Many students who leave UO without a degree cite a lack of community as a top reason. In all teaching modalities, you can help bring students into a community of leaning for your class. Knowing your students, and them knowing you, can help make a concrete connection for them, as can helping build meaningful relationships with their peers in the class.

Learn about your Students

Learning about your students demonstrates to students your interest in who they are. It also can gives you insight into how to engage and support them during class. Are many of them from a similar major? Use examples that links your content to that major. Are many of them first year students? Share information about campus resources they can use to support their learning. Do many of them have jobs outside of class? Think carefully about how assignment deadlines might impact students working at night or on the weekends. 

Encourage a Personal Connection with You

And don't just introduce yourself, make sure your students have a connection with your GEs or other members of your teaching team.

Foster Meaningful Relationships between Students

Meaningful relationships between students goes beyond chatting with whoever is nearby during an activity and maybe knowing some classmates' names or favorite vacation spots. Rather, we want to help foster interdependence between students so they can rely on each other for learning and support. Cooperative base groups are particularly good at this, where students have standing groups to check in with each other about academics, help each other stay on track with course deadlines, and offer support. Active learning methods such as a circle of voices, jigsaws, peer reviews, fishbowls, and collaborative notetaking ask students to support each other and learn from one another, not just collaborate on a question prompt. 

• Our Student Success Toolkit includes ways to learn about your students,  connect with them, and connect them with peers.
• The L.A.C.E. Framework developed by Dr. Yvette Alex-Assensoh, UO's Vice President for Equity & Inclusion, includes a toolkit with a student discovery form.
• Our Welcome Modules offer a ready-to-go getting to know you survey for students. They are also built into our Canvas Course Templates.
• Search our student engagement technique page for more activities to build community and interdependence in class.
• Our Building Community In Your Class page offers more ways to help your students form relationships with you and with their classmates.
• Our Designing Discussions for Universal Participation site has discussion components to consider, principles to guide you, and resources to help you as you lead discussions during your classes.
• See one how instructor helps students know their whole teaching team from our Reducing Equity Gaps in Stem Teaching Showcase.

• Muenks, K., Canning, E. A., LaCosse, J., Green, D. J., Zirkel, S., Garcia, J. A., & Murphy, M. C. (2020). Does My Professor Think My Ability Can Change? Students’ Perceptions of Their STEM Professors’ Mindset Beliefs Predict Their Psychological Vulnerability, Engagement, and Performance in Class. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 149(11), 2119–2144.
• Barnes, M. E., & Brownell, S. E. (2017). A Call to Use Cultural Competence When Teaching Evolution to Religious College Students: Introducing Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCCEE). CBE Life Sciences Education, 16(4), es4.
• Booker, K. C., & Campbell-Whatley, G. D. (2018). How Faculty Create Learning Environments for Diversity and Inclusion. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, 13, 14-27.
• Estefan, M., Selbin, J. C.,Macdonald, S. (2023). From inclusive to equitable pedagogy: How to design course assignments and learning activities that address structural inequalities. Teaching Sociology, 51(3), 262-274.

With your students' attention split between other classes and other personal commitments, the why of your course and assignments is critical to fostering engagement with your class. 

Course Relevance

words

Assignment Relevance

"Busy work" is a term every faculty member objects to when a student uses it to describe an assignment. It comes from miscommunication about why students are being asked to complete an assignment. Is it developing a real-world or academic skill? Is it building students' content knowledge? Is it preparing them for a later assignment?  Is it assessing their achievement of a learning objective? Is it something else? Making this clear to students can support their motivation to complete it and may boost student performance. It also helps you understand the assignment and (re)design an assignment to better achieve its goal.

