Category: Sakai
Is This Thing On? A Student-Turned-Professional’s Musings on the Role of Instructor Presence in Online Student Engagement

Is This Thing On? A Student-Turned-Professional’s Musings on the Role of Instructor Presence in Online Student Engagement

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I distinctly remember the first online course I took: “Empowering Adult Online Learning – Theory and Best Practices” with Dr. Kim Round at Harvard Extension School, my first course in Harvard’s graduate certificate in Learning Design and Technology. The year was 2017 and the frontier of online education was uncomplicated by the pivot to emergency online instruction prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Pre-pandemic, online higher education programs were designed and marketed for a smaller range of student personas, primarily busy, full-time workers earning their first credential as well as seasoned professionals returning to school in anticipation of a career change. Since, in 2025, nearly all currently-enrolled students have presumably experienced some form of remote learning, the demand for online courses has shifted to include many more ‘traditional’ college students who benefit from access to a larger selection of courses, more diverse and multicultural student compositions, and the added flexibility and accessibility made possible by virtue of the online modality. 

While “Empowering Adult Online Learning” was a synchronous class conducted over Zoom, my first interactions with Dr. Round, the learning management system, and the course content, were asynchronous. My initial emotions were those of excitement at the novelty of beginning a new academic program combined with immense anxiety and a series of urgent questions: How does the video conferencing software work? When and where do I log on? Why do I need an audio headset and why can’t I get it to connect?! While I don’t think the intensity of my own apprehensions—so panicky that I nearly dropped the course before it began—are typical of the average online student, it highlights the benefits of proactive instructor communication for student retention and engagement. In fact, one study (Cole, 2016) found that the single greatest predictor of student satisfaction with online courses was the perceived quality of student-instructor communication. Considering that the attrition rate in online courses is significantly higher than that of face-to-face courses (Hobson & Puruhito, 2018), the role of instructor presence as a mediating force for student persistence and success cannot be underestimated. 

If we consider the experiences I described as a first-time online student—one that I’ve seen mirrored by the anxious early-semester tickets that come through Loyola’s ITS Service Desk—Berge’s four roles of the online instructor (1995, 2008) are helpful for beginning to tease out the ways online faculty can alleviate student trepidation and create a welcoming environment that’s conducive to learning and community-building. Before the course begins, instructors are primarily playing the social and technical roles, and the paramount tasks are acclimating students to the learning environment and videoconferencing software logistics (where applicable); once they get students in the door, whether that’s logged into Sakai or a Zoom meeting, it becomes much easier to provide personalized supports where necessary and to turn attention to the task of learning. It is likewise beneficial for instructors to have an accurate self-awareness of their own technical skills and know what resources exist for both them and their students (e.g., instructional designers and technologists, IT support technicians). 

Some recommendations for online instructors to cultivate presence include: 

  • Post weekly announcements (video or written) summarizing key points in the course content, reminding students of upcoming deadlines, and offering encouragement. To personalize your announcements even more, consider adding shout-outs to highlight specific high-quality student contributions to the course. 
  • Start each unit or module with a short audio or video introduction to get students excited. 
  • Contribute regularly to student discussions, asking follow-up questions and acknowledging thoughtful responses. [Note: You do not need to respond to every student contribution. See this resource from Johns Hopkins for some best practices in facilitating asynchronous discussions.]  
  • Use the Sakai Lessons tool to create a dedicated “About Your Instructor” page with a welcome video or photos and information about your interests and experiences. 

As the landscape of online higher education continues to evolve, faculty play an instrumental role in shaping positive student experiences from the outset. By thoughtfully embracing their roles as facilitators, guides, and community-builders—particularly in the early stages of a course—faculty can foster confidence, reduce anxiety, and build the momentum students need to thrive. Proactive communication, clear expectations, and a supportive presence do more than just solve logistical hurdles; they lay the groundwork for meaningful engagement and academic success. In a time when online learning is no longer a niche offering but a core component of higher education, small and intentional efforts to infuse a course with instructor presence from beginning to end can make a palpable difference in student persistence, success, and satisfaction. 

