Moody Graduate Student Spotlight: Cassidy Doucet

Published Summer 2023

Cassidy Doucet is a PhD candidate at the Department of Communication, and her research interests are Organization, Health Communication, Women’s Health, Risk, Organizational Technology, Compassion, Work-Life Balance. She worked as a teaching assistant of the course CMS 321D Communicating for Development and Philanthropy, lead by professor Jennifer Barbour, and also as an assistant instructor for the courses 306M Professional Communication Skills and 313M Organizational Communication. In this interview, she talks about approaches on engaging students in different scenarios like in-person classes, hybrid, synchronous and asynchronous online courses.

How do you create strategies in your pedagogy to engage students in your teaching?

I think a lot of my strategies have come from mentorship that I've received, so for example being a teaching assistant for Jennifer Barbour. She is wonderful. She excels engaging her students. So by the time I was her TA, I really built up a lot of strategies.

I also try to take a lot of opportunities to kind of refresh and continue my education, so I did a continuing education course where we talked a lot about how to facilitate engagement in certain situations and looked at various topics. I also did a different training about inclusivity and diversity. We talked about different strategies when engaging students and how to be more inclusive for students and facilitate discussions that were more inclusive and thoughtful. 

I try to figure out what works and to be as flexible as possible. Because each course is different, each semester is different. Every semester, the mix of students is different. So what do they respond to? It's a little bit different as well. I think being flexible and open to trial and error, as far as student engagement goes.

Have you tried anything different focused on student engagement? Do you have any story to share about something you did that had a great outcome and maybe other faculty or graduate student can also use?

I spent a few years as a TA before the pandemic. I really learned how to teach an in-person class. I'm very animated. Whenever I teach, I try to pace, and I use eye contact and I try to incorporate discussion as much as possible. And then boom, we had to go online. And it's a lot harder to engage when students are online. They're in all kinds of locations. They've got a different background noise and distractions. They sometimes don't have their camera on. So as much as I can, I try to make sure that my online students are always comfortable and they're as comfortable as they can be. 

So when possible, I asked them to turn their cameras on, I try to use breakout rooms too. I find that they're a little bit more comfortable and I just pop in as needed so that they can kind of relax, and it's a little less intimidating than being on a screen with fifty other people. It's also a lot harder to facilitate a class discussion via zoom, because you have that whole awkward thought: Is it my turn to speak? Is somebody else speaking? What should I do? That's not as organic as when you're in an in-person class. 

With a focus on course design and syllabus, do you have any suggestion of a strategy to enhance student engagement?

I try to be very transparent, I have been very honest with the students. I think the biggest part of course design is some trial and error. You have to kind of go through things, figure out what works, but don't be afraid to make changes to your course design for the next semester. Keep notes and know what works and what doesn't in different situations. 

Although I taught organizational communication in person and online, those syllabi look totally different. I have a different set of activities that I do in person that just don't work online. And I have a lot more discussions and structure for the online course, that wouldn't go over quite as well in-person. So don't be afraid to trial and error and tweak as you go. Learn from your course, take the feedback from your students and know what works and what doesn't. Make changes for the next year. 

Another thing, especially in an online class, I like to build a variety of activities. I try to build in as many different types of assignments and activities as possible because not all students learn the same. And not all students are able to excel in the same ways. I like to give students the opportunity to shine in what they're strongest in. So maybe a student's not wonderful at taking exams because they have a lot of anxiety. I like to build in discussions, individual and group activities. So different ways that students can show me that they are learning and that can play to their different strengths. Because if I've learned anything with engagement, it's that every student is different, and you have to learn how to play to their strengths and make them comfortable in order for them to want to engage with you.