Making progress: Using progress trackers to support self-directed learning
Session Type
Time-saving tips
Room
Physics and Astronomy, room 150
Start Date
17-7-2025 11:30 AM
End Date
17-7-2025 12:00 PM
Keywords
learning technology, self-directed learning, workload, course development
Primary Threads
Education Technologies and Innovative Resources
Abstract
A key step in supporting students’ self-directed learning is effective communication of learning goals. As instructors, we must be cognizant of the workload we place upon students through additional required readings, quizzes and assignments. However, instructors often teach on courses that they did not design and therefore must spend significant time familiarizing themselves with course content, activities and deadlines – not unlike students! Furthermore, keeping track of learning activities across different platforms for multiple courses places an additional cognitive load on students.
I chose to implement weekly ‘progress trackers’ to support my students’ self-directed learning. Students could use their progress tracker to view a list of weekly tasks and monitor their progress by ticking off each item (e.g. quiz, reading, video). Students could exit and return to the partially complete progress tracker at any time. As course instructor, I could edit the tracker as I iterated on the course material, for example, adding submission of an in-class worksheet for participation points as a task for completion.
Student feedback highlighted that explicitly sharing the expectations for the course helped them to manage their workload and balance competing priorities. As an instructor, I received fewer student emails about course content or deadlines. Additionally, the progress trackers provided an oversight of the learning activities and student workload week-by-week, thereby supporting course development. In this short ‘time saving tips’ presentation I will share practical considerations and resources for how to implement progress trackers in your own course!
Elements of Engagement
Participants will be invited to reflect on their teaching practice and how they support self-directed learning in their context. Given the short timeframe for my proposed session (3 min) I will provide practical tips, examples and signpost to additional digital resources for participants to implement progress trackers in their context.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Making progress: Using progress trackers to support self-directed learning
Physics and Astronomy, room 150
A key step in supporting students’ self-directed learning is effective communication of learning goals. As instructors, we must be cognizant of the workload we place upon students through additional required readings, quizzes and assignments. However, instructors often teach on courses that they did not design and therefore must spend significant time familiarizing themselves with course content, activities and deadlines – not unlike students! Furthermore, keeping track of learning activities across different platforms for multiple courses places an additional cognitive load on students.
I chose to implement weekly ‘progress trackers’ to support my students’ self-directed learning. Students could use their progress tracker to view a list of weekly tasks and monitor their progress by ticking off each item (e.g. quiz, reading, video). Students could exit and return to the partially complete progress tracker at any time. As course instructor, I could edit the tracker as I iterated on the course material, for example, adding submission of an in-class worksheet for participation points as a task for completion.
Student feedback highlighted that explicitly sharing the expectations for the course helped them to manage their workload and balance competing priorities. As an instructor, I received fewer student emails about course content or deadlines. Additionally, the progress trackers provided an oversight of the learning activities and student workload week-by-week, thereby supporting course development. In this short ‘time saving tips’ presentation I will share practical considerations and resources for how to implement progress trackers in your own course!