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Your Accessibility Helper: All About Yuja’s Panorama

By Dana Dawson

If you’re relatively new to digital accessibility considerations (as many of us at the CAT were at the beginning of this initiative), learning about the many ways in which your digital course materials may be inaccessible can feel overwhelming. The first step towards understanding the core principles of digital accessibility will be engaging with CAT’s training on how to make your digital materials accessible. But even after training, you may not remember everything you need to check before posting documents, PowerPoint slides, videos, etc. Will all the steps to making a PowerPoint or video accessible stay with you until the moment you need to create or remediate that new slidedeck or lecture recording? This is where YuJa’s Panorama comes in!

Panorama is a tool that integrates with Canvas and helps identify and sometimes fix digital materials that are inaccessible so that you can ensure all of your students can readily access your course content. Panorama assesses each item created in, or uploaded to your Canvas course and offers an accessibility report and rating. In CAT’s accessibility training, we will provide an opportunity for you to understand and practice how to use Panorama, but here is an explanation of the basic implementations of this useful tool.

In your course Modules, Panorama will place an icon next to each item that indicates its level of accessibility. Here’s an example from one of the CAT’s Canvas sites:

Accessibility is a spectrum; because every individual has their own particular needs, digital items will be more or less accessible, and Panorama can help us ensure that our materials are the most accessible they can be according to current standards and practices. In the above image, a green smiley face icon signals that the item is most likely to be fully accessible (though PDF’s often have accessibility issues that are not flagged by Panorama and so must be manually checked), a yellow “meh” face icon signals some accessibility issues that require attention, and a red sad face icon signals that the item requires significant remediation. Items outside of Canvas that you provide links to cannot be assessed by Panorama and will not have an accessibility report.

In Modules, clicking the smiley green, “meh” yellow, or sad red icon will allow you to access the Panorama tools for items built in Canvas such as Assignments, Discussions, and Pages. If an item such as a PDF or PowerPoint file is uploaded to Canvas, clicking the icon opens an accessibility report and alternate formats menu. From there, by clicking on the Accessibility Report box, you will be able to review the full accessibility report which identifies specific issues, provides information on how to remediate those issues, and sometimes allows you to fix the identified problems within Panorama’s interface.

Many of our Canvas sites include a large number and wide variety of materials, so remediating our digital artifacts may be daunting. Consider getting started by reviewing what your students will use first and most frequently throughout your course and then move on to the materials flagged as having the most issues. Tackle the items marked by red, unhappy icons first before moving onto other items.

While Panorama will be a helpful tool in identifying and helping to fix inaccessible digital materials in your courses, it is not perfect and cannot replace having a grasp of best practices for creating digital materials that won’t require remediation. Our recommended approach is to join our workshop series to fully understand how to create accessible digital course materials and to learn how to use Panorama as a supplement to your own knowledge and understanding.

Ready to get started? Check out our Accessible Temple web page or sign up for an upcoming workshop. Have questions? Email us. We’re here to help!

What is the POUR Framework?

by Jeff Rients

As we begin the Accessible Temple initiative, it is important to remember that accessibility isn’t just about meeting the legal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It’s about honoring the diversity of your students, creating equitable learning environments, and practicing the kind of teaching that anticipates and celebrates differences instead of reacting to them. Rather than seeing accessibility as a set of compliance checkboxes or technical challenges, we invite you to see it for what it really is—an essential part of good teaching.

At the heart of the Accessible Temple push to bring our materials up to ADA standards is a simple, powerful framework known as POUR. POUR stands for Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust—four principles that guide how we can create content that works for everyone, not just students with formal accommodations.

Let’s break this down:

P: Perceivable

Students must be able to perceive the information presented. What we have in the past provided in just one format (e.g. text) needs to be available in others. This includes providing text alternatives for images (a.k.a. alt text), captions for videos, and sufficient color contrast between text and background.

Why it matters for all learners: Good contrast helps students working in bright light or on old monitors. Captions help English language learners, students studying in noisy environments, or anyone reviewing material on mute.

O: Operable

Students must be able to interact with your materials beyond a traditional keyboard and mouse/trackpad setup. We all too often assume that students will navigate our courses with the exact same tools and methods that we use to build them, and that is not always the case. That means your course should be navigable by keyboard, links should be clearly labeled, and nothing should rely solely on hover or click effects.

Why it matters for all learners: Students with motor disabilities or repetitive stress injuries aren’t the only ones who benefit. Keyboard navigation helps mobile users and even power users who prefer keyboard shortcuts.

U: Understandable

Content must be presented in ways that are clear and predictable. All too often the structure of our course and the purpose of our assignments is clear to us but not fully articulated to students. This includes using consistent layouts (such as Canvas modules), plain language, and providing instructions that are easy to follow.

Why it matters for all learners: Students are balancing a lot. If your syllabus is confusing or your assignment instructions are vague, you’ll lose time answering repeat questions—and students may lose confidence or motivation.

R: Robust

Materials must be compatible with current and future technologies. We can’t predict the tools our students will use to interact with our course content. This means using formats that work across browsers and screen readers and avoiding broken links or outdated plugins.

Why it matters for all learners: Everyone benefits when course materials just work—especially students accessing materials from older devices, slower connections, or assistive technologies.

