Political Science Educator: volume 28, issue 2
Interviews
Online education remains a place of great challenges and also enormous opportunities for political science faculty to connect with their students and advance learning objectives. As such, Matt Evans (co-editor of the Political Science Educator as well as Professor of Political Science and Service Learning Coordinator at Northwest Arkansas Community College) interviewed fellow Arkansan Rebecca A. Glazier[1] about her published research, experience, and wisdom on online education. She received her Ph.D. in political science from University of California-Santa Barbara in 2009 and currently teaches as a political science professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She directed the Little Rock Congregations Study[2], a long-term, community-based research project on religion and community engagement; out of which, she authored Faith and Community: How Engagement Strengthens Members, Places of Worship, and Society[3] (Temple University Press, 2024). She remains active in the scholarship of teaching and learning with many peer reviewed publication, including Connecting in the Online Classroom: Building Rapport between Teachers and Students[4] (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021). She frequently teaches workshops and gives keynote addresses on student engagement, online teaching, and community-based research. She teaches a publicly-accessible class on Udemy about online teaching and connecting with students.[5] In 2023, she received the American Political Science Association’s Civic and Community Engagement Award and was also named one of EdTech Magazine’s “30 Higher Ed IT Influencers to Follow in 2023.” In 2024, she received the Craig L. Brians Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research & Mentorship from the Political Science Education section of the American Political Science Association.
Question: What was your first experience teaching an online class? How different was that experience from how you currently teach?
I started teaching online in 2009. I was fresh out of graduate school and was immediately assigned an online class as part of my teaching load in my first tenure-track position. I had no training and I had actually never even taken an online class myself. When I think back on those first few semesters of online teaching I think, “B less my heart!” (as we say in the South). I had no idea what I was doing! I just used all the same assignments and materials from my in-person class and let it run. The key difference, which I came to through talking with students and faculty and conducting a 5-year teaching experiment (Glazier 2016), was when I started being intentional about making connections with students—what I call “building rapport.” Now that is at the center of my online teaching, and it has made all the difference.
Question: Could you talk about one of your key insights from your book in terms of how faculty can build rapport with online students and electronic tools that can help facilitate that rapport? What does rapport mean? How can we improve it with our students?
Absolutely. Rapport is making real human connections with students; it is letting them know that you care about their success and are on their side. Building rapport is easier than you might think! Just calling students by name, reaching out with a personal email, or putting a photo of yourself in the Learning Management System your university uses can help. What is really important to know is that students in high-rapport classes are more likely to stay enrolled and to graduate.
Question: What other advice for online asynchronous classes do you offer in your book?
I have lots of advice! Chapter 4 of my book, Connecting in the Online Classroom[6] (Glazier 2021) is filled with ideas for connecting with students and ways to use technologies, like mail merge, to make it easier. There are a lot of benefits to asynchronous online classes. Students in these classes have more time to think about what they want to say in discussions, which can be very helpful for shy students, those with disabilities, and students for whom English is not their first language. I would encourage professors to lean into the benefits of online classes by providing thought-provoking discussion questions, giving meaningful feedback, and using technology to engage students. Asynchronous online classes aren’t the same as in-person classes, but they are great for expanding access to new student populations.
Question: Do you think it’s important to have a diversity of assessments in your online classes that balance out the different types of abilities that students come into the class with? If so, how do you provide that balance in an online class?
Yes, and by assessing students through different means, you can get a better picture of how each student is learning and what they might need. My exams always include multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions. I give students a participation grade for their discussion engagement and also provide at least one writing assignment in each class. My goal is to help them learn, and they can show me they are learning through these various assessment methods.
Question: What do you think of the use of groupwork, in-person meetings, and in–person activities within online classes? Are these useful for curbing student alienation and disengagement?
They definitely can be, but I think you have to be careful to provide students with the learning experience they need. So, if students have signed up for an asynchronous class, you shouldn’t expect them to come to in-person or synchronous class meetings. One thing I like to do is assign students to be discussion leaders on different weeks throughout the semester. This allows them to get to know each other, to support each other in discussion, and to demonstrate learning through another means. It doesn’t require them to coordinate in-person meetings, though, which can be difficult for some online students. I do my best to encourage student engagement without burdening them with logistics they didn’t sign up for.
Question: Do you think service learning and other experiential learning methods can be used in online classes? If so, how should these be employed?
Sometimes online students might feel like they are “second-class” students who aren’t getting the full college experience or the full attention of their professors. I have taught online classes with experiential elements before, and it has been really rewarding. I think the key is to make sure that students know what they are signing up for from the start. If they need to be in the community, physically present somewhere at specific times, or providing in-person service, they need to know that from the beginning. With expectations set, online students can really benefit from these high-impact learning opportunities and they should [be given] the chance to participate.
Question: How do you feel about the online test proxy systems (that monitor students while they take tests) and lock-down browsers (that prevent students from opening other windows while taking a test or quiz)? Are these useful tools for online teaching?
There was a point in my teaching when I used these tools, but I don’t any more. The research on why students cheat shows that they do it when they think an assignment or test is not helpful to their learning, is busywork, or is unimportant (Lang 2013). I start by trusting my students and I tell them that (Stommel 2020). There are lots of ways to get around these monitors and most students will have more than one device available to them. Playing “whack-a-mole” with technology to prevent cheating isn’t the solution. We need to design assessments and classes that students view as meaningful and important. And we need to tell them that we trust them to be honest.
Question: How do you deal with “bad” writing and “bad” writers in an online class?
