1.8 Planning Your RSI Activities
Learning Objective: Faculty can make a working plan for how to include different RSI activities that will meet federal guidelines and Highline RSI review criteria into their course.
Introduction
RSI practices are part of the great things you will do in your course. To meet RSI guidelines, instructors must engage with two different categories of practices each week. These can be the same each week or different, based on instructor preference.
What practices you engage in are up to you. Some practices fit naturally during the rhythm of a class. Before a quiz, you might want to offer an in-person review session or reach out to students to invite them personally to office hours. After an assessment, you might want to clarify some misunderstanding you saw across many people in the class. You are going to give feedback to many / most / all of your students after a major assignment.
Some practices, like making weekly announcements or inviting students to office hours, fit almost always in a course. You have a lot of flexibility to decide which two categories of practices you use, and how to implement them.
Example Plan
Here is an example of how you could do RSI each week. The numbers next to the activity indicate which type of RSI you are completing. Remember, you must have evidence from two categories of RSI activities each week. The four categories are:
- #1 - Proactive inviting of students to connect
- #2 - Assessing or providing feedback within a reasonable amount of time
- #3 - Providing information or responding to questions about course content
- #4 - Facilitation group discussion of course content
One thing that's important to remember: you don't have to use the same forms of RSI for every week of the quarter. You can mix it up, as long as you hit two of the four each week. In other words, you can use #1 and #3 in the first week, #1 and # 4 in the second, and so on.
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Week |
RSI choice |
Rationale |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Share a welcome message with what to expect in the course [#3] |
Welcome messages with clear connections to course content are a great way to build class community and let students know what to expect. Sending this message and sharing information about the course content satisfies the "Providing information about course content RSI criterion. Substantive topics you could include are common misconceptions the course will address, areas of investigation that students may want to know more about, and a connection to current events that relates to the topics of study, |
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Participate in a discussion board [#4] |
Discussion board will probably be an area that you and your students spend a significant amount of time. Students will try out new ideas, push thinking, and consolidate understanding. Participating in the discussion board - or providing feedback as a comment in SpeedGrader - will satisfy the RSI criterion, as long as the comment relates to the content, offers additional ideas for consideration, or points students to resources to consider. For week 1, a prompt that asks students to share their name, their previous experience with writing to persuade (one of the course SLOs), and to share one book, article, or resource of a writer they enjoy hits three goals:
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2 |
Send a course email regarding topics of the week [#3] |
Course emails or course videos at the start of the week can help anchor students to the key content or key messages, or provide the context needed to ensure all students can access the material. It's a great opportunity to address a misconception in the discussion board post or questions you've received about a concept. Mention that in the course email and clarify for students the key concepts. Sending this message and making it clear how and when you will be available for support, with encouragement to stop by, satisfies the providing information about course content RSI criterion. |
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Give feedback on the first written assignment [#2] |
Substantive feedback on student work will be another activity you spend a lot of time on. Using detailed rubrics, directing students to the criteria on the rubric (both in what they did well and what they can improve) and offering suggestions and resources will support student growth and satisfy the RSI criterion. By week 2, you have probably assigned an assignment for students to complete. Providing written feedback (or providing feedback on how they did on the discussion post from week 1 will satisfy RSI requirements. |
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3 |
Send an announcement about three big take-aways from quiz results [#3] |
Imagine in week 2 you gave your first quiz. Sending a course announcement or putting information in a course email / course video that addresses the great work and common misconceptions from the quiz results will help all students to understand general trends in how people are understanding content, misconceptions you saw, and where to access additional resources. Posting that information, along with references to material to help students address any content gaps or issues, counts as addressing content. As this is not specific feedback to a specific student’s performance, this would meet category #3, "providing information". |
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Send a personalized email to students who did not score well on quiz [#2] or [#1] |
Sending an email to students specifically who did not score well (you can use Canvas’s message people who feature), naming what you saw, and explaining how they can improve will allow this email to be a category #2 interaction of providing feedback. Inviting students to meet outside of class, such as attending office hours or hosting a review session and inviting them, will allow this email to be a category #1 RSI interaction. This interaction, sending some personalized feedback about what you are seeing and inviting that student to office hours, counts for two different RSI activities at the same time. You'll need to do this for most of the students in the class if it's an individualized message. |
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4 |
Give feedback on a discussion board post [#2] |
At times, you may want to give feedback on how students are doing with the discussion posts. This could come in the form of anecdotal feedback or scored assignments. When you are scoring discussion posts, you can use the Speedgrader features and give feedback comments, (both in what they did well and what they can improve) and offer suggestions and resources. Because this is about how they are engaging in the discussion and is not about content, this is a feedback interaction. |
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Invite students for office hours [#1] |
By week 4, you will definitely have a list of students who you want to meet with. Inviting specific students to office hours is an easy way to meet RSI criterion #1. You can create a template that names what you are working on that week, why a student might benefit from coming to office hours, and letting them know date, time, location, link to come. |
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5 |
Host a live review session before an assessment [#1] |
Hosting a live session, such as a peer review session, writing workshop, or review session before an assessment is a great way to help students who want or need more support. This counts as what the Department of Education calls "direct instruction" and we call "proactively inviting students to connect". Post the recording for those who could not make it; remember, students take asynchronous online courses for the flexible schedule. Also, one note: even if no students attend, the invitation meets the standard for RSI. |