Two student having a conversation via video.
Creating Value & Memorable Learning Asynchronously: Dialogic Pedagogy for Dialogue Tools 

Creating Value & Memorable Learning Asynchronously: Dialogic Pedagogy for Dialogue Tools 

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A perpetual challenge we (instructors, instructional designers, teaching assistants, learning engineers, educational technologists, and anyone learning online) encounter with online teaching and learning occurs in the absence of live engagement: how do we facilitate and engage meaningful exchanges within the classroom when there are no classes or classroom? (For the sake of brevity, I am excluding the parallel difficulties of engaging organic dialogue in a face-to-face classroom.) 

Though we have learning technologies within our supported Loyola tools that are capable of facilitating asynchronous conversations, how might we make those exchanges memorable learning activities? Daisaku Ikeda’s Soka pedagogy might provide those of us designing engagement activities for our asynchronous learners with a compass aimed at value creation in education. 

Meeting Ikeda and value creation dialogue 

I was first introduced to Ikeda’s value-creating dialogic pedagogy as a College of Education graduate writing group facilitator at the DePaul University Center for Writing-based Learning. In our writing group meetings, doctoral candidate Melissa Bradford (now part of the DePaul College of Education teaching faculty) shared across her drafts the power of Ikeda’s dialogic pedagogy that unfolds in a mentor-mentee relationship.  

Born in Tokyo in 1928, Daisaku Ikeda was among the first generation of schoolchildren educated in the Japanese wartime indoctrination system (Goulah & Ito, 2015, p. 57). Ikeda’s experience of human loss, militant subjugation, and postwar chaos encountered surprise at the worldview of Josei Toda, an educator with a faith-based and peace-oriented opposition towards Japanese wars of conquest. After hearing Toda speak at a Soka (literally value-creating) Gakkai (Society) meeting, Ikeda subsequently became Toda’s student and mentee (Goulah & Ito, 2015, p. 58).   

Melissa’s focus on Soka, or value-creating, pedagogy emphasized the importance of dialogue between invested interlocutors. Through intentional and ongoing dialogue, building a mentor-mentee relationship also becomes possible. The underlying heritage of Soka pedagogy seeks to “engage students in learning to learn and to derive wisdom from knowledge to create meaningful value in and from any positive or negative situation” (Goulah & Ito, 2015, p. 60). To clarify, value-creating pedagogy does not signify an instructor imparting their values onto their students, but rather, value creation refers to the collaborative meaning that rises out of engaging with self and others.  

Connecting value-creating pedagogy to Jesuit values 

As a Blue Rambler (DePaul Blue Demon and Loyola Rambler, anyone?), I am in a serendipitous intersection to connect Vincentian personalism with the Jesuit value of accompaniment. Through facilitating dialogue between peers, we provide opportunities for us to recognize the dignity of our fellow colleagues in a class by cultivating community and strengthening a mentor-mentee relationships. These interrelated missions, though stated by different schools and denominations, underlie our interconnected and human-centered values.  

In Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship, Ikeda posits that “students’ lives are not changed by lectures, but by people” (Ikeda, 1996b, p. 31 qtd. In Goulah & Ito, 2015). Though prerecorded lectures may be a central means of delivering content in an asynchronous online course, how might we consider engaging interactions between people? 

Try a learning design: Value-creating pedagogy with asynchronous dialogue tools 

One teaching and learning approach and mindset shift we can make is rethinking our student-instructor interactions, even asynchronously. Instead of simply assigning closed discussions for the sake of a knowledge check, how might we engage interactions in a class aimed at collaborative value creation? As an organic bonus, how might value creating pedagogy help students achieve learning outcomes through our learning design?  

Here are some learning design goals that might be generalizable across disciplines, paired with a possible option for asynchronous tool-based dialogue: 

  • To facilitate community amongst peers within an academic or professional field.  
  • A corresponding learning design choice could be a dialogue tool such as VoiceThread or Piazza.  
  • To cultivate a mentor-mentee relationship and/or offer higher-level thesis advising. 
  • Recurring informal checkpoints or brainstorming dialogues through native Messages or Discussions tools in Sakai. 