I find that personalized feedback can go a long way in helping students improve. If students feel like the professor cares about their learning, they are more likely to invest in the class themselves. Giving personalized writing tips to a large number of online students can get overwhelming, though. I have a document filled with advice and feedback that I often give and I use it to “copy, paste, [and] personalize” feedback to students. Using [student] names or referencing specific arguments makes the feedback more relevant to students.
Question: How do you think online teachers should address Generative Artificial Intelligence, like Chat GPT? Should their usage be strictly prohibited, allowed under certain circumstances, or promoted throughout the entire course?
This is such a hard question and one that many of us are struggling with. I do think it is unrealistic to complexly ban AI from our classes. Students see AI being used by their peers, and even people they know who are working in government or industry. Like many professors, I am still finding my way here, but I think talking about when AI might be useful and when it might be damaging to learning is a good start. Students need to understand the “why” behind whatever policies we decide to implement.
Question: What do you think of the tools out there to catch Generative AI? Are they useful? If so, which do you recommend? How should we use them?
I think that AI is moving too quickly for these tools to be very useful. Just as with lockdown browsers or tools to catch cheating, I think that students will always find a way around them if they are determined. A more sustainable approach is to help students understand when and how AI might be useful to their education and when it is substituting for actual learning.
Question: For those faculty prohibiting Generative AI in their courses, how do you think they have those conversations with those students and invest them with the desire to avoid Generative AI usage?
I think it is always a good idea to talk with students about the “why” behind the policies we put in place. But if students feel like the rules are silly, not reflective of the experiences they will have at work after they graduate, or unnecessarily limiting, they are not likely to follow them. An assignment that asks students to use AI for one portion and not use it for another could illustrate to students the benefits and drawbacks of AI, as well as how to use it ethically.
Question: Do you have any teaching advice for those teaching online synchronous courses that have class meetings through video-conferencing software?
One of the best things you can do for students is to build rapport with them—help them know that you care about them and their success. In a synchronous online class with video meetings, you can do this through showing up a few minutes early and making small talk, welcoming students by name as they log on, thanking those who keep their cameras on, and staying a few minutes after to personally answer questions that students may have felt too shy to ask in front of others. The “break out room” feature can also be a good way to get students engaged and talking about a topic in the class.
Question: How do you address students who are overwhelmed by their academic obligations and personal obligations in your online classes?
Students have a lot going on! I think it is helpful to realize that and to build in check-in opportunities. Sometimes I do this through non-content-related questions in quizzes, and I always send students an email updating them on their grade and asking how I can help mid-way through the semester. In a high-rapport class, students will feel comfortable coming to you with problems and you can solve them together before things get out of control.
Question: Do you feel your advice for online classes applies universally across different types of institutions (liberal arts colleges, R1, R2, mid-sized public universities) or do you feel it is different [for each type]?
I think the advice to prioritize rapport and connection in online classes is absolutely universal. My own coauthored work with colleagues from different institutional types validates this, but there is also a huge body of research on the related importance of community in online classes. The difference comes in the implementation. Building rapport with a small class of 10 will probably look different from a large class of 200. Humanizing the instructor and showing students you care about their success is possible across institutional types.
Question: What do you think today of the state of online teaching in higher education? Are faculty and administrators getting it largely right, or is there enormous room for improvement?
I definitely think there is room for improvement. Right now, many faculty are concerned about their students, overwhelmed by high student demands in online classes, and worried about their increasing reliance on technology (College Innovation Network 2024). Many institutions are investing more in digital tools and less in [their] faculty, which I think is a huge mistake. Many administrators want a fancy, quick fix through a new student tracking system or platform for measuring engagement. But the research shows that what really matters is whether students feel connected to their professors and their classmates. This happens when we recognize the value of rapport and take concrete, individual steps to build it. There is so much administrators can do to support this (the last chapter of my book is filled with specific ways that institutions can foster high-rapport online teaching), but too often they would rather spend more money on technological quick fixes that don’t actually deliver.
Endnotes
[1] http://www.rebeccaglazier.net/
[2] https://research.ualr.edu/lrcs/
[3] https://tupress.temple.edu/books/faith-and-community
[4] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1421442655/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=rebeccaglazie-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=55ff37666d288f2d0a56290529166005&creativeASIN=1421442655
[5] https://www.udemy.com/course/teaching-online-how-to-connect-with-students/?referralCode=72B7BE52200942366B7B
[6] https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12702/connecting-online-classroom?srsltid=AfmBOop0_Oed2Ngwf3GqLCU6VXBH45Zc7WNiA7IPKlqv7dyKj9xUHCOg
References
College Innovation Network. 2024. EdTech and the evolving role of faculty: Faculty split on how tech will impact the future of higher education. In CIN EdTech Survey Series.
Glazier, Rebecca A. 2021. Connecting in the online classroom: Building rapport between teachers and students. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Glazier, Rebecca A. 2016. “Building rapport to improve retention and success in online classes.” Journal of Political Science Education 12 (4):437-456.
Lang, James M. 2013. Cheating Lessons: Harvard University Press.
Stommel, Jesse. 2020. “Ungrading: an FAQ.” Jesse Stommel, February 6, 2020. https://www.jessestommel.com/ungrading-an-faq/.
Published since 2005, The Political Science Educator is the newsletter of the Political Science Education Section of the American Political Science Association. As part of APSA’s mission to support political science education across the discipline, APSA Educate has republished The Political Science Educator since 2021. Please visit APSA Educate’s Political Science Educator digital collection here.
Editors: Colin Brown (Northeastern University), Matt Evans (Northwest Arkansas Community College)
Submissions: editor.PSE.newsletter@gmail.com