What This Means for You

Here’s the good news: many of the things that make your course accessible are the same things that make your teaching more effective, your students more confident, and your time better spent. And you don’t have to overhaul everything at once. Small, intentional changes—like using built-in heading styles in Word or uploading videos in Panopto to allow for auto-captioning—can make a huge difference.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out tools, workshops, and one-on-one support to help you align your course materials with the POUR Framework. Whether you teach online, hybrid, or face-to-face, these practices apply.

We’re not asking for perfection—we’re building a culture of care and continuous improvement. When we design with POUR in mind, we’re not just complying with a set of guidelines—we’re investing in pedagogy that works for everyone.

Ready to get started? Check out our Accessible Temple web page or sign up for an upcoming workshop. Have questions? Email us. We’re here to help!

Jeff Rients, Ph.D, serves as Associate Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation at Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

Accessible Temple: What Faculty Need to Know

What is Accessible Temple and what does it mean for faculty at Temple? I’m sure these questions are on your mind if you read the recent announcement about this university-wide initiative, which will ensure that all digital materials and websites at Temple meet new requirements for accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We at the CAT are here to answer your questions!

We want to emphasize that, first and foremost, committing to accessibility is the right thing to do! Designing our courses with accessibility in mind lowers barriers for our students with disabilities, ensuring that they can access their educational experience fully. And, importantly, the benefits of accessible course design extend further, improving all students’ ability to navigate their learning journey more productively. Put simply, accessibility is not an ‘added bonus’ but a fundamental best practice for teaching. Think for a minute about captions on video content. While students with hearing impairments rely on captions to understand what they are watching, captions may also support focus in distracting environments, assist with vocabulary acquisition, help overcome poor audio quality, and improve comprehension for those who speak English as a second language. As an institution, designing intentionally for accessibility will be an important step in providing a more inclusive learning experience that benefits all students.

In the coming weeks and months, we at the CAT will be clarifying what it means to make the materials you use for teaching and learning accessible and what actions you must take to ensure their accessibility. You’re not alone in this — we will provide the training, resources, and information you need to support you in realizing the goal of an accessible campus.

Get started today by reviewing the information on our Accessible Temple webpage. There you’ll find information about the new guidelines and about the training the CAT will be providing. You’ll also find information about the Digital Accessibility Micro-Credential you will earn by completing the training CAT is offering.

Remember, Access is the Key. Learning is the Destination.

End-of-Semester Reflection as a Tool for Growth

Jeff Rients and Stephanie Fiore

The end of the semester is the perfect time to take stock of what worked in our classes this year and also explore thoughts we might have about any challenges we may have faced.

A fruitful area to reflect on is how we can use assessments and grading to grow student learning. Our guest speaker for the CAT’s annual STEM Educators’ Lecture on April 8 provided some ideas for thinking about this exact topic. Dr. Robert Talbert, professor of mathematics at Grand Valley State University and one of the authors of Grading For Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices That Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education helped faculty think deeply about the sometimes fraught relationship between grading and assessment.

Dr. Talbert’s talk began with an overview of the history of grading in higher education, focusing on its relative newness to higher education and its role primarily as an administrative/ bureaucratic tool, as opposed to a mechanism for improving student learning. In short, the grading scheme we are all familiar with–certain student behaviors earn them grades which in term yield a final grade for purposes of calculating a grade point average–developed during the 19th century movement of settlers into America’s West as a way of allowing students to transfer credits from one school to another in a growing United States.

Assessment, on the other hand, focuses on observing student performance in comparison to some goal or standard and providing the student with the feedback needed to improve the performance. Dr. Talbert’s work argues that we need to do less grading and more assessment in our classrooms. Grading for Growth outlines multiple strategies to achieve this goal, and Dr. Talbert walked us through his own specific approach that he uses with his mathematics students.

Ultimately, a work like Grading for Growth and a lecture like Dr. Talbert’s is never going to provide us with all the answers we need to improve our course so that more of our students succeed. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions in higher education, as the context of the individual course, the individual instructor, and the individual student will always be requisite pieces of the puzzle. As much as we at the CAT love the “alternate assessment” framework Talbert uses, every instructor is ultimately responsible for making an assessment plan that fits their specific situation.

Grading for Growth strikes us as the kind of book that will do a lot of good in a lot of classrooms. But what matters more is that whatever assessment plan we use should be developed and deployed with thoughtful intentionality. This approach works equally well for every aspect of our teaching. If we want to be the best instructors we can be, then it’s wise to stop and consider questions such as

- - - Is my assessment plan measuring student progress towards the learning goals of the course?
    - Am I providing students with the feedback they need to improve?
    - Am I providing the students with sufficient opportunities to practice tasks and receive feedback?
    - Do my course materials and lectures give students the context and background needed to approach the required tasks thoughtfully?
    - Do my in-class activities provide practice for the tasks they will perform for assessment purposes?
    - Do the students have the resources they need when they get stuck, and do they know how to access them?

The end of the semester is the perfect time to take a few minutes to reflect on these questions. Jot your thoughts down as to what worked and what didn’t work. Outline what you might change going forward or what about the course you need to discuss with a colleague (or a CAT staffer!). Make sure you record these important thoughts somewhere you can easily find them. That way, when you find yourself at the end of the summer and ready to start prepping for fall, you will thank your past self for helping you make next fall your best semester yet.