More to Consider 

Like any use of technology-based teaching and learning design, a tool can only take you so far: framing the purpose and context for engaging with the tool is vital to the impact of the learning design. Some student-based ideas for engagement offered by Georgia Tech might help you craft intentional prompts for meaningful dialogue.  

Finally, our Loyola Learning Technologies & Innovation team invites you to join us for more dialogue ideas at our upcoming webinar Talk It Out: Enhance Learning with Asynchronous Dialogue Tools in Sakai on Thursday, 3/20 at 11am.  

Works Cited  

“Engaging Students with Online Discussions.” Center for Teaching & Learning. Georgia Tech. https://ctl.gatech.edu/engaging-students-online-discussions 

Goulah, J., & Ito, T. (2012). Daisaku Ikeda’s Curriculum of Soka Education: Creating Value Through Dialogue, Global Citizenship, and “Human Education” in the Mentor–Disciple Relationship. Curriculum Inquiry, 42(1), 56–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2011.00572.x 

 

 
A Sneak Peek at Sakai 23: New Features for Innovative Teaching and Learning

A Sneak Peek at Sakai 23: New Features for Innovative Teaching and Learning

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Change is on the horizon for Loyolans’ Sakai experience. Read on for a preview of the new and improved features making their way to your web browser in December 2024. 

Most notably, Sakai 23—the version Loyola will implement on December 19th, 2024—changes the way faculty, staff, and students will access their courses. “Pinned” and “recent” sites will appear on the left-hand navigation menu; the Site Navigation previously at the top of the screen will give way to more digital real estate for your course content. You may continue to access and organize Sakai sites through the Sites Drawer, which appears to the left of your profile image. This relatively substantial change to Sakai’s user experience may take some time to adjust to. Don’t hesitate to launch the Sakai user tutorial, available in the Account Menu by clicking on your profile image, as you acclimate to your new Sakai navigational experience. 

Moving on to new features, Sakai 23 boasts an exciting new tool for tracking tasks, communication, and grades within a single course. The Dashboard tool allows faculty to choose from several widgets to customize student reminders. Faculty can choose from three different Dashboard layouts and select widgets that highlight student grades, updates in Discussions, recent course announcements, and Calendar events. The Dashboard is a promising replacement for the Overview page as a course homepage, as it presents a snapshot of course activity for both students and faculty. 

In the same vein of improved communication with students, the Assignments tool’s Grader interface has gotten a makeover. The Grader is now more mobile-friendly and features a horizontal layout for assessing submissions with a rubric. Most notably, however, the Assignments Grader now includes limited inline marking capabilities, allowing instructors to leave targeted comments on submitted documents without downloading and re-uploading the submission file.  

These new features and more await you in Sakai 23! If this sneak peek was compelling, explore our website for more information regarding Sakai 23. Consider joining Instructional Technology & Research Support (ITRS) for an upcoming information session; registration opens soon!

Introducing Learning Analytics at Loyola: The ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of Data-Informed Instruction

Introducing Learning Analytics at Loyola: The ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of Data-Informed Instruction

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Data-driven decision-making is becoming increasingly important across many sectors, including education. As an instructor, you might have come across the term “learning analytics.” But what exactly does it entail, and how can it benefit faculty and students? Read on to gain a better understanding of what learning analytics encompasses and how it may boost your instructional efficacy.   

What is Learning Analytics? 

Learning analytics can be defined as the “collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to students’ learning and the contexts in which it occurs”. This data is typically derived from various sources, including learning management systems (LMS), online course platforms, and student information systems. At Loyola, learning analytics data is currently drawn from LOCUS and Sakai—including several third-party tools integrated with Sakai such as Zoom, Panopto, VoiceThread, and Turnitin. 

How Does it Work? 