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Participate in a discussion board [#4] |
Since you are hosting a review session this week, this might also be a great week to engage in the discussion board. This allows you to push thinking and help students consolidate understanding. Clarify, summarize, redirect, or extend the conversation and you'll be meeting the RSI standard. By participating in the discussion board with comments relating to the content, offers additional ideas for consideration, or points students to resources to consider, you will be satisfying #4. |
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6 |
Provide personalized feedback on an assessment [#2] |
Last week, you held a review sessions to prepare students for the project or assessment. Now, they have completed it and you are giving feedback on how they did. Using detailed rubrics, directing students to the criteria on the rubric (both in what they did well and what they can improve) and offering suggestions and resources will support student growth and satisfy the RSI criterion #2. |
|
Post a Canvas announcement [#3] |
Since this week will be a busy week grading, it would be a good workflow idea to do a less labor intensive RSI practice. Posting a video or written Canvas announcement or course email that is tailored to what content is coming up, what things students should consider while they are engaging in the content, and any context that might be helpful is a great practice anyway, and would satisfy RSI. Remember that a reminder about due dates would not be RSI because it focuses on logistics (but is a good idea). |
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7 |
Participate in a discussion board [#4] |
By participating in the discussion board - or providing feedback on a comment in SpeedGrader - you will satisfy the RSI criterion, as long as the comment relates to the content, offers additional ideas for consideration, or points students to resources to consider. |
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Invite students to office hours [#1] |
This week you have given feedback about the work you asked students to complete, so now would be a great time to invite students to office hours. You can create a template that names what you are working on that week, why a student might benefit from coming to office hours, and letting them know date, time, location, link to come. Make sure to invite the whole class for your own RSI credit! |
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8 |
Give personalized feedback on assessment [#2] |
Since we are getting to the end of the quarter, there will probably be another assignment that you are scoring. Once again, using detailed rubrics, directing students to the criteria on the rubric (both in what they did well and what they can improve) and offering suggestions and resources will support student growth and satisfy the RSI criterion #2. |
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Invite students to office hours [#1] |
The end of the quarter brings lots of questions, so a fresh invitation to office hours is a good chance to support your students and meet the RSI standard for proactively inviting students to connect. |
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9 |
Participate in a discussion board [#4] |
Remember, clarify, summarize, redirect, or extend the conversation with your students and you've participated in a substantive way. |
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Invite students for office hours [#1 & #3] |
In addition to the all-class invitation, take a last look at that gradebook and reach out to the students who are on the bubble -- just a brief conversation with you might be the difference between a passing grade and... not. Answer substantive questions and you may also get RSI category 3 this week too. |
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| 10 |
Give personalized feedback on an assessment [#2] |
In this final week, you will probably have something to score. This might be the final product or project. This might be a presentation or activity students are doing. By giving summative feedback on the assignment and the student's work over the quarter, you are giving them something to walk away from the course with and you are meeting RSI criterion #2. |
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Post a Canvas announcement [#3] |
Since this is another busy grading, do a less labor intensive RSI practice. An announcement summarizing the course content, sharing general trends in the work that students have done, and answering any remaining questions students have asked are a great way to end the course. You could even take a few questions from earlier in the quarter and compare how students are thinking about the topic then versus now. Offering a last resource or idea before the course ends can be a great way to spark continued curiosity in the topic and would make it a type #3 interaction. |
Obviously, this is a generic work plan, but it highlights that a) that you are probably doing many RSI practices already, and b) there is a rhythm and cadence that makes sense when you are building your course. If you spend some time thinking about when things happen in your course, what is reasonable in your workflow (if you are scoring 45 essays, maybe don’t also try to participate heavily in the class discussion - maybe make an announcement), and what will impact students most, you can strategically meet RSI standards in a way that best supports your students.
A few more ideas
Before an assessment, you can
- invite specific students who you think would benefit to the session [RSI interaction type #1],
- hold a review session [RSI interaction type #1],
- post a video about misconceptions from the last quiz - make sure to name this is in response to the confusion from last quiz [RSI interaction type #3].
Once you have scored the test, quiz, paper, project you can
- send out specific feedback based on the rubric [RSI interaction type #2],
- invite specific students to office hours to discuss the content or clarify their confusion [RSI interaction type #1], or
- post a general message about the course content that you noticed needed clarification [RSI interaction type #3]
In your learning experiences, you can
- give feedback, even if you are not scoring it [RSI interaction type #2],
- invite students to office hours to get support [RSI interaction type #1],
- participate in the discussion board conversation [RSI interaction type #4],
- make a course announcement or include in your weekly message content that was confusing, context that students need to know, or a common thread that came out when you read the discussion or scored the learning experience [RSI interaction type #3]
If you are hosting a review session, you can
- Send a personalized invitation to specific students [RSI interaction type #1],
- Send a general invitation to the class in an email or announcement [RSI interaction type #1],
- Host an in person or Zoom session [RSI interaction type #1],
If you use discussion boards, you can
- participate in the discussion by offering ideas, comments, connections, and resources [RSI interaction type #4],
- give feedback on the quality of posts, areas of improvement, types of discussion happening [RSI interaction type #2],
Remember, you should be doing at least two RSI compliant practices in your course each week. You can do the same things each week or different things each week.
Practice
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