We at the CAT want to remind you that we are here all summer to assist you and that you can find an electronic copy of Dr. Talbert’s book in the Temple library. But if we don’t see you until August, we wish you a wonderfully restful and restorative summer and look forward to seeing you in the new academic year.

Jeff Rients, Ph.D., is Associate Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation at Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

Stephanie Laggini Fiore, Ph.D., is Associate Vice Provost and Senior Direct of Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

Crafting Space for Student Belonging Part IX: Student Belonging and the Community Beyond the Classroom

Linda Hasunuma and Deanne Decrescenzo

Our series on Student Belonging has focused on how intentional course design and teaching practices can foster connections and community in the classroom, but this post explores how faculty can help students feel connected to our greater Temple community at the personal, departmental, and university levels. Faculty can serve as valuable hubs of information and direct students to the multitude of groups, services, and opportunities at Temple that can help our students feel like they belong and are an integral part of our greater campus community. By being proactive and learning about valuable opportunities and resources for students, faculty can play an important role in helping students gain their footing and develop a greater sense of belonging and community at Temple.

Research shows that the relationship students have with faculty matters for how students feel about their sense of belonging, their ability to persist, and their overall college experience. Additionally, students who join clubs and teams, especially when they begin college, report having a better sense of belonging and community as they become integrated into those close-knit communities upon entry (Bentrim & Henning, 2022). This greater sense of belonging and community can also positively impact student learning outcomes and retention in a major or field.

Yet, for students who may be shy, feel less comfortable with the prospect of meeting new peers, or who may not have built-in social groups or teams upon entry into college, they have reported that the relationship they have with faculty had the greatest impact on their sense of belonging and how they think about their college experience. This is especially true for our transfer students, commuters, or students who may have had non-traditional pathways into college. Faculty can be a vital resource for helping students find meaningful connections and networks of support.

At the department or major level, faculty can facilitate connections with peers, advisors, student groups, and alumni networks. Students can learn more about major based student organizations or societies, graduate school, internships, fellowship opportunities, and more. Beyond the classroom, it is helpful to have a broad sense of the many opportunities our students have to build relationships and communities that can enrich them during their time in college and after as alumni.

With the countless opportunities at Temple, sometimes the hardest part for students to get involved is knowing where to start. Below are resources you can direct students towards to make connections, find support, and develop as a leader.

For students new to Temple, they will start their journey at orientation. At the start of the semester, all new students are invited to participate in Weeks of Welcome, a series of events designed to support the academic and personal transition of students to the university. Depending on the student’s school or college, they may be enrolled in a First-year Seminar with opportunities to build community and connect with a peer mentor. Ask them more about this!

Encourage your students to seek out some smaller communities. Temple is home to over 400 student organizations focused on a variety of areas including arts and entertainment, culturally-based, major-related, and service. Students can join groups throughout the year by searching Owl Connect or start a new organization at the beginning of each semester! Similarly, Temple University’s fraternity and sorority community has 34 chapters designed to support students in identity development, community engagement, and personal growth.

Among these smaller communities, Temple is proud to have many based around shared cultures and identities. Any student interested in exploring their own identities or who wants to learn about the experiences of others, may want to explore participating in identity-based or cultural groups. This includes joining a student organization, a multicultural or historically African-American fraternity or sorority, or engaging in the variety of student programming and dialogues hosted by IDEAL. These spaces not only help our students build meaningful social connections and develop their leadership skills, but they can help our students find belonging and connection within our greater Temple community.

Want to know what opportunities are out there for your students? Reach out to studentactivities@temple.edu to request a presentation in class from an Ambassador or stay informed with key social media accounts and share updates with your students!

Student Activities: @tuactivities
IDEAL: @templediversity
Temple Student Government: @templetsg
Wellness Resource Center: @bewelltu

Bentrim, E., & Henning, G.W. (Eds.). (2022). The Impact of a Sense of Belonging in College: Implications for Student Persistence, Retention, and Success (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003447870

Linda Hasunuma, PhD, is Associate Director at Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

Deanne Decrescenzo, EdD, is Associate Dean of Students at Temple University.

Crafting Space for Student Belonging Part VIII: “So, make the friendship bracelets”: Fostering student belonging in large lectures

Elizabeth Cerkez, Associate Professor of Instruction, Chemistry, College of Science and Technology

Scrolling through social media, I saw a post from a colleague at the University of Delaware. He was making chemistry plus Taylor Swift lyric friendship bracelets for his students in organic chemistry.

My mind raced: I love this idea. I could do this.

I already had some beads, so I started crafting.

Using my encyclopedic knowledge of Taylor Swift lyrics and chemistry, I came up with fun crossovers:

- - “Calibration Problems” for “Champagne Problems,”

- - “Electron Touch” for “Electric Touch,”

- - “Miss Americium and the Half-Life Prince” for “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince.”

Bringing these to my next lecture, there was immediate excitement, “We can get a bracelet for answering a question?” And then the further excitement from the Swifties in the room, “That lyric! That chem concept!” When I posed the first question to the room of 200+ students, more than half of the hands went up. I could see students’ eyes widen with delight. Let’s just say that’s not a common experience as a faculty member teaching General Chemistry.

I left that lecture and immediately ordered more beads.