• The Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework is a key way to design assignments that centers its purpose and relevance for students.
• UO's Core Ed curriculum is a way for students to practice meaningful, urgent cross-cutting skills. Review Core Ed's learning objectives and check out sample syllabus language for linking your course to the objectives.
• Our page on Authentic Assessment explores linking course content and activities to political, cultural, and professional contexts that motivate students to learn

• Winkelmes, M-A, et al. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students' success. Peer Review, 18(1/2).
• Davies, P.L., Schelly, C.L., & Spooner, C.L. (2013). Measuring the Effectiveness of Universal Design for Learning Intervention in Postsecondary Education. The Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 26(4), 195-220.
• Orndorf, H. C., Waterman, M., Lange, D., Kavin, D., Johnston, S. C., & Jenkins, K. P. (2022).Opening the Pathway: An Example of Universal Design for Learning as a Guide to Inclusive Teaching Practices. CBE Life Sciences Education, 21(2), ar28.
• Lyle, K.B., Bego, C.R., Hopkins, R.F. Hieb, J.L., & Ralston, P.A.S. (2020). How the Amount and Spacing of Retrieval Practice Affect the Short- and Long-Term Retention of Mathematics Knowledge. Educ Psychol Rev 32, 277–295.
• Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L. & McDaniel, M. A. (2014) Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. (Link goes to UO Libraries eBook)
• Walton, G., Murphy, M. C., Logel, C., Yeager, D. S., Goyer, J. P., Brady, S. T., Emerson, K. T. U., Paunesku, D., Fotuhi, O., Blodorn, A., Boucher, K. L., Carter, E. R., Gopalan, M., Henderson, A., Kroeper, K. M., Murdock-Perriera, L. A., Reeves, S. L., Ablorh, T. T., Ansari, S., … Krol, N. (2023). Where and with whom does a brief social-belonging intervention promote progress in college? Science, 380(6644), 499–505.
• Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets That Promote Resilience: When Students Believe That Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302–314. 

Your course has a lot of structures built into it—a term-long structure, structure within a week or a unit, structure around individual lessons, and structure in orgaining your Canvas course. How you organize your course content, policies, and material can support students in learning the material, completing work, and building confidence that they can succeed. 

Use grading that encourages growth throughout the term

A growth mindset is the belief that a student can, and will, grow and develop throughout a term. Research (Muenks, et al. 2020) indicates that making it known to students that you hold this mindset is a key way to support them. While saying it in class, in your syllabus, and in communications with students can be helpful, you can put it into practice with how you structure grading for your class—using ample formative assessments for students, reducing use of high-stakes tests and exams, scaffolding assignments so ideas build on each other, or using alternative grading such as specifications grading or standards-based grading (Clark & Talbert, 2023). Putting your words in practice through course policy emphasize to students that you are serious about supporting their growth and development.

Sequence learning and use in-class active learning

You have limited time to work with students in the classroom. You can make the most of it by using some outside of class work to support what you do in the class. For example, using graded pre-class work can introduce lower order ideas to students. Then during class you can use activities to promote higher order skills built on what students have done before class. After class assignments can then help students reflect, practice, reinforce, and expand on skills they developed during class.  This structure benefits students in building a deep understanding of the material - increasing course structure increased average exam performance by 3.2% across all students, by 6.3% for black students, and by 6.1% for first-generation students (Eddy & Hogan, 2014).

Design your Canvas course for navigability

Just like you want students to find your classroom and understand what is happening in it, you want students to understand Canvas. Make it easy for students to use and find information by arranging content in weekly modules, providing a weekly overview page using clear and consistent naming for files and assignments, creating a course homepage or ‘start here’ page to help orient students, or showing your Canvas site in class early in the term. All of these help students locate what they need when outside of your scheduled class time.

• See TEP's page on lowering stakes on exams for ideas on dropping or replacing some exam scores, using exam retakes or multi-part exams, and adjusting how you score or weigh exams.
• TEP’s Student Engagement Techniques page offers 100+ active learning methods and writing/discussion prompt ideas.
• TEP’s page on Powerful Endings and Reflection has sample ideas from TEP, UO faculty, and the UO Career Center for wrapping up class.
• UO Online has created Canvas Course Templates faculty can use in their courses.
• UO Online has a 10-step guide to Getting Your Canvas Course Ready for the Term that highlights key practices to take in Canvas design.