Learning analytics involves the use of advanced technologies and statistical techniques to extract meaningful insights from educational data. These insights can range from understanding student engagement and performance to identifying patterns and trends in learning behavior. At Loyola, faculty can glean insights from the Sakai Statistics tool and the analytics offered by specific teaching and learning tools (e.g., Panopto). They may also use their personalized Learning Analytics Reports to view aggregated instructional data in one location. 

Why is it Useful for Faculty?

1. Personalized Learning Experiences:

By leveraging learning analytics, faculty members can gain valuable insights into individual students’ learning needs, preferences, and progress. This allows them to tailor their teaching strategies and interventions to better meet the diverse needs of their students, ultimately fostering a more accessible and personalized learning experience.

2. Early Intervention:

Learning analytics can help faculty identify students who may be at risk of falling behind or struggling academically. By detecting these warning signs early on, instructors can intervene promptly, providing additional support and resources to help students succeed.

3. Data-Informed Decision-Making:

Learning analytics data, in conversation with other metrics such as teaching evaluations, test scores, and final grades, can help faculty make informed decisions about curriculum (re)design, instructional methods, and assessment strategies. This data-driven approach empowers instructors to refine their teaching practices to enhance student learning outcomes. 

4. Continuous Improvement:

By analyzing trends and patterns in student data over time, faculty can identify areas for change and improvement in their teaching practices and course design. This iterative cycle of reflection and refinement enables instructors to adapt to the evolving needs of their students and enhance their overall quality of instruction. 

Getting Started with Learning Analytics 

Learning analytics holds immense potential for faculty in higher education to enhance teaching and learning experiences. Embracing learning analytics can empower faculty and instructional support staff to create more effective and engaging learning environments that support the success of all students. 

To learn more about learning analytics at Loyola, visit our website. Faculty are invited to schedule a consultation with an ITRS Learning Design Engineer, who will provide access to the Learning Analytics Report as well as guidance in interpreting the report data and deriving actionable insights.

Linked in Lessons: Internal & External Tools 

Linked in Lessons: Internal & External Tools 

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This blog post is about the Sakai Lessons tool, links to other Sakai tools, VoiceThread, Top Hat, and how to maximize the effectiveness of a course using your Sakai site. Just as the main purpose of an LMS is to enhance the learning process, you can – and absolutely should – utilize Lessons in Sakai to deliver educational resources to your course in an orderly, easily navigable fashion. Of all the internal tools available in Sakai, Lessons plays a special role by enabling you to organize the learning materials in your course and minimize student confusion in locating readings, assignments, assessments, discussion forums, and even external tools.  

When assisting faculty with Sakai one-on-one or in the context of an orientation/group presentation, my colleagues in Instructional Technology and Research Support (ITRS) and I often explain to faculty that Lessons is a “three ring binder” that allows you to arrange the content in all the other tools. You can create a Lessons page for each week (Week 1, Week 2, etc.) or module (Module 1, Module 2, etc.) or any other increment that you use in your class.  

Why Lessons? 

To obtain a more detailed and extremely specific understanding of the value Lessons can bring to your course, imagine yourself in the following (quite cumbersome) scenario: 

You are teaching a course with a Sakai site and it is Week 3 of the academic term. You just finished uploading the Week 3 Readings to the Resources tool, creating the Week 3 Assignment in the Assignments tool, added a Week 3 Topic to the Discussions tool, published your Week 3 Quiz in the Tests & Quizzes tool, built a “project idea” recording assignment in VoiceThread, and made an icebreaker activity for in-class completion using Top Hat. To notify your students, you compose a message using Announcements and ask your students to…: 

  • Go to Resources and locate the assigned readings in the Week 3 Readings folder. 
  • Submit your Week 3 Assignment in Assignments 
  • Access the Week 3 Topic in the Weekly Discussions forum and post your reading response (and respond to a classmate) in the Discussions tool.  
  • Take the Week 3 Quiz in Tests & Quizzes 
  • Go to VoiceThread and “record yourself.”  
  • Complete the icebreaker in Top Hat during the class meeting.  

Do you feel fatigued from reading that scenario? I feel that way from writing it. In this scenario, it is also not difficult to imagine that a sizable portion of your students reported problems with finding and completing the assigned content. Fortunately, there is a much more effective strategy for simplifying the process.  