Creating belonging in a large classroom takes some effort. Unlike a small class, everyone cannot talk to everyone. Finding a way to help students feel belonging is as unique as each faculty member; we need to find what works for us. One of my colleagues plays music at the start of each class; another invites students to anonymously answer off-topic questions such as “Do you put Jelly or Peanut Butter on a sandwich first?”; and another has students introduce themselves by sharing the image on their phone’s lock screen.

The phrase “to each their own” is apt here, and it takes trial and error to find something that clicks. What worked in one classroom may not work in another. The main goal is to help students see that their professor is a fellow human with interests outside of the topic at hand, and so are all their classmates. The goal is to create a community grounded in everything that makes us unique.

But “belonging” in a large lecture is not just about feeling comfortable in the room with the professor and one’s classmates. It is about the feeling that, “maybe I’m not cut out for this” – the more figurative belonging. Friendship bracelets can make classrooms more jovial and more communal; they do not solve the problem of belonging-related uncertainty.

The largest lectures are content-dense courses taken early in a college career. They are abrupt transitions from the small, personal classrooms of high school. Importantly, they can make students feel isolated because they think they are the only ones struggling and that perhaps they are not cut out for this major or–in the worst-case scenario–for college. This is particularly true for those from underrepresented groups in your field. Helping students realize that everyone struggles, and that this struggle is a component of the learning process, is a key item for faculty to demonstrate in the classroom. This can be done even in the largest of lectures. One of the most effective ways to do this is by sharing our own stories.

Just like how the friendship bracelets humanize me, describing how I struggled with chemistry helps to show students an example of how a setback was overcome by an expert in the field. When to introduce this information is key – I usually do this after the first exam. This gives enough time for our large class to build community and for them to trust that I can offer them expertise as an instructor (something women and people of color are particularly cognizant of). Before releasing exam scores and feedback, I verbally acknowledge that many of them may find they did not earn the score they had aimed for but there is still time left in the semester. And then I ask them to guess what score I earned on the AP Chem exam in high school. Without a doubt, students guess 4s and 5s, a reasonable guess for someone who now holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and is their professor. However, when I reveal that I earned a 1 (the lowest possible score) students show those same faces of amazement they did when the friendship bracelets were announced.

I then invite students to answer an in-class poll question, submitting an activity outside of academics that they excel at, such as drawing, sports, music, etc. Then I ask them to describe how they were at the activity the first time they attempted it. Invariably, students respond “horrible” “disaster” “️”. Finally, they are asked to submit how they improved, and the majority of students say “practice.” This simple exercise, which takes 3-5 minutes during class, goes extremely far in helping students see that struggle is normal, even expected, and they do belong. Success with an activity or an academic subject is not defined by how well they did on the first try.

The key to fostering belonging in large classrooms is that the two pieces go hand in hand – the friendship bracelets and the story of failure. Building community among classroom participants by excitement over a bracelet helps to set the stage to share the things that make us truly human – the struggles and the challenges. Building community gives our students confidence that they can overcome challenges because they do fundamentally belong in our classroom, in the major, and in college. Like Taylor says, “I’m making a comeback to where I belong.”

For an introduction to research-based evaluations of belonging uncertainty, I recommend the following book chapter:

Murdock-Perriera, L. A., Boucher, K. L., Carter, E. R., & Murphy, M. C. (2019). Places of Belonging: Person- and Place-Focused Interventions to Support Belonging in College. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research.

Crafting Space for Student Belonging Part VII: Alone Together: Making Group Work Work in the Asynchronous Online Classroom

by Elizabeth White Vidarte

Collaborative group work offers rich opportunities for learning — but it can be challenging in asynchronous online settings. Unlike in-person courses, online groups must navigate different time zones, communication styles, and technological barriers. You might hesitate to assign group projects in these settings, concerned that students will struggle with coordination or that uneven participation will lead to frustration. However, with thoughtful planning and intentional structuring, asynchronous group work can be highly effective, fostering deep learning, engagement, and the development of essential collaboration skills.

This post lays out strategies for designing and facilitating successful asynchronous group projects. From setting clear expectations and communication norms to structuring collaboration and handling conflict, these approaches will help you create a supportive environment where students can thrive — together, even while apart.

Start by Planning

Before assigning a group project, consider a few key questions. If the first two questions give you pause, consider whether the project truly needs to be a group assignment. But if question #3 stumps you—good news! That’s exactly what we’re covering in this section.

- - What learning goal is the collaborative work addressing? Ensure this goal is reflected in your assessment criteria.
  - How will you assess the group’s work? Will you evaluate the final product, the process, or both?
  - How will you guide and support students through group work? Do you have strategies for setting expectations, facilitating communication, and managing conflict?

Lay the Groundwork: Self-Assessments & Group Agreements

Before students can collaborate effectively, they need to reflect on their own work styles and how those might impact a group dynamic.

- - Ask students to self-assess – Have students evaluate their strengths, communication preferences, and potential challenges when working with others. Students can share reflections in a document, discussion board, or via short video/audio messages.
  - Create group agreements – Once students understand their own working styles, they should develop a group agreement outlining:
    - Preferred communication methods (e.g., email, discussion boards, messaging apps)
    - Expected response times for messages
    - Decision-making processes
    - Conflict resolution strategies
    - How to support each other when life gets in the way

Establish Communication Norms

One of the biggest challenges of asynchronous group work is staying connected without real-time interactions. To prevent miscommunication and disengagement, students need clear communication channels and regular check-ins.