• Clark, D., & Talbert, R. (2023) Grading for Growth. Routledge. (Read an ebook of Grading for Growth through UO's library)
• Eddy, S., & Hogan, K. A. (2014). Getting under the hood: how and for whom does increasing course structure work? CBE Life Sciences Education, 13(3), 453–468.
• Muenks, K., Canning, E. A., LaCosse, J., Green, D. J., Zirkel, S., Garcia, J. A., & Murphy, M. C. (2020). Does My Professor Think My Ability Can Change? Students’ Perceptions of Their STEM Professors’ Mindset Beliefs Predict Their Psychological Vulnerability, Engagement, and Performance in Class. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 149(11), 2119–2144.

Financial costs are the top single reason students report not reenrolling at UO. Cost also impacts engagement and success, even if it doesn't directly result in leaving UO. One study of 13,000 students across 37 colleges and universities found students report that high textbook costs cause them to not purchase books (reported by 53%), take fewer courses (44%), drop a course (24%) or withdraw from a course (20%) (Florida Virtual Campus, 2022, see also Nagle & Vitez, 2020 or Xia, 2026 for similar results). These challenges don't impact students uniformly. First-generation students express taking these actions due to textbook costs at higher than their continuing-generation peers (Nusbaum, et al, 2020).

While individual faculty don't get to set tuition, they do have a direct say in the textbook or other materials their students use. Moving toward a freely available open-education resource (OER) or adopting an eBook through UO's Library is the way faculty can directly lower costs for students. 

OER Materials Support Student Learning

Textbooks and other materials help students learn and develop skills - assuming they actually have the material. If students avoid purchasing the materials due to cost they lose out on those learning opportunities which can impact their performance. Many students reporting earning a poor grade (32%) or failing a course (19%) due to being unable to afford the textbook (Florida Virtual Campus, 2022). First-generation students self-report even higher rates of poor grades due to textbook costs (Nusbaum, et al, 2020). These self-reported outcomes match measured outcomes. A large, recent meta-analysis found a statistically-significant reduction in DFNW rates across all students when courses adopt an OER (Cho & Permzadian, 2024). An OER initiative at the University of Georgia looked at 20,000+ students in four fields across eight courses that adopted OER (Colvard, et al., 2018). After these courses moved to an OER, DFW rates across all demographics dropped by 25%. Additionally, existing gaps in DFW rates between Pell and Non-Pell students and between non-white and white students were reduced by 48% and 55%, respectively, after the OER adoption. 

OER Materials Support Student Wellbeing

Beyond having access to materials, OER materials can support student wellbeing outside the classroom. A nationwide survey in 2019, which UO students participated in, found 25% of students report working extra hours to cover course material costs and 11% report skipping meals because of course material costs (Nagle & Vitez, 2020). A 2025 follow up study found matching results and particularly noted that "students who skipped meals were nearly five times more likely than the national average to report failing a class because they could not afford required course materials." (Xie, 2026). That Is Horrifying. Helping to easing these financial pressures is another mechanism that links adopting OER or other non-cost materials to student success (Cho & Permzadian, 2024).

The broad range of studies showing student success when using OERs reveal that they do not, on their face, hurt student learning. Choosing a bad OER, of course, can negatively affect students but which OER you may adopt is your choice. And UO Library's can help you navigate that terrain and find the right one. Even if you aren't sure about open source textbooks, the Library may be able to purchase an eBook version of a textbook that students can all use freely.

• Learn more about Textbook Affordability Support for Faculty from UO Libraries, including Open Educational Resources and library eBooks for courses.
• UO Libraries’ Course Materials Cost Dashboard lets you explore department and course-level data about course materials costs and student cost avoidance through affordable course materials.
  • The Publishers and Homework Systems page might be of particular interest to faculty teaching high enrollment courses that utilize access codes and homework systems.
  • The High Impact Courses page shows the highest cost, highest enrollment courses at UO.
• If you are ready to explore OER for your course, check out UO Libraries’ Find Open Content guide for recommended OER repositories and tips for finding OER. You are also welcome to check in with the OER team either by email (oer@uoregon.edu) or by scheduling a consultation.

