Creating Opportunities For Students To Show Kindness

Abstract

Location: Dewberry Hall

Abstract: 

A common quest of instructors is to design preparation activities that bridge instructional content to professional applications in their desired profession. This becomes more salient in an online learning environment. Video case studies were used to target real-world problems faced by professionals (behavior analysts) in different fields of work (i.e., teacher, community worker, systems coach). In a segment titled, Solving Everyday Problems with Everyday ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis), current behavior analysts presented practical real-world problems. Assigned to small groups, students were tasked to apply concepts learned in the course to solve the problem. A common problem in an online format is to create communities of learners where classmates are geographically scattered. Beyond the benefits of video case studies to build community and engagement, I created a social/well-being enrichment, basically a call to social action. A Kindness Challenge was presented that supported the extension of the problem. For example, a behavior analyst presented the issue of burn out and attrition of staff. The social challenge was to engage in self-care to promote their own emotional wellbeing. Lastly, students posted their “selfies” engaging in self-care on the class Padlet to showcase a gallery of their peers engaging in fun acts of kindness on themselves and others. Participants will be able to enhance instructional their own content with social and/or wellness enhancements through the use of A Kindness Challenge.