Top Instructional Practices (TIPs)

TIPs are intended to provide instructors with practical strategies for enhancing their classroom management, student learning environment, and overall student success. Not every technique is appropriate for every instructor or every course due to differences in disciplines and instructional modalities. To determine what works best for their classes, instructors should feel free to read the incorporated research and experiment with the outlined TIPs. For more research on Top Instructional Practices, click on this annotated bibliography.

Prior to the start of the semester

• Email students before class starts
  • Welcome students
  • Stress your interest in their success
  • Communicate your willingness to help
  • Include brief logistics (Course overview, how to get started, materials needed, office hours, etc.)
  • Emailing students early can provide the foundation for a strong relationship
  • Vareberg, K.R., Luo, Z., Westerman, D., Bartels, M., and Lindmark, P. (2020). For a good class, email: Technologically-mediated out-of-class communication and instructional outcomes. The Internet and Higher Education 47, 100761.

Prior to the course census date

• Learn students’ names/preferred ways to be addressed
  • Continue calling students by name throughout the semester
  • Use replace strings in Brightspace communication
  • Holstead, C.E. (2019, 29 August). Want to improve your teaching? Start with the basics: Learn students’ names. Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/want-to-improve-your-teaching-start-with-the-basics-learn-students-names/
• Use a course orientation
  • Instructor introduction video
  • Brightspace tour video/Brightspace Orientation course
  • Instructor plan
  • Info on setting up Brightspace notifications
  • MCC Email Policy
  • How to view Instructor Feedback
  • Tips on how to be successful
• Design an early assignment
  • Quiz over course orientation or instructor plan
  • Participation in introductory discussion board
  • Meet with student in person or on zoom
  • Follow up with students that do not complete the assignment with a referral to the Completion Center or Success Coaches
• Contact all students to provide encouragement
  • Use students’ names in communication
  • Ask if they have questions
  • Ask how things are going from their perspective
  • Express your confidence in their success
  • Alcott, B. (2017). Does teacher encouragement influence students’ educational progress? a propensity-score matching analysis. Research in Higher Education: Journal of the Association for Institutional Research, 58(7), 773–804. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9446-2

Throughout the semester

• Build relationships with students
  • All modalities
    • Encourage outside-of-class meetings (i.e. attend office hours).
    • Discover students’ interests.
    • Attend student events outside of class (i.e. athletic events, club events, performances).

  • Face-to-face
    • Arrive to class early to socialize with students

  • Online
    • Post announcements.
    • Send reminders.
    • Engage in the discussion boards.
    • Record instructor videos.
    • Use replace strings in announcements (personalize with student’s name).
  • Sybing, R. (2019). Making Connections: Student-Teacher Rapport in Higher Education Classrooms. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, 19(5), 18–35.
• Give students the opportunity for connection (belonging)
  • Incorporate supplemental instructors.
  • “Question-of-the-day” or other fun attendance activity.
  • Give tips for how to manage college coursework and have students practice management skills together (i.e. methods for breaking down assignments, time management, studying large quantities of material).
  • Consider having students complete assignments or projects in pairs or in groups.
  • Encourage study groups before and after class.
  • Use a “for fun” discussion board.
  • Bettencourt, G. M. (2021). “I belong because it wasn’t made for me”: Understanding working-class students’ sense of belonging on campus. Journal of Higher Education, 92(5), 760–783.
  • Fjelkner-Pihl, A. (2022). “Ok—I need help from somewhere”: ‘The educational value of multiplex student relationships in a commuter college.’ Innovative Higher Education, 48(1), 83–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-022-09611-y
• Communicate with students that are
  • Excelling
    • Note what is going well for the student.
    • Express appreciation for their hard work.
    • Encourage them to continue working hard toward their success.

  • Missing assignments or late assignments
    • Outline assignments that the student is missing.
    • Inform the student of the best way to get caught up.
    • Help the student come up with a plan for successful course completion.
    • Provide encouragement.

  • Muljana, P. S., & Luo, T. (2019). Factors contributing to student retention in online learning and recommended strategies for improvement: a systematic literature review. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 18, 19–57. https://doi.org/10.28945/4182
• Respond to students in a timely manner
  • Active and timely interaction and communication promote student engagement
  • Let students know the timeframe in which they can expect a response from you
  • Vareberg, K.R., Luo, Z., Westerman, D., Bartels, M., and Lindmark, P. (2020). For a good class, email: Technologically-mediated out-of-class communication and instructional outcomes. The Internet and Higher Education 47, 100761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2020.100761
• Grade assignments in a timely manner.
  • Feedback is influential to students’ engagement
  • Espasa, A., Guasch, T., Mayordomo, R. M., & Martinez-Melo, M. (2022). Prior experience with online feedback: its influence on students’ engagement. Distance Education, 43(3), 444–465. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2022.2088480
• Help students make a connection with course material
  • Incorporate current research/information from your field
  • Relate material to real-life situations
  • Providing student with authentic learning can increase engagement and student success
• Provide positive and constructive feedback.
  • Note something that the student is doing well. (i.e. their effort, their ideas, etc.).
  • Note areas for improvement.
  • Provide encouragement and resources for future success.
  • Johnson, C. E., Keating, J. L., & Molloy, E. K. (2020). Psychological safety in feedback: What does it look like and how can educators work with learners to foster it? Medical Education, 54(6), 559–570
• Treat students with a high level of care.
  • Offer support and encouragement to students.
  • Pychyl, T., Flett, G., Long, M., Carreiro, E., & Azil, R. (2022). Faculty perceptions of mattering in teaching and learning: A qualitative examination of the views, values, and teaching practices of award-winning professors. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 40(1), 142–158.
  • Guzzardo, M. T., Khosla, N., Adams, A. L., Bussmann, J. D., Engelman, A., Ingraham, N., Gamba, R., Jones-Bey, A., Moore, M. D., Toosi, N. R., & Taylor, S. (2021). "The Ones that Care Make all the Difference": Perspectives on Student-Faculty Relationships. Innovative Higher Education, 46(1), 41–58.

At the end of the semester

• • Congratulate students on their completion.
    • Validate the learning experience
    • Celebrate achievements
  • Encourage student for their future.
    • Encouragement increases course to course persistence
    • Alcott, B. (2017). Does teacher encouragement influence students’ educational progress? a propensity-score matching analysis. Research in Higher Education: Journal of the Association for Institutional Research, 58(7), 773–804. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9446-2
  • Remind students to register for the following semester.
    • Advising and Career Services