• Cho, K.W. & Permzadian , V. (2024) The impact of open educational resources on student achievement: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Educational  Research 126.
• Colvard, N.B., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018) The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 30, 2.
• Florida Virtual Campus (2022). 2022 Student Textbook and Instructional Materials Survey. Tallahassee, FL.
• Nagle, C. and Vitez, K. (2020) Fixing the broken textbook market, 2nd ed. U.S. PIRG Education Fund.
• Nusbaum, A.T., Cuttler, C., Swindell, S. (2020) Open Educational Resources as a Tool for Educational Equity: Evidence From an Introductory Psychology Class. Frontiers in Education 4.
• Spencer, C. Angra, A., Dósa, K, & Jones, A. (2025) Undergraduate Learning Gains and Learning Efficiency in a Focused Open Education Resource. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 25, 2.
• Xia, Dan. (2026) Fixing the broken textbook market, 4th ed. Student Public Interest Research Groups. 

Referencing campus tutoring, the library, or information services in your 4-, 5-, or 10-page syllabus generally isn't enough.  There are a host of resources on campus, in your discipline, and maybe even for your class. Making all of these options easy to find can support students throughout the term.

Support in your Class

You probably offer support like office hours, study guides, review sessions, and more. Make sure those are easy for students to find on Canvas and remind them of those supports at key moments. It can also be helpful to talk with your students about how to succeed in your course. How should students study for exams? Approximately how long should assignments take? How do you effectively take notes in you course? How would you space out completing the work for your course throughout a term? Making sure your students know the answers to these types of questions will set them off on the right foot to succeed in your course.

Connect students to academic advising

Faculty are a key resource to encourage students to meet with an advisor for help navigating resources, exploring majors, or making decisions about withdrawals or grading option changes Thirteen percent of new UO students in Fall 2023 never met with an advisor in their first year at UO. These students were about 50% more likely to not return to UO in 2024 than their peers who did meet with an advisor. Meeting with an advisor can keep students on track and evidence shows they have a higher GPA in their first year at UO. You can encourage connecting with advising proactively to build a culture of support, but also if you notice a student hasn’t attended or is newly disengaged in your class by reaching out directly to the student to offer support or helping alert advising by filling out the Faculty & Staff Referral Outreach Form.

Share & normalize support resources across campus

Does your department offer any student support like Braddock Tutoring or SUPeR Chem? Does your class have a Class Encore study group at the TAEC or course-specific tutors at the Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence (CMAE)? Make information about those resources just as clear and easy to find as your own resources.  Try sharing academic support options in an easy to find Canvas page, talking about support early in a term, reminding students about support before and after major assignments (including by displaying slides with useful information), and reaching out to struggling students and offer support with an invitation to chat about their challenges. These reminders, coupled with narratives about student success or your own experiences with adversity, can normalize accessing these resources by all students not just those struggling in the moment.

• Academic advising has a  Faculty & Staff Referral Outreach Form that you can use to help alert advising if students don’t show up for classes or eventually disengage.
• TEP has created a Getting Help with Class Canvas page that you import from Community Canvas. It has information about campus academic support and space for you to add information relevant to your class - office hours, contact information, discipline specific help centers.
• TEP's student success toolkit includes sample reflection questions for helping students to think about their study habits and performance.
• TAEC offers a host of learning resources for students on studying, reading, writing, time management, note taking, and test prep. Some have supporting materials in Canvas Commons that faculty can import to their courses—search for "Learning Resources"
• The Academic Success Hub's website has links and information about many academic support resources across campus. The Student One Stop page has both academic and non-academic support for students, including information about UO's Basic Needs Program.

• Kroeper, K. M., Fried, A. C., & Murphy, M. C. (2022). Towards fostering growth mindset classrooms: Identifying teaching behaviors that signal instructors’ fixed and growth mindsets beliefs to students. Social Psychology of Education, 25(2-3), 371-398.
• Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets That Promote Resilience: When Students Believe That Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302–314.