https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/teal/guide/studentcentered.

Professional Development PlanStudent-Centered Learning