Ways to Make Learning Relevant to Your Students

Student Voices: Part 2

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Welcome to Student VoicesStudent Voices is a three-part series that explores students’ views on the current state of the classroom and areas for potential change.

We hope you find their ideas refreshing, thought-provoking, and encouraging.

Engaging and analytical conversation provides important intellectual interactions.

Jeremy Chow, a student at Gonzaga University, explores ways in which the 21st century classroom can be more relevant, engaging, and connected to the real world.

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Tell Me a Story

The situation: It’s best to read and complete assignments before class, but students often find it hard to connect course content to the real world.

Tell Me a Story

What can you do:

1. Tell students actual stories from your own background, career path, and work experience.

2. Invite a variety of professionals to speak to your class. These in-person talks will help students link course content to real-life careers.

The situation:

Students are looking for ways to apply what they learn in class to real-world situations.

Keep It Current

What you can do:

3. Ask students to pair up and talk about current events to spark further classroom discussion and participation.

4. Engage in lively debates about today’s topics to broaden students’ perspectives of the world around them.

Keep It Current

Campus Connections

The situation:

With modern technology, it’s possible to interact with students and instructors from other colleges or universities. However, this capability often goes untapped.

Campus Connections

What you can do:

5. Skype® can facilitate weekly meetings with students from other colleges or universities who are taking the same class.

6. Collaboration between students at different schools allows them to bounce ideas off of each other and analyze similar material at the same time.

The situation:

The use of technology in the classroom is on the rise with the integration of such digital devices as iPads and SMART Boards. However, students want even more technology in their courses.

Technology-Enhanced Communication

What you can do:

7. Start a discussion on Blackboard®, another Learning Management System (LMS), or a publisher-provided system the evening before class. Students can prepare to discuss the topic with their peers in class the next day.

Technology-Enhanced Communication

The situation:

Students enjoy learning in groups and would like more opportunities to work peer-to-peer.

All Together Now

What you can do:

8. The whole class takes on one project to either solve a problem for the college or university or an outside organization.

9. Engage students as a team to create an environment that is more similar to life after graduation.

10. Take hypothetical situations and make them relevant and practical so that students can apply these scenarios to everyday life.

All Together Now