- - Help students choose the right tools – Some may prefer Canvas discussion boards, while others might use Slack, Microsoft Teams, or shared Google Docs. Ensure accessibility across different locations.
  - Encourage proactive communication – Students should check in regularly, not just when problems arise. A simple message like “Hey team, I’ve drafted my section—let me know if you have any feedback!” keeps things moving.
  - Require a team check-in – Assign a brief weekly discussion post where students update each other on progress. Alternatively, encourage brief Zoom meetings or an asynchronous video/audio update.
  - Set norms for tone and format – Written messages can be misinterpreted. Encourage clear, respectful communication and suggest using video or voice messages when needed.

Use Structured Collaboration & Documentation

Without a clear structure, asynchronous group work can quickly become chaotic. Encourage students to document their work to ensure accountability and streamline collaboration.

- - Use shared documents (Google Docs, Canvas Pages, or a wiki) to:
    - Keep meeting notes
    - Track deadlines
    - Assign tasks
  - Use margin comments – These allow students to ask questions or clarify ideas, mimicking organic discussion in in-person meetings.
  - Designate an “Action Items” section – At the end of each document, ask students to include a section that summarizes next steps and responsibilities. By documenting key decisions, groups minimize confusion and create a transparent workflow that all members can follow.

Have a Plan for Conflict Resolution

Even in well-structured groups, conflicts and challenges will arise. Help students assume positive intent and work through difficulties productively.

- - Remind students to assume best intentions – Emphasize that tone can be easily misread online and encourage clarifying questions before assuming bad intent.
  - Encourage compassion and flexibility – At any given time, students may be dealing with personal challenges that impact their ability to contribute.
  - Establish a “cooling-off period” for disagreements – Encourage students to step back and revisit issues with a fresh perspective.
  - If a team member is struggling – Coach students to reach out privately with a problem before escalating the issue within the group. Remind students that faculty support is available if they need help navigating group dynamics.

Final Thoughts

Effective group work in asynchronous courses doesn’t happen by chance — it requires intentional design, clear expectations, and structured support. By helping students reflect on their collaboration styles, establish strong communication norms, and document their work, you can create an environment where group projects lead to meaningful learning experiences rather than frustration. When done well, asynchronous group work not only strengthens students’ content mastery but also equips them with valuable teamwork and communication skills that they will carry into their professional lives.

By implementing these strategies, faculty can turn the challenges of asynchronous collaboration into opportunities for connection, growth, and deeper engagement. After all, learning is at its best when done together — even from a distance.

Elizabeth White Vidarte, Ph.D., works at Temple’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching as the Online Learning Specialist.

Crafting Space for Student Belonging Part VI: Alone Together: Creating Connection in the Asynchronous Online Classroom

by Elizabeth White Vidarte, Ph.D.

If you’ve ever taught an asynchronous online course, you know that creating a sense of connection and community can be one of the biggest challenges. Unlike a face-to-face class where students can bond over side conversations before lecture or group activities during class, online students may never even see one another’s faces. But here’s the thing—belonging matters. And not just in a touchy-feely, wouldn’t-it-be-nice kind of way. Research consistently shows that students who feel like they belong engage more, persist through challenges, and ultimately succeed at higher rates (Wilson et al., 2015; Kuh et al., 2007).

How can we foster belonging in a space where students are logging in from different locations, at different times, with different life commitments? The good news is that small, intentional choices in course design and facilitation can make a big impact. In this post, I’ll outline why your efforts to create a positive learning environment make a difference and how to leverage Canvas to increase students’ sense of belonging. Next week, we’ll tackle asynchronous group work to take online student interaction to the next level.

Why Belonging Matters (Even More Online)

Feeling a sense of belonging isn’t just about warm and fuzzy feelings—it directly impacts learning outcomes. Students who feel connected to their course, peers, and instructor are more likely to:

- - Engage in course activities
  - Adjust to academic challenges
  - Achieve higher grades
  - Believe in their own ability to succeed (self-efficacy)
  - See the relevance and value of their coursework (Hurtado et al., 2007; Freeman, Anderman, & Jensen, 2007).

And here’s something really important: belonging doesn’t just benefit students who might traditionally struggle. Collaborative learning experiences, when done right, help all students thrive—whether they’re learning from peers with different perspectives or strengthening their own knowledge by helping others.

So how do we build this sense of connection in an asynchronous online environment?

Leverage Canvas to Make Students Feel at Home

The way we structure our online courses can either support or undermine students’ sense of belonging. Here are some ways to use Canvas intentionally:

1. Design for Clarity and Accessibility

Use Modules for structure – A well-organized course helps students feel confident and reduces anxiety. Chronological or thematic modules provide a clear path forward.

Create a course tour video – A short walkthrough can help students understand where to find key information, reducing stress in the first weeks. You can do the same for the syllabus, too. Self-enroll in our Ready, Set, Panopto! Canvas course to learn how to use Panopto to record course videos, or use an app you’re already familiar with like Zoom or your phone.

Ensure accessibility – Use Canvas’s accessibility checker to confirm that all students can engage with your materials (e.g., captions on videos, alt text for images, readable fonts). Invite students with and without accommodations to share any helpful information about what they need to make the course more accessible to them.

