More Than Words: Student Participation in Blended Courses

This chapter focuses on facilitating equitable and inclusive student participation in different course modalities and argues for a blended course structure as the best means to facilitate total participation. While participation is often understood to mean verbal participation, the limited and limiting nature of this definition—which can be particularly disadvantageous for students from non-Western cultures; English-language learners; neurodiverse students; and other historically underserved groups—was more fully revealed when courses transitioned to online contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic and verbal discussion suddenly became much more difficult to facilitate. The research herein illuminates a broader range of ways in which students participate, thus allowing instructors to better recognize, respond to, assess, and reward these forms of participation. Through a better understanding of participation, we can develop new approaches for facilitating participation and creating more equitable and inclusive learning environments in face-to-face, online, and blended contexts. In particular, this chapter argues that effective forms of classroom participation can and should: increase understanding of course content; expose students to more diverse viewpoints; include balanced contributions from all class participants; strengthen peer-to-peer connections and class community; generate meaningful and substantive dialogue; and allow students increased opportunities to teach and learn from one another.