A Reflective Practice on Integrating Student Testimony: Strategies to Promote Engagement and Competency

This reflection, from two online college instructors, explores opportunities to increase student course confidence and engagement. We considered our previous instructor-created support and noticed text-heavy creations. Instead, we focused on integrating more student-led methods through former student testimonies. These were integrated with brief interactive media to help balance the instructor versus student voices to create a more flipped classroom. We mainly focused on online course discussion postings
but also explored class websites and other digital sharing. We considered various web tools and settled upon Google Slides and PowToon to promote engagement. We supplemented these with Slides Mania templates and class website interactives through the lens of marketing and other methods for attractiveness. We found that small amounts of text and time durations garnered reflective appreciation and a growth mindset. Therefore, we learned that these advice presentation techniques motivated learners to meet course expectations with self-confidence and positive virtual classroom perceptions.