2. Make Yourself Present

Students are more likely to stay engaged when they feel their instructor is a real, approachable human. You can:

Post frequent announcements – Beyond logistics, use these to celebrate student successes, connect course material to current events, and encourage engagement.

Record a welcome video – Introduce yourself and your passion for the course. (Bonus: Use Panopto for auto-captions!)

Engage in the discussions you assign– If you can’t reply to every student, consider sending personalized messages to different students each week or giving a shoutout to a few students’ contributions in a brief weekly video.

Use multimedia feedback – A short video or audio comment in SpeedGrader can make feedback feel more personal.

Ask for feedback on the course– A mid-course (or earlier!) survey can help you gauge how students are feeling and make adjustments as needed. You can follow up with a response to the class as a whole in which you detail trends you notice and highlight ways you plan to adjust (or why you can’t make adjustments).

3. Foster Peer-to-Peer Connections

Kick off with an icebreaker – A simple introduction discussion (e.g., “Share something you’re passionate about”) helps students see one another as real people.

Encourage group collaboration – Canvas Groups can facilitate teamwork on projects, study groups, or peer review (more on groups in asynchronous courses below!).

Set up an ongoing Q&A board – Giving students a space to ask and answer questions builds community and shared responsibility. You can use a tool like Poll Everywhere or Padlet or even a simple Canvas Discussion Board. But consider contributing yourself, adding deadlines and/or assigning bonus points for participating so that students don’t see these as extra busy work.

Ask students to pay it forward — Consider asking students to reflect at the end of the course on what advice they wish they had taken to heart at the beginning of the course — and share it with the next semester’s incoming students!

4. Connect Course Content to Student Goals

Students need to see the why behind what they’re learning.

Preview learning outcomes – At the start of each module, explain what students will gain and how it connects to their academic or professional goals.

Incorporate reflection – A short journal prompt or discussion post that asks students to relate the material to their experiences fosters deeper engagement.

Layer content with application – Instead of long stretches of passive content, break things up with opportunities for students to do something with what they’re learning.

5. Keep Students on Track

Set students up for success — Clear and explicit expectations for how to participate and succeed in an asynchronous course can make all the difference, especially if you repeat those expectations over and over again. Don’t just include them in the syllabus; pepper your first few modules with short videos and/or announcements detailing the “behind-the-scenes” work students will need to do to successfully complete assignments.

Explicitly discuss time management — However you choose to do it (eg via video mini-lecture, Canvas quiz, or Kahoot! game), offer students advice on how to manage their time using the tools they already have access to, like Outlook or Google Tasks. You can also recommend the Student Success Center’s academic coaching service.

Use consistent deadlines – Predictable schedules (e.g., weekly discussions always due on Tuesdays) help students manage their workload and is essential in an asynchronous course. Canvas allows you to create a “No submission” assignment that will nonetheless add a deadline to the students’ To-Do list and Canvas Calendar.

Monitor engagement with Canvas Analytics – If a student hasn’t logged in or submitted work, a quick check-in email can make a huge difference. Using SpeedGrader’s “Message students who…” feature allows you to quickly message students with missing or low-scoring assignments. Starting a message to students with a friendly tone and asking how they are (or expressing concern) can help students feel that it is possible to make a comeback. And if that doesn’t produce results, the shock of a zero may prompt students to address the situation.

Final Thoughts

Creating belonging in an asynchronous online class doesn’t require a major course redesign or flashy tech tools. It’s about thoughtful decisions that help students feel seen, supported, and connected. When students feel like they belong, they engage more, learn more, and are more likely to persist. And ultimately, that’s what we all want—for our students to succeed not just in our courses, but in their broader academic journeys.

What’s worked for you in fostering belonging in your online classes? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Elizabeth White Vidarte, Ph.D., works at Temple’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching as the Online Learning Specialist.

Crafting Space for Student Belonging Part V: Teaching Beyond the Syllabus: How to Foster Community in the Classroom

By Dana Dawson

This series of blog posts has so far considered how we can apply Universal Design for Learning principles to course design, create inviting Canvas courses and syllabi and communicate with clarity and warmth in order to create a sense of belonging in our classes. This post will center on those occasions when we are actually in a room (whether brick-and-mortar or virtual) with our students. Just being in the same space with others doesn’t always mean we feel a connection (think of the last time you went to a gathering where it seemed like everyone knew someone except for you). Here are some strategies that will help students feel confident, competent, and connected in your classroom.

Getting to Know You

While there are times when it’s kind of nice to fade into the background and be anonymous (stocking up at the pharmacy, maybe?), the classroom is not one of those spaces. It’s true that we have students who are shy and introverted, but even students who may not jump at every opportunity to ask a question or share a thought need to feel that it matters whether they’re sitting in your classroom.

Use icebreakers to learn a bit about your students and to help them get to know one another – and not just at the start of the semester.
At the start of group activities, have students introduce or reintroduce themselves and share something quick (“What’s something you’re excited about this week?” for instance).
Sandy Kyrish, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Advertising and Public Relations in the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication, has students do 30-40 second “elevator pitch” talks each class on topics such as “What is your biggest pet peeve?”, “What would be your dream concert to attend?” or “What is an assumption people make about you and what is an assumption you make about other people?” These both acclimate students to sharing their ideas (she teaches Communications, after all) and help students learn more about one another. Students even report they have made friends in her classes as a result of this activity!

