6.7 | Student-to-Content Engagement Strategies

Instructors are tasked with striking a balance between creating a predictable rhythm in their course, which provides consistency and ease of navigation from module-to-module, while also providing students with the opportunity to interact with varied and engaging content and resources (UDL!). Student-to-content engagement means course design that leverages academic tools for a variety of diverse learners and provides ample opportunities for self-assessment. 

Engaging Content and Resources

Formative assessments help instructors monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback. Formative assessments are generally low-stakes (meaning low or no point value) and help students identify strengths and target areas that need improvement as well as help instructors recognize where students are struggling so that problems can be addressed early on. Sample formative assessments may include: 

  • submitting one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture 
  • asking and answering questions related to a reading in a discussion board
  • submitting a research proposal or draft paper for early feedback
  • taking a survey identifying where student comprehension is strongest and weakest 

Summative assessments, however, evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit and are generally higher-stakes, meaning a higher point value or larger percentage of the overall course grade. Summative assessments are often compared against a standard or benchmark. Sample summative assessments may include:

  • a midterm exam
  • a final project
  • a paper
  • a senior recital

Canvas provides many tools to help instructors incorporate content, resources, learning activities, and assessments in a variety of formats. Try to think of creative ways that the tools can be mixed and matched to accomplish variety in the course design thereby incorporating principles from the Universal Design for Learning framework (such as assignment delivery type, individual vs. group work, providing choice in means of representation/submission, etc.). This variability will help a broad range of diverse learners feel a deep sense of student-to-content engagement. 

  • Assignments (individual, group, peer review, multiple submission attempts)
  • Discussions (individual, group, peer review, text, video, audio)
  • Quizzes (practice quizzes, graded quizzes, graded survey, non-graded survey, variety of question types)
  • Pages (delivery of content including media, images, links, files, equations and more)

Opportunities for Self-Assessment

"A student who is able to accurately and effectively self-assess, then revise accordingly, has attained independence as a learner." 1 Here are a few suggestions by which instructors can incorporate opportunities for students to learn to self-assess their own work: 

  1. Provide examples of exemplary work
  2. Teach vocabulary that is specific to the subject matter
  3. Practice peer review

To provide examples of exemplary work, you can show students your own work, provide work from industry experts, provide work from prior college students, or provide videos, images, and text. Showing examples of mastery might look like:

  • In an English course, showing students an example of an exemplary essay from a prior semester
  • In a discussion board, reviewing the guidelines for a great discussion, providing a sample post, or including a detailed rubric

Teach vocabulary specific to the subject matter. Your students need to know the vocabulary specific to their subject area in order to assess their own and other's work. The feedback that students receive from the instructor is based on some technical knowledge about the discipline and so that technical knowledge must become the common language of the class. 

Peer review gives your students an opportunity to strengthen and use their voice, and it helps them to become more receptive to hearing and integrating feedback. Before you jump into a peer review, consider guiding your students in creating a collaborative contract of what they want to get out of the peer review and what behaviors they will adhere to in order to achieve that outcome. Ideas may include:

  • Treating peers with respect
  • Balancing critiquing feedback and compliments
  • Giving specific examples of strengths as well as areas of improvement
  • Remembering that constructive feedback is not personal

Remind students of the purpose of peer review: to learn and improve their work. "When they agree that the purpose of a [peer review] is to improve their work, they become more receptive to feedback because they know it will help them." 1

Works Cited

  1. Minero, E. "4 Steps of Student Self-Assessment." Edutopia Links to an external site.. 4 October 2016. Accessed 22 January 2022.

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