Internal Tools in Lessons 

As an alternative to the situation described in the previous section, you can include links to all the activities in different Sakai tools within a Lessons page. Once you’ve uploaded/created the weekly content, you can create a new lessons page titled “Week 3”, add the weekly assignment/quiz/discussion/readings to the page, mark each item as a prerequisite for advancing to the next week’s page (if applicable), and direct your students to “Complete the activities in ‘Week 3.’”The majority of Sakai tools are linkable within a Lessons page and can potentially reduce confusion (and the process of navigating to so many different tools, of course). Using this habit, you may not even need to send so many announcements (and hope everyone reads them).  

VoiceThread & Top Hat: Interactive, Asynchronous Learning 

Along with the tools available within Sakai, some of the external tools available to you can now be added to a Lessons page thanks to recent upgrades and enhancements. For instance, several enhancements to the VoiceThread tool such as new assignment types and a deeper integration in Sakai have resulted in a much more streamlined experience for assigning, completing, and grading work. As of 2022, Assignments in VoiceThread – a multimedia recording/uploading tool for collaborative learning via asynchronous interaction – can now link directly from a Lessons page. Instead of requiring students to select the VoiceThread tool (to authenticate their account) and directing them to complete the assignment in the VoiceThread tab in Sakai, you can now add a link to a VoiceThread assignment such as creating a recording, commenting on a recording, or just watching one. Once completed and graded, scores for these assignments will also populate in the Sakai Gradebook tool directly.  

In addition to this improvement, a much more recent upgrade to Top Hat now enables you to link to assigned content through a Lessons page using the same method as linking to VoiceThread. As a tool for interactive learning with a vast array of features to facilitate and track student engagement, you can use Top Hat for live, interactive quizzes as well as tracking attendance, creating assessments, sharing reading materials, and more. Although it is important to note that Top Hat requires a student fee and for users to create their accounts directly through the tool, grades for assigned content will now populate the Gradebook just like VoiceThread.  

Going Forward: Help & Resources 

Based on the (perhaps excessive) details provided in the sections above, the value and purpose of Lessons pages is apparent. In short, there are many ways you can incorporate content from other sections to simplify the process of navigating Sakai for your students.  

For assistance with Sakai, VoiceThread, Top Hat, or any other instructional technology, please schedule a consultation with an ITRS team member. Here are some additional help resources for Sakai Lessons, VoiceThread, and Top Hat: 

Sakai Lessons Documentation 

VoiceThread Documentation  

Top Hat Documentation 

Top Hat Support 

Christmas is Around the Corner, and so is Sakai 22!

Christmas is Around the Corner, and so is Sakai 22!

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Don’t let final exams put a damper on your holiday spirit! Instructional Technology & Research Support (ITRS) is hard at work and preparing to unveil a new version of the Sakai LMS just in time for the holidays. Loyola will upgrade to Sakai version 22 on Wednesday, December 21st. During the upgrade process, Sakai will be unavailable (approximately 7am-11am Central Time). Faculty, staff, and students are not required to make any changes for the upgrade; all course and project sites will be intact and ready for use in Sakai 22. 

The annual Sakai upgrade ensures that Loyola can take advantage of the latest Sakai features and functionality, and we can eliminate pesky software bugs that have been squashed by the Sakai community. A few highlights you can anticipate in Sakai 22 include:

  • A new tool, Conversations, allows for threaded Q&A and discussions. Conversations enables users to filter and bookmark posts so it’s easy to find the content that matters most. 
  • New page layout options in the Lessons tool. 
  • A new integration with Gradescope, an AI-supported grading platform that streamlines grading of paper-based, bubble sheet, and coding assessments. 

Want to learn more? Visit Sakai 22 Upgrade. Here, you’ll find registration links for informational sessions conducted by your friendly ITRS colleagues, a promotional video highlighting new Sakai features, and more! 