Encourage Student Questions and Comments

Show students you value their presence and ideas by actively seeking out their thoughts and questions.

Avoid disparaging questions and comments (for example, responding to a question with a comment such as, “If you’re in this class, you should already know that”). Asking a question in class takes courage and it’s better for us to be aware of where there are points of confusion or disagreement so we can address them during or after class. Some questions cannot be answered in class because they require a student to address missing prerequisite knowledge or will take you too far off the main topic. In these cases, let the student know you will address the question separately after class and be sure to share the response and any follow-up resources to the entire class.
Use digital tools that make student thinking visible (but can also be set to keep student contributions anonymous) such as Padlet, GroupMe, a Canvas discussion board, Zoom chat, or a Google or Microsoft Word doc to collect students’ thoughts and questions during lectures. Later, make space to review their contributions and respond to questions and comments.
Reference contributions to out-of-class activities such as discussion board posts that solicit student’s ideas during class time. This can also be a way of recognizing and encouraging participation by students less inclined to speak up in class.
Wait 10 seconds after asking for questions or ideas. It takes time to collect one’s thoughts and formulate a question or comment and too often, we move on before providing that time to our students.

Encourage Student Interaction

You may be familiar with this meme:

Our students often struggle with group projects, whether brief single-class activities or longer team-based learning projects. But the struggle is worth it! There is a lot of research to show that peer learning benefits knowledge acquisition, increases application and retention, and promotes student persistence in our classes and degree programs.

Use peer and collaborative learning in your classroom. Check out our blog post “Another Look at Active Learning, Part 3: Peer & Collaborative Learning In The Classroom” for strategies and tips.
Teach group work as a skill. The LinkedIn Learning library, available via the Applications menu in TUPortal, features many videos on skills necessary for effective group and team work (for example, I’ve used parts of courses on active listening in my classes to help students focus on listening as an essential skill for working well with others).
Peer review is a great way to get students connecting and supporting one anothers’ learning and can break down misconceptions students have about other students’ knowledge and skills.
Use structured discussion techniques to add variety to in-class discussions and to ensure broad participation. Chapter 7 of Stephen Brookfield’s The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom (available as an e-book through Temple Libraries) outlines a number of options.
Ensure that in-class pair or group work has a clear deliverable. If you’re teaching an online synchronous class, it’s especially beneficial to use a collaborative tool such as Padlet or a Word or Google doc to allow you to follow along with students’ progress as they complete a task.

Order, please! Order!

Predictability plays an important role in ensuring our students don’t feel alienated in the space of our classrooms.

Ask students to collaboratively create guidelines for in-class participation. The Hopes, Fears, Agreements protocol works well for this and can also help students see that concerns they have about participating in-class are shared by others. Post agreements to a shared space and refer to them throughout the semester as the foundation of interactions in the classroom.
Clarify how you prefer for students to address you. Be aware that some students may be acclimated to addressing educators in a particular way based on their past experiences. For example, in my undergraduate studies, it was most common to address instructors by their first name but when I started teaching at Temple, I quickly learned that it felt disrespectful for many of my students.
Provide clear instructions for in-class activities by posting steps on a slide or hand-out, describing the activity before students begin moving into groups and clearly explaining the goal and expected output.
Organize class sessions around a predictable structure. This is an example of how you might structure a 50 minute class:

While you may change what happens during most of the class session from class to class, students will welcome the predictability of a consistent opening welcome and overview of the class session and a debrief at the end where they will be able to ask questions about the day’s content.

Closing Thoughts

By encouraging familiarity and connection, offering opportunities for participation and interaction and ensuring a predictable learning environment, we can build a space of trust and community where our students can focus on learning and not be distracted by feelings of isolation and anxiety.

Remember that we at the CAT are here for you if you need assistance in how to implement practices that improve belonging.

Dana Dawson, Ph.D., serves as Associate Director of Teaching and Learning at Temple’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

Crafting Space for Student Belonging Part IV: Clear Communication

By Dana Dawson and Denise Hardiman

At a recent CAT event, a newly hired faculty member visiting our offices for the first time shared how hard it had been to find us. This news wasn’t entirely surprising; we are nestled so deeply in the Tech Center that a campus tornado warning would have no impact on our day-to-day operations. But it wasn’t the location of our offices that proved to be the issue; it was the building itself. Our location is listed as the “Tech Center” on all of our communications, but on Temple’s campus map, it appears as the “Welcome Center / TECH Center,” no doubt to help prospective students find their way. Check Google maps and you will see “The Welcome Center” in hyperlinked purple, large and eye-catching next to small black lettering that reads, somewhat mysteriously, “Temple University Tech Center and…”. (And what? Tornado shelter, possibly? No amount of zooming in reveals the answer.)

What this faculty member needed was clearly communicated directions. And this is what our students need as well! Without a clear sense of where we should be going and what we should be doing, we’re left wandering, often turning to the help of strangers who may not know the answer (as happened with the new faculty member noted above) or worst case, steer us astray. When our students aren’t sure what to do first, where to go for help, how to find readings and assignments and so forth, they end up feeling as lost as a newly-hired academic trying to find a tornado shelter. Clear communication ensures our students know how to navigate our courses successfully while feeling confident, supported, and comfortable in our learning environments. So we’re offering here some strategies to ensure clear communication in our courses—both in conveying and receiving information.

