Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

A sense of community fosters a sense of belongingness and is critical to student engagement.  Building a sense of community is a first step in ensuring that students are engaged in their classes, especially for historically minoritized students (Pacansky-Brock et. al 2020; Plotts 2019; Brown and Burdsal; 2006, Rovai and Gallien; 2005; Tu & Correy, 2002). To structure a class that includes everyone and promotes student engagement, we need to think about what goes into building a community and what that can look like when teaching online.

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically upended traditional schooling and made remote learning the “new normal.” Teachers are scrambling to offer some form of continuing education using virtual technologies, with the recognition that traditional approaches to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading must be altered. While it might be more expedient to present online lessons, electronic worksheets, and resource packets, we propose that the learn-at-home circumstance offers an opportunity to present students with more engaging and meaningful learning experiences. More specifically, we recommend providing students with assignments and tasks that challenge them to find information from various sources, critically appraise what they find, and use what they learn to address interesting issues and genuine problems.

A bunch of black boxes on a video call. An empty discussion board. A student who hasn’t submitted any work all term. These might all be signs that students aren’t engaged with their online learning. But they also might be signs that students don’t have enough Internet access to participate in their online classes; they might be signs that students don’t know how to engage with their online learning; or they might be signs that students don’t feel included in their online class.