Responding to Distractions and Barriers in the Classroom (Online)

University educators seem to be concerned by the number of distractions and barriers plaguing their educational space. Some examples of distractions and barriers include technology like cell phones or laptops and, inaccessibility and alienation from material lesson design. These examples could lead to student burnout and cognitive overload, lack of motivation, which may result in apathetic, distracted and disengaged learners, not just during lecture, but even in tutorial settings. The call to combat these difficulties rightly encourages educators to consider varied and dynamic activities and lesson plans that produce active learning in students, but these calls don’t always indicate how to effectively design and implement these activities. This workshop invites participants to better understand strategies to limit distractions and barriers while encouraging student motivation and deep learning. Tools like scaffolding—the practice of creating smaller, interactive steps that help students independently reach a learning goal—to structure practical and engaging activities in tutorials will be explored. This workshop’s focus would be predominantly on tutorials, the forum for which Teaching Assistants most frequently engage with their learners and in which distraction is most readily encountered and actionable.