Teaching Strategies and Techniques

Addressing Privacy Considerations with Social Media Tools

Addressing Privacy Considerations with Social Media Tools

Many instructors are incorporating social media into their instruction due to their ability to break down the walls of the institution. But with privacy being more and more of a concern today, it is a good idea to provide students with information on privacy settings

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students in lecture hall

Low-Risk Strategies to Promote Active Learning in Large Classes

Faculty who teach large classes confront the long-existing challenge of making their lectures more engaging and meaningful. In this article, I will share some low-risk strategies to help faculty transform lectures into student-centered learning experiences for enhanced learning outcomes.

These active learning strategies can be

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The Science of Learning Can Improve Teaching

The Science of Learning Can Improve Teaching

In the 2017 Hans O. Mauksch Address presented at the American Sociology Association annual meeting, Melinda Messineo argues that we aren’t using as much of the science of learning as we could to help students learn. “In many ways, our efforts in the classroom are

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teaching Strategies

Modifying Strategies

Let’s start with an example. In a recent issue of College Teaching, Forrest Cooper describes how he modified the well-known and widely used “Think-Pair-Share” strategy. It continues to be an effective way to get students talking with each other about course content. But Cooper’s goal

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Encouraging Students to Use the Dictionary

Encouraging Students to Use the Dictionary: The Results

Previously in The Teaching Professor (31.7), I wrote about my efforts to help students get what John C. Bean in Engaging Ideas (2001) calls the “Dictionary Habit.” As I wrote, I had always assumed that my approach to teaching the “Dictionary Habit” was effective. However,

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Encouraging Classroom Participation

Encouraging Classroom Participation Through In-Class Reviews

I teach introductory biology classes; the students in these classes are typically new to the discipline at the college level and often find the amount and level of material challenging to absorb and retain. However, many students are nervous about asking or answering the questions

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teaching with technology

Flipgrid—A New Way to View Online Content

Flipgrid (https://info.flipgrid.com) is a new collaboration system that’s drawing quite a bit of interest in education circles as of late. Flipgrid provides an alternative way of displaying content from the traditional LMS discussion forum. An LMS forum is linear, with each posting falling below the

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motivating students

Mining the Analogy

“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.” Benjamin Franklin may not have realized at the time that he was actually using a tool for the education he espoused, namely, the analogy. More than a simple witticism, the statement can be explored for rich

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Study Abroad and Learning Outcomes

Study Abroad and Learning Outcomes

Do study abroad experiences promote learning? One could assume so, but it’s nice to know for sure, and Varela’s (2017) meta-analysis of 72 study abroad investigations offers the most definitive answer we have to date. The study looks at learning in three areas: (1)

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Many instructors are incorporating social media into their instruction due to their ability to break down the walls of the institution. But with privacy being more and more of a concern today, it is a good idea to provide students with information on privacy settings for tools that you use in class. Here is the important privacy information to provide to students for some of the major social media tools. Facebook Facebook user's privacy settings (http://bit.ly/2FeGbP0) consist of an entire page that includes frequently asked questions about privacy, how to control who can see an individual's post, how to be sure only certain friends can see their posts, and who has access to profile and timeline information. However, buried deep down in the page is the information related to the public profile and cover photo information. Students should be made aware that their profile picture is public, meaning that everyone using Facebook can see that image whether or not they are friends with those individuals and whether or not they have enacted all privacy settings. If students choose to add a cover photo (the larger top picture on the main page), that photo is also available for public viewing no matter what other settings students have chosen. There is also a Facebook privacy checkup (http://bit.ly/1nBTHkz) that lets users review who can see their posts. Twitter Twitter tweets with a new 280-character limit are public by default and can include photos, videos, and links to various websites. Users generally must agree to Twitter's privacy policies (https://twitter.com/en/privacy) which includes Twitter's ability to collect, use, and share individuals' information across Twitter websites. Twitter's information collection and use policy is extensive and if users have questions related to this policy, they must complete and submit an online form. Not everyone typically reads software policies in detail and may be completely unaware of what types of information they are agreeing to share with companies. Be sure students know what they are agreeing to if you require them to create/use a Twitter account in your course. LinkedIn Privacy Settings LinkedIn's privacy default settings make most of its users' profile information available to everyone, including the user's profile picture, work summary, education, and past jobs. LinkedIn's privacy settings (http://bit.ly/2oQmohH) page is not as extensive as other social media tools, but it does allow the user to hide their profile photo from everyone. Users can also choose a block of followers and decide what, if any information, can be shared with third parties. It allows the user to choose who can see them as a suggested user if these other individuals have access to the user's email address. The default for this feature is for everyone to have access. There is an advertising preference section that allows the user to choose whether LinkedIn can use cookies to personalize ads. The default for this preference is “Yes” as are all the LinkedIn profile privacy, data privacy, and advertising default preferences. Students should be made aware of this if they are being encouraged or required to create or use an account as part of a course activity. In fact, if they already have an account, they should be reminded to review their settings as one of the first activities required for the course. YouTube Privacy Settings The YouTube privacy policy (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/157177?hl=en) provides users with the ability to adjust three types of video and playlist settings: Public, Private, and Unlisted. Unlike the other social media tools already mentioned, YouTube provides the user with the ability to adjust these settings for each video they choose to upload to the YouTube website. These settings can also be changed by the originator of the video at any time. Subscribers will be notified of the change the next time they try to access the video. The Public video settings can be set so that the video and playlist can be seen and shared with anyone that uses YouTube. These videos will show up in anyone's YouTube search results and appear on any related video lists. Users do not need to have a Google account to access these videos. Private videos can only be seen and shared by the originator of the video. Other users cannot share the link nor will these links show up in a search or appear on playlists. Private videos will also not be posted on the originator's channel. This provides the originator of the video with a great deal of flexibility as to who can view these videos. These invited viewers must already have a Google account created to access these private videos. Unlisted videos are a bit different. These videos can be seen and shared by anyone with a link; however, unlike private videos, these people do not need a Google Account in order to view them. Discussing the privacy settings for each type of social media that you intend to use in your online course will not only benefit students with disabilities but will benefit any student who may not be aware of these settings, may be concerned about their privacy, or who has not checked these settings in a while. Next month, we will learn how to address accessibility considerations with social media tools. Kathleen Bastedo is an instructional designer at the University of Central Florida.