Panopto: New & Improved

Panopto: New & Improved

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video cameraPanopto has updated with many significant enhancements! The experience in recording, editing, and sharing asynchronous video content is now more intuitive than ever. The following are just a few examples:

              • Speed – After recording content, video processing speed enables the user to quickly make edits with little to no wait time!
              • Smart Chapters – When recording your screen in a session without slides, Smart Chapters (a table of contents feature) is enabled by default.
              • Interface – Accessing recordings and folders has gotten even easier with a more intuitive layout!
              • Captions – Creators can now use a “find & replace” option for quick edits, specify caption end time, and find support for caption translation!

For a complete list of enhancements/updates, see the Release Notes.

To request assistance with Panopto, contact the Help Desk and/or book an appointment with a member of the ITRS team!

 

Interactive Learning with Top Hat

Interactive Learning with Top Hat

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Top Hat is an interactive web-based response platform at Loyola. Instructors can leverage students’ devices to take attendance, launch discussions and questions, and solicit real-time feedback. Students can use devices they already own, like smartphones, tablets, or laptops.

Top Hat offers several ways for instructors to facilitate engagement with different question types, discussion boards, and gamified elements like polling tournaments. In addition to the instructional benefits, Top Hat provides instructors with learning analytics like daily attendance, student participation, and student performance reports.

In a virtual workshop with our Top Hat partners, Quintin Peirce and his team will provide an overview of how Top Hat can help drive engagement and outcomes in your lectures and labs, both before and during class. The team will also show a walkthrough of accessing Top Hat through Sakai to ensure a smooth technical experience. Student logins will be administered at the beginning of the session to facilitate active participation through the platform.

This session will take place on Thursday, August 11th, 3:00-4:00pm CT: Register Now

Coming Soon…ITRS Workshops for Summer Faculty

Coming Soon…ITRS Workshops for Summer Faculty

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Attention LUC Faculty!

It is our pleasure to announce an upcoming series of academic technology webinars. Please join ITRS for the following events (select the links in the session titles to register):

Monday, April 25th, 11-11:30am 

Zoom Basics –  Learn how to get started with Zoom, set up a recurring meeting for your Sakai course, configure security settings, and more.

Tuesday, April 26th, 12-12:30pm 

Introduction to Labster for Faculty – Discover Labster, a virtual science lab boasting a catalog of over one hundred lab simulations for various scientific disciplines.

Wednesday, April 27th, 4-4:30pm

New Features in Panopto for 2022 – An overview of exciting new tools available in Panopto.

Thursday, April 28th, 10-10:30am

Statistics in Sakai – Learn how to use the Statistics tool in Sakai for evaluating student engagement.

Friday, April 29th, 1-1:30pm

Advanced Zoom: Polling & Breakout Rooms – This session provides an introduction to using these tools for facilitating student engagement in Zoom meetings.

We hope to see you at these sessions. In the meantime, please send any questions to itrs@luc.edu or book a Zoom meeting with a member of the ITRS team here.

New Features in Panopto for 2022

New Features in Panopto for 2022

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Panopto has updated with new and exciting features to significantly improve the processes of editing, sharing, and and viewing recorded sessions. The following features are now active and/or available:

  • Video Reference Copies – The process of copying a session has improved significantly with Reference Copies, or copies that are connected to the original session. After recording and editing a video, Panopto users can create reference copies of the video in different folders to share with different courses/sections. When a user edits the original recording, the changes are applied to all reference copies of that session (if any). Please note that non-Reference copies can still be made in the video settings.
  • Discussion Notifications – All users now have the option to receive a daily summary email of discussion activity on their recordings. These notifications can be activated and managed to preference in the User Settings section.
  • Audio Descriptions – Users can create or upload audio descriptions to their recordings in order to increase accessibility using Panopto Editor. If viewing a recording with audio descriptions added, users can turn them on/off using a button in the Panopto Viewer. When toggled, the video will automatically pause and read audio descriptions.

With these changes, we hope that you will have an even better experience in creating and viewing sessions. For more information on Panopto, be sure to take a look at the ITRS Panopto Site.

If you need assistance with Panopto, feel free to book a live Zoom session with ITRS using this link.