Welcome back to the Fall 2023 semester!  The ways you show up with your students in the classroom can make a powerful difference in our students’ educational journey.  You’ve put the finishing touches on your syllabi, and you’ve met with your students—here are a few more ideas for how you can support them this semester.  Please reach out to us if you’d like to explore these or other best practices.

1. Build and nurture a positive learning environment: You can help to create a welcoming and non-threatening classroom atmosphere where students feel comfortable asking questions and seeking help by encouraging open communication, building community learning agreements, and learning students’ names and areas of interest/expertise.
2. Identify and assist struggling students early: Pay attention to signs of struggle or disengagement in class. Remember, using Canvas Analytics can also help you find and reach out to students who need connection and support (see for example, “Using Canvas Analytics to Support Student Success,” check out our workshops in the calendar below, and reach out to an instructional designer for more information).  
3. Partner with students to personalize and individualize instruction: Recognize that each student has unique strengths and challenges. When possible, try to offer personalized support and work with students to set achievable academic goals. They may find it helpful to observe how you break down large tasks into smaller, manageable steps, and celebrate progress along the way. 
4. Provide timely and meaningful feedback: Offer constructive feedback on their assignments, assessments, and class participation. Where possible, include both formative and summative assessment activities.  With Canvas SpeedGrader, you can easily annotate students' work, design and implement rubrics, save frequently used comments for timely and personalized feedback, provide audio and video feedback, and facilitate peer review. Join one of our workshops, or reach out for individual consultation.
5. Encourage collaboration: Organize group activities or pair students with peers who excel in different aspects of an assignment or subject. Collaborative learning helps to promote peer support, understanding, and sense of belonging.
6. Guide students to campus resources: Provide supplementary materials, such as study guides, and help them become more familiar with campus supports, including tutoring, student success centers, SJSU Cares, our Spartan Food Pantry, and more.
7. And don’t forget to celebrate effort: Recognize and praise the effort students put into their studies, even (and perhaps especially) if they don't immediately achieve the desired results. Your positive reinforcement and recognition can help them stay motivated and engaged when learning is challenging.

We’d love to talk with you more about any and all of the above!  Please email us for an individual consultation or let us know if you’d like a workshop for your department.  

To get started:

• Go to your Canvas course and select Panopto in the left-hand navigation. Or to access Panopto outside of Canvas, go to https://sjsu.hosted.panopto.com.
• Upload or create your video. 
• Correct the automatic captions. 
• Share with your students! Simply move the video to your Canvas course folder or embed the video in a Canvas page or assignment.
• Join us for a faculty training workshop on August 25 at 11:00 a.m. or view the Panopto Basics for Faculty video. On the eCampus Panopto webpage you’ll find useful resources and answers to frequently asked questions.
• Please note: All Zoom Cloud recordings will automatically appear in your Panopto account.