Faculty Spotlight
Explore how our team collaborates with faculty to promote innovative teaching practices and enrich the learning experience at Marist.
Faculty Spotlight: Rob Egan
Rob Egan uses a three-step process using intelligent agents to automate student communications, to help students with timely interventions, and access to support mechanisms and may assist with student retention strategies. Rob Egan is no stranger to Marist and Higher Educaiton. Rob was employed at Marist in 2008 in what was known as the Academic Technology department, working with Marist's Learning Management System and now as an adjunct professor for the past three years.
Prior to his employment, Rob received a Bachelor's Degree from Marist in 2004 and a Master's in Public Administration (MPA) in 2013. Rob has been teaching the School of Computer Science and Mathematics 'Technology in the 21st Century' for the past two years as an online asynchronous course. When Marist moved to Brightpsace, Rob felt one of the tools available would greatly benefit the teaching of his online courses, Intelligent Agents.
According to D2L's website, the tool "monitors an org unit to find activity that matches criteria you set." Being used to trying new tools and technology, Rob found setting up the Intelligent Agents for his customized emails to students rather easy. He can create one for something as simple as a welcome email to a student. Rob was pleased to find the agents did not need to be recreated each semester but were easily imported from the previous semester.
So why the choice to create an Intelligent Agent in his course? Teaching an online asynchronous course does not provide the same touchpoints with students as a hybrid of a fully on-ground course provides, and Rob was looking for a way to provide this for students who needed or wanted this. He also wanted a way to not just connect with students who may be struggling in the class but with those who are also doing well.
Rob's Intelligent Agent Strategy:
Rob created an agent that puts students into three "buckets" based on their grades during mid-term exams. The first is a "High-Performance" bucket. These students received a grade of 90 or above and they receive a personalized email telling them they are doing well and providing links for additional resources related to topics studied in the class - not as required reading, but for additional reading if the student is interested.
The second bucket is a "Mid-Performance" bucket, for students who received between an 80-89 on their mid-term exam. They also receive a personzlized email letting them know they are on track to pass the class and a note to encourage a conversation if the student wishes to improve.
Finally, the last bucket is a "Low-Performance" bucket, for students who received below an 80 on their mid-term exam. Their email, also personalized, notes they are not doing well, and they should reach out for a conversation to find out how they can course-correct before the final exam.
In Fall 2024, because of the Intelligent Agents set up, all students who were in the Low-Performance bucket reached out to Rob to find out how they could improve, and several Mid and High Performance students also reached out just to initate a conversation.
In the future, Rob sees other uses for Intelligent Agents. His plan for the next semester is to set an Intelligent Agent up related to his weekly discussions. Currently he requires students to post an initial post on weekly duscussions by Thursday and then repsond to two other students by Sunday. He will set up an agent to send a message on Wednesday night or Thursday morning to only the students who have yet to post their initial discussion post for the week. Another agent will send an email early on Sunday to those who have not completed their student responses. Rob has found having a more personalized message to only the students who need the reminder is more beneficial than an announcement to the entire class, since the reminder about posts may not apply to every student in the class. The message also shows it coming from Rob as opposed to the generic Brightspace email, so it stands out to students a little bit more.
Intelligent Agents have helped Rob as an adjunct professor immensely, especially since he is not on campus all the time and teaches online. It provides a meaningful way for him to connect with students in his courses.
You can read more about Intelligent Agents by going to the Brightspace Community.
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Digital Education Email: digital.education@marist.edu Phone: 845-575-3572 Location: Library 305