Multiple Means of Communication

At the start of a new semester, students often feel uncertain and uneasy about what to expect from a new instructor and unknown course material. Offering multiple ways for students to contact you can help ease this uncertainty.

Your syllabus includes a wealth of information (see our previous blog post “Building a Better Syllabus” to find tips on crafting a welcoming syllabus). Consider copying the contact information and pertinent student resources listed in your syllabus and prominently displaying them on the Front Page of your Canvas course so that students have easy access to this information without paging through the entire syllabus document.

When providing your contact information—such as your email address, phone number (optional), or office hours (more on these below), be sure to set clear parameters and expectations. For example:

“I will respond to emails within 24 hours on weekdays.”
“I encourage you to stop by my office for a chat when you are in the vicinity. I am usually around Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and will definitely be in my office Tuesdays from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM. Email me directly if that day/time doesn’t work for you and you’d like to set up an appointment.”

This helps manage expectations, so students don’t anticipate immediate responses or feel frustrated if your office hours don’t align with their schedules.

Another way to foster clear communication is by utilizing the LMS. Open an anonymous “Muddiest Point” Discussion Board which allows students to ask questions about things in the course they find unclear or confusing. Encourage students to post their thoughts, questions and ideas, being sure to monitor it and reply in a timely fashion. Chances are if one student has a question, other students may have the same question. External tools such as GroupMe are alternatives to create lines of communication between you and your students.

Normalize Help-Seeking

Let your students know that it is natural for them to have questions about the course and even their overall college experience. Consider identifying “office hours” using language that signifies that the time is for students and not designated alone time for you in your office (for example, “student hours”). You may also offer a meeting menu with options such as, “Ask a question about course content; Ask a question about upcoming assignments; Ask about how to find tutoring on campus; Talk about being a professor; Talk about possible jobs in this field; etc.). If opening up the topics you receive questions about means that you may not have a definitive answer, that’s okay! You can always point students in the right direction by referring them to the correct campus resource.

Use your syllabus to provide a list of campus resources and a brief description of their services. In addition to posting resources in the syllabus, discuss them in class periodically throughout the semester. A student’s situation may change during the course of the semester and they may not always remember that the resources are in the syllabus.

Clear Expectations

Expectations, standards and objectives need to be clearly stated. When creating assignments, discussion prompts and quiz questions make sure the directions are transparent and concise. Consider using rubrics, which provide an explicit set of criteria, help students understand the components of an assignment, and can help you grade more objectively. In this way, there are no hidden expectations that students feel they must figure out in order to succeed.

Using pre-requisites in Modules can keep students on track and have them work through information in a sequential manner. This reduces instances of students jumping ahead and avoids confusion about upcoming content until you are ready to introduce it.

Consistency in Communication and Course Design

Clear communication is enhanced by consistent messaging and consistent course design. Set up Modules so that information and course content is delivered in the same fashion week after week. Develop a rhythm for the course by introducing modules at the same time each week and making sure they follow a similar outline or pattern so students can make an easy transition each week. Use weekly Announcements to introduce the release of new material and include an overview of the upcoming work, due dates and expectations.

To ensure students are receiving your updates and notices, encourage them to set their system notifications so that any information you send out is received, and not lost in the shuffle.

Clear and Targeted Feedback

Feedback is one of the most important forms of communication that takes place between a faculty member and a student. Through our feedback, we communicate with students whether and how they are meeting established standards of success and, perhaps more importantly, what adjustments need to be made.

Feedback should be shared with students as soon as possible after the work has been submitted and ideally before the next major assignment to ensure students can match feedback with performance and utilize the input in future work. Try to use language that will be maximally accessible to students. Writing an abbreviated “awk” beside an awkward sentence is vague and does not help students make needed changes going forward. Feedback should also be directly related to the goal of the assignment. If the goal of an assessment is assessing a resident’s patient communication skills but all of your feedback focuses on their diagnosis, the feedback is not helping the student improve communications.

Show students where to see feedback in Canvas. They may not be aware that you not only added a letter grade to the gradebook but added comments or annotations in Speedgrader.

Repetition of Important Information

At the start of any given semester, students are confronted with an often bewildering array of class policies, assignments, due dates, participation expectations, and more. This barrage of information is frequently coming at the same time as they are settling into a new living environment, adapting to new friends and acquaintances, seeking needed accommodations, rushing to get to work, and so on. Our students are busy folks juggling many demands on their time and attention!

Repeating important information more than once can help students reconnect to important information. Reference the syllabus throughout the semester. Remind students where they can find information such as how to contact you and where to get academic and other types of assistance. Check in with students more than once about major assignments or assessment expectations and guidelines. Consider scheduling announcements to remind students of important deadlines.

By providing multiple means of communication, normalizing help-seeking, establishing clear expectations, being consistent in your communications and course design, offering clear and targeted feedback and repeating important information, you will ensure students never feel lost in your course! And this, in turn, will help them feel like they’re always in the right place at the right time – that they belong where they are.

Dana Dawson is Associate Director of Teaching & Learning at Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

Denise Hardiman is Manager of Educational Technology Lab